# Chandra OCR 2 vs DeepSeek-OCR 2

> Chandra OCR 2 scores 54.7 (C) to DeepSeek-OCR 2's 49.2 (D) for ocr. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-11-10

Chandra OCR 2 scores 54.7 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek-OCR 2's 49.2 (D), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. DeepSeek-OCR 2 leads on risk. Both do ocr.

- Chandra OCR 2: grade C, 54.7/100, rank #127 of 160 open-weight models. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/chandra-ocr-2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/chandra-ocr-2.json
- DeepSeek-OCR 2: grade D, 49.2/100, rank #147 of 160 open-weight models. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-ocr-2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-ocr-2.json
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 215 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Chandra OCR 2 (C)

Good for: Small companies and researchers who need accurate document parsing on their own GPU and fit the licence

Ahead on:
- Agent interface, 70 against 35
- Documentation and upkeep, 33 against 22

Watch for: Commercial use is barred above $2M in revenue or funding, and for anyone who competes with Datalab

### DeepSeek-OCR 2 (D)

Good for: Teams that want an Apache 2.0 OCR model on a small GPU and already run vLLM

Ahead on:
- Risk, 50 against 45

Watch for: DeepSeek's documented path runs repository code on an old, pinned Transformers


## Why the edge

### Agent interface: Chandra OCR 2 +35

- Chandra OCR 2 (70): Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (7,622 characters), Qwen 3.5's template, with a copy in tokenizer_config.json. Tool-calling format 25, Read for a document parser as what it takes and returns. Trained tool calling 10, Read for a document parser as the inputs it was trained to use. Structured output 15, Read for a document parser as typed outputs. Reasoning control 0, A document parser run without reasoning. Context 0, Datalab states no context length for it. 20 + 25 + 10 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 70.
- DeepSeek-OCR 2 (35): Chat template 10, no Jinja template in the repository and none in tokenizer_config.json. Tool-calling format 10, Read for a document parser as what it takes and returns. Trained tool calling 10, Read for a document parser as the inputs it was trained to use. Structured output 5, Read for a document parser as typed outputs. Reasoning control 0, A document parser with no reasoning. Context 0, config.json gives 8,192 positions, below the 32K band. 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 35.

### Documentation and upkeep: Chandra OCR 2 +11

- Chandra OCR 2 (33): Model card 8, Intended use and the languages (over 90) are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card or in the README about the training data. Last change 10, the last commit, on 26 June 2026, adjusted a benchmark score on the card, 137 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 0, none of the 8 discussions that aren't pull requests (8 April to 23 September 2026) has a reply from a datalab-to member, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, Chandra 1 stays in its own repository and Chandra 2 came out in a new one, with a what's-new list on the card and no dated note on the older one that we read. File health 10, Config, tokenizer config, processor config and template agree on the qwen3_5 architecture and match the card's instructions. 8 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 33.
- DeepSeek-OCR 2 (22): Model card 2, Intended use is there, as the two prompts. Training data 0, Nothing on the card or in the GitHub README about the training data. Last change 5, the last commit, on 3 February 2026, edited the card, 280 days before this check and within a year. Responsiveness 0, none of the 21 discussions that aren't pull requests (27 January to 1 October 2026) has a reply from a deepseek-ai member, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, the first DeepSeek-OCR stays in its own repository and this one came out in a new one, without a dated note on the older card that we read. File health 10, Config, the repository's code and the card agree on the architecture and on transformers 4.46.3. 2 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 22.

