PurchaseOrders is a Mindee alternative for teams that only need purchase order data and would rather not build the integration themselves. Mindee is a capable document AI platform with a real purchase order OCR API, and if you have engineers it is a reasonable choice. The difference is what happens after extraction: Mindee returns JSON for your code to handle, while PurchaseOrders returns a spreadsheet a bookkeeper can open. Upload a purchase order below and see the fields without writing anything.
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Mindee is API-first by design, and that design is the reason people go looking. The extraction itself is rarely the complaint. The complaint is the amount of work still sitting between a JSON response and a purchase order somebody can actually use.
Mindee returns structured JSON. Turning that into a spreadsheet, an ERP import file, or a row in your accounting system is code you write and maintain. For a finance team without a developer on hand, that gap is the whole project.
Mindee offers a 14 day free trial with no credit card. That is fair, but it is a window rather than a floor. If your purchase orders arrive in a batch at month end, a fortnight may not cover a representative sample of the layouts you actually receive.
Mindee states plainly that the number of credits is determined by the total number of physical pages submitted, regardless of document type or file format. A purchase order with a long item table and a page of terms attached costs the same as several short orders.
Mindee covers invoices, receipts, identity documents and custom types alongside purchase orders. Breadth is genuinely useful when you process many document types. It is overhead when purchase orders are the only thing you handle.
Both products read a purchase order accurately. The question worth asking during evaluation is how much of your own engineering time sits between the upload and a usable file, and what happens when nobody on the team writes code.
Output lands as Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets with one row per line item and consistent headers. There is no client library to install and no response object to map before somebody can sort the data.
The purchase order field set is already defined: PO number, supplier, ship-to and bill-to, order and delivery dates, terms, line items, and totals. You upload a file and read the result rather than defining a schema.
Twenty five pages are free with no credit card and no countdown, so you can test the layouts that actually arrive rather than the ones that happen to land during a trial window.
Exports target the destination rather than a generic endpoint: QuickBooks on the Plus plan, Google Sheets, and documented import routes for the major ERPs. JSON and a REST API are there when you do want to code.
Two situations favor Mindee and it is worth saying so before the comparison table. The first is document variety. If purchase orders are one of five document types you process, and invoices, receipts and delivery paperwork all need the same treatment, a general platform with custom field definition is the right shape and a PO-only tool is not. The second is engineering fit. Mindee publishes official client libraries for Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Ruby and PHP, which is broader language coverage than we offer, and a team that is already building a document pipeline will move faster with those in hand.
The case for a specialist is narrower and more practical. It is the team that receives customer or supplier purchase orders as PDF attachments, needs the header and every line as columns, and has nobody free to write and maintain an integration. That team wants the file, not the payload. Getting a purchase order into a spreadsheet is what the purchase order PDF to Excel converter does, and the PDF to CSV converter covers the same job when a CSV is what your system expects. Because a GL account or a part number is assigned per line rather than per order, purchase order line item extraction is the part that decides whether the output is usable at all.
From there the data takes whichever route matches your systems: purchase order to QuickBooks, purchase order to Xero, a NetSuite import, or SAP, with the general method set out in how to import purchase orders to your ERP. Developers who do want JSON should read the purchase order API documentation, and teams clearing a backlog rather than a single file should start with bulk purchase order upload.
This is the part most shortlists skip. Mindee counts a credit as one physical page submitted to the API, regardless of document type or file format. That is a clean and predictable rule, and it means a fifteen page purchase order costs fifteen credits whether the item table runs to two pages or twelve. Our plans work on a monthly page allowance instead, with the Starter plan capped at 25 pages per document and the Plus plan removing that cap entirely. Neither model is inherently cheaper. Which one wins depends on whether your purchase orders are short and numerous or long and few, and the honest way to find out is to count the pages on a real month of orders before you commit. The full breakdown across vendors is in purchase order OCR API pricing, and the wider field is compared in best purchase order OCR software. If what you actually need is a system that raises and approves purchase orders rather than one that reads them, no tool on this page does that, and best purchase order software covers that category instead.
