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Power Automate - Building Flows
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Building invoice flow without AI builder

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Posted on by 2

Hello,

 

I want to ask if anyone can help me extract data off PDFs without AI builder? Can someone give me a list of ways I can extract data off PDF and put them into Excel?

 

I want to be able to extract data off Invoices which can be in different format but still get the right information to the excel table. I however find AI builder really expensive. Are there any cheap alternatives? Perhaps some that give us first 100 processes free- something like that.

  • takolota1 Profile Picture
    4,882 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    Re: Building invoice flow without AI builder

      So I built this template that processes any document just using the less expensive image recognition AI Builder service & GPT.

    It seems much less expensive with a much lower barrier to entry only requiring a premium Power Automate license with 5000 AI Builder credits per month & some on-going LLM / GPT costs…

    https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Power-Automate-Cookbook/Extract-Data-From-PDFs-and-Images-With-GPT/td-p/2201345/page/4

     

    If I’m looking at this right, this method should cost

    Image recognition +.0017

    GPT prompt & output +.007

    Flow actions +.00375

    So about $ .013 per page.

    Less expensive than any of the other microsoft document/receipt/invoice processing options. And several of those take about 30 seconds to run.
    And the 5000 AI Builder credits that come with the now $15 premium Power Automate license is enough for 1500 Image recognition pages. So you could probably process 500-750 documents per month with just 1 premium Power Automate license.


    So it seems this method is faster, less expensive, easier to adjust, & requires less set-up than other standard AI builder set-ups.

    Once the GPT actions are in general availability, I don’t know why I’d use any of the other services. 🤷‍

    @SomeName

  • SomeName Profile Picture
    2 on at
    Re: Building invoice flow without AI builder

    Hello @v-xiaochen-msft 

     

    First of all, thank you for reply.

     

    I did look into Encodian, but I noticed it just converts the data in plain text. I want to be able to transfer the data from PDF to Excel. With Encodian, it won't be able to recognize where it should store data.

     

    I guess something that has the ability of AI / machine learning that can then help me directly transfer the data into excel. I looked into DocParser, AI builder, Azure, however some cost a lot of money and some don't. I do not mind a little bit of cost, but I want to see if I can find a free version because that's always beneficial!

  • v-xiaochen-msft Profile Picture
    on at
    Re: Building invoice flow without AI builder

    Hi @SomeName ,

     

    Desktop flow could also extract data form PDF (OCR).

    In addition, some third-party connectors can meet your needs.

    For example:

    vxiaochenmsft_0-1638510584781.png

    But it's not for free.

     

    Some third-party APIs may also be able to achieve this .

     

    Best Regards,

    Wearsky

     

     

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