OCR.space API
Agent-ready OpenAPI document · curated by JenticAI/MLVisionapiKey2 EndpointsREST
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For Agents
Convert images and PDFs to machine-readable text with multilingual OCR and optional word-level coordinates.
Use for: Extract text from a scanned PDF receipt, Get the words and coordinates from an uploaded image, Convert an image URL to text, Find all text in a passport photo
Not supported: Does not handle structured field extraction, document classification, or signature detection - use for OCR.space image and PDF text extraction only.
Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for OCR.space API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. OCR.space converts images and PDFs into machine-readable text using optical character recognition. The API supports more than thirty languages, multiple OCR engines tuned for different document styles, and word-level coordinate output for downstream layout work. Input can be supplied as a multipart file upload, a URL, or a base64-encoded image, making it easy to drop into pipelines that already handle one of those input shapes.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the OCR.space API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the OCR.space API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Focr-space%2Focr-space" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Focr-space%2Focr-space" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with OCR.space API.
Extract text from a multipart-uploaded image or PDF via /parse/image
Extract text from a publicly hosted image URL via /parse/imageurl
Return word-level bounding box coordinates for layout-aware downstream parsing
Switch OCR engines to favour Latin scripts, multi-script content, or noisy scans
Process documents in 30+ languages including non-Latin scripts
Convert receipts, ID scans, and form scans into searchable text fields
Use Cases
Patterns agents use OCR.space API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Receipt Digitisation Pipeline
Digitise expense receipts at scale by submitting each scanned image to /parse/image and storing the returned text alongside the original. Word-level coordinates make it possible to reconstruct line items and totals in downstream parsers. Suitable for finance operations teams running spend automation or for travel platforms that need to attach searchable text to attached receipts.
Upload a receipt image to /parse/image with engine 2 and return the extracted text plus the bounding boxes for each line.
Form and ID Document OCR
Pull structured fields out of scanned forms and ID documents by sending them to /parse/image and applying field-specific regexes to the returned text. The multilingual support handles non-Latin scripts on government forms, while word coordinates help align extracted text to known field positions. Pair with a downstream validator for high-confidence pipelines.
Upload a passport scan to /parse/image and return the MRZ region text plus its bounding box.
URL-Based Image Text Extraction
Extract text from publicly hosted images without uploading them by passing the URL to /parse/imageurl. Useful for moderation pipelines that already track image links, for SEO tools mining text from public images, or for pulling captions from screenshots already stored on a CDN. The endpoint accepts the same engine and language parameters as the upload variant.
Call /parse/imageurl with a public image URL and language 'eng' and return the extracted text.
AI Agent Document Reader
An AI agent ingesting an attached image or PDF can call OCR.space through Jentic to convert the binary into text before reasoning about the content. The agent discovers the parse operation by intent, picks the correct endpoint depending on whether the source is local or a URL, and submits the request without dealing with multipart encoding or auth headers itself.
Use Jentic to call /parse/imageurl on a screenshot URL and return the extracted text as plain prose.
Key Endpoints
2 endpoints — jentic publishes the only available openapi specification for ocr.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/parse/image
OCR a multipart-uploaded image or PDF
GET
/parse/imageurl
OCR a publicly hosted image by URL
POST
/parse/image
OCR a multipart-uploaded image or PDF
GET
/parse/imageurl
OCR a publicly hosted image by URL
Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring OCR.space by hand means setting up its apikey header, deciding whether to send an image upload to /parse/image or a URL to /parse/imageurl, and handling parse-result polling yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import OCR.space from the API Directory, store the API key once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
OCR.space carries no resource id in the URL path, so scoping is by operation: you limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as parsing an uploaded image or parsing an image URL, and it can call nothing else. You choose which of those two operations are in the allowed set.
Credential isolation
Your OCR.space API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the apikey header at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'extract text from an image' or 'read text from an image URL', and Jentic returns the matching OCR.space operation with its input schema so the agent calls /parse/image or /parse/imageurl without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using OCR.space API through Jentic.
Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for OCR.space API?
OCR.space does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call OCR.space API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. Get started with Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
What authentication does the OCR.space API use?
An API key supplied via the apikey header on each request. Jentic stores the key encrypted in its vault and injects it at execution time so the raw secret never enters the agent's prompt or model context.
Can I OCR a PDF with this API?
Yes. /parse/image accepts PDF uploads in addition to images, and OCR.space processes each page through the chosen OCR engine. The response includes parsed text per page along with optional word coordinates.
What are the rate limits for the OCR.space API?
OCR.space's free tier is throttled by request rate and file size; paid tiers raise both. The spec does not encode the limit numerically - confirm your tier in the OCR.space dashboard and handle 429 responses with exponential backoff.
How do I OCR an image URL through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'OCR an image from a URL', load the schema for /parse/imageurl, and execute with the URL. With pip install jentic the call is await client.search(...), await client.load(...), await client.execute(...) inside an asyncio.run wrapper.
Which OCR engine should I pick?
OCR.space exposes multiple engines via a request parameter - engine 2 generally handles complex scans and non-Latin scripts better, while engine 1 is faster for clean Latin-script documents. Test both on a representative sample before settling.
Does the API return word coordinates?
Yes - set the appropriate request flag and the response includes per-word bounding boxes alongside the text. This is useful for layout-aware parsers that need to align text back to the source image.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the OCR.space API?
Yes. Because the OCR.space API carries no resource id in its URL path, Jentic One, which you host yourself, scopes access by operation: your own rules decide whether the agent may parse an uploaded image via /parse/image, parse a hosted image URL via /parse/imageurl, both, or neither. Any operation you leave out of the allowed set cannot be called, and your API key is injected only when a permitted operation runs. This lets you grant, for example, URL-based OCR while blocking file uploads.
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