# Image to Text OCR - Bulk Screenshot & Scan Reader (`extas_corp/image-ocr`) Actor

Extract text from images in bulk with OCR: screenshots, scans, photos, receipts. Returns text, confidence and optional word boxes. 7 languages. Pay only for images that are read.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/extas_corp/image-ocr.md
- **Developed by:** [Extas Corp](https://apify.com/extas_corp) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Developer tools, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.50 / 1,000 image reads

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Image to Text OCR: Bulk Screenshot & Scan Reader

Extract text from **thousands of images** in one run: screenshots, scanned documents, photos of pages, receipts, signs, memes, UI captures. Powered by Tesseract OCR, running inside your Apify run, so your images are never sent to a third-party OCR API.

- **Full text** per image, line by line
- **Confidence score** per image (and per word) so you can filter bad reads
- **Word bounding boxes** (optional): text + pixel position for every word
- **7 languages**: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and mixes like `eng+fra`
- **Layout modes** for documents vs. sparse text (screenshots, signs)
- **Auto-rotation** of phone photos (EXIF)
- **Fair pricing**: you pay only for images that were read. Broken links cost nothing.

### How to use

1. Paste image links into **Image URLs** (or upload a text file with one URL per line).
2. Choose the language. Pick **Sparse text** for screenshots and signs.
3. Click **Start**, then export the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch them through the API.

### Input example

```json
{
  "imageUrls": [{ "url": "https://example.com/scan.png" }],
  "language": "eng",
  "includeWordBoxes": false
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/scan.png",
  "status": "ok",
  "text": "INVOICE #4521\nDate: 2026-03-02\nTotal: 149.00 EUR",
  "meanConfidence": 91.4,
  "wordCount": 7,
  "imageWidth": 1240,
  "imageHeight": 1754
}
```

With **Include word bounding boxes** on, each item also has `words: [{ "text", "confidence", "left", "top", "width", "height", "block", "line" }]`.

### Pricing

| Event | Price |
| --- | --- |
| Image read | $0.0015 per image |

1,000 images cost $1.50. Set a maximum cost per run and the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

### Need PDFs?

For PDF files (text PDFs and scanned PDFs, with tables), use the companion Actor [PDF to Markdown Converter (Tables + OCR)](https://apify.com/extas_corp/pdf-to-markdown).

### Limits

- Max 30 MB per image, 2 minutes per image.
- Handwriting is read poorly (Tesseract is built for printed text).
- Very low-resolution images (under ~20 px text height) give low confidence. Check `meanConfidence`.

### Free browser version

Converting just one file? Use the free in-browser converter at [hackthehydra.com](https://hackthehydra.com): no upload, no account.

### More ways to use it

- **REST API without an Apify account:** the same converters are available on RapidAPI as the [Document to Markdown API](https://rapidapi.com/ExtasCorporation/api/document-to-markdown) (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, images; free plan included).
- **Free in your browser:** [hackthehydra.com](https://hackthehydra.com) has no-upload converters for PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and images.

### Use cases

- **Research and archives**: digitise scans, screenshots and photographed documents in bulk.
- **LLM pipelines**: feed text from images into RAG or classification steps.
- **Ops**: read receipts, labels and slides at scale instead of retyping them.

### Integrations

Python (Apify client):

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("extas_corp/image-ocr").call(run_input={"imageUrls": [{"url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"}]})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item.get("text"))
```

**Make, Zapier, n8n**: add the Apify app, choose *Run Actor* (or *Run Actor and get dataset items*), set the Actor to `extas_corp/image-ocr` and map the JSON input. The same Actor can be started on a schedule from Apify itself, with a webhook to your own endpoint when the run finishes.

### FAQ

**Which languages?** Any Tesseract language code, set with the `language` input (default `eng`).

**How accurate is it?** Good on clean, high-resolution images; low-resolution or handwritten input gives weaker results.

**Do I need to pay to try it?** New Apify accounts include free monthly platform credit (about $5 on the free plan at the time of writing), so you can run the example input above and many more items before paying anything. You only pay the per-event price listed under Pricing; runs that return nothing or fail are not charged for the failed items.

# Actor input Schema

## `imageUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct links to images (PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, BMP, GIF). Each image becomes one dataset item.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Text language. Combine with + for mixed text (eng+fra).

## `includeWordBoxes` (type: `boolean`):

Add every word with its confidence and pixel position (left, top, width, height).

## `pageSegmentationMode` (type: `string`):

Tesseract page segmentation mode: 3 = automatic (documents), 6 = single block of text, 11 = sparse text (signs, screenshots, UI).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many images to process in parallel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "imageUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
    }
  ],
  "language": "eng",
  "includeWordBoxes": false,
  "pageSegmentationMode": "3",
  "maxConcurrency": 4
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "imageUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("extas_corp/image-ocr").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "imageUrls": [{ "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("extas_corp/image-ocr").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "imageUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdoc/main/images/eurotext.png"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call extas_corp/image-ocr --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,extas_corp/image-ocr"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/k2fUD6dZL2CYbgCtu/builds/9vVEKps8lTvUijLZD/openapi.json