head to head · open source
PaddleOCR vs chonkie
PaddleOCR has 92,231 GitHub stars, 11,616 forks, 243 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. chonkie has 4,819 stars, 368 forks, 48 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. PaddleOCR leads on adoption by 1,814% (92,231 vs 4,819 stars). PaddleOCR is written in Python under Apache-2.0; chonkie is written in Python under MIT. PaddleOCR has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, chonkie 8%. chonkie was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| PaddleOCR | chonkie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 92K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 12K | ⑂ 368 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick PaddleOCR if
- You weight community size — 92K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick chonkie if
- You want the chonkie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and chonkie fits your workflow better
About PaddleOCR
Global Leading OCR Toolkit & Document AI Engine English 简体中文 繁體中文 日本語 한국어 Français Русский Español العربية PaddleOCR converts PDF documents and images into structured, LLM ready data (JSON/Markdown) with industry leading accuracy. With 70k+ Stars and trusted by top tier projects like Dify, RAGFlow, and Cherry Studio, PaddleOCR is the bedrock for building intelligent RAG and Agentic applications. 🚀 Key Features 📄 Intelligent Document Parsing (LLM Ready) Transforming messy visuals into structured data for the LLM era. SOTA Document VLM : Featuring PaddleOCR VL 1.6 (0.9B) , the industry's leading lightweight…
read the full PaddleOCR overview →
About chonkie
🦛 Chonkie ✨ The lightweight ingestion library for fast, efficient and robust RAG pipelines Installation • Usage • Chunkers • Integrations • Benchmarks Tired of making your gazillionth chunker? Sick of the overhead of large libraries? Want to chunk your texts quickly and efficiently? Chonkie the mighty hippo is here to help! 🚀 Feature rich : All the CHONKs you'd ever need 🔄 End to end : Fetch, CHONK, refine, embed and ship straight to your vector DB! ✨ Easy to use : Install, Import, CHONK ⚡ Fast : CHONK at the speed of light! zooooom 🪶 Light weight : No bloat, just CHONK 🔌 32+ integrations : Works with your…
read the full chonkie overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is PaddleOCR or chonkie more popular?
PaddleOCR has 92,231 GitHub stars and chonkie has 4,819. PaddleOCR has the larger community by that measure.
Are PaddleOCR and chonkie free?
Both are open source. PaddleOCR is licensed under Apache-2.0 and chonkie under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between PaddleOCR and chonkie?
PaddleOCR is written in Python and chonkie in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, PaddleOCR or chonkie?
Choose PaddleOCR if you want the larger community (92,231 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose chonkie if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.