LlamaParse

situational

LlamaIndex hosted document parser — credits per page, not an OSS engine.

Visit llamaindex.ai →Add to kit Open in Noemium

ledger entry · observed by @whysanesanders

The PDF hammer in LlamaIndex tutorials is a commercial API. Official FAQ: LlamaParse is not open source; the GitHub repo is a client. Free is 10K credits/month then 402. $1.25 per 1,000 credits makes Fast ~$1.25/1k pages and Agentic Plus much more. VPC exists for enterprises, not a docker OSS story. Confirm Starter/Pro seat dollars in the console — they were not in this HTML extract.

Strengths

Hosted PDF parser tightly integrated with the LlamaIndex ecosystem.
Per-page credit pricing is transparent enough to model costs.
Enterprise VPC option exists for stricter data boundaries.

Known limitations

Official FAQ: LlamaParse itself is not OSS; don't confuse the Python client with the parser.
Free plan has no PAYG — extra usage returns 402 until you upgrade.
Agentic Plus is 45 credits/page (~$0.056) before extract add-ons.
Seat prices for Starter/Pro were not rendered as dollars in the public HTML; budget from credits + PAYG caps.

Use it when

RAG pipelines parsing PDFs and documents inside LlamaIndex workflows.
Teams that prefer a managed parser over self-hosting an OSS alternative.

Skip it when

You need an open-source parser you can self-host for free.
Free 10K credits/month would cap before your volume finishes.
Budget requires confirmed seat dollars not shown in public pricing.

Buy-check

·Price — freemium, 10K credits/mo on Free (hard stop); 1,000 credits = $1.25 (NA/EU); v2 Fast 1 / Cost-effective 3 / Agentic 10 / Agentic Plus 45 credits/page; Starter 40K incl. (PAYG to $500/mo); Pro 400K (PAYG to $5,000/mo); seat $ not in this HTML extract as of 2026-08-19. Open the pricing page, not a screenshot.
·Free tier — Free tier exists — burn it first.
·Cancel fallout — What happens to your data/projects on cancel — check the ToS, not the FAQ.
·Seat math — Per-seat pricing multiplies quietly. Count seats before the annual plan.
·Who skips it — Also skipped when: You need an open-source parser you can self-host for free.; Free 10K credits/month would cap before your volume finishes..

Price trailchangelog →

No price move in this repo yet.

Facts

pricing: freemium¹
price note: 10K credits/mo on Free (hard stop); 1,000 credits = $1.25 (NA/EU); v2 Fast 1 / Cost-effective 3 / Agentic 10 / Agentic Plus 45 credits/page; Starter 40K incl. (PAYG to $500/mo); Pro 400K (PAYG to $5,000/mo); seat $ not in this HTML extract
free tier: yes
open source: no
api: yes
self-host: no
category: data
evidence: source-verified