AI Image Recognition

OCR Buddy

Faithful, 100% local OCR Chrome extension for text, code, formulas, and tables with no hallucination.

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OCR Buddy

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What is OCR Buddy?

OCR Buddy is a free, open-source Chrome extension that performs OCR entirely on your device using PP-OCRv5 and ONNX Runtime Web, supporting text, code, formulas (LaTeX), and tables without sending data to any server.

OCR Buddy vs Similar AI Tools

Pricing ModelFreePaidFree, FreemiumFree, Freemium
Free Credits
Key Features
  • Region, viewport, and full page capture
  • Text/Code OCR with syntax highlighting and layout reconstruction
  • Formula to LaTeX with KaTeX rendering for verification
  • Auto-Drop: Archives desktop screenshots and renames them via on-device OCR.
  • Smart Eject: Detects mounted DMGs, ejects the disk, and cleans up the installer.
  • Flow Rules: Sorts Downloads into folders by file type with user-defined rules.
  • On-screen AI overlay for instant understanding
  • Handwriting recognition and decoding
  • Contextual chat for clarifications
  • AI receipt scanning – extracts every line item from a photo
  • Tap-to-assign – quickly assign items to people at the table
  • Smart tax & tip – proportional distribution of tax and tip
Pros
  • Privacy-first: all processing on-device
  • No hallucinated text, faithful transcription
  • Affordable one-time price with lifetime updates.
  • AI-powered OCR for automatic screenshot renaming.
  • Decodes messy handwriting and formulas accurately
  • Works on any screen without leaving the current tab
  • No app install or signup required to start splitting
  • AI accurately extracts items, tax, and tip from photos
Cons
  • Chrome only (requires WebGPU in workers)
  • No Arabic language support
  • Requires macOS 14 or later.
  • Only handles specific file types (screenshots, DMGs, downloads).
  • Limited to 5 AI scans per day on free tier
  • Requires Chrome browser and extension installation
  • AI scan credits limited on free plan after initial 5
  • Requires Google sign-in for saving receipts and sharing live links
Best For
  • Developers needing reliable code OCR
  • Researchers extracting text from academic papers
  • Mac users seeking a hassle-free file organization tool.
  • Users who take many screenshots and want them renamed by content.
  • Students
  • Researchers
  • Groups dining out who want to split bills quickly and fairly
  • People who frequently eat in groups and hate mental math

How to use OCR Buddy?

  1. 1Install the OCR Buddy extension from Chrome Web Store.
  2. 2Select a region, viewport, or capture the full page.
  3. 3Choose the read mode: Text/Code, Formula, or Table.
  4. 4Review the extracted result with source crop comparison.
  5. 5Copy or download the output as plain text, Markdown, or LaTeX.

OCR Buddy Key Features

  • Region, viewport, and full page capture
  • Text/Code OCR with syntax highlighting and layout reconstruction
  • Formula to LaTeX with KaTeX rendering for verification
  • Table to Markdown using geometric reconstruction
  • Page to Markdown via DOM structure with hybrid image OCR
  • 100% local processing, no data leaves the device
  • Multi-language support (Latin, CJK, Cyrillic, etc.)
  • Low-confidence word flagging and source crop display

OCR Buddy Use Cases

  • Extracting code from a paused video
  • OCR-ing text from PDFs or images
  • Converting mathematical formulas to LaTeX
  • Turning table screenshots into Markdown
  • Capturing full web pages as clean Markdown for LLMs

OCR Buddy Pricing & Free Credits

OCR Buddy currently operates on a Free model.

This tool is completely free to use

Free

$0

Open source (MIT), no usage limits, all features included.

OCR Buddy Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Privacy-first: all processing on-device
  • No hallucinated text, faithful transcription
  • Supports multiple capture modes and read modes
  • Offline capable with bundled models
  • Open source with permissive license

Cons

  • Chrome only (requires WebGPU in workers)
  • No Arabic language support
  • Full page capture may interleave columns or duplicate sticky headers
  • Formula mode can misread complex, low-resolution formulas
  • No auto-fix for pipe vs I/l ambiguity

What is OCR Buddy best for?

  • Developers needing reliable code OCR
  • Researchers extracting text from academic papers
  • Students converting math images to LaTeX
  • Privacy-conscious users avoiding cloud OCR
  • Anyone requiring faithful OCR without hallucination

OCR Buddy FAQ

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