Tesseract OCR

Input—per 1M tokens

Output—per 1M tokens

Context—tokens

WeightsClosed

About

Tesseract OCR is ranked #2 of 27 in OCR API software on Inferse. It runs on Android, API, iOS, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted, Windows. There is a free plan.

Compared on OCR API software

Free plan: Yestesseract-ocr.github.io
Structure extraction: Yestesseract-ocr.github.io
SDK languages: C, C++tesseract-ocr.github.io

Facts

What it does: Tesseract is an open source OCR engine that extracts printed text from images.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
How to use it: It can be used from the command line or through an API, and the project does not include a GUI application.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Recognition engine: Tesseract 4 added an LSTM neural-network engine for line recognition while retaining the legacy engine.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Languages: The project says Tesseract can recognize more than 100 languages out of the box.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Output formats: Supported output formats include plain text, hOCR, PDF, TSV, ALTO, and PAGE.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Image formats: Supported input formats include PNG, JPEG, TIFF, JPEG 2000, GIF, WebP, BMP, and PNM.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
PDF limitation: Tesseract cannot read PDF files directly; its documentation suggests converting them or using OCRmyPDF, and says PDF is supported as an output format.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
Integrations: The project documentation lists language wrappers including Python, Java, Swift, Flutter, Ruby, Rust, and Go.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
Platforms: The manual says Tesseract can be compiled for targets including Android and iPhone; the project also lists Linux, macOS, and Windows GUI projects using Tesseract.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
License: Tesseract is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Security updates: The repository security policy lists version 5.5.x as supported and versions below 5.5 as unsupported.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Support: The project directs users to its documentation, FAQ, forums, past issues, and mailing lists for support.github.com · 2 Oct 2026
Downloads: Tesseract is included in most Linux distributions, and the downloads page says there is no official Windows installer for newer versions.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 2 Oct 2026
Purpose: Tesseract is an open source text recognition (OCR) engine for extracting printed text from images.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 3 Oct 2026
Recognition: It supports Unicode UTF-8 and recognizes more than 100 languages out of the box.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
OCR engines: Tesseract 4 introduced an LSTM neural network engine focused on line recognition and retained the legacy character-pattern engine.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
Input formats: It supports image formats including PNG, JPEG and TIFF.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
Interfaces: The package includes the libtesseract OCR engine and a tesseract command line program, and developers can use its C or C++ API.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
Language bindings: The project documentation lists wrappers for languages including Python, Java, Ruby, Rust, R, Node.js and Go.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 3 Oct 2026
Deployment: The manual links to source compilation and Docker container instructions.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 3 Oct 2026
Security and license: The repository code is licensed under Apache License 2.0 and is provided without warranties or conditions, and the README notes that dependencies may have different licenses.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
Notable limitation: The project does not include a GUI application, and the README says image quality may need improvement for better OCR results.github.com · 3 Oct 2026
Training: Tesseract can be trained to recognize other languages, while the manual says the old tesstrain.sh training approach is unsupported and abandoned for version 5.tesseract-ocr.github.io · 3 Oct 2026
History: Tesseract was developed at Hewlett-Packard, open sourced by HP in 2005, and developed by Google from 2006 to August 2017.github.com · 3 Oct 2026