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Docling vs GROBID: catalog facts
Docling	GROBID
Free Free and open source under the MIT license.	Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Linux, Self-hosted
Supports a wide range of input formats beyond just PDF MIT licensed and runs entirely on your own machine	Built specifically for scholarly papers Extracts metadata and references as structured data
No graphical interface; used as a code library or CLI tool Advanced parsing models used alongside it may carry separate licenses	Needs to be run as a server, with some setup Aimed at academic documents rather than general PDFs
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.