OCRmyPDF vs olmOCR
Short answer
OCRmyPDF: Command-line tool and Docker image that adds a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs, with a watched-folder service. 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 OCRmyPDF if you want: no GPU server needed, an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale) and larger community (35.2k vs 19.8k GitHub stars).
Choose olmOCR if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Copyleft (GPL)).
OCRmyPDF publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
OCRmyPDF vs olmOCR side by side
| OCRmyPDF | olmOCR | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document processing | Document processing |
| What it is | Command-line tool and Docker image that adds a searchable OCR text layer to scanned PDFs, with a watched-folder service. | Ai2's vision-language OCR that turns PDFs and scans into clean Markdown, including tables, equations and handwriting. |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| License type | Copyleft (GPL) | Permissive |
| License conditions | Free for internal and commercial use. MPL-2.0 is file-level copyleft: if you distribute modified OCRmyPDF files, you must release those files' source under MPL-2.0. The demo web service is AGPL-3.0, and Ghostscript, which OCRmyPDF can use, is AGPL-licensed. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; keep the license and notices. |
| Status | Active | Stale (no commit in 180+ days) |
| GitHub stars | 35.2k | 19.8k |
| Last commit | Oct 25, 2026 | Mar 25, 2026 |
| Latest release | v17.13.0 | v0.4.27 |
| Minimum hardware | Not published | 30 GB disk |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | No. Tesseract runs on CPU; the optional EasyOCR plugin is the one that recommends a GPU. | 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 | Not estimated | GPU server (not estimated) |
| Deploy method | Docker (watched-folder service) | Docker (GPU image with model included) |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not applicable | Not documented |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full OCRmyPDF guide → | Full olmOCR guide → |
Key differences
- License: OCRmyPDF: MPL-2.0 (Copyleft (GPL)). olmOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive).
- GPU: OCRmyPDF: optional / see notes. olmOCR: needed for practical use.
- Est. server cost: OCRmyPDF: not estimated (no official RAM figure). olmOCR: GPU server (not estimated).
- Deploy: OCRmyPDF: Docker (watched-folder service) · single container. olmOCR: Docker (GPU image with model included) · single container.
- Status: OCRmyPDF: Active. olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days).
- GitHub stars: OCRmyPDF: 35.2k. olmOCR: 19.8k.
- Last commit: OCRmyPDF: Oct 25, 2026. olmOCR: Mar 25, 2026.
- Latest release: OCRmyPDF: v17.13.0 (Sep 28, 2026). olmOCR: v0.4.27 (Mar 12, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; Official hardware: not published.
OCRmyPDF vs olmOCR: FAQ
OCRmyPDF or olmOCR: which should a small business choose?
Choose OCRmyPDF if you want: no GPU server needed, an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale) and larger community (35.2k vs 19.8k GitHub stars). Choose olmOCR if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Copyleft (GPL)). OCRmyPDF publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, OCRmyPDF or olmOCR?
OCRmyPDF: not estimated (no official RAM figure). 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 OCRmyPDF and olmOCR need?
OCRmyPDF: not published. olmOCR: not published. olmOCR needs a GPU for practical use.
What is the license difference between OCRmyPDF and olmOCR?
OCRmyPDF: MPL-2.0 (Copyleft (GPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. MPL-2.0 is file-level copyleft: if you distribute modified OCRmyPDF files, you must release those files' source under MPL-2.0. The demo web service is AGPL-3.0, and Ghostscript, which OCRmyPDF can use, is AGPL-licensed. 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 OCRmyPDF or olmOCR more actively maintained?
OCRmyPDF: Active, last commit Oct 25, 2026. olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days), last commit Mar 25, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Nov 3, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, OCRmyPDF or olmOCR?
OCRmyPDF installs via Docker (watched-folder service) (single container); olmOCR via Docker (GPU image with model included) (single container). OCRmyPDF lists 4 known gotchas and olmOCR lists 3; see each app page.
Related
- OCRmyPDF self-hosting guide · olmOCR self-hosting guide
- All OCRmyPDF alternatives, ranked
- All olmOCR alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs OCRmyPDF
- Docling Serve vs olmOCR
- MinerU vs OCRmyPDF
- MinerU vs olmOCR
- OCRmyPDF vs PaddleOCR
- OCRmyPDF vs Paperless-AI
- OCRmyPDF vs paperless-gpt
- OCRmyPDF vs Paperless-ngx
- OCRmyPDF vs Unstract
- olmOCR vs PaddleOCR
- olmOCR vs Paperless-AI
- olmOCR vs paperless-gpt
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- OCRmyPDF GitHub repository: github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF
- OCRmyPDF documentation: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
- OCRmyPDF license: github.com/ocrmypdf/OCRmyPDF/blob/main/LICENSE
- OCRmyPDF hardware requirements: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/performance.html
- OCRmyPDF deploy instructions: ocrmypdf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/batch.html
- 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.