☁️
OCR API Catalog — Extract Text with One API Call, No Model Management
Google Vision, Azure Document Intelligence, AWS Textract, Clova OCR — price, accuracy, code comparison
API OCR vs Self-hosted OCR
API OCR: image → API call → text (no model management)
Self-hosted: pip install easyocr → run on your server
Major OCR API Services
| Service | Provider | Free Tier | Specialization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Vision | 1K/month | Highest accuracy | |
| Document Intelligence | Azure | 500/month | Receipt/contract models |
| Textract | AWS | 1K/3months | Table extraction |
| Clova OCR | Naver | Available | Best Korean |
| Mathpix | Mathpix | 20/month | Math/academic |
| OCR Space | a9t9 | 25K/month | Most generous free |
| Eden AI | Eden AI | Credits | Multi-provider comparison |
Pricing (per 1,000 pages)
| Service | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ~$1.50 | Cheapest | |
| Azure | $1.50-$10 | Specialized models cost more |
| AWS | $1.50-$15 | Table extraction expensive |
| OCR Space | Free | Lower accuracy |
Key Concepts
1
Google Cloud Vision — highest accuracy. pip install + 3 lines
2
Azure Document Intelligence — receipt/contract specialized models
3
AWS Textract — strong table extraction. FeatureTypes=["TABLES"]
4
Clova OCR — best Korean. Issue from Naver Cloud Platform
5
Eden AI — compare Google/AWS/Azure results in a single call
Use Cases
Prototyping — implement OCR quickly with API only, no model installation
Receipt/contract automation — extract structured data with Azure specialized models
Multi-provider comparison — run same image through multiple APIs via Eden AI