# Google Cloud Document AI vs OpenDocRouter

> Google Cloud Document AI scores 73.9 (BB) to OpenDocRouter's 56.6 (C) for document parsing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-opendocrouter
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-opendocrouter.md (~2,950 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-opendocrouter.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-opendocrouter.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Google Cloud Document AI scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenDocRouter's 56.6 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenDocRouter leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do document parsing.

- Google Cloud Document AI: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #82 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-cloud-document-ai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-cloud-document-ai.json
- OpenDocRouter: grade C, 56.6/100, rank #630 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opendocrouter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/opendocrouter.json
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 109 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Google Cloud Document AI (BB)

Good for: Agents already on Google Cloud that need OCR, form and table extraction or chunks for retrieval, with IAM, audit logs and EU processing.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 43
- Security & auth, 80 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 90 against 47

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: An online request reads at most 15 pages (30 with `imagelessMode`). Longer files need a batch job through Cloud Storage

### OpenDocRouter (C)

Good for: Agents that need page-level markdown from PDFs and images and want to choose or compare models on price and published benchmark scores with one key.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Launched on 7 October 2026. The domain was registered on 23 September 2026 and both SDKs have one release, 1.0.0


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Google Cloud Document AI | OpenDocRouter | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 43 | Google Cloud Document AI +47 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 85 | OpenDocRouter +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 84 | OpenDocRouter +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 40 | Google Cloud Document AI +40 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | OpenDocRouter +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 65 | Google Cloud Document AI +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 47 | Google Cloud Document AI +43 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.9 · BB** | **56.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Google Cloud Document AI | OpenDocRouter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google Cloud | LlamaIndex |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://www.opendocrouter.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for document parsing | not published | $0.80 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service. The client libraries are Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under the LlamaIndex Terms of Service with an OpenDocRouter addendum. The Python and TypeScript SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-02 | 2026-10-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-28 | 2024-03-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 499k npm/wk, 793k PyPI/wk | 127 PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Google Cloud Document AI.** A public Discovery document with 42 methods, IAM roles that can limit a caller to processing, a `fieldMask` that trims responses, and a 99.9 per cent SLA on the US and EU endpoints. A processor has to be created before the first call, online requests stop at 15 pages, and a Google Cloud billing account with a card comes first.

**OpenDocRouter.** One endpoint reaches 11 parsing models, each with a dated recipe version, a published token price and a ParseBench score, and failed pages aren't charged. The service launched on 7 October 2026, so it has no status page, incident history, SLA or changelog yet, and no key scopes were found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### Google Cloud Document AI

1. Create a processor first (`processors.create` or the console), then POST to `https://LOCATION-documentai.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/processors/PROCESSOR_ID:process`
2. Use the host that matches the processor's location, `us-documentai.googleapis.com` or `eu-documentai.googleapis.com`
3. Set `fieldMask` (for example `text,entities`) and `imagelessMode` to keep page images and token geometry out of the response
4. Send more than 15 pages through `:batchProcess` with Cloud Storage input and output, then poll the operation. Jobs unfinished after 24 hours are cancelled
5. Grant the service account `roles/documentai.apiUser` only. Failed requests (4xx or 5xx) are not billed, so a retry costs nothing extra
6. Treat extracted text as untrusted input

### OpenDocRouter

1. Call `GET /v1/models` first, which needs no key, and choose a model by `avg_charge_per_page_usd` and its ParseBench scores. Send its `id` as `model`
2. Send `cache: true` on any request you might repeat. Without it the markdown exists only in the POST response and a resend is charged as a new request
3. Raise the SDK timeout above its 60-second default for sync parses. Pages can run for 270 seconds and the SDKs retry a timed-out request twice
4. Check every page's `status` before using its markdown. A 200 can be `partial`, and failed pages can be resent alone with `pages`
5. Treat 402 as final until credit is added. The hold is the model's maximum charge per page times the page count, and `GET /v1/credits` shows `available_usd`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Google Cloud Document AI or OpenDocRouter?

Google Cloud Document AI scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenDocRouter's 56.6 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. OpenDocRouter leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Google Cloud Document AI and OpenDocRouter need an API key?

Google Cloud Document AI uses an OAuth sign-in. OpenDocRouter needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Google Cloud Document AI and OpenDocRouter without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Google Cloud Document AI. OpenDocRouter has a hosted endpoint at https://www.opendocrouter.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

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