Metallurgy vs Docling.
Docling is a free Python tool that parses many document types locally, and Metallurgy is a Mac app that reads documents on device for coding agents. This page compares price and features.
| Feature | Metallurgy | Docling |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not set yet | Free (MIT) |
| Runs on Windows and Linux | No | Yes |
| Documents stay on your machine | Yes | Yes |
| No extra API key | Yes | Yes |
| Reads scanned PDFs (OCR) | Yes | Yes |
| Reads audio and video | Yes | Yes |
| Returns only the part asked for | Yes | Partlypage limits |
| Ships an agent skill | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | macOS 27, Apple silicon | macOS, Linux, Windows |
| How you get it | Mac app | pip install docling |
| Records tokens saved | Yes | No |
| Reads Word, Excel and PowerPoint | No | Yes |
Yes Yes Partly Partly No No
Price
Docling is free and open source under the MIT licence, though individual models carry their own licences. Models download automatically on first use, and you can fetch them in advance for offline work. Metallurgy will be a one-time purchase with lifetime access, and its price has not been set yet.
Structured whole documents
Docling parses the whole document and returns Markdown, HTML or lossless JSON with page layout, reading order and table structure. It runs locally by default, and data goes to remote services only if you set enable_remote_services=True. Metallurgy instead hands the agent the pieces it needs, such as ranked passages, fields, CSV tables or distinct errors, so the whole file never enters the model’s context.
Where Docling is ahead
- It is free and open source under the MIT licence, while Metallurgy’s price has not been set.
- It runs on macOS, Linux and Windows on x86_64 and arm64, not only on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 27.
- It reads Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB and LaTeX files, which Metallurgy does not list among its inputs.
- It ships both an agent skill and an MCP server, and Metallurgy has no MCP server yet.
- It produces structured whole-document output in Markdown, HTML or lossless JSON, with page layout, reading order and table structure.
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.
More comparisons
Sources
Checked against Docling’s own website and documentation on 13 November 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us and we’ll correct it.
- docling-project/docling README
- Supported formats - Docling
- Advanced options - Docling
- Installation - Docling
- Agent skills - Docling
- MCP server - Docling
- docling-project/docling-mcp README
- docling on PyPI
Docling is a trademark of its owner. Metallurgy is not affiliated with it.