* * * PRICE CHECK * * *
PennyOCR vs AWS Textract.
Textract is the default choice inside AWS — and priced like it. Same job, text out of documents: here's the honest side-by-side, list prices as of August 2026.
| PENNYOCR | AWS TEXTRACT | |
|---|---|---|
| PRICE / 1,000 PAGES | $0.75, every tier | $1.50 (Detect Document Text, first 1M pages) |
| TABLES | Included — HTML tables inside markdown output | Separate Tables feature at ~$15.00 / 1,000 pages |
| FREE TIER | 100 pages / month, forever | 1,000 pages / month for the first 3 months only |
| SETUP | Email code → API key → curl. ~2 minutes | AWS account, IAM roles/policies, SDK config |
| OUTPUT | Markdown (reading order preserved) or plain text | JSON blocks with geometry; you reassemble the text |
| BILLING | Prepaid credits, never expire — no surprise bills | Postpaid on your AWS bill |
| DATA RETENTION | Zero retention by default | Configurable; AWS may retain for service improvement unless you opt out |
Competitor figures are public list prices and terms as of August 2026 — check their pricing pages for changes.
CHOOSE PENNYOCR IF…
Choose PennyOCR when you want text or markdown out of documents at half the price, with tables included, a real free tier, and an integration that fits in one curl.
CHOOSE TEXTRACT IF…
Choose Textract when you're deep in AWS (IAM, S3 triggers, compliance scopes) or need its Forms/Queries structured features today.
FAIR QUESTIONS
IS THE ACCURACY COMPARABLE?
PennyOCR runs a modern vision-language model that reads tables, skew and handwriting classic engines struggle with. Try your worst documents on the free tier and compare outputs directly — that beats any benchmark.
WHAT ABOUT TEXTRACT'S FORMS AND QUERIES?
Textract's key-value Forms and Queries features are genuinely useful and PennyOCR doesn't replicate them yet — structured extraction is on our roadmap. For text and tables, we cover it today at half the price.
CAN I MIGRATE EASILY?
If you consume Textract's raw text, yes — one multipart POST replaces the SDK calls. Our markdown keeps reading order, so most post-processing gets simpler.