An information processing apparatus and an information processing method are provided. The information processing apparatus includes a first acquiring unit, an addition unit, a second acquiring unit, and an extraction unit. The first acquiring unit acquires a first group of elements included in a first image generated by reading a document. The addition unit generates multiple second images by adding noises that differ from each other to the first image. The second acquiring unit acquires second groups of elements included in the respective multiple second images. The extraction unit extracts an element representing characteristics of the document from the first group of elements in accordance with the degrees of similarity between elements included in the first group of elements and elements included in the multiple second groups of elements.