10 Best Document Scanner Apps for iPhone & Android (2026)

TL;DR: For free, your phone already has a good scanner: Notes or Files on an iPhone, Google Drive on Android. For the best dedicated app, Genius Scan is free for scanning and $39.99 a year for searchable PDFs and smart naming, with no ad tracking. Adobe Scan is the strongest free all-rounder if you're in Adobe's world. If what you want is scans that name and file themselves, The Drive AI reads each scan on upload and a workflow files it. Microsoft Lens is gone: it stopped scanning on 9 March 2026, and OneDrive's scanner replaced it.

Disclosure: The Drive AI publishes this guide and is one of the apps in it.

Facts and prices below were checked against each app's own help pages and store listings in October 2026. Store prices vary by country; these are US prices.

What makes a scanner app good?

Every app here finds the edges of a page and straightens it. The differences are in what happens after the picture:

• Text recognition (OCR). Without it, a scan is a picture of a page: you can't search it or copy from it. Several apps keep OCR for paying users; standalone OCR tools can add it after the fact.
• Naming. "Scan 14.pdf" tells you nothing a month later. A few apps now suggest a name from what's on the page.
• Where scans go. Into a cloud drive you already use, into the app's own storage, or into the camera roll.
• Privacy. A scanner sees your contracts, IDs and medical letters. Check whether the app tracks you for advertising.

Which scanner apps compare best?

The 10 best document scanner apps

1. The Drive AI: best for scans that file themselves

The scanner takes up to 20 pages into one PDF and saves it in the folder you're in. When it uploads, its text is read, so you can find it later by what it says. How many pages of each scan are read depends on your plan.

What sets it apart is the step after. Scan into one folder, tell the assistant once what should happen to new files there ("receipts go to Receipts/2026, named vendor, date and amount; contracts to Contracts"), and a workflow renames and files every scan as it arrives. Scanning and auto-filing from your phone walks through the setup.

It's part of an AI file manager, not only a scanner; the best AI file manager apps covers that side. Limits: the scanner has no ID-card or business-card modes, and scans are named by date until a workflow renames them. Price: scanning and workflows are on the free plan; Premium is $19.99 a month.

2. Genius Scan: best dedicated scanner

Free for scanning: edge detection, batch scanning, multi-page PDFs, merge and split. Ultra ($39.99 a year) adds OCR and searchable PDFs, smart document renaming, business cards and automatic export to your cloud. Its App Store privacy label lists no tracking. (Genius Scan pricing)

3. Adobe Scan: best free all-rounder

Free scans to PDF or JPEG, saved to Adobe Document Cloud, with business-card contact capture. Text recognition is limited on the free tier, and paid plans start at $4.99 a month (Scan Plus), with Premium adding storage and editing. An Acrobat subscription unlocks it too. Its App Store label lists identifiers used for tracking.

4. Apple Notes and Files: best free option on iPhone

Both apps share Apple's built-in scanner: open a note or a folder and choose Scan Documents. Auto mode captures pages by itself. In Files, you choose the folder the PDF goes into. Notes can search the text in scans you keep inside Notes. No naming help; you type a name. Organizing files on your iPhone covers where scans should go after that.

5. Google Drive: best free option on Android

The Drive app's scanner, on Android and iPhone, captures automatically, cleans up stains and fingers, handles multi-page scans and saves searchable PDFs to a folder you choose. It can also suggest a title for each scan (Google). On Android, Files by Google has a similar free scanner that saves to your phone.

6. Scanner Pro: best for iPhone power users

Readdle's iPhone-only scanner. The free version watermarks scans you share; Plus adds OCR and full-text search, merging, and automatic upload to Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Box and others. Since August 2026, Plus can name scans from their content (Auto Name). Its App Store label lists identifiers used for tracking.

7. OneDrive: the Microsoft Lens replacement

Microsoft retired Lens in 2026: it left the app stores on 9 February and stopped scanning on 9 March. Microsoft points people to OneDrive's scanner instead (Microsoft). It has document, whiteboard, business-card and photo modes, takes up to 30 pages per PDF on iPhone and 10 on Android, and saves to OneDrive (not to the phone). Text recognition is on demand: press and hold a scanned PDF and choose Recognize Text.

8. Dropbox: fine if you're on a business plan

The scanner works on every Dropbox plan, including the free one, and saves to your Dropbox. Searching the text inside scans needs a paid business plan, though; on Basic and Plus your scans aren't searchable by content (Dropbox).

9. CamScanner: capable, with caveats

It has OCR and modes for ID cards and passports, but the free version watermarks exports, and Premium is sold from $9.99 a week. In 2019 Kaspersky found a malicious ad library in its Android app; Google pulled the app until it was removed (Kaspersky). Its App Store label lists tracking and third-party advertising. For documents you'd rather keep private, one of the options above is the safer choice.

10. TurboScan: best one-time purchase

$12.99 once, no subscription, iPhone only. SureScan takes three shots of each page for a sharper result, and scans can go to iCloud Drive automatically. The listing doesn't mention text recognition, so treat its scans as images.

Which should you choose?

• Free, and you scan now and then: Notes or Files on an iPhone, Google Drive on Android.
• You scan a lot and want searchable PDFs with good names: Genius Scan Ultra, or Scanner Pro Plus on iPhone.
• You want every scan named and filed without touching it: The Drive AI with a workflow.
• You lived in Microsoft Lens: the OneDrive app.
• No subscriptions, ever: TurboScan.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free document scanner app?

The one already on your phone. On an iPhone, the scanner in Notes and Files is free and good. On Android, the Google Drive scanner is free, saves searchable PDFs and suggests titles. Adobe Scan and Genius Scan are the best free downloads.

Which scanner app makes searchable PDFs for free?

Google Drive's scanner and The Drive AI both make scans searchable without a paid plan. Genius Scan and Scanner Pro keep text recognition for paying users, and Dropbox makes scan text searchable only on business plans.

What replaced Microsoft Lens?

The OneDrive app's scanner. Microsoft removed Lens from the app stores on 9 February 2026, and it stopped making new scans on 9 March 2026. Scans already in Lens stay viewable only while the app is installed.

Is CamScanner safe to use?

The 2019 malware was in a third-party ad library in the Android app, and it was removed. The app still tracks you for advertising, according to its App Store privacy label. For sensitive documents, a scanner without ad tracking, such as Genius Scan or your phone's built-in one, is the more careful choice.

Can a scanner app file my scans into folders automatically?

Most can save into one chosen folder and some can name scans from their content. Sorting each scan into a different folder by what it is (receipt, contract, letter) takes a rule that reads the document. In The Drive AI a workflow does that for every new scan.

What is the best document scanner app for Android?

For a free scanner, the one inside the Google Drive app: it saves searchable PDFs and suggests titles. For more control, Adobe Scan or Genius Scan. If you want each scan filed by what it is rather than dropped in one folder, The Drive AI scans and files it in one step.

What is the best document scanner app for iPhone?

Free: the scanner built into Notes and Files. Paid and powerful: Scanner Pro, or TurboScan as a one-time purchase. Adobe Scan is the best free download. The Drive AI files each scan by its contents, so a receipt, a contract and a letter land in different folders.

Can a scanner app scan checks?

Any of these apps photographs a check as a document, which is fine for your records. Depositing one goes through your bank's own app, which has to capture the image itself and will not accept a PDF from a scanner app. Use a scanner app to keep the copy, not to deposit.