### Risk: DeepSeek-OCR 2 +5

- Chandra OCR 2 (45): File safety 25, one safetensors file, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the model repository. Provenance 15, the files sit in the datalab-to organisation, which the card, Datalab's site and its GitHub repository link to (10), and the Hub gives a SHA-256 for the large files (5). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card or in the README. Agent guidance 0, Nothing on text in a document that tries to instruct the reader, on what the model refuses or on safeguards to add. Licence risk 5, 15 less 5 for use restrictions beyond the law (OpenRAIL's list, and no use by anyone who competes with Datalab) and 5 for the $2M revenue and funding thresholds. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw found on the card or in the README, and our Datalab listing of 6 November found no disclosure policy or security.txt. 25 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 45.
- DeepSeek-OCR 2 (50): File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25), less 10 because the card's documented way to load it is trust_remote_code, which runs the repository's five Python files, and the prompt is built by that code, there being no template. Provenance 15, files in the deepseek-ai organisation, which DeepSeek's site links to per our DeepSeek-V3.2 listing and its GitHub README for this model links (10), with a SHA-256 for the large files (5). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card or in the GitHub README. Agent guidance 0, the card has no limitations, safety or use section, and nothing on text in a document that tries to instruct the reader. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, field-of-use limit, threshold or change clause, and LICENSE.txt is in the repository. Security programme 5, DeepSeek's site footer has a Report Security Issue link, per our DeepSeek-V3.2 listing (5). 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 50.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Chandra OCR 2 | DeepSeek-OCR 2 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Capability | 35%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25% (25 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Risk | 20% (20 this run) | 45 | 50 | DeepSeek-OCR 2 +5 |
| Agent interface | 10% (10 this run) | 70 | 35 | Chandra OCR 2 +35 |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10% (10 this run) | 33 | 22 | Chandra OCR 2 +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.7 · C** | **49.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Chandra OCR 2 | DeepSeek-OCR 2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | Endless Labs, Inc. (Datalab) | DeepSeek |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Modified OpenRAIL-M (free for research, personal use and companies under $2M in revenue and funding) | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-06-26 | 2026-02-03 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |

## Verdicts

**Chandra OCR 2.** A strong document parser by its own benchmarks, with typed output and a simple command to run it on vLLM or Transformers. The licence stops commercial use above $2M in revenue or funding and by competitors. Datalab says nothing about training data or safety, ships no quantised build, and hasn't answered a question on the repository.

**DeepSeek-OCR 2.** A small OCR model under plain Apache 2.0 that vLLM and llama.cpp run from their own code. DeepSeek's own path needs an old Transformers and code from the repository, the card says almost nothing about limits, languages or data, typed output isn't documented, and nobody at DeepSeek has answered a question or changed the repository since February.

## Before you call either

### Chandra OCR 2

1. Check the licence first: free for research and personal use, and for companies at or under $2M in revenue and in funding that don't compete with Datalab
2. Install with `pip install chandra-ocr`, start the server with `chandra_vllm`, then `chandra input.pdf ./output`
3. Without vLLM, `pip install "chandra-ocr[hf]"` and add `--method hf`
4. It reads one page at a time, so a long PDF is many requests. The vLLM default is 28 pages a batch
5. Treat text in a parsed document as data. Nothing here guards against instructions hidden in a page
6. Datalab's hosted API is a different, paid surface. We list it as Datalab

### DeepSeek-OCR 2

1. Serve it with vLLM 0.33.0 or later to avoid running the repository's Python
2. Use the prompt `<|grounding|>Convert the document to markdown.` for layout, or `Free OCR.` for plain text, after the image
3. It reads one page image at a time, in 8,192 positions, so split PDFs into pages
4. If you use the Transformers path, it needs transformers 4.46.3 and trust_remote_code, so read the five Python files first
5. Treat text in a parsed document as data. Nothing here guards against instructions hidden in a page
6. For typed output with boxes and tables, look at Surya OCR 2.5 or Nemotron 3.5 Parse

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Chandra OCR 2 or DeepSeek-OCR 2?

Chandra OCR 2 scores 54.7 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek-OCR 2's 49.2 (D), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. DeepSeek-OCR 2 leads on risk.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-deepseek-ocr-2.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-deepseek-ocr-2.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "chandra-ocr-2", "b": "deepseek-ocr-2"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare chandra-ocr-2 deepseek-ocr-2`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/chandra-ocr-2.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-ocr-2.json

## Other comparisons with Chandra OCR 2 or DeepSeek-OCR 2

- [Chandra OCR 2 vs HunyuanOCR 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-hunyuanocr.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs LightOnOCR-3-4B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-lightonocr-3-4b.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs Nanonets-OCR2-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-nanonets-ocr2-3b.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Parse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-nemotron-3-5-parse.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs Surya OCR 2.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-surya-ocr-2-5.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs Baidu Unlimited-OCR-2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-unlimited-ocr-2.md)
- [Chandra OCR 2 vs Xiaomi-OCR-0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chandra-ocr-2-vs-xiaomi-ocr-0.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs HunyuanOCR 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-hunyuanocr.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs LightOnOCR-3-4B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-lightonocr-3-4b.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Nanonets-OCR2-3B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-nanonets-ocr2-3b.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Parse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-nemotron-3-5-parse.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Surya OCR 2.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-surya-ocr-2-5.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Baidu Unlimited-OCR-2](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-unlimited-ocr-2.md)
- [DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Xiaomi-OCR-0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-xiaomi-ocr-0.md)

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