AI & Agents
OpenAI Developer Community · 2023-12-11
Is there an API you can throw any file format at, that returns plain text?
有没有一个 API：丢进任何格式的文件，直接吐回纯文本？
At a glance · 30-second read
- WhoOpenAI Developer Community · 2023-12-11 · 16 replies
- The askIs there an API you can throw any file format at, that returns plain text?
- The openingA parsing API that returns structured Markdown/JSON, billed per page, with table and scan fidelity as the hook.
What was actually said
“We need to extract a text string from documents… 20 different formats and sometimes needs OCR. Is there an API that does this for you?”
— OpenAI Developer Community · 2023-12-11 · community.openai.com/t/does-anyone-know-of-an-api-yo…
Background and pain
The pain
The first wall in RAG isn't the model, it's parsing: scans, merged-cell tables and multi-column PDFs all break.
A buildable angle
The opening
A parsing API that returns structured Markdown/JSON, billed per page, with table and scan fidelity as the hook.
How to validate it
- Read the whole thread and note the recurring scenarios — repetition is the density of the need.
- Search existing tools around "document parsing / OCR" and check which single step they actually cover.
- Put up a one-line landing page, share it back to OpenAI Developer Community, and see whether anyone asks about pricing.
Existing options
Unstructured.io, LlamaParse, Reducto, Mathpix
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