MinerU vs olmOCR
Short answer
MinerU: Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. olmOCR: Ai2's vision-language OCR that turns PDFs and scans into clean Markdown, including tables, equations and handwriting. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose MinerU if you want: no GPU server needed, an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale) and larger community (83.0k vs 19.8k GitHub stars).
Choose olmOCR if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
MinerU vs olmOCR side by side
| MinerU | olmOCR | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document processing | Document processing |
| What it is | Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. | Ai2's vision-language OCR that turns PDFs and scans into clean Markdown, including tables, equations and handwriting. |
| License | MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) | Apache-2.0 |
| License type | Custom / conditional | Permissive |
| License conditions | Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; keep the license and notices. |
| Status | Active | Stale (no commit in 180+ days) |
| GitHub stars | 83.0k | 19.8k |
| Last commit | Nov 3, 2026 | Mar 25, 2026 |
| Latest release | mineru-4.1.5-released | v0.4.27 |
| Minimum hardware | 2 GB RAM | 30 GB disk |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | Optional. The basic tier runs ONNX models on CPU; the standard/advanced tiers work on CPU with 8 GB RAM (Vulkan recommended). PyTorch and vLLM/lmdeploy engines need a GPU with 8 GB+ VRAM and 16 GB RAM. The official Docker image targets NVIDIA GPUs only. | Required for local inference: a recent NVIDIA GPU with at least 12 GB of GPU RAM (tested on RTX 4090, L40S, A100, H100). Without a GPU you can point it at a remote vLLM or OpenAI-compatible server. |
| Est. server cost | from €11.99/mo | GPU server (not estimated) |
| Deploy method | Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs | Docker (GPU image with model included) |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | On by default | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not documented |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full MinerU guide → | Full olmOCR guide → |
Key differences
- License: MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). olmOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive).
- Official hardware: MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. olmOCR: not published.
- GPU: MinerU: optional / see notes. olmOCR: needed for practical use.
- Est. server cost: MinerU: from €11.99/mo. olmOCR: GPU server (not estimated).
- Deploy: MinerU: Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs · multi-container stack. olmOCR: Docker (GPU image with model included) · single container.
- Status: MinerU: Active. olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days).
- GitHub stars: MinerU: 83.0k. olmOCR: 19.8k.
- Last commit: MinerU: Nov 3, 2026. olmOCR: Mar 25, 2026.
- Latest release: MinerU: mineru-4.1.5-released (Nov 3, 2026). olmOCR: v0.4.27 (Mar 12, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing.
MinerU vs olmOCR: FAQ
MinerU or olmOCR: which should a small business choose?
Choose MinerU if you want: no GPU server needed, an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale) and larger community (83.0k vs 19.8k GitHub stars). Choose olmOCR if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Custom / conditional) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Which is cheaper to self-host, MinerU or olmOCR?
MinerU: from €11.99/mo. olmOCR: GPU server (not estimated). Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.
How much hardware do MinerU and olmOCR need?
MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. olmOCR: not published. olmOCR needs a GPU for practical use.
What is the license difference between MinerU and olmOCR?
MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). Commercial use is allowed without a separate license, unless you and your affiliates exceed 100 million monthly active users or USD 20 million monthly revenue. If you offer an online service to third parties based on MinerU, you must state prominently that it uses MinerU. olmOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; keep the license and notices. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is MinerU or olmOCR more actively maintained?
MinerU: Active, last commit Nov 3, 2026. olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days), last commit Mar 25, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Nov 3, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, MinerU or olmOCR?
MinerU installs via Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs (multi-container stack); olmOCR via Docker (GPU image with model included) (single container). MinerU lists 4 known gotchas and olmOCR lists 3; see each app page.
Related
- MinerU self-hosting guide · olmOCR self-hosting guide
- All MinerU alternatives, ranked
- All olmOCR alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs MinerU
- Docling Serve vs olmOCR
- MinerU vs OCRmyPDF
- MinerU vs PaddleOCR
- MinerU vs Paperless-AI
- MinerU vs paperless-gpt
- MinerU vs Paperless-ngx
- MinerU vs Unstract
- OCRmyPDF vs olmOCR
- olmOCR vs PaddleOCR
- olmOCR vs Paperless-AI
- olmOCR vs paperless-gpt
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- MinerU GitHub repository: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU
- MinerU documentation, MinerU deploy instructions: opendatalab.github.io/MinerU/quick_start/
- MinerU license: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU/blob/master/LICENSE.md
- MinerU hardware requirements: github.com/opendatalab/MinerU#model-engines-with-extras
- olmOCR GitHub repository: github.com/allenai/olmocr
- olmOCR documentation: github.com/allenai/olmocr#readme
- olmOCR license: github.com/allenai/olmocr/blob/main/LICENSE
- olmOCR hardware requirements: github.com/allenai/olmocr#python-installation
- olmOCR deploy instructions: github.com/allenai/olmocr#using-docker
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-11-01): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub REST API (stars, commits, releases): docs.github.com/en/rest
Every value is generated from the same verified data as the app pages. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.