# Faster, Smarter PDF Parsing

- Published: February 26, 2026

Our new PDF parsing engine delivers **3x faster parsing** and significantly improved reliability.

Rebuilt in Rust, it automatically adapts to any PDF - from clean text files to scanned reports and complex layouts - ensuring agents receive complete, accurate data every time.

![PDF Parser V2](/images/pdf-parser-v2.webp)

### Highlights

* **Rust-Based Parser** - A new high-performance engine built in Rust delivers up to 3x faster parsing, dramatically reducing latency in data ingestion and embedding workflows.
* **Three Parsing Modes** - Choose the right balance of speed and completeness:
  * `fast` - text-only parsing with the Rust engine for maximum performance.
  * `auto` - the new default; starts in fast mode and automatically falls back to OCR when needed. Auto intelligently detects when PDFs require OCR even if they appear text-based, handling edge cases like embedded images, graphs, multi-column layouts, and unusual text encodings.
  * `ocr` - forces OCR parsing for fully image-based or scanned documents.
* **Built for Production Reliability** - Extensively tested across thousands of real-world PDFs to ensure consistent, accurate extraction in production environments.

Read the full blog [here](/blog/pdf-parser-v2.md).

_Canonical HTML: https://www.firecrawl.dev/changelog/pdf-parser-v2_

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### On This Topic
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