Show HN: Open-weight OCR got so cheap I had to share it
6 hours ago
- OpenParser offers the cheapest layout-and-tables OCR at $1 per 1,000 pages after 1,000 free pages, using the open-weight PaddleOCR-VL-1.6 model.
- The service has a transparent pricing model with separate meters for parsing (pages) and extraction (tokens), and no minimums.
- OpenParser provides structured output with typed blocks, markdown, OCR confidence scores, and block citations for extraction auditing.
- Self-hosting PaddleOCR-VL is an alternative to the hosted API, replacing page fees with GPU and operational costs.
- The page compares list prices across basic-text and layout lanes, noting that cheapest list price doesn't guarantee best quality for all use cases.
- Public list prices were checked on 2026-07-24, and batch discounts or volume tiers are not applied in the calculator.