A LlamaParse alternative at a flat $0.003 per page — markdown or JSON output, page-range selection, pay as you go with no credit system.
Brainiall’s PDF to Markdown API converts PDFs into LLM-ready markdown for a flat $0.003 per page — no credit system, no subscription, one REST call. LlamaParse, the best-known alternative, prices in credits ($1.25 per 1,000): from $0.00125 per page in Fast mode to $0.0125+ per page in Agentic modes (July 2026 list prices).
Flat $0.003 per page, billed by usage. No credits to manage, no subscription, $10 in free credits (3,333 pages) to start.
| Brainiall | LlamaParse | DIY (OCR + LLM) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per page | $0.003 flat | $0.00125 (Fast) – $0.0125+ (Agentic) | Varies (infra + tokens) |
| Pricing model | Flat per page | Credits: $1.25/1K, 1–10+ credits per page by mode | Engineering time + compute |
| Cost for 1,000 pages | $3 | $1.25–12.50+ depending on mode | Varies |
| Output | Markdown or JSON | Markdown / JSON | Custom |
| Page range selection | Included | Included | Custom |
| Free to start | $10 credits (3,333 pages) | 10K credits/month free | N/A |
Competitor prices are list prices published on each provider’s public pricing page, checked July 2026 (LlamaParse: $1.25 per 1,000 credits; Fast parse 1 credit/page, Cost-effective 3 credits/page, Agentic modes 10+ credits/page). Brainiall prices are the live pay-as-you-go rates.
curl -X POST https://api.brainiall.com/v1/document/pdf-to-markdown/file \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BRAINIALL_API_KEY" \
-F "pdf=@report.pdf" \
-F "output_format=markdown"Upload the PDF as multipart form data. Set output_format=markdown for raw markdown, or json for markdown plus per-page metadata. An optional page_range (e.g. 1-10) converts only the pages you need. Get a key at app.brainiall.com.
Use a managed conversion API and feed the markdown to your chunker. Markdown preserves the structure signals RAG pipelines rely on — headings, lists, tables — that plain OCR text loses. Brainiall converts PDFs to markdown in a single REST call at a flat $0.003 per page; LlamaParse is the best-known alternative, priced in credits from $0.00125 to $0.0125+ per page depending on mode.
Brainiall charges a flat $0.003 per page — no modes, no credit math. LlamaParse charges $1.25 per 1,000 credits: its Fast mode (1 credit/page, $0.00125) is cheaper than Brainiall but is the most basic text-focused tier, while Cost-effective mode (3 credits/page) is $0.00375 and Agentic modes run $0.0125 or more per page. For a typical mixed workload, a flat rate is easier to forecast.
100,000 pages cost $300 on Brainiall at the flat $0.003 per page rate. There are no volume commitments — the price is the same for 10 pages or 10 million.
Yes. Pass page_range (for example 1-10) to convert a subset of pages, and you are billed only for the pages processed.
output_format=markdown returns the raw markdown document; output_format=json returns markdown plus structured per-page data. Both are ready to pipe into chunkers, embedders, and vector databases.
Every new account gets $10 in free credits — 3,333 pages of conversion — with no credit card required.
Get a free API key with $10 in credits — 3,333 pages of PDF to markdown conversion. No credit card, no subscription, cancel anytime.