Nougat review
A free, open-source parser focused on converting scientific PDFs into markup.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Nougat is open-source software from Meta Platforms, Inc. that converts scientific PDFs into lightweight, Markdown-compatible markup saved as .mmd files. Its focus is researchers who need to extract academic document content, especially mathematics and tables, rather than users seeking a general-purpose PDF workflow. It can process an individual PDF or a directory of PDFs, and supports selecting pages for processing. Nougat is available as self-hosted software with a locally runnable prediction API; it is not presented as a priced hosted service.
Its central strength is handling academic content: Nougat parses LaTeX mathematics and tables alongside document text. Users can choose between small and base model checkpoints, and can run predictions through the command-line interface or start the optional local API for programmatic use. Directory processing suits workloads involving multiple PDFs, while page selection allows processing a chosen portion of a document. These capabilities make it a focused option for converting research papers into markup, not a substitute for tools aimed at arbitrary PDF types.
Nougat is free and open source, but its licenses have an important distinction: the codebase is MIT-licensed, while the model weights are licensed CC-BY-NC. Its documentation says it works best with English papers similar to arXiv and PMC papers used for training, so readers handling other languages or document styles should consider whether that fit is sufficient. Documentation and community are the listed support channels. Researchers comfortable running self-hosted software and working with academic PDFs should consider Nougat; those needing broader document coverage or a hosted service should look elsewhere.
Nougat pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Converts academic PDFs to Markdown-compatible .mmd files
- Parses LaTeX mathematics and tables
- Processes individual PDFs or directories, with page selection
- Where it doesn't
- Designed for scientific documents rather than broad PDF extraction
- Works best with English papers similar to arXiv and PMC training papers
- Model weights use a CC-BY-NC license
Nougat fact sheet, pricing and score →
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