* * * PADDLEOCR, HOSTED VS DIY * * *
PaddleOCR as an API.
PaddleOCR is genuinely great open-source OCR. But "free" means: a GPU box, CUDA drivers, a serving layer, queueing, monitoring, and you on call when it OOMs at 2am. The build-vs-buy math: a hosted endpoint at $0.75 per 1,000 pages vs your own PaddleOCR deployment.
START FREE — 100 PAGES
$0.75 / 1,000 PAGES
1,333 PAGES PER DOLLAR · NO CREDIT CARD
01 / TRY IT
ONE ENDPOINT.
POST a file, get JSON back — the extracted text, per page and joined. PDF, PNG, JPEG, WebP or TIFF.
curl https://api.pennyocr.com/v1/ocr \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $PENNYOCR_API_KEY" \
-F "file=@scan.jpg"
# $0.75 per 1,000 pages, first 100 free02 / USE CASES
THE REAL COSTS OF DIY.
THE GPU BILL
An always-on cloud GPU runs $150–500+/month idle or not. That's 200,000–650,000 PennyOCR pages.
THE OPS TAX
Serving, batching, retries, upgrades, model updates — engineering days that don't ship your product.
WHEN DIY WINS
Hard data-locality/airgap requirements, massive steady volume (10M+ pages/month), or OCR IS your product. Then self-host — maybe start from PaddleOCR-VL.
THE HOSTED DEAL
One endpoint, markdown with tables, measured accuracy, zero retention by default, pay per page. No pager.
03 / PRICE CHECK
HALF THE PRICE OF THE BIG CLOUDS.
Per 1,000 pages, public list prices, first tier.
PENNYOCR$0.75
AWS TEXTRACT$1.50
GOOGLE CLOUD VISION$1.50
AZURE DOC INTELLIGENCE$1.50
YOU KEEP50%
IS PENNYOCR JUST HOSTED PADDLEOCR?
No — we serve a modern vision-language model (doc-to-markdown), a different architecture than PaddleOCR's detector/recognizer pipeline. Different strengths; VLMs handle messy layout and handwriting better.
AT WHAT VOLUME DOES SELF-HOSTING WIN?
Rough break-even against a $300/month GPU + your time is 400k–1M+ pages/month, sustained. Below that, hosted wins on cost alone before counting engineering time.
CAN I MIGRATE LATER?
Trivially — it's OCR, not lock-in. Start hosted, and if you outgrow us, move to self-hosting anytime. We'll still be cheaper than your GPU bill for most volumes.
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