Text
Every line of printed text and handwriting on the page. The cheapest mode.
Amazon Textract, without writing a line of code
Amazon Textract is AWS's OCR service. It reads printed text, handwriting, forms, tables and invoices, but only through an API that someone has to program against. SimpleIndex puts it behind your scanner and a job wizard: a batch goes in, and named files and index values come out. You connect your own AWS account and pay AWS directly for the pages you send, with no markup from us.
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What Textract reads
Textract reads unconstrained handprint and cursive better than any local engine. All six modes are in Professional and need your own AWS account.
Text and tables
The same, plus tables read as rows and columns.
Forms
Labeled fields as label-and-value pairs, "Policy number" and its value, wherever they sit on the page, with no template.
Forms and tables
Labeled fields and tables, read in one pass.
Vendor, dates and totals from invoices and receipts.
Queries
Ask for a value in plain English, "What is the policy number?", and the answer comes back into a field.
Textract only sees the pages that need it
The local engines go first
Tesseract, SimpleOCR or FineReader read every page on your machine, at no cost per page. Most fields on most documents are finished here.
They flag what they couldn't read
A field that came back empty, or failed its format rule, is flagged rather than passed along.
You choose what goes to Textract
In job settings you say which fields Textract reads. It's a setting, not an automatic escalation.
The answers land in your index fields
Textract's values go into the same named fields as everything else, and the job names, files and exports as usual.
What AWS charges
AWS bills your account per page, at its published prices. For the first million pages a month in US West (Oregon), as of 6 Oct 2026, every 1,000 pages cost: text $1.50, invoices $10, text and tables $15, queries $15, forms $50, and forms and tables $65.
So 5,000 invoice pages a month cost $50 at AWS's price, and the same pages read as plain text cost $7.50. Prices drop after a million pages a month, and new AWS accounts get a three-month free tier: 1,000 text pages and 100 form, table or invoice pages a month.
Check AWS's pricing page for your region before you budget.
SimpleIndex itself is licensed once. Textract is included in Professional ($1,800), and Simple Software charges nothing per page. See what that means over five years. Compare editions →
Setting it up takes four steps
Create an AWS user for Textract
An IAM user in your own AWS account, with Textract access.
Copy its keys
The access key and secret access key.
Choose Textract in the job
On the OCR Options tab of the Job Settings Wizard, pick AWS Textract and the mode you need.
Enter and test the keys
Enter the keys on the cloud provider screen, and use its test button to check them before a batch depends on them. Full walkthrough: the SimpleIndex Cloud OCR setup guide, and AWS's Textract Getting Started Guide.
Textract, Azure or Google
Microsoft Azure Document Intelligence and Google Document AI do the same job, and SimpleIndex 12 supports all three. You choose the provider on one screen and pay that provider directly; everything on this page applies whichever you pick.
If pages can't leave your network, point SimpleIndex at a model on your own server instead.
Watch the Textract demo
What SimpleIndex with Textract can do, and the configuration basics.
Before you connect Textract
What is Amazon Textract?
Amazon Textract is AWS's OCR and document analysis service. It reads printed text and handwriting from scanned pages, and can return labeled form fields, tables, invoice totals and answers to plain-English questions. It's only available as an API, so on its own it needs a developer; SimpleIndex makes those calls for you.
How much does Amazon Textract cost per page?
$1.50 per 1,000 pages for plain text, $10 per 1,000 for invoices and $50 per 1,000 for forms, at AWS's US prices for the first million pages a month. AWS bills you directly, and Simple Software adds nothing per page.
Is there a free tier?
Yes, from AWS: for three months, new AWS customers can run 1,000 text pages and 100 form, table, query or invoice pages a month at no charge. After that, AWS's per-page prices apply.
Do I need to write code to use Textract?
No. Textract itself is only an API. SimpleIndex makes the calls, from a job you set up in a wizard, and puts the results into named fields.
Does it handle multi-page PDFs?
Yes. SimpleIndex converts each page to the format Textract expects and merges the results, so you don't prepare files first.
Does Textract work offline?
No. It's a cloud service, so the pages it reads are sent to AWS. The local engines, and a model on your own server, both run with no internet connection.
Which edition do I need?
Professional, which includes Textract along with ABBYY FineReader and the other cloud and AI engines.
Try Textract on your own documents
The free trial runs the full software; connect your own AWS account to try Textract on your pages.
