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September 17, 2026

How to Extract Text from an Image Online with AI (Free)

Turn a screenshot, photo, or scanned document into editable text in seconds — no typing required. Here's how AI-powered OCR works.

Try it now: OCR Image to Text →

Retyping text from a photo or screenshot is slow and error-prone. Optical character recognition (OCR) reads the image and gives you back real, editable text — and with an AI model behind it, it handles messy backgrounds, odd fonts, and low-quality photos far better than older OCR engines.

When image-to-text OCR is useful

  • Pulling a quote or paragraph out of a screenshot instead of retyping it
  • Digitizing text from a photographed sign, whiteboard, or printed page
  • Extracting text from a scanned document image before editing it
  • Getting a block of text out of a meme or graphic to search or translate it

How to extract text from an image, step by step

  1. Open the OCR Image to Text tool and sign in (AI tools require an account).
  2. Upload a PNG, JPG, WEBP, or HEIC image — up to 12 MB.
  3. The AI reads the image and returns the text in an editable box.
  4. Edit the result directly if anything needs a fix.
  5. Copy it, or download it as a .txt, .pdf, or .png file.

Tips for the most accurate results

  • Use good lighting and focus. A sharp, well-lit photo gives the AI far more to work with than a blurry or dim one.
  • Crop out distractions first — if the image has a lot of background clutter around the text, cropping tighter usually improves accuracy.
  • Review the output before relying on it. AI OCR is very accurate but not perfect — always skim the result, especially for numbers, names, or codes.

Common questions

Is this free to use? Yes — free accounts get 5 AI generations per day across all AI tools, including this one. Pro accounts get 100 per day.

Do I need an account? Yes, AI-powered tools require signing in, unlike Filego's regular conversion and compression tools.

Can it read handwriting too? This tool is tuned for printed and typed text. For handwritten notes, use the Handwriting to Text tool instead.

What if my image is a scanned PDF page, not a photo? Use PDF OCR to run OCR directly on a PDF file, page by page.

Have an image full of text you need in editable form? Extract the text for free →