Receipt OCR: free to start, honest about the limits
Receipt OCR turns a photo into text and fields: merchant, date, total, tax. It reads flat, lit receipts well and struggles with faded thermal paper.
5 documents free. PDF, photo or XML — data out as CSV, Excel or JSON.
What it reads reliably
Merchant, date, total and tax on a flat receipt: dependable.
Line items: usually fine, sometimes merged when print is faint.
Where it fails
Faded thermal paper, shadows, crumples across the total.
Handwritten tips and totals — those still need a human look.
Free versus paid
Free tiers exist for testing; volume costs money because recognition costs compute.
At DueBuddy the first five documents are free; scans are €0.07 per page after that.
Getting to a spreadsheet
One row per receipt with merchant, date, total, tax and category.
Keep the image linked to the row: expense reports need the evidence, not just the number.
Frequently asked
Is receipt OCR free?
Free tiers exist for testing. Beyond that you pay per page — recognition is the expensive part.
Can it read a photo taken in a hurry?
Usually, but check the total: blur and shadow are where errors hide.