How do I extract text from a screenshot on Mac?

On macOS 12 Monterey+, open the screenshot in Preview, hover over any text in the image, then click and drag to select it — Live Text detects the characters automatically. Press ⌘C to copy. On older macOS, use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in Safari.

How do I convert a screenshot to text on iPhone?

On iOS 15+, open the screenshot in Photos, tap the Live Text icon in the bottom-right corner, then tap and hold to select text or tap Select All, then Copy. Requires iPhone XS or newer. On older iOS devices, use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in Safari Mobile.

How do I extract text from a screenshot on Android?

Open the screenshot in Google Photos, tap the Lens icon, select Text, then tap and drag to select text and copy it. Alternatively, use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in Chrome on Android for a private option that does not upload to Google.

Screenshot to Text on Windows, Mac, iPhone & Android (2026)

Q: How do I extract text from a screenshot on Windows?

On Windows 11 22H2+, open Snipping Tool, take a snip or open an existing screenshot via File → Open, then click the Text Actions button to extract text. On Windows 10, use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in Chrome or Edge — no download required.

Every major platform now has a built-in way to extract text from images — but they differ in capability, privacy, and where the text ends up. This guide covers the best method for each platform, plus a cross-platform browser option that works everywhere.

Windows: Snipping Tool Text Actions

Available in: Windows 11 22H2 (November 2022 update) and later

Windows 11's Snipping Tool added a "Text Actions" feature that runs OCR directly on the snipped region.

How to use it:

Press Win + Shift + S to open the Snipping Tool
Select the region with text
In the Snipping Tool window, click Text Actions (the T icon in the toolbar)
The tool highlights detected text — click Copy all text or select a specific block

Also works on existing screenshots:

Open Snipping Tool → File → Open → select your screenshot → Text Actions

Privacy: Processing happens locally on your device. Text is not sent to Microsoft servers.

Limitation: Only available on Windows 11 22H2+. On older Windows versions, you need a third-party tool or the browser option below.

Windows 10 alternative: Use the Photos app → Edit → ⋯ → Optical character recognition, or use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in any browser.

macOS: Live Text in Preview

Available in: macOS 12 Monterey and later (Intel and Apple Silicon)

macOS Live Text is Apple's on-device OCR system. It's integrated into Preview, Photos, Safari, and Quick Look.

Method 1 — Preview:

Open the screenshot in Preview
Hover over any text in the image — a cursor change indicates Live Text is active
Click and drag to select text, just like selecting text in a document
Press ⌘C to copy

Method 2 — Quick Look:

Select the screenshot in Finder
Press Space to open Quick Look
Hover → click and drag to select text → ⌘C

Method 3 — Photos:

Open the screenshot in Photos
Click the Live Text icon (bottom right of the image, looks like lines with a cursor)
Select and copy text

Privacy: All Live Text processing happens on-device using Apple's Vision framework. No data is sent to Apple.

Limitation: English, plus ~20 languages supported natively. Does not support scanned handwriting.

iPhone / iPad: Live Text

Available in: iOS 15 / iPadOS 15 and later

iOS Live Text works in the Camera app, Photos, and Safari — including on existing screenshots.

From a screenshot in Photos:

Open the screenshot in Photos
Tap the Live Text icon (bottom right — looks like text lines inside a box)
Tap and hold to select text, or tap Select All
Tap Copy

From Camera in real time:

Open Camera and point at printed text
Tap the Live Text icon that appears in the bottom-right corner
Select and copy text directly from the viewfinder

Privacy: Fully on-device. Apple does not receive the image or the extracted text.

Limitation: Requires a device with an A12 Bionic chip or later (iPhone XS / iPad mini 5 and newer). Older devices don't support Live Text.

Android: Google Lens

Available in: Android 6+ via Google app or Google Photos

Google Lens is the primary way to extract text from images on Android.

From Google Photos:

Open the screenshot in Google Photos
Tap the Lens icon (bottom row)
Tap Text in the Lens overlay
Tap and drag to select text, or tap Select all
Tap Copy text

From Google app:

Open the Google app
Tap the Lens icon in the search bar
Select your screenshot from the gallery
Tap Text → Copy

From any app via share sheet (Android 12+): Share any image → tap Google Lens → select text → copy.

Privacy: Unlike Apple's Live Text, Google Lens sends your image to Google's servers for processing. Google's privacy policy applies.

Alternative for privacy: Use screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text in Chrome on Android — OCR runs locally in the browser with no upload.

Cross-Platform: Browser-Based OCR

Works on: Any device with a modern browser — Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, ChromeOS

If you're on an older device that lacks built-in OCR, or you want a tool that works identically on every platform, browser-based OCR is the answer.

screenshot-to.com/screenshot-to-text uses Tesseract 5, compiled to WebAssembly:

Open the tool in any browser
Drop or select your screenshot
Processing happens locally — no upload, no account
Copy or download the extracted text

Why use this over built-in tools?

Works on Windows 10, older Macs (pre-Monterey), older Android devices
No Google account required (unlike Google Lens)
Text output you can download as .txt
Consistent results across all your devices

Platform Comparison

Platform	Tool	Account required	Sends image to server	Available on
Windows 11 22H2+	Snipping Tool Text Actions	No	No	Windows 11 only
macOS 12+	Live Text (Preview/Photos)	No	No	Mac only
iOS 15+	Live Text	No	No	iPhone/iPad only
Android	Google Lens	Google account	Yes (Google)	Android only
Any	screenshot-to.com	No	No	All platforms

Tips for Better Accuracy on Any Platform

Use PNG over JPEG — JPEG compression introduces artefacts that degrade OCR accuracy
High resolution is better — screenshots at 2× (Retina/HiDPI) give significantly better results
Dark text on light background — inverted or dark-mode screenshots sometimes need contrast adjustment first
Crop tightly — removing excess whitespace/background reduces false positives
Avoid screenshots of screenshots — each generation adds compression noise

Frequently Asked Questions

Which platform has the best OCR accuracy? macOS Live Text and iOS Live Text generally lead for clean screenshots. Google Lens performs best on photos of physical documents at an angle. Tesseract (screenshot-to.com, Windows Snipping Tool) is excellent for digital screenshots and UI captures.

Can I extract text from a screenshot on Linux? Linux doesn't have a built-in OCR tool. The browser option (screenshot-to.com) works in Firefox and Chrome on Linux. Alternatively, install Tesseract CLI: sudo apt install tesseract-ocr && tesseract image.png output txt.

Does it work on ChromeOS? Yes — use screenshot-to.com in Chrome browser. Chrome OS does not have a native OCR tool for screenshots.

What about handwriting? None of the tools above handle handwriting well. Google Lens performs best on handwriting because it uses a neural model. Tesseract is designed for printed text only.

How do I extract text from a screenshot on Windows 10? Windows 10's Snipping Tool doesn't have Text Actions. Options: (1) use screenshot-to.com in Chrome or Edge; (2) use Microsoft PowerToys' "Text Extractor" (free, open-source); (3) paste the screenshot into a OneNote page — OneNote performs OCR on images automatically.