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Reducto vs Pulse
Reducto is the complete agentic document platform, with 5B+ pages processed in production for teams like Harvey, Scale AI, and Vanta. Pulse is a focused document parser with an emphasis on financial documents.
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Helping everyone from startups to Fortune 10 enterprises unlock their data.
- Harvey
- Scale AI
- Newfront
- Medallion
- Vanta
- Legora
- Rogo
- Levelpath
- JLL
- Vise
- Laurel
- Toast
- Mercor
- Datasite
- Anterior
- Supio
- EliseAI
- Unify
Migration credits
Apply for migration creditsIf you're using another document processor, we'll give you up to $5,000 in credits to migrate your workload to Reducto.
At a glance
How Reducto and Pulse compare
Reducto wins on measured accuracy, platform breadth, and enterprise readiness at production scale. Pulse is a capable, focused parser.
| Dimension | Reducto | Pulse |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Full platform: parse, extract, split, classify, and edit in one API. | Focused parsing and extraction product, emphasizing financial documents. |
| Parsing accuracy | Yes: Up to 99–100% zero-shot accuracy on complex documents. | Partial: Solid on its core document types; narrower pipeline. |
| Structured extraction | Yes: Deep Extract: 99.6% precision and recall on micro1's benchmark. | Partial: Extraction offered, without granular per-field spatial citations. |
| Table extraction | Yes: Merged cells, multi-level headers, borderless tables. | Yes: A stated focus, particularly for financial documents. |
| Enterprise readiness | Yes: SOC 2 Type II; HIPAA/BAA and 24-hour API data expiry on Growth+; VPC to air-gapped. | Partial: Enterprise lists VPC, on-prem, air-gapped, retention, and HIPAA BAA options. |
| Production track record | Yes: 5B+ pages processed; Harvey, Scale AI, and Vanta in production. | Partial: Newer product, serving primarily small to mid-market teams. |
| Agent tooling | Yes: MCP server, CLI, Python/Node.js/Go SDKs, and Studio. | Partial: API-first; agent-native tooling is not the focus. |
| Pricing | From $0.01/page pay-as-you-go; $150 in free credits. | Self-serve: 20,000 free credits, then $0.015/credit; custom Enterprise pricing. |
Parse one of your hardest documents in Studio and compare the output side by side.
The comparison in depth
Where the differences actually show up
- Extraction accuracy, measured
- An independent benchmark commissioned by Reducto and conducted by micro1 evaluated extraction systems on 225 real, human-validated documents. Reducto Deep Extract ranked #1 on all four dimensions with 100% coverage, 99.6% precision, 99.6% recall, and 99.3% leaf accuracy, and completed every document with zero failures. Pulse wasn't part of that benchmark, so we won't claim a head-to-head result that doesn't exist. Benchmarks are a starting point, not a verdict: the numbers that matter are the ones on your own documents, which is why we encourage running both tools on the same set and comparing output directly.
- How Reducto reads documents
- Parse r-1 reads text, tables, figures, and layout together in one pass, with source grounding. In preview, r-1 is faster than Reducto's previous agentic pipeline, with 20% lower error. Legacy parsing and custom agentic processing remain available. Reducto uses frontier models rather than trying to replace them, balancing accuracy, latency, and throughput per document. Reducto supports handwriting, complex tables, strikethroughs, redlines, and advanced chart extraction.
- One platform vs a focused parser
- Pulse concentrates on parsing and extraction, and does the focused thing well. Reducto ships the complete toolkit (Parse, Extract, Split, Classify, and Edit) in a single API across 30+ file types and 100+ languages, plus an MCP server, CLI, and SDKs so agents can drive the same tools. If your workflow is read-then-act, where you extract data, fill forms, split packets, and classify inbound documents, one platform means fewer vendors, fewer glue layers, and fewer places for accuracy to leak between steps.
- Citations and auditability
- With citations enabled, Reducto links extracted values to their bounding-box positions in the source document, accessible via API and reviewable in Studio. For financial and other regulated workflows (exactly where Pulse aims), that audit trail is usually the difference between an extraction you can ship and one a compliance reviewer sends back. Pulse's output doesn't carry the same granular per-field spatial citations.
- Enterprise deployment and vendor maturity
- Reducto is SOC 2 Type II, with HIPAA/BAA on Growth and Enterprise and documented data-retention policies, and deploys hosted, in your VPC, on-prem, or fully air-gapped, with forward-deployed support and tailored SLAs. It has processed 5B+ pages in production for teams like Harvey, Scale AI, and Vanta. Pulse also lists private deployments and HIPAA BAAs on Enterprise. It is a promising earlier-stage vendor; that's not a knock, but if you're standardizing a document layer for years of production traffic, deployment flexibility and a proven track record at scale are fair things to weigh.
- Pricing structure, not just price
- Reducto includes $150 in free credits, with pay-as-you-go pricing and no monthly minimum. Parse r-1 is $0.01/page, Extract is $0.02/page, and Deep Extract is $0.04/page, with parsing included in both extraction prices. You can budget by page count instead of estimating variable credit usage, with no separate parsing bill for extraction. Pulse lists free self-serve access with 20,000 credits, followed by $0.015/credit; compare credits consumed for the same workflow against Reducto's per-product page rates. See processing rates.
- Migrating from Pulse
- Migrations are typically a matter of swapping the parse or extract call and mapping output formats. Reducto returns structured JSON with reading order, block types, and table structure, and the docs cover Python, Node.js, and Go SDKs. Because Split, Classify, and Edit live in the same API, teams often retire downstream glue code during the migration rather than porting it. Our engineers will run a migration eval with you on your own documents.
Which fits your team
Who should pick which
Different tools fit different stages. Here's the honest split.
Choose Reducto if…
- Accuracy on complex documents (dense tables, handwriting, scans, charts, redlines) directly gates your product quality.
- You're in a regulated industry where SOC 2, HIPAA, documented data-retention controls, or VPC/on-prem/air-gapped deployment are non-negotiable.
- Your workflow extends beyond parsing into extraction with citations, splitting, classification, or form filling and document editing.
- You need per-field spatial citations for compliance review, audit, or human-in-the-loop verification.
- You're standardizing a document layer for production scale and want a vendor with a proven track record: 5B+ pages processed for teams like Harvey, Scale AI, and Vanta.
Pulse may be a fit if…
- Your needs center on parsing a well-defined set of documents, particularly the financial documents where Pulse focuses.
- You want a focused, API-first parsing product and don't need splitting, classification, editing, or granular citations.
- You prefer working with a smaller, earlier-stage vendor and its credit-based pricing fits your usage.
FAQ
Common questions
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Read the comparisonFurther reading
Research before you choose
- BenchmarkComplex Document Extraction Benchmark
See how Deep Extract performed on micro1’s independent benchmark of complex document extraction.
- GuideIDP Enterprise Evaluation
Use a practical framework to evaluate document processing platforms for enterprise workloads.
- GuideBest OCR APIs for Complex Documents
Compare the OCR capabilities that matter when documents contain scans, tables, and mixed layouts.
Document work starts here
See the difference
Sign up with $150 in free credits, run your hardest documents through both tools, and compare the output side by side.
