AI Models and Providers
Supported AI models, provider tiers, and how to choose the right model.
Multi-provider architecture
PaperAI supports AI models from multiple providers, so you can choose the right balance of cost, speed, and quality for each document type. Models are managed by your platform admin and can be enabled or disabled per organization.
Provider
All models are served through Azure OpenAI:
- GPT-4o Mini (Standard) — Fast, cost-effective general-purpose model.
- Mistral Document AI (Standard) — Dedicated document model with built-in OCR, optimized for scanned documents and images.
- GPT-5.4 Mini (Standard) — Latest compact model with strong document understanding.
- GPT-4o (Premium) — Strong general-purpose vision and document understanding.
- GPT-5 Chat (Premium) — Highest accuracy for challenging documents.
Model tiers
Every model belongs to one of two tiers:
| Tier | Best for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Most document types — clean PDFs, mixed content, tables, headers, multi-column layouts | Lower credit cost per page |
| Premium | Complex documents — handwriting, poor scans, dense tables | Higher credit cost per page |
Choosing the right model
- Clean typed PDFs, text files, or documents with tables and mixed formatting → Standard tier. Fast, cost-effective, and accurate for most content.
- Handwritten notes, low-quality scans, or dense multi-page layouts → Premium tier. Highest accuracy for difficult inputs.
- Scanned images or faxes → Consider Mistral Document AI (Standard tier), which has built-in OCR specifically designed for scanned content.
Model capabilities
Models may support different capabilities:
- Vision — Can process images and scanned documents.
- Native PDF — Can accept PDF files directly without converting pages to images first. This is faster and more accurate for multi-page PDFs.
- Structured output — Can return data in structured formats.
Credit costs
Each model has a credit multiplier that determines the cost per page:
Credit cost = page count × credit multiplier (minimum 1 credit)Standard models have lower multipliers (e.g., 1.0×), while premium models have higher ones (e.g., 2.0×). The exact cost is shown before you start a conversion.
Model availability by plan
| Plan | Available tiers |
|---|---|
| Free | Standard only |
| Pro | Standard + Premium |
| Business | All tiers (Standard + Premium) |
| Scale | All tiers |
| Enterprise | All tiers |
Organization defaults
Admins can set a default AI model for the organization under Organization Settings → Processing. This model is pre-selected for manual conversions. Individual conversions and Flows can override this default.
Model selection priority
When processing a document, PaperAI resolves the model in this order:
- Model explicitly selected for this conversion
- Model configured in the selected Flow
- Organization's default model
- First available enabled model