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Comparison
Compared
Textract · Parser
Criteria
7 rows in 3 groups
Basis
Public documentation · October 2026

An Amazon Textract alternative that returns your fields, not blocks.

Textract returns words, key-value sets and tables as blocks that your code maps to your fields. Parser returns the fields you named, checked by your rules, by webhook or API.

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Free plan: 10 credits a month, no card required.

01
Comparison
Criterion by criterion

Textract and Parser, row by row.

The same 7 questions asked of each.

Amazon Textract and Parser compared by criterion
CriterionAmazon TextractParser
Reading the document
What you get back
Block objects (pages, lines, words, key-value sets, tables, cells) linked by relationships. Queries answer questions you write: up to 15 per page synchronously, 30 asynchronously.
The fields you named in an extraction template, as JSON, Excel or CSV.
A new document type
Code that maps its blocks to your fields, or Queries you write. Custom Queries take an adapter trained on 5 to 2,500 documents.
A new extraction template that lists the fields you want back.
A long document
One page per synchronous PDF call. Up to 3,000 pages and 500 MB per PDF asynchronously, read from Amazon S3.
Read whole, in one pass: up to 1,000 pages per document on Pro, no limit on Enterprise.
Checking and delivery
Checking values
A confidence score per block. Business rules and a review step are yours to build.
Validation rules you define check each value before it enters your system.
Getting data in and out
API calls from your code. Multi-page jobs read the file from S3 and report completion through Amazon SNS; you page through the results.
In by upload, e-mail or API. Out by webhook or REST API, as JSON, Excel or CSV.
Setup and price
Before the first document
An AWS account, IAM permissions, an S3 bucket for multi-page files, and the code that turns blocks into fields.
A sign-up and a template. The Free plan needs no card.
How it is billed
Per page, by API and feature: Tables, Forms, Queries, Signatures and their combinations each have their own rate.
Free, Starter $9.90/month and Pro $100/month run on credits that follow the work, with a minimum of 1 per extraction; Enterprise is by contract.

The Amazon Textract column states what its public documentation says, as of October 2026: docs.aws.amazon.com/textract/latest/dg/limits-document.html · docs.aws.amazon.com/textract/latest/dg/api-async.html · docs.aws.amazon.com/textract/latest/dg/how-it-works-document-layout.html · aws.amazon.com/textract/pricing. Check them before you decide; they change. List prices are not printed here.

02
The build
What sits in between

What sits between Textract and your system.

The work an OCR API leaves to your code, and where it lives in Parser.

  • 2.1

    Field mapping

    Walk the block graph and turn key-value sets and table cells into your field names, for every layout you receive.

    In Parser An extraction template lists the fields; the result comes back under those names.

  • 2.2

    Job plumbing

    Upload to S3, start the analysis, wait for the SNS notice, page through the results, retry what failed.

    In Parser Send the file by upload, e-mail or API; read the result by webhook or GET.

  • 2.3

    Checks

    Confidence thresholds, cross-field rules (line items that add up to the total) and a queue for the values that fail.

    In Parser Validation rules you define check each value before it enters your system.

  • 2.4

    Delivery

    Format the result and move it to the system that needs it.

    In Parser JSON, Excel or CSV, by webhook or REST API.

Where each one fits.

03
Fit
Where each one makes sense
  • 3.1

    Amazon Textract

    Fits when your engineers work in AWS, want OCR text and layout per page, and will own the mapping, the checks and the delivery. Its text detection covers English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish; handwriting and Queries are English only.

  • 3.2

    Parser

    Fits when you want the fields, the checks and the delivery without building them. Free plan, no card required.

    Parser, start free
04
Questions
Asked by teams leaving Textract

Questions from teams comparing Textract.

  • No. Parser is a hosted service: sign up, define a template, and send files by upload, e-mail or REST API. No S3 bucket, IAM role or SNS topic is involved.

  • Each extraction is charged in credits for the work the model actually does, with a minimum of 1. At the Starter rate a one-page invoice is about $0.08 and a sparse 50-page contract about $0.09; a dense one-page table is about $0.31. Measured on synthetic documents. Real documents vary: the same dense document varied by up to 50% between two runs. Free includes 10 credits a month, Starter 125 and Pro 1,500.

  • Parser reads the whole document at once, up to your plan's page limit: 10 pages on Free, 100 on Starter, 1,000 on Pro and no limit on Enterprise.

  • Yes. The Free plan includes 10 credits a month and needs no card: create an account, list the fields you want in a template, and send the same files.

  • Documents are deleted after 7 days, and your data never trains AI.

Create your free account.

List the fields you want, send a file, and read the result.

Start freeSee plans

Free plan · 10 credits a month · no card

  • Self-serve

    Free, Starter ($9.90/month) and Pro ($100/month) start when you sign up. No card required for Free.

  • Enterprise

    By contract · your own model key · an engineer for your team · setup done for you if you want it · POC on your documents.