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PaddleOCR

Reads text, tables and formulas from images and PDFs and turns them into tidy, structured files.

What it does

PaddleOCR does OCR (optical character recognition), meaning it reads the text in pictures, scans and PDFs. It can turn messy documents into neat Markdown or JSON files that other AI tools can use.

Beyond plain text, it can pick out tables, formulas, charts and stamps, and it can read text in photos such as street signs or ID cards. Its makers say it supports more than 100 languages.

It is often used as the first step in tools that let AI answer questions about your documents.

Who it's for

Developers building document-processing or AI search tools, and anyone who needs to digitize large numbers of scans.

Can I use it without coding?

Developers only. It's a toolkit for programmers; using it means installing it and writing some code or commands. New to this? Start here.

Can I run it?

Cost
FreeNothing to pay or sign up for.
API key
Not needed

Try it

Using Claude Code, Cursor or another AI coding assistant? Paste the prompt and it will walk you through the setup.New to this?

Before you install

  • Only download from the official GitHub page. Copies with similar names exist for many popular projects.
  • License (Apache-2.0): Permissive: free to use, change and share, including for business.
  • More on staying safe

Where people are talking about it