The Best Document Scanner Apps in 2026: 14 Options for iPhone and Android

For most people, the best document scanner is already on their phone. iPhones scan from the Notes and Files apps, Android phones from Google Drive or Files by Google, and both produce clean multi-page PDFs with no watermark. Dedicated apps earn their place for specific jobs: making scans searchable, scanning whole books, keeping everything on the device, or filing receipts automatically.

Two things decide which app suits you beyond the scanning itself: where your scans go, to the cloud or only onto the phone, and whether recognising the text, OCR, is free. This guide covers fourteen options, from Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and app makers’ own pages and store listings, checked on 14 October 2026.

Two apps that no longer work

Many lists still recommend Microsoft Lens and Google Stack. Both are gone. Microsoft retired Lens in early 2026: it left the app stores on 9 February, and scanning stopped on 9 March. Microsoft points users to the OneDrive app. Google discontinued Stack in 2024 and points users to Google Drive’s scanner.

At a glance

Built into your phone

1. iPhone: Notes and Files

In Notes, choose Attachments, then Scan Documents; in Files, choose More, then Scan Documents and pick where to save. Pages are captured automatically, cropped and straightened, and you can add as many as you need, apply filters and sign with Markup. Notes searches the text inside scanned documents. One catch: exporting a whole note as a PDF exports only the first page of a multi-page scan, so share the scan itself. Live Text in the Camera and Photos apps also lets you copy text from paper without scanning at all.

2. Google Drive (Android and iPhone)

Drive’s camera button scans with automatic or manual capture, cropping, filters and a Clean tool that removes stains and fingers, and adds pages to make a multi-page PDF. Google says scans are saved as searchable PDFs, which makes Drive the best free option if you want to find documents by their contents later. Scans go to your Google Drive account.

3. Files by Google (Android)

Files by Google has its own scanner with the same multi-page capture, cropping and Clean tool, and saves searchable PDFs to Downloads, Scanned on the phone itself. It is the free Android choice for anyone who would rather not put documents in the cloud.

4. Samsung Galaxy camera

On Galaxy phones, point the camera at a document and tap Scan when it appears. The phone removes shadows and hands, straightens the page and saves it to the Gallery. To make a PDF, attach the scan to a note in Samsung Notes and export it.

5. OneDrive (Lens’s replacement)

Microsoft’s recommended replacement for Lens scans documents, whiteboards, business cards and photos in the OneDrive app and saves them as PDFs, up to 10 pages per scan on Android. Microsoft’s documentation contradicts itself on storage: its Lens retirement page says OneDrive cannot save scans only on the device, while the current iPhone app listing describes saving to Photos or Files. Text recognition on scanned PDFs is described as rolling out for business accounts. OneDrive includes 5 GB of free storage.

Dedicated scanner apps

6. Adobe Scan

Adobe Scan is free to download and exports PDF, JPEG and Word files. Its current App Store listing says the free version includes OCR for 5 pages, with Premium raising that to 100, down from the 25 Adobe once offered free. Combining scans, extracting pages and finger removal are Premium features. Scans are stored in Adobe Document Cloud.

7. Genius Scan

Genius Scan’s free version is unlimited, fully functional and watermark-free, with multi-page PDFs and merging and splitting included. Scanning happens on the device and no account is needed. OCR and cloud exports come with the ULTRA plan at $39.99 a year. A good default if you want a dedicated app without handing your documents to a cloud service.

8. CamScanner

CamScanner offers OCR and export to PDF, JPG, text and Word, with a subscription for its full features. In 2019 Kaspersky found a malicious module in an advertising library in its Android version; Google removed the app until a cleaned version was released, and the company said iOS was unaffected. Its App Store privacy details list data used to track you. Weigh that before scanning anything sensitive.

9. SwiftScan (formerly Scanbot)

SwiftScan, from Maple Media, is the app formerly called Scanbot. Several unrelated apps use similar names, so check the developer. Scanning to PDF and JPG is free; OCR, automatic cloud sync and encryption are paid.

10. vFlat Scan: for books

vFlat is built for scanning books and notebooks: it flattens curved pages, splits a two-page spread into separate pages, removes fingers holding the book down, and captures automatically as you turn pages. It exports PDF, JPG and text, with OCR in more than 100 languages sold in page packs, which suggests the free allowance is limited.

11. Scanner Pro (iPhone)

Readdle’s Scanner Pro produces searchable PDFs with built-in OCR and exports to PDF, Word, PowerPoint and JPG, with iCloud sync. Its premium features come with the Scanner Pro Plus subscription.

12. Prizmo (iPhone, Mac)

Prizmo recognises text on the device in 30 languages, with optional cloud OCR for 139 languages and handwriting, and exports searchable PDF, Word and text. Its App Store listing says it collects no data. The free version adds a watermark; the Premium Pack removes it for $23.99, once.

13. TurboScan

TurboScan is a simple scanner that processes everything on the device and, on iPhone, collects no data according to its listing. It exports PDF and JPEG and does not do OCR. On iPhone, Premium is a one-time $14.99 with no subscription.

14. Notebloc

Notebloc is free for unlimited documents with no watermark, supported by ads, and includes OCR in English and 15 other languages. Its PRO upgrade, from $0.99 a month or $24.99 for life, removes the ads.

Dropbox and Evernote also scan inside their own apps. Dropbox’s scans go straight to your account, with text search on paid plans only; Evernote’s free plan is limited to 50 notes.

Which one to use

• Occasional scans on iPhone: Notes or Files.
• Occasional scans on Android: Google Drive, or Files by Google to keep scans on the phone.
• Searchable scans for free: Google Drive or Files by Google.
• Confidential documents: an on-device app such as Genius Scan, Files by Google, TurboScan or Prizmo.
• Books and bound notebooks: vFlat.

After you scan

Phone scans are often larger than they need to be, especially colour scans of plain text, and many email systems reject large attachments. Our PDF compressor shrinks them in your browser without uploading them, and our comparison of PDF compressors covers the alternatives. If you need the text out of a scan your app did not recognise, image to text (OCR) does it in the browser. If you photographed pages instead of scanning them, JPG to PDF turns each photo into a PDF, and merge PDF combines them into one document.