Find Text in a PDF, Free — Right in Your Browser
Search for a word or phrase and every match lists out, so you can click straight to any one of them — no account, no upload. It also searches any text you've already run Make Searchable (OCR) on, which a plain PDF viewer's own search can't do on a scan at all.
Select a PDF to Search →How it works
Select your PDF
The find bar opens
Type what you're looking for
Click any match in the list
Why this beats a plain viewer's search
This editor
- Your file never leaves your device
- No account or email required
- No file size cap
- Finds OCR'd text on a scan too, once you've run Make Searchable
A plain PDF viewer's search
- Only ever finds text the PDF already has
- A scanned page is invisible to it — no text, nothing to find
- No nudge toward fixing that, it just comes up empty
Frequently asked questions
Does this work like my browser's own Ctrl+F?
Similarly, but it's this editor's own find bar, not your browser's native page search — the PDF is drawn onto a canvas, which a browser's own Ctrl+F can't read text from at all. Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F) opens this editor's own bar instead, with the same jump-between-matches feel.
Can it find text in a scanned PDF?
Only once you've run Make Searchable (OCR) on it first — a scan has no real text at all until then, just a picture of text. If a search comes up empty, the find bar tells you that and points at Make Searchable; it never runs OCR automatically on its own.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere to search it?
No — searching happens entirely in your browser, reading the same text your document already contains (or whatever OCR already recognized). Nothing about your file or your search terms ever leaves your device.
Does it find partial words or exact phrases?
Both — it's a plain substring match, case-insensitive, so searching "inv" finds "invoice," and a multi-word phrase matches across word boundaries too, including in OCR'd text.