diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index c2cca9f..095dd93 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -164,6 +164,24 @@ services:
       - "traefik.http.services.mvp-backend.loadbalancer.healthcheck.timeout=10s"
       - "traefik.http.services.mvp-backend.loadbalancer.passhostheader=true"
 
+  # Application Services - OCR Processing
+  mvp-ocr:
+    build:
+      context: ./ocr
+      dockerfile: Dockerfile
+    container_name: mvp-ocr
+    restart: unless-stopped
+    environment:
+      LOG_LEVEL: info
+    networks:
+      - backend
+    healthcheck:
+      test: ["CMD", "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8000/health"]
+      interval: 30s
+      timeout: 10s
+      retries: 3
+      start_period: 30s
+
   # Database Services - Application PostgreSQL
   mvp-postgres:
     image: ${REGISTRY_MIRRORS:-git.motovaultpro.com/egullickson/mirrors}/postgres:18-alpine
diff --git a/ocr/Dockerfile b/ocr/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..364ba97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+FROM python:3.11-slim
+
+# System dependencies
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    tesseract-ocr \
+    tesseract-ocr-eng \
+    libtesseract-dev \
+    libheif1 \
+    libheif-dev \
+    libglib2.0-0 \
+    libmagic1 \
+    curl \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
+
+# Python dependencies
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY requirements.txt .
+RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY . .
+
+EXPOSE 8000
+CMD ["uvicorn", "app.main:app", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "8000"]
diff --git a/ocr/app/__init__.py b/ocr/app/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6ef689
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/app/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+# OCR Service Application
diff --git a/ocr/app/config.py b/ocr/app/config.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0f4ada
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/app/config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+"""OCR Service Configuration."""
+import os
+
+
+class Settings:
+    """Application settings loaded from environment variables."""
+
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        self.log_level: str = os.getenv("LOG_LEVEL", "info")
+        self.host: str = os.getenv("HOST", "0.0.0.0")
+        self.port: int = int(os.getenv("PORT", "8000"))
+        self.tesseract_cmd: str = os.getenv("TESSERACT_CMD", "/usr/bin/tesseract")
+
+
+settings = Settings()
diff --git a/ocr/app/main.py b/ocr/app/main.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4553aa9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/app/main.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+"""OCR Service FastAPI Application."""
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+
+from app.config import settings
+
+app = FastAPI(
+    title="MotoVaultPro OCR Service",
+    description="OCR processing service for vehicle documents",
+    version="1.0.0",
+)
+
+
+@app.get("/health")
+async def health_check() -> dict:
+    """Health check endpoint for container orchestration."""
+    return {"status": "healthy"}
+
+
+@app.get("/")
+async def root() -> dict:
+    """Root endpoint with service information."""
+    return {
+        "service": "mvp-ocr",
+        "version": "1.0.0",
+        "log_level": settings.log_level,
+    }
diff --git a/ocr/requirements.txt b/ocr/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d14a652
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# API Framework
+fastapi>=0.100.0
+uvicorn[standard]>=0.23.0
+python-multipart>=0.0.6
+
+# File Detection & Handling
+python-magic>=0.4.27
+pillow>=10.0.0
+pillow-heif>=0.13.0
+
+# Image Preprocessing
+opencv-python-headless>=4.8.0
+numpy>=1.24.0
+
+# OCR Engines
+pytesseract>=0.3.10
+
+# Testing
+pytest>=7.4.0
+httpx>=0.24.0
diff --git a/ocr/tests/__init__.py b/ocr/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a0355b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/tests/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+# OCR Service Tests
diff --git a/ocr/tests/test_health.py b/ocr/tests/test_health.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cd1e914
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ocr/tests/test_health.py
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+"""Tests for OCR service health and core functionality."""
+import io
+
+import pytest
+from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
+from PIL import Image
+
+from app.main import app
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def client():
+    """Create test client for FastAPI app."""
+    return TestClient(app)
+
+
+def test_health_endpoint(client):
+    """Health endpoint returns healthy status."""
+    response = client.get("/health")
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    assert response.json() == {"status": "healthy"}
+
+
+def test_root_endpoint(client):
+    """Root endpoint returns service information."""
+    response = client.get("/")
+    assert response.status_code == 200
+    data = response.json()
+    assert data["service"] == "mvp-ocr"
+    assert "version" in data
+
+
+def test_pillow_heif_can_register():
+    """pillow-heif can register with Pillow for HEIC support."""
+    import pillow_heif
+
+    pillow_heif.register_heif_opener()
+    # Verify HEIC format is registered
+    assert "HEIF" in Image.registered_extensions().values()
+
+
+def test_tesseract_available():
+    """Tesseract OCR is available and can process images."""
+    import pytesseract
+
+    # Create a simple test image with text
+    img = Image.new("RGB", (200, 50), color="white")
+
+    # Verify pytesseract can call tesseract (will return empty string for blank image)
+    result = pytesseract.image_to_string(img)
+    # Just verify it doesn't raise an exception - blank image returns empty/whitespace
+    assert isinstance(result, str)