PaddleOCR
Turn any PDF or image document into structured data for your AI. A powerful, lightweight OCR toolkit that bridges the gap between images/PDFs and LLMs. Supports
Our verdict
A solid, actively developed project. This assessment is derived from GitHub's own repository metrics on 2026-08-24, not from hands-on testing.
Written in Python, PaddleOCR describes itself as turn any PDF or image document into structured data for your AI. A powerful, lightweight OCR toolkit that bridges the gap between images/PDFs and LLMs. Supports. It has 88,223 stars and 295 contributors, and it was last touched a couple of months ago. The Apache-2.0 licence puts no real constraint on commercial use. The most recent tagged release is v3.7.0, from 2026-06-11. Figures come from the GitHub API on 2026-08-26 and refresh daily.
Reviewed by AI Review Rating from GitHub API data How we score
Repository
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Language
- Python
- Last push
- 2026-07-22
Releases
-
v3.7.0v3.7.0 -
v3.6.0v3.6.0 -
v3.5.0v3.5.0 -
v3.4.1v3.4.1 -
v3.4.0v3.4.0 -
v3.3.3v3.3.3
Pros and cons
Pros
Pricing
- Free tierYes
- LicenceApache-2.0
- Self-hostYes, source is public
- Public price listNot published
PaddleOCR does not publish a web price list. For consumer apps that usually means pricing appears inside the product; for enterprise tools it means talking to sales. Why we do this
Visit www.paddleocr.comTrends
Price points are recorded when a price moves, not on a schedule, so a flat run means the price held. Release cadence comes from GitHub releases. A series appears only once we have watched it for long enough to have more than one observation.
Changelog
On video
User reviews
No one has reviewed PaddleOCR here yet. Reviews are moderated before they appear, and our own score is editorial and separate from user ratings, though once reviews land they do lift it.
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Side by side
| Tool | Our score | From | Free tier | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PaddleOCR this page | 7.5 | - | Yes | ||
| 🥇Roboflow Supervision | 7.7 | - | Yes | ||
| 🥈Ultralytics | 7.7 | - | Yes | ||
| 🥉OCRmyPDF | 7.6 | - | Yes | ||
| Tesseract | 7.6 | - | Yes | ||
| Frigate | 7.5 | - | Yes | ||
| MediaPipe | 7 | - | Yes |
Questions
Is PaddleOCR free?
Yes. PaddleOCR advertises a free tier on its own site.
How much does PaddleOCR cost?
PaddleOCR does not publish pricing openly, which usually means it is quote-based. You will need to contact the vendor.
Is PaddleOCR open source?
Yes. PaddleOCR is a public repository released under Apache-2.0. You can self-host or inspect the source directly.
How is PaddleOCR scored here?
PaddleOCR scores 7.5 out of 10. That comes from a desk review of public evidence, which is capped at 8.5 out of 10: public pricing, documentation, maintenance signals and how much we could actually verify. Affiliate relationships are excluded from scoring entirely. The full rubric is published on our methodology page.