Metallurgy vs LlamaParse.
LlamaParse is a cloud service that turns documents into Markdown, text or JSON, and Metallurgy is a Mac app that reads documents on device for coding agents. This page compares price and features.
| Feature | Metallurgy | LlamaParse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not set yet | Credits; 10k/mo free |
| Runs on Windows and Linux | No | Yes |
| Documents stay on your machine | Yes | Partlyenterprise self-hosting |
| No extra API key | Yes | No |
| Reads scanned PDFs (OCR) | Yes | Yes |
| Reads audio and video | Yes | Partlyaudio formats |
| Returns only the part asked for | Yes | Partlypage selection |
| Ships an agent skill | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | macOS 27, Apple silicon | Cloud service |
| How you get it | Mac app | API key, SDK or CLI |
| Records tokens saved | Yes | No |
| Reads Word, Excel and PowerPoint | No | Yes |
Yes Yes Partly Partly No No
Price
On Pay as you go, LlamaParse costs $0 per month with 10,000 free credits each month, then $1.50 per 1,000 extra credits. The Pro plan costs $500 per month with 400,000 credits each month, then $1.25 per 1,000 extra credits. Parsing costs 1 credit per page on the Fast tier, 3 on Cost-effective, 10 on Agentic and 25 on Agentic Plus. Metallurgy will cost a single fee once, not a subscription, with the price still to be set.
Cloud or on device
LlamaParse is a hosted service: your files go to the cloud, where they are cached for 48 hours and then permanently deleted. It is available in North America and Europe, and enterprise customers can self-host or bring their own cloud. Metallurgy processes everything on your Mac with Apple’s on-device frameworks, uploads nothing and manages no API key.
Where LlamaParse is ahead
- It works from any operating system, because parsing runs in the cloud rather than on a Mac with macOS 27 or later.
- It supports 130+ file formats, including Word, PowerPoint and spreadsheets, which Metallurgy does not list.
- It offers agentic parsing tiers for complex layouts, charts and tables.
- It ships a CLI, an MCP server and an agent skill, while Metallurgy has no MCP server yet.
- It accepts very large documents, up to 512 MB and 10,000 pages per parse.
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 LlamaParse’s own website and documentation on 13 November 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us and we’ll correct it.
- Pricing - LlamaIndex
- Pricing - LlamaParse documentation
- Billing and usage - LlamaParse documentation
- FAQ - LlamaParse documentation
- Supported document types - LlamaParse documentation
- OCR and languages - LlamaParse documentation
- Limitations - LlamaParse documentation
- Parse overview - LlamaParse documentation
- run-llama/llamaparse-agent-skills
LlamaParse is a trademark of its owner. Metallurgy is not affiliated with it.