---
title: "PaddleOCR-VL 1.6 | Tarka Utilities"
description: "Compact multilingual document OCR for text, tables, formulas, charts, and seals."
url: "https://tarkahq.com/utilities/paddleocr-vl-1-6/"
---

OCR

# PaddleOCR-VL 1.6

Compact multilingual document OCR for text, tables, formulas, charts, and seals.

[Sign up](https://tarkahq.com/console?auth=signup) [Utility model docs](https://tarkahq.com/docs/inference/utility-models/)

- **Status**: Live
- **Languages**: Multilingual
- **License**: Apache 2.0 (PaddlePaddle)

## Model ID

| Model ID | Designed for |
| --- | --- |
| `paddleocr-vl-1.6` | Page-level document parsing with Markdown and structured blocks |

Confirm access with `GET /v1/models`, then follow the [utility-model docs](https://tarkahq.com/docs/inference/utility-models/) for the canonical v1 REST or native gRPC request contract.

## Pricing

`paddleocr-vl-1.6`: Free for a limited time. ~~$0.001~~ $0.00 per successful page

 USD · catalog 2026-11-04.1. Release verified 2026-11-04. EUR uses the catalog conversion. [Live catalog](https://tarka.rest/control/v1/pricing).

## Overview

PaddleOCR-VL 1.6 replaces Unlimited OCR as Tarka’s page-level document parser. The `paddleocr-vl-1.6` alias runs PaddlePaddle’s official v1.6 pipeline, including PP-DocLayoutV3, through `POST /v1/ocr`.

The portable response remains an `ocr.completion` with top-level `text`. Set `output_format` to `markdown` and request `blocks` or `layout` in `include` when your application also needs per-page content, reading order, labels, and geometry.

## When to pick it

- A page contains more than ordinary running text.
- Markdown structure matters downstream.
- You need one request to recognize text, tables, formulas, charts, or seals.
- You want page and block data without giving up a simple top-level text value.

## When to pick something else

- Nepali or Devanagari-specific extraction → [GLM-OCR](https://tarkahq.com/utilities/glm-ocr/)
- Geometry and reading order without recognition → [PP-DocLayoutV3](https://tarkahq.com/utilities/pp-doclayout-v3/)

Send inline base64 image data in `image` or an ordered `images` array. Tarka never fetches a remote image URL on your behalf. Use `GET /v1/models` to confirm the alias is enabled for your API key.