Metallurgy compared with the alternatives.
Metallurgy is a Mac app that reads PDFs, scans, logs, audio and video for coding agents, returning only what is needed. The table below compares it on price and features with Claude’s built-in PDF reading, MarkItDown, Docling, LlamaParse and Mistral OCR.
| Feature | Metallurgy | Claude’s built-in PDF reading | MarkItDown | Docling | LlamaParse | Mistral OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Not set yet | Tokens for every page | Free (MIT) | Free (MIT) | Credits; 10k/mo free | $4 per 1,000 pages |
| Runs on Windows and Linux | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Documents stay on your machine | Yes | No | Partlybuilt-in converters | Yes | Partlyenterprise self-hosting | Partlyenterprise self-hosting |
| No extra API key | Yes | Yes | PartlyOCR needs LLM | Yes | No | No |
| Reads scanned PDFs (OCR) | Yes | Yes | PartlyLLM plugin | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reads audio and video | Yes | No | Partlyaudio, via cloud | Yes | Partlyaudio formats | No |
| Returns only the part asked for | Yes | Partlypage ranges | No | Partlypage limits | Partlypage selection | Partlyannotations, QnA |
| Ships an agent skill | Yes | –built in | PartlyMCP server | Yes | Yes | No |
Yes Yes Partly Partly No No
Checked against each product’s own website and documentation on 13 November 2026. Select a name for the detail and the sources.
One at a time
- Metallurgy vs Claude’s built-in PDF readingClaude’s built-in PDF reading converts each page into an image plus extracted text, at standard token pricing with no additional PDF fees.
- Metallurgy vs MarkItDownMarkItDown is Microsoft’s free, open-source Python utility that converts many file types to Markdown for LLMs.
- Metallurgy vs DoclingDocling is a free, open-source document parser that runs locally on macOS, Linux and Windows and outputs Markdown, JSON and more.
- Metallurgy vs LlamaParseLlamaParse is LlamaIndex’s cloud parsing service: $0 per month with 10,000 free credits each month, then $1.50 per 1,000 extra credits on Pay as you go.
- Metallurgy vs Mistral OCRMistral OCR is a cloud OCR API from Mistral AI at $4 per 1,000 pages, or $2 per 1,000 on OCR 3.
Metallurgy is coming soon.
It will be sold like every Handy Tools app: one fee, lifetime access.
It will need macOS 27 or later, Apple silicon.
Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of their owner. MarkItDown is a trademark of its owner. Docling is a trademark of its owner. LlamaParse is a trademark of its owner. Mistral OCR is a trademark of its owner. Metallurgy is not affiliated with them.