Free-offer comparison
Free Document AI APIs
Pages, documents, and credits are different units. Check OCR or extraction support, file limits, and retention for your document type.
Guide updated Sep 19, 2026 · Offer review and source dates appear below · Methodology
Free-offer ranking
Each row describes the provider’s recorded free offer, which may cover a different product from the category shown here. The table keeps published units separate. “Not confirmed” means we lack evidence for that detail; it does not mean the provider requires a card.
Scroll horizontally to compare every column.
| Rank | Provider | Free-access score | Recorded free offer | Access pattern | Billing/card | Offer note | Full review | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Firecrawl | 100/100 | 1K credits/mo | Recurring allowance | No card confirmed | The free monthly credit balance is consumed at different rates by endpoint. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
| #2 | Apify | 95/100 | $5 credit/mo | Recurring allowance | No card confirmed | Free plan includes $5 each month to spend on Apify Store Actors or the user's own Actors, with no credit card required. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
| #3 | Tavily | 95/100 | 1K credits/mo | Recurring allowance | No card confirmed | 1,000 API credits every month with no credit card. Credits cover its agent-focused Search, Extract, Map, Crawl, and Research APIs, with endpoint-dependent consumption. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
| #4 | Unstructured | 85/100 | 10K pages | One-time balance | No card confirmed | The 10,000-page allowance is provided at signup; the pricing page does not promise a monthly reset. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
| #5 | Nanonets | 85/100 | $50 credit | One-time balance | No card confirmed | The no-expiration policy for prepaid credits does not establish the expiry of promotional starter credit. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
| #6 | LlamaCloud / LlamaParse | 75/100 | 10K credits/mo | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | Page capacity is approximate because credit consumption varies by parsing mode and document complexity. | Jul 19, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 19, 2026 |
| #7 | Veryfi | 75/100 | 100 documents/mo | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | The monthly allowance counts documents, not pages. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
| #8 | OCR.space | 70/100 | 25K requests/mo | Recurring allowance | Not confirmed | Daily and monthly caps, file-size and PDF-page limits, watermarking, and no SLA apply. | Jul 17, 2026 | Visit provider websiteAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
| #9 | DeepL API Developer | 60/100 | 1.0M characters | One-time balance | Not confirmed | The Developer allowance does not renew monthly and excludes speech translation. | Jul 17, 2026 | View support pageAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
| #10 | Jina AI | 60/100 | 10.0M tokens | One-time balance | Not confirmed | The free token tier is labeled for non-commercial use only (CC BY-NC) on the provider page. | Jul 17, 2026 | View documentationAccessed Sep 13, 2026 |
| #11 | Extend | 30/100 | Free tier | Introductory offer | Not confirmed | The starter balance is 10,000 credits; replenishment is not confirmed. | Jul 17, 2026 | View pricingAccessed Jul 17, 2026 |
Why these providers appear in this order
We score each provider’s recorded free offer: up to 40 points for recurring or durable access, 20 for a confirmed no-card signup, 15 for a stated allowance, 15 for distinct evidence links, and 10 for documented terms. Missing details earn no points. Ties favor longer-lasting access, then more detailed records, then provider name. The score does not measure product quality or whether the free offer covers this category. Read the full method before treating it as a recommendation.
Which providers are included?
We include active directory records tagged for document AI APIs. A tag describes a provider’s capability; its recorded free offer may cover only part of that provider’s catalog. Check the model or endpoint in the provider’s terms before building on the allowance.
See the full document AI APIs category, including records excluded from this guide.