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What counts as a page? How document APIs bill you

One page can be one page, one cell, 100 KB or a whole document. How each document API counts, and how to compare them.

5 min readUpdated 17 October 2026

An OCR pricing "page" is whatever the vendor says it is: a PDF page, a 100 KB slice of a file, a spreadsheet cell, a document of up to 15 pages, or a workflow block. Veralens, a document extraction API (OCR plus schema-typed JSON), has no page rule at all: it bills tokens and reports the cost on every job.

You see "$10 per 1,000 pages" on a pricing page. Then the invoice arrives and the number is not what you expected. The reason is almost always the same: the vendor and you do not agree on what a page is.

This post lists how the document APIs we checked count their unit. Then it shows a simple way to compare them.

Prices and rules below were checked on 2026-10-06 against the linked vendor pages. This market reprices often, so verify before you commit.

Why the unit matters

A price per 1,000 pages is only a price if a page is a page. If your files are spreadsheets, long scans or small photos, the unit can change the bill more than the headline rate does.

How the unit changes by vendor

VendorWhat the unit isWhat to watch
VendorReductoWhat the unit isPer page for PDFs. Spreadsheets are billed per cellWhat to watchA large spreadsheet can cost far more than its page count suggests
VendorUnstructuredWhat the unit is$0.015 per page. Files that are not PDF, PPTX, TIFF or DOCX with page metadata count one page per 100 KBWhat to watchA big image or office file counts as several pages
VendorVeryfiWhat the unit isPer document, up to 15 pages. Receipts, invoices and bank statements have different prices. $500 a month minimumWhat to watchShort documents are cheap per page. Small volume still pays the minimum
VendorMindeeWhat the unit isOne page is one credit, on a monthly plan. Credits do not carry over. Overage costs 20% more. Confidence scores cost 1.5 creditsWhat to watchThe rate you pay depends on your plan, and unused credits are lost
VendorNanonetsWhat the unit isPer workflow block, from $0.02 to $0.30What to watchOne invoice can use four to six blocks
VendorLlamaParse and LlamaExtractWhat the unit isCredits at $1.25 per 1,000. Parse and extract each use creditsWhat to watchThe mode you pick changes the credits per page
VendorVeralensWhat the unit isTokens. No page rule. Hold when the job starts, settled to real usage when it ends, full refund if the job failsWhat to watchCost depends on how much text goes in and how much JSON comes out. The final cost can be higher or lower than the hold

A way to compare them

  1. Take 20 real files of the kind you will send. Include the worst ones.
  2. For each vendor, count the units those files use under that vendor's rule.
  3. Add the fixed parts: monthly minimums, plan fees, credits you will not use.
  4. Divide by the number of pages and compare.

Do the same with your own file types. A team that sends one page receipts and a team that sends 80 page PDFs will not rank the vendors the same way.

How Veralens bills

You add funds from $5, €5 or £5. Each job holds an estimate, runs, and is settled to what it really used. If a job fails, you get the full hold back. There is no plan and no minimum, and funds do not expire. The response for each job shows what it cost, so you can build your own per-page number from your own files. See pricing.

To test your own files, use the playground, or follow the quickstart.

Try it on your own documents

Add funds from $5, create a key, and send your first document. Every job reports exactly what it cost.

Add $5, get an API key

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