olmOCR vs paperless-gpt
Short answer
olmOCR: Ai2's vision-language OCR that turns PDFs and scans into clean Markdown, including tables, equations and handwriting. paperless-gpt: LLM add-on for paperless-ngx that does better OCR and writes titles, tags and correspondents. Both are in our Document processing category.
Choose olmOCR if you want: larger community (19.8k vs 2.8k GitHub stars) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Choose paperless-gpt if you want: no GPU server needed and an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale).
paperless-gpt 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
olmOCR vs paperless-gpt side by side
| olmOCR | paperless-gpt | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document processing | Document processing |
| What it is | Ai2's vision-language OCR that turns PDFs and scans into clean Markdown, including tables, equations and handwriting. | LLM add-on for paperless-ngx that does better OCR and writes titles, tags and correspondents. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| License type | Permissive | Permissive |
| License conditions | Permissive. Internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; keep the license and notices. | Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. |
| Status | Stale (no commit in 180+ days) | Active |
| GitHub stars | 19.8k | 2.8k |
| Last commit | Mar 25, 2026 | Oct 16, 2026 |
| Latest release | v0.4.27 | v0.31.0 |
| Minimum hardware | 30 GB disk | Not published |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| 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. | Not needed for the app itself. A GPU only matters if you run the LLM locally (for example with Ollama). |
| Est. server cost | GPU server (not estimated) | Not estimated |
| Deploy method | Docker (GPU image with model included) | Docker Compose |
| Known gotchas | 3 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | Not documented |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not supported (OIDC not supported · SAML not supported · LDAP not supported) |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | No |
| Details | Full olmOCR guide → | Full paperless-gpt guide → |
Key differences
- License: olmOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). paperless-gpt: MIT (Permissive).
- GPU: olmOCR: needed for practical use. paperless-gpt: optional / see notes.
- Est. server cost: olmOCR: GPU server (not estimated). paperless-gpt: not estimated (no official RAM figure).
- Deploy: olmOCR: Docker (GPU image with model included) · single container. paperless-gpt: Docker Compose · multi-container stack.
- Status: olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days). paperless-gpt: Active.
- GitHub stars: olmOCR: 19.8k. paperless-gpt: 2.8k.
- Last commit: olmOCR: Mar 25, 2026. paperless-gpt: Oct 16, 2026.
- Latest release: olmOCR: v0.4.27 (Mar 12, 2026). paperless-gpt: v0.31.0 (Oct 14, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Document processing; Official hardware: not published.
olmOCR vs paperless-gpt: FAQ
olmOCR or paperless-gpt: which should a small business choose?
Choose olmOCR if you want: larger community (19.8k vs 2.8k GitHub stars) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack). Choose paperless-gpt if you want: no GPU server needed and an actively maintained project (olmOCR is stale). paperless-gpt publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, olmOCR or paperless-gpt?
olmOCR: GPU server (not estimated). paperless-gpt: not estimated (no official RAM figure). 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 olmOCR and paperless-gpt need?
olmOCR: not published. paperless-gpt: not published. olmOCR needs a GPU for practical use.
What is the license difference between olmOCR and paperless-gpt?
olmOCR: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution allowed; keep the license and notices. paperless-gpt: MIT (Permissive). Permissive. Internal and commercial use allowed; keep the license notice. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is olmOCR or paperless-gpt more actively maintained?
olmOCR: Stale (no commit in 180+ days), last commit Mar 25, 2026. paperless-gpt: Active, last commit Oct 16, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Nov 3, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, olmOCR or paperless-gpt?
olmOCR installs via Docker (GPU image with model included) (single container); paperless-gpt via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). olmOCR lists 3 known gotchas and paperless-gpt lists 3; see each app page.
Related
- olmOCR self-hosting guide · paperless-gpt self-hosting guide
- All olmOCR alternatives, ranked
- All paperless-gpt alternatives, ranked
- Docling Serve vs olmOCR
- Docling Serve vs paperless-gpt
- MinerU vs olmOCR
- MinerU vs paperless-gpt
- OCRmyPDF vs olmOCR
- OCRmyPDF vs paperless-gpt
- olmOCR vs PaddleOCR
- olmOCR vs Paperless-AI
- olmOCR vs Paperless-ngx
- olmOCR vs Unstract
- PaddleOCR vs paperless-gpt
- Paperless-AI vs paperless-gpt
- Add a third app in the interactive comparison
Sources
- 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
- paperless-gpt GitHub repository: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt
- paperless-gpt documentation: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#getting-started
- paperless-gpt license: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt/blob/main/LICENSE
- paperless-gpt hardware requirements: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#prerequisites
- paperless-gpt deploy instructions: github.com/icereed/paperless-gpt#docker-compose
- 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.