How to Use Baidu Unlimited OCR from Anywhere in the World (2026)

Last week, Baidu open-sourced Unlimited-OCR under the MIT license — a model that can transcribe dozens of pages in a single forward pass, using a novel "glance attention" mechanism inspired by how humans copy documents.

This is exciting for document digitization and form processing. But there's a catch many international developers don't realize: registering for Baidu AI APIs from outside China is a real obstacle.

The Pain Point

To use Baidu's OCR through their official API, you need:

1. A Chinese phone number for SMS verification
2. Real-name authentication (身份证实名认证)
3. A Chinese bank card or Alipay account for deposits
4. Minimum pre-payment of ¥100+ (+) before your first call

If you're a developer in the US, Europe, or Southeast Asia — or really anywhere without a 中国手机号 — this is a showstopper. Even with a VPN, the Baidu AI platform requires Chinese ID for paid tiers.

What Baidu Unlimited-OCR Actually Is

Unlimited-OCR is an open-source model (MIT license) that processes entire multi-page documents in one pass. It achieves 96%+ accuracy on Chinese text using a transformer architecture with a "glance attention" mechanism — the model maintains a context of previously transcribed regions so it doesn't re-scan everything on each page.

Key specs:

• Processes dozens of document pages in one forward pass
• MIT licensed — fully open source
• 96%+ accuracy on Chinese printed text
• Supports English, Japanese, and mixed-language documents

The model weights are on GitHub, but running it yourself requires significant GPU resources. Many developers prefer an API-based approach.

The Workaround: GoldBean

GoldBean is a pay-per-use API marketplace that wraps Baidu's AI APIs behind a simple REST interface. The key differentiator: you don't need a Chinese phone number or ID to use it.

Try it with curl:

ash
curl -X POST https://goldbean-api.xyz/paid/baidu-ocr \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_KEY" \
-d '{"image": "https://example.com/doc.jpg"}'


In Python:

python
import requests
resp = requests.post(
"https://goldbean-api.xyz/paid/baidu-ocr",
json={"image": "https://example.com/doc.jpg"},
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_KEY"}
)
print(resp.json()["words_result"])


Pricing vs Baidu Direct

Feature	Baidu Direct	GoldBean
Registration	Chinese phone + ID	Email only
Min deposit	¥100 ()	(free tier)
Per call	¥0.02-0.05	.01-0.02
Payment	Alipay/WeChat (CN only)	USDC, PayPal, Alipay
Free tier	None	50 calls/day
Global	China VPN often needed	Works worldwide

Beyond OCR

GoldBean also offers Baidu Translation, TTS, NLP, Face Detection, and PaddleOCR-VL — all through the same no-hassle registration. 120+ endpoints in total.

Try it: goldbean-api.xyz — no phone number, no ID, no deposit. 50 free calls/day.

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Have you tried Baidu's Unlimited-OCR? Drop your experience below.

GoldBean (GB) — Wishing You Good Fortune & Prosperity 🫘