Free driving licence OCR

Upload a driving licence or driver's license and extract the name, licence number, class and dates as structured data, free. It reads scans and phone photos from any country or state, with no account needed. It reads what is printed, and it does not verify the licence.

Upload your driving licenceDrop your driving licence hereTake a photo or pick a PDF, up to 10 MBPDF, scan or phone photo, up to 10 MB

Free
No sign-up, no card
Download as Excel, CSV or JSON

A driving licence is sensitive personal data. Upload your own, or one you have permission to use. We keep the first page and the result for 7 days to run and improve this tool, then delete them. The rest of your file is not stored. Privacy policy

Sample. Every value is invented.

Sampleland Transport Agency

Driving Licence

Full Name: Alex Sample
Licence Number: SAMPL-000000
Date of Birth: 1990-01-01
Licence Class: B
Issue Date: 2024-01-01
Expiry Date: 2034-01-01

{
  "full_name": "Alex Sample",  "license_number": "SAMPL-000000",  "date_of_birth": "1990-01-01",  "license_class": "B"}

Any layout, no template
It works out the fields from the page itself, so there's nothing to set up.
Scans and phone photos
Digital PDFs, scanned pages and photos all go through the same way.
Structured, not just text
Named fields and table rows you can download as Excel, CSV or JSON, not a wall of OCR text.
An API when you need it
The same data from your own code, as the sample call further down shows.

What the free licence extractor reads

Holder: full name, date of birth, sex and address.
Licence: licence number, class or category, endorsements and restrictions.
Dates: issue date and expiry date.
Authority: issuing state, province or country, and issuing authority.
Physical details where printed: height, eye colour and organ donor mark.

Driving licence names by region

Licences and permits around the world

Region	Document names	Issued by
Pakistan	Driving licence, learner permit, international driving permit	Provincial traffic police and licensing authorities
India	Driving licence (DL), learner's licence	State RTOs
UAE, Saudi Arabia	UAE driving licence, Saudi driving licence	Emirate or national traffic authority
United Kingdom, Ireland	Photocard driving licence, provisional licence	DVLA, DVA, NDLS
United States	Driver's license, Real ID, commercial driver's license (CDL), learner's permit	State DMV
Canada	Driver's licence, enhanced licence	Provincial ministries
European Union	Führerschein, permis de conduire, carnet de conducir, patente	National authorities
Australia, New Zealand	Driver licence, learner or provisional licence	State and national transport agencies

Front and back of a licence

Licence classes, restrictions and sometimes a barcode sit on the back. The free try reads one side: the first page of a PDF, or a single image. Upload the side that holds what you need, or use a free account to read a two-page PDF with both sides in one run.

Who reads licences in bulk

Car rental desks, fleet operators, insurers and ride-hailing teams all key in the same fields from a licence. An account has 35 driving licence fields built in, so those teams can pull the same data from every licence and send it on through the API.

Sample API call

This is how the same driving licence looks from your own code. wf_demo_driver_license is a dummy workflow id and every value below is invented, so the call won't run as written. A real run reads every page and adds a confidence score and page position to each field.

Run a workflow, then read the result

curl -X POST "$DOCREFINERY_API/v1/workflows/wf_demo_driver_license/run" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCREFINERY_API_KEY" \
  -F "[email protected]"

# Take trace_id from the answer, then poll until status is "fulfilled"
curl "$DOCREFINERY_API/v1/runway/9f1c0a7e" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCREFINERY_API_KEY"

Response (invented values)

{
  "trace_id": "9f1c0a7e",
  "status": "fulfilled",
  "document_type": "driver_license",
  "result": {
    "fields": [
      {
        "key": "full_name",
        "alias": "Full Name",
        "text": "Alex Sample",
        "field_confidence": 0.99,
        "location": { "page": 1, "bbox": [0.08, 0.12, 0.46, 0.14] }
      },
      {
        "key": "license_number",
        "alias": "Licence Number",
        "text": "SAMPL-000000",
        "field_confidence": 0.98,
        "location": { "page": 1, "bbox": [0.08, 0.17, 0.46, 0.19] }
      },
      {
        "key": "date_of_birth",
        "alias": "Date of Birth",
        "text": "1990-01-01",
        "field_confidence": 0.97,
        "location": { "page": 1, "bbox": [0.08, 0.22, 0.46, 0.24] }
      }
    ],
    "extraction_approval": "auto",
    "low_confidence_fields": []
  }
}

Make it run on your own driving licence

Create a free account.
Upload one sample under Workflows, keep the fields you want and save. That gives you a real workflow id.
Create an API key under Settings. Keys are switched on per account, so ask us if you don't see the option.
Set DOCREFINERY_API and DOCREFINERY_API_KEY as in the quickstart, and swap in your id.

Free try or free account?

Free try and free account, compared

Feature	Free try	Free account
Pages read	Page 1	Every page
Allowance	5 tries a day	100 pages a month
File size	Up to 10 MB	Up to 100 MB
How it reads	Finds the fields on the page	Built-in driving licence fields, or your own workflow
Checking	Compare with your page	Confidence scores and page citations
Output	Fields on screen, download as Excel, CSV or JSON	Excel, CSV and JSON for every page, and API keys on request

Create a free account

Common questions

Can I extract driver's license data for free?

Yes. Upload a clear photo or scan and the name, licence number, class and dates come back as fields. You get 5 free tries a day with no account or card.

Does it work with US driver's licenses from every state?

It isn't tied to a list of states. It reads what's printed on the card, so a licence from any state goes through the same way. Check the number against the card.

Can it read an Indian or Pakistani driving licence?

Yes. Licences from Indian RTOs and Pakistani provincial authorities read the same way, in whatever layout the state or province prints. Older paper booklets are harder, so use a sharp photo.

Does it verify the licence is valid?

No. It reads the expiry date and other details as printed. Whether a licence is currently valid has to be checked with the issuing authority.

Try it on your own driving licence.

Free, with no sign-up and no card.