MinerU vs Unstract

Short answer

MinerU: Document parser that converts PDFs, scans and Office files into clean Markdown or JSON for LLMs and RAG. Unstract: No-code LLM platform that turns invoices, forms and other documents into structured JSON. Both are in our Document processing category.

Choose MinerU if you want: cheaper to host (from €11.99/mo vs €35.99/mo), lighter official minimum (2 GB vs 8 GB RAM), fewer license conditions (Custom / conditional vs Network copyleft (AGPL)) and larger community (82.5k vs 7.3k GitHub stars).

Last updated Oct 26, 2026 · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources

MinerU vs Unstract side by side

	MinerU	Unstract
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.	No-code LLM platform that turns invoices, forms and other documents into structured JSON.
License	MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms)	AGPL-3.0
License type	Custom / conditional	Network copyleft (AGPL)
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.	Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Unstract and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0.
Status	Active	Active
GitHub stars	82.5k	7.3k
Last commit	Oct 11, 2026	Oct 26, 2026
Latest release	mineru-4.0.12-released	v0.197.0
Minimum hardware	2 GB RAM	8 GB RAM
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.	Not required by the platform itself; LLMs are reached through the provider you configure (cloud API or a local server such as Ollama).
Est. server cost	from €11.99/mo	from €35.99/mo
Deploy method	Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs	Docker Compose (run-platform.sh)
Known gotchas	4 listed	4 listed
Telemetry	On by default	On by default
Calls home by default	Not documented	Not documented
SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP)	Not documented	Paid / enterprise only (OIDC paid · SAML paid)
Audit log	Not documented	Not documented
RBAC	Not documented	Not documented
Details	Full MinerU guide →	Full Unstract guide →

Key differences

License: MinerU: MinerU Open Source License (Apache-2.0 with additional terms) (Custom / conditional). Unstract: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)).
Official hardware: MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. Unstract: minimum 8 GB RAM.
Est. server cost: MinerU: from €11.99/mo. Unstract: from €35.99/mo.
Deploy: MinerU: Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs · multi-container stack. Unstract: Docker Compose (run-platform.sh) · multi-container stack.
GitHub stars: MinerU: 82.5k. Unstract: 7.3k.
Last commit: MinerU: Oct 11, 2026. Unstract: Oct 26, 2026.
Latest release: MinerU: mineru-4.0.12-released (Oct 11, 2026). Unstract: v0.197.0 (Oct 25, 2026).

Same for both: Category: Document processing; GPU: optional / see notes; Status: Active.

MinerU vs Unstract: FAQ

MinerU or Unstract: which should a small business choose?

Which is cheaper to self-host, MinerU or Unstract?

MinerU: cheaper to host (from €11.99/mo vs €35.99/mo).

How much hardware do MinerU and Unstract need?

MinerU: minimum 2 GB RAM. Unstract: minimum 8 GB RAM.

What is the license difference between MinerU and Unstract?

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. Unstract: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Unstract and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source code under AGPL-3.0. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Is MinerU or Unstract more actively maintained?

MinerU: Active, last commit Oct 11, 2026. Unstract: Active, last commit Oct 26, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 26, 2026.

Which is easier to deploy, MinerU or Unstract?

MinerU installs via Python package (uv/pip) with web UI; Docker Compose for NVIDIA GPUs (multi-container stack); Unstract via Docker Compose (run-platform.sh) (multi-container stack). MinerU lists 4 known gotchas and Unstract lists 4; see each app page.

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
Unstract GitHub repository: github.com/Zipstack/unstract
Unstract documentation: docs.unstract.com/unstract/unstract_platform/quick_start
Unstract license: github.com/Zipstack/unstract/blob/main/LICENSE
Unstract hardware requirements, Unstract deploy instructions: github.com/Zipstack/unstract#readme
Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-26): 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.