txtfetch vs Unstructured.io
Unstructured.io is open-core etl for rag pipelines, priced per page. Here's the honest comparison — pricing math, capabilities, and where each tool actually wins.
at a glance
Unstructured.io
- Billing
- per page (pay-as-you-go)
- Rate used below
- $0.03/page
- Free tier
- 15,000 pages/month free.
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 | Unstructured.io | txtfetch |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | per page | per document |
| Format coverage | ~25 file types | 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 Unstructured.io. It's one document to txtfetch. Adjust the numbers to your own workload.
Unstructured.io
—
Pay-as-you-go API, standard tier · $0.03/page
txtfetch
—
Unstructured.io'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 unstructured wins
- Purpose-built chunking strategies (by-title, by-similarity) tuned specifically for RAG retrieval, not just text extraction.
- Open-source core you can self-host and modify if you need full control over the pipeline.
- Deep partitioning options per element type (titles, narrative text, tables, images) for teams that want to post-process structure, not just plain text.
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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