Published prices (October 2026)
A survey of vendor price pages by Harbor found “about $4 to $18 per page when a person does the work, and from $0.30 to about $3.50 per page for automated tagging” (Harbor). Examples of public pricing:
| Vendor (public page) | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| EvoGov EvoPDFs | Automated, PDF/UA verified | $1.00 → $0.75 → $0.50/page by volume; $5 minimum per document |
| CASO Comply | Automated → human review tiers | $0.30 / $1.80 / from $12.00 per page |
| Accessiblü | Human remediation | $10 / $15 / $18 per page |
Prices change; always confirm with the vendor. Forms, complex tables and math are usually quoted separately.
What drives the cost
- Scanned pages need OCR, proofreading and full tagging.
- Untagged files need a complete tag tree and reading order.
- Tables and forms take the most human time per page.
- Images need alt text written by someone who understands the content.
- Metadata-only problems (title, language) are near-free to fix.
A simple estimating formula
Estimate = Σ (pages in category × rate for that category). A practical split:
- Scanned → human rate (OCR + tagging)
- Untagged → automated rate for simple text, human rate for tables/forms
- Tagged with issues → automated rate or a fraction of the human rate
- Metadata-only and passing → ~$0 (spot-check only)
Worked example
A city has 1,200 PDFs averaging 6 pages (7,200 pages). Triage shows 15% scanned, 45% untagged, 15% tagged with issues, 20% metadata-only and 5% passing.
| Category | Pages | Low ($1 auto) | High ($8 human) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scanned (always human) | 1,080 | $8,640 | $8,640 |
| Untagged | 3,240 | $3,240 | $25,920 |
| Tagged with issues | 1,080 | $1,080 | $8,640 |
| Metadata-only + passing | 1,800 | $0 | $0 |
| Total | 7,200 | $12,960 | $43,200 |
Quoting all 7,200 pages at $8 would have been $57,600. Knowing that a quarter of the files only needed metadata saved $14,400 at the high rate.
Ways to reduce the bill
- Retire or archive documents nobody uses (check the archive conditions first).
- Convert simple notices and agendas to accessible web pages.
- Batch-fix metadata-only files yourself.
- Fix your templates so new documents are born accessible.
Frequently asked questions
Is cheaper automated remediation good enough?
For simple text documents it often is, if the output is validated. Complex tables, forms and scanned documents usually still need human review.
Should we pay per page or per document?
Per-page pricing is predictable for long documents; per-document minimums hurt when you have many 1–2 page files. Triage your mix first to see which model fits.