A side by side for teams extracting purchase orders. Mindee details reflect what Mindee publishes on its own pricing and purchase order OCR API pages, verified September 2026.
| PurchaseOrders | Mindee | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Purchase orders only | General document AI, many document types |
| Purchase order model | Yes, pre-tuned | Yes, dedicated purchase order OCR API |
| Published entry price | $49 per month | $44 per month, Starter |
| Entry allowance | 2,500 pages per month | Credit bundles from 6,000 per month |
| Billing unit | Monthly page allowance | One credit per physical page submitted |
| Free access | 25 pages, no expiry, no card | 14 day trial, no card |
| Usable without a developer | Yes, upload and download a file | Dashboard to test, API for production |
| Official client libraries | REST API returning JSON | Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP |
| Spreadsheet export | Excel, CSV and Google Sheets built in | JSON, or via Zapier, Make, or your code |
| Accounting export | QuickBooks export on Plus | Build it, or route through Zapier or Make |
| Custom document types | No, purchase orders only | Yes, define custom fields |
| Best for | Getting PO data into a file or ERP today | Developers embedding many document types |
Mindee figures are taken from Mindee's own pricing page and purchase order OCR API product page, verified 6 September 2026, and may change; confirm current terms at mindee.com. Mindee Pro is published at $116 per month and Enterprise is quoted, with a stated minimum of 500,000 credits annually. Prices shown for both products are monthly list prices before any annual discount.
The only comparison that settles anything is one run on your own supplier layouts. No trial clock and no credit card.
Drag in a PDF, scan, or photo from any supplier. Nothing to configure and no field schema to define first.
Tip: Pick your messiest layout, not your cleanest one. Clean POs prove nothing.
The AI returns PO number, supplier, ship-to and bill-to, order and delivery dates, line items, SKUs, quantities, units of measure, unit prices, terms, and totals. Read the item table row by row against the original.
Download Excel, CSV, or Google Sheets, or push the data through the API into your ERP or accounting system.
Mindee publishes three tiers. Starter is $44 a month, or $529 a year billed annually. Pro is $116 a month, or $1,393 a year billed annually. Enterprise is quoted, with a stated minimum of 500,000 credits annually. Starter and Pro both offer credit bundles ranging from 6,000 to 300,000 credits a month.
Per page. Mindee states that the number of credits is determined by the total number of physical pages submitted to the API, regardless of document type or file format. One page equals one credit, so a twelve page purchase order costs twelve credits whether or not the item table fills them.
Yes. Mindee publishes a dedicated purchase order OCR API that extracts more than 30 fields, including buyer and vendor details, PO number, dates, payment terms, and line items with SKU, description, quantity, unit price and totals. Its invoice model also recognizes purchase_order as a document type.
It depends on whether you have engineers. If purchase orders are the only document type and nobody is free to build an integration, a PO-specific tool that exports Excel directly is the closest fit. If you process several document types and want to embed extraction in your own product, Mindee or a similar general platform is the better shape.
Yes. Mindee offers a 14 day free trial that does not require a credit card, and a dashboard where you can live test settings before deploying. The limit is time rather than volume, so a trial suits a concentrated evaluation better than an occasional one.
Mindee states that accuracy is generally above 95% for most fields, and that it can approach 100% by fine tuning the model to a specific use case. As with any extraction tool, the number that matters is the one you measure on your own supplier layouts rather than the published figure.
Not directly. Mindee returns structured JSON, and offers Zapier and Make.com connectors alongside client libraries for Python, Node.js, Java, .NET, Ruby and PHP. Producing a spreadsheet or posting into an accounting system is something you build, automate through those connectors, or handle with a tool that exports those formats natively.
Neither is cheaper in general, because the billing units differ. Mindee bills one credit per physical page from a bundle starting at 6,000 credits a month on a $44 plan. Our Starter plan is $49 a month for 2,500 pages. Count the pages in a real month of purchase orders, then compare, because page counts vary far more than list prices do.
For Mindee in production, effectively yes: the product is an API, and the value arrives as JSON your system consumes. For a PO-only tool the answer is no, because uploading a file and downloading a spreadsheet needs no code. A developer is optional there and only matters if you want the REST API instead.
See all the PO OCR tools compared.
Compare PurchaseOrders with Rossum.
Compare PurchaseOrders with Docparser.
Compare PurchaseOrders with Nanonets.
Extract PO data to JSON via REST API.
How the line-item table is captured.
Turn a PO PDF into a spreadsheet.
