Amazon Textract
AWS's AI document extraction API that automatically reads text, tables, and forms from any document.
What it does
Amazon Textract is an AI-native document understanding API that goes beyond basic OCR to automatically extract structured text, tables, forms, key-value pairs, and signatures from any document - PDFs, images, scanned documents, and handwritten forms. Unlike template-based extraction tools, Textract uses machine learning to understand document structure without pre-configuration, making it work across diverse document formats. Queries API allows developers to ask specific questions about document content (e.g., 'What is the invoice amount?') and receive extracted values. Textract is the underlying extraction layer that powers document automation workflows for invoice processing, loan application handling, medical record digitization, and identity verification.
Why AI-NATIVE
Amazon Textract is AI-native - ML-based document layout understanding, form field extraction, and natural language queries against document content are the core API capabilities.
Best for
Development teams use Textract to automate document processing workflows - extracting invoice data, form responses, and contract terms from documents without building custom extraction models.
Mid-market companies use Textract as the extraction layer in AP automation and document management workflows - processing hundreds of varied document formats with consistent accuracy.
Large enterprises use Textract at scale for high-volume document processing - loan applications, insurance claims, medical records, and identity documents processed in parallel with extracted data flowing into downstream systems.
Limitations
Textract is an API — using it requires software development to integrate into workflows, format API calls, and parse responses. Non-technical teams cannot use Textract directly without a developer-built application.
Textract pricing is per page processed — high-volume document processing operations at enterprise scale can generate significant monthly costs that require optimization.
While Textract handles most documents well, highly complex multi-page tables and non-standard form layouts may require post-processing logic to achieve acceptable accuracy.
Alternatives by segment
| If you need… | Consider instead |
|---|---|
| End-to-end AP automation without development | Stampli |
| Invoice-specific extraction and processing | Ocrolus |
| Broader document AI platform | Microsoft Copilot 365 |
Free tier: 1,000 pages/month for first 3 months. After free tier: approximately $0.0015 per page for text detection, $0.015 per page for forms and tables analysis. Queries API at $0.01 per query. Volume discounts available.
✓ Free tier available
