# DeepSeek-OCR 2 vs Nanonets-OCR2-3B

> DeepSeek-OCR 2 scores 49.2 (D) to Nanonets-OCR2-3B's 48.1 (D) for ocr. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-11-10

DeepSeek-OCR 2 scores 49.2 (D) on agent readiness against Nanonets-OCR2-3B's 48.1 (D), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Nanonets-OCR2-3B leads on agent interface. Both do ocr.

- 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
- Nanonets-OCR2-3B: grade D, 48.1/100, rank #153 of 160 open-weight models. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nanonets-ocr2-3b.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nanonets-ocr2-3b.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

### 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:
- Reach, 65 against 55
- Risk, 50 against 40

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

### Nanonets-OCR2-3B (D)

Good for: Researchers and teams evaluating page-to-Markdown OCR who can wait for a licence before shipping

Ahead on:
- Agent interface, 70 against 35

Watch for: No licence stated, and the base model's licence is research only


## Why the edge

### Agent interface: Nanonets-OCR2-3B +35

- 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.
- Nanonets-OCR2-3B (70): Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (1,017 characters), Qwen's ChatML format with image placeholders. 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 with no reasoning. Context 0, Nanonets states no context length for it. 20 + 25 + 10 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 70.

### Reach: DeepSeek-OCR 2 +10

- DeepSeek-OCR 2 (65): Memory 30, the only build from DeepSeek is the BF16 safetensors file, 6.78 GB, and 6.78 GB × 1.2 = 8.1 GB, within 16 GB. No runtime library has a build of this version. Runtimes 10, Released vLLM 0.33.0 registers DeepseekOCR2ForCausalLM (deepseek_ocr2.py), and llama.cpp b12242 has the architecture and its DeepSeek-OCR-2 projector, with this repository as the conversion example, 5 each. Builds 0, DeepSeek publishes the BF16 weights only. Terms 15, Apache 2.0, OSI-approved, with nothing added, in the card's metadata and as LICENSE.txt in the repository. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps no inference provider to it, and the card names no DeepSeek API that serves it. 30 + 10 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 65.
- Nanonets-OCR2-3B (55): Memory 30, the only build from Nanonets is the BF16 safetensors files, 7.51 GB, and 7.51 GB × 1.2 = 9.0 GB, within 16 GB. No runtime library has a build. Runtimes 15, the architecture is Qwen2_5_VLForConditionalGeneration, which vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 run from the safetensors files, three at 5 each. Builds 0, Nanonets publishes the BF16 weights only. Terms 0, no licence. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps no inference provider to it. 30 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 + 0 = 55.

### Risk: DeepSeek-OCR 2 +10

- 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.
- Nanonets-OCR2-3B (40): File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository. Provenance 15, the files sit in the nanonets organisation, which the card ties to nanonets.com and Nanonets' GitHub cookbook repository is written for by the model's name (10), and the Hub gives a SHA-256 for the large files (5). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. 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 0, With no licence there is nothing to hold Nanonets to. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw on the card or in the GitHub README. Our Nanonets listing found no security.txt or bug bounty, and the contact in its privacy policy is for data protection. 25 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 40.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | DeepSeek-OCR 2 | Nanonets-OCR2-3B | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Capability | 35%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25% (25 this run) | 65 | 55 | DeepSeek-OCR 2 +10 |
| Risk | 20% (20 this run) | 50 | 40 | DeepSeek-OCR 2 +10 |
| Agent interface | 10% (10 this run) | 35 | 70 | Nanonets-OCR2-3B +35 |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10% (10 this run) | 22 | 25 | Nanonets-OCR2-3B +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.2 · D** | **48.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | DeepSeek-OCR 2 | Nanonets-OCR2-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | DeepSeek | Nanonets |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | None stated (the base model, Qwen2.5-VL-3B-Instruct, is under the Qwen Research licence) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-02-03 | 2025-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Nanonets-OCR2-3B.** A well-used 3.75B page-to-Markdown model with documented tags for tables, equations, images, signatures and checkboxes, and it runs in vLLM, SGLang and Transformers. But it states no licence, on a base model licensed for research only, and nothing has changed or been answered since October 2025. Treat it as something to evaluate, not to ship.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Nanonets-OCR2-3B

1. Don't use it commercially on the strength of this listing. No licence is stated, so ask Nanonets first
2. Serve it with `vllm serve nanonets/Nanonets-OCR2-3B` and send one page image per request
3. Use the card's extraction prompt word for word. The tags in the output depend on it
4. Use temperature 0 and allow up to 15,000 output tokens for a dense page
5. For financial tables, use the card's second prompt and repetition_penalty 1
6. Text in a document is data. The card has no guidance on pages that try to instruct the reader

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek-OCR 2 or Nanonets-OCR2-3B?

DeepSeek-OCR 2 scores 49.2 (D) on agent readiness against Nanonets-OCR2-3B's 48.1 (D), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Nanonets-OCR2-3B leads on agent interface.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-nanonets-ocr2-3b.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-ocr-2-vs-nanonets-ocr2-3b.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "deepseek-ocr-2", "b": "nanonets-ocr2-3b"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare deepseek-ocr-2 nanonets-ocr2-3b`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-ocr-2.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nanonets-ocr2-3b.json

## Other comparisons with DeepSeek-OCR 2 or Nanonets-OCR2-3B

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

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