OCR on Mac: free ways to get text from an image

Yes, a Mac has OCR built in. Live Text lets you select and copy words in photos and screenshots in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari, and the Shortcuts app has an Extract Text from Image action. Both read the text on the Mac, without an internet connection and for free.

Updated November 2, 2026

Download for Mac

Three ways to OCR on a Mac

Way	Best for	How
Live Text	An image or screenshot you already have	Open it in Preview or Quick Look, select the words, ⌘C.
Shortcuts	Many images at once, or a repeat task	A shortcut with Extract Text from Image, run from Finder’s Quick Actions.
SimpleShot Capture Text	Text on the screen right now, in any app	⌥⇧⌘T, drag over it, the words are on the clipboard.

Make an “extract text” Quick Action in Shortcuts

Open the Shortcuts app and create a new shortcut.
In its details, turn on Use as Quick Action, and choose Finder and Images.
Add the actions Extract Text from Image, then Copy to Clipboard.
In Finder, right-click an image › Quick Actions › your shortcut. The text is on the clipboard.

What built-in OCR doesn’t do

It reads pictures, not the screen: text in a paused video, a remote desktop, a game or an app that won’t let you select needs a screenshot first.
It has no memory: there is no search across all the screenshots you took last month.
It gives you text, not protection: a screenshot with a card number or an API key on it is still shared as it is.

OCR for the whole screen with SimpleShot

SimpleShot, a free capture app for Mac, uses the Mac’s own text recognition everywhere it helps. Capture Text (⌥⇧⌘T) copies the words of any part of the screen, and reads QR codes. Every capture you take is read in the background, so the Library finds it later by any word that was on it. And the same reading powers Hide Sensitive Data: it counts the e-mail addresses, phone and card numbers, IBANs and keys on a capture and covers them in one click. All of it runs on the Mac; nothing is uploaded to be read.

Questions

Does Mac have OCR?

Yes. Live Text, built into macOS, reads text in images in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari, and Shortcuts can extract text from images. Both are free and run on the Mac.

What is the best free OCR for Mac?

For a picture you have, Live Text in Preview. For text that is on the screen, a capture tool with text recognition saves the screenshot step: with SimpleShot, ⌥⇧⌘T and a drag.

Does Mac OCR work offline?

Yes. Live Text, Shortcuts’ Extract Text from Image and SimpleShot all read the text on the Mac itself.

Can I OCR a scanned PDF on a Mac?

Open the page and select its text with Live Text where Preview offers it; otherwise take a screenshot of the page, or drag over it with a text capture, and copy the words.

Every word on screen,
a shortcut away.