Compare / Amazon Textract
Amazon Textract is an OCR API that returns each page as a graph of blocks. PdfParse returns the fields you asked for as rows in your own tables, with email intake, splitting, routing, and review already built around it.
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The short version
Textract returns PAGE, LINE, WORD, TABLE, and KEY_VALUE_SET blocks linked by relationships, so turning them into rows means writing code. Queries return question–answer pairs, and AnalyzeExpense maps to a fixed AWS field set. In PdfParse, you define a table once and every document becomes a row with those columns.
Textract has no email intake, and its splitting and classification covers mortgage documents only, through AnalyzeLending. Its human review integration, Amazon A2I, is closed to new customers. PdfParse includes inboxes, splitters, routing, and a review queue on every plan.
Asynchronous Textract results are kept for 7 days unless you write them to your own S3 bucket, and completion arrives through SNS. PdfParse stores rows in tables you can query, export as CSV or JSON, or download as SQLite, and sends signed webhooks.
Textract runs through API calls inside an AWS account, with IAM roles and S3. PdfParse has a dashboard for fields, uploads, and review, plus a REST API, TypeScript SDK, and MCP server for automation.
Feature by feature
| Capability | PdfParse | Amazon Textract |
|---|---|---|
| Extraction | ||
| What you get back | IncludedRows with the columns you defined; line items in a linked child table. | PartialA JSON graph of blocks with geometry and confidence. Queries return Q&A pairs; AnalyzeExpense uses fixed fields. |
| Custom fields on new layouts | IncludedDescribe each field in plain words. The same table works across vendors and layouts with no templates or zones. | PartialUp to 15 Queries per page synchronously; Custom Queries adapters train on 5–2,500 labeled documents. |
| Scanned documents | IncludedOCR reads scanned pages before extraction, so image-only PDFs work too. | IncludedOCR in six languages; handwriting in English only. |
| Workflow | ||
| No-code setup and review | IncludedVisual table editor, upload, review, and export without writing code. | PartialA console demo for trying files; no saved fields, batch runs, or review queue. |
| Email intake | IncludedSeveral inboxes per project, deny-by-default sender lists, and duplicate attachments skipped. | Not includedNone. You'd build it with other AWS services. |
| Splitting and routing | IncludedLogical and page-range splitters cut a packet into documents; plain-language rules route each one to its table. | PartialOnly for mortgage documents, through AnalyzeLending. |
| Human review | IncludedRouting below your confidence threshold, and failed extractions, wait in a review queue beside the source PDF. | Not includedAmazon A2I covered form key-value pairs and is closed to new customers. |
| Data out | ||
| Storage and exports | IncludedCSV, JSON, or a SQLite file of every table, plus SQL queries over saved rows in the dashboard. | Not includedJSON only. Async results are kept 7 days or written to your S3 bucket. |
| Notifications | IncludedREST API, TypeScript SDK, and signed webhooks on every plan. | PartialAWS SDKs; job completion through SNS topics instead of webhooks. |
| Zapier | IncludedZapier triggers for new rows and finished or failed jobs. | Not includedNo native Zapier integration found. |
| MCP for AI agents | IncludedRemote MCP server with OAuth, so AI agents can set up tables and routing, extract documents, and search rows. | Not includedNo Textract-specific MCP server found. |
| Pricing | ||
| Price per page | IncludedFree 20 pages, then $29.99–$129.99/month by page volume. Every feature on every plan. | Included$0.0015 for plain text, $0.015 for tables, $0.05 for forms, $0.07 for tables + forms + queries. |
Amazon Textract details come from its public website and documentation, reviewed October 2026. Plans and features change; check the sources below for the latest. Spot something out of date? Tell us.
Pricing
Textract's plain-text OCR is very cheap, but it is only OCR. Storage, intake, review, and the code that turns blocks into rows are yours to build and run. Once you need tables, forms, and queries, PdfParse Pro costs less per page and includes the workflow.
PdfParse
Every plan includes inboxes, splitting, routing, review, exports, API and MCP.
Amazon Textract
US West (Oregon), first 1M pages a month. Free tier for 3 months: 100 pages a month for tables, forms, or queries.
Switching from Amazon Textract
You don't have to migrate on faith. Use your free pages on the documents Amazon Textract already handles and compare the rows.
Create a table whose columns match the fields your block-walking code pulls out, and describe each in a sentence.
Upload a sample batch or call POST /v1/jobs with the PDFs you send to Textract today.
Subscribe to signed webhooks for finished and failed jobs, then read rows from the API or export them.
For plain OCR text, no: Textract's DetectDocumentText is $0.0015 a page. For structured fields, PdfParse Pro works out to about $0.027 a page and Enterprise to about $0.013, against $0.07 for Textract tables, forms, and queries, and PdfParse includes intake, review, and storage.
No. PdfParse uses Mistral AI for OCR, then extracts the fields you define into your tables.
Yes. There's a REST API with project-scoped keys, a TypeScript SDK, and signed webhooks for finished and failed jobs.
No. Sign up, describe your fields, and upload or forward PDFs. Nothing to provision.
More comparisons
Sources · reviewed October 2026
Amazon Textract is a trademark of its respective owner. PdfParse is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Textract.
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