txtfetch vs AWS Textract
AWS Textract is aws-native ocr and document analysis, billed per 1,000 pages. Here's the honest comparison — pricing math, capabilities, and where each tool actually wins.
at a glance
AWS Textract
- Billing
- per 1,000 pages (feature-stacked)
- Rate used below
- $0.0015/page
- Free tier
- 1,000 pages/month free — first 3 months of your AWS account only.
txtfetch
- Billing
- per document, regardless of page count
- Rate used below
- flat monthly quota — see plans
- Free tier
- 500 documents/month, free, ongoing (Hobby plan)
capability table
| Capability | AWS Textract | txtfetch |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | per 1,000 pages | per document |
| Format coverage | PDF, PNG, JPEG, TIFF only | 1,000+ formats (Apache Tika) |
| OCR for scans / images | + | + |
| Table extraction | + | +* |
| Complex layout fidelity | ~ | ~* |
| Structured field extraction | + | not yet* |
| Self-hosted option | – | – |
| Single HTTP endpoint | ~ | + |
Vendor-published benchmarks are marked directional throughout — see sources below. * txtfetch notes: Tables come back as structured rows/cells, not flattened text: ?format=markdown renders GFM pipe tables, ?format=json returns table elements with a cells array. Output is clean linear/structured text, not a visual layout reconstruction — by design, but worth knowing. Structured markdown and element-JSON document output ship today (?format=markdown / ?format=json). Schema-defined field extraction — pulling typed fields per your own schema — is on the roadmap, not shipped. We won't claim it early.
the cost calculator
Per page vs per document, worked out.
A 300-page PDF is 300 units of billing to AWS Textract. It's one document to txtfetch. Adjust the numbers to your own workload.
AWS Textract
—
Detect Document Text — OCR ($1.50 per 1,000 pages, US West Oregon, first 1M) · $0.0015/page
txtfetch
—
AWS Textract's figure is their cheapest OCR/base tier — forms, tables, and higher-fidelity models cost more on top. txtfetch bills a flat monthly document quota: the page count inside a document doesn't change your bill.
where textract wins
- If you're already on AWS, it's the path of least resistance: IAM, VPC, and billing are already wired up.
- Purpose-built forms and table analysis (key-value pairs, structured tables) at scale, with per-feature pricing that lets you pay only for what you use.
- Proven at very large volumes with AWS's operational guarantees around the rest of the stack.
where txtfetch wins
- Breadth: 1,000+ formats through Apache Tika, not a curated list of a dozen file types.
- One HTTP endpoint — pass a URL or upload a file, get text back. No SDK, no async job polling required.
- Priced per document, so a 300-page report doesn't cost 300x a one-pager.
- A durable free tier (500 documents/month, ongoing) rather than a time-boxed trial.
What we don't claim yet: schema-defined structured field extraction or an uptime SLA. Those ship later — see the capability table above.
sources
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