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

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