Docs & PDF Q&A

docspell

Scans in, organised documents out — for one person or a small office

Visit official page 日本語で詳しく見る

Popularity

★ 2.3k

Last update

August 2026

License / pricing

AGPL-3.0

What it does

Ingests scans, email attachments and files, OCRs them, then guesses correspondent, date and tags so the archive organises itself rather than waiting for you to file it. Full-text search and multi-user access on top. A demo runs on the project site. Self-hosted, so authentication, TLS and backups are yours to arrange — and contracts and invoices are the wrong thing to leave open. Not an AI assistant: OCR and inference, no chat. AGPL-3.0.

Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.

Screenshots & visuals

Before you start

Setup difficultySome setup needed
Command lineRequired
API keyNot required
Sends data onlineNo

Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.

docspell FAQ

Is docspell free?: Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.
Do I need to install anything or write code to use docspell?: It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
Does docspell work on a phone?: No. It needs a computer.
Can I use docspell commercially?: The licence is AGPL-3.0. Using it commercially is fine, but if you distribute something built on it you may be required to release that under the same licence. Keep it internal, or check before distributing.

How it compares

The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.

Tool	Command line	API key	Sends data out	Phone	Commercial use
docspell (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
OCRmyPDF	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
zerox	Required	Required	Yes	No	Yes
paper-qa	Required	Required	Yes	No	Yes

"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.

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Makes scanned PDFs searchable and selectable

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paper-qa

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pdfGPT

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Browse all tools Home

What it does

Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.

docspell FAQ

Is docspell free?

Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.

Do I need to install anything or write code to use docspell?

It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.

Does docspell work on a phone?

No. It needs a computer.

Can I use docspell commercially?

The licence is AGPL-3.0. Using it commercially is fine, but if you distribute something built on it you may be required to release that under the same licence. Keep it internal, or check before distributing.

How it compares

The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.

Tool	Command line	API key	Sends data out	Phone	Commercial use
docspell (this page)	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
OCRmyPDF	Required	Not needed	No	No	Yes
zerox	Required	Required	Yes	No	Yes
paper-qa	Required	Required	Yes	No	Yes

"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.