Document scanning prices

Almost no scanning bureau in Australia publishes a price. You ring, you describe your boxes, and a number comes back that you cannot compare with anyone else's. Here is ours, so you can work out roughly what your job costs before you talk to us.

OverviewPricingHow it worksAI indexing

Two ways to pay

Per box when you want a fixed number for a one-off archive. Hourly when you have paper arriving every week.

By the box

from $100 per box*

Covers collection, scanning, OCR, AI indexing and delivery. A fixed price per box, so you know the number before you commit.

* The $100 rate assumes paper that goes straight through a document scanner:

  • Loose paper that feeds through a document scanner
  • Up to 2,000 A4 pages in a standard archive box
  • No staples, clips, bindings or pockets
  • Nothing torn, folded, glued or stuck down
  • Single or double sided, colour or black and white

Anything stapled, bound, folded, torn or oversize takes hand work before it can be scanned, so it is quoted once we have seen a box.

By the hour

$60 per hour*

For ongoing work: regular collections, mixed paper, or an archive you want worked through steadily rather than all at once. You only pay for the time the paper actually takes.

* Hourly is an ongoing arrangement and requires a minimum of 5 hours booked each week. Pickup, return and the handling time either end are chargeable; dropping boxes to us is free. For one-off jobs, per box is almost always the better deal and we will say so.

Booking more than a day a week? Talk to us — regular volume is priced differently.

All prices exclude GST.

What gets quoted instead

Not because we are being cagey, but because the cost is almost entirely hand-handling time and nobody can judge that down a phone line. Send us one box and we will give you a fixed price for the lot.

MaterialWhy
Stapled, clipped or bound bundlesEvery fastener comes out by hand before a page can be fed
Books, ledgers and minute booksScanned on a flatbed a page at a time, or guillotined if you allow it
Torn, folded or fragile paperRepaired and flattened, or sleeved and fed in a carrier
Faded thermal, fax and carbon paperNeeds slower scanning and per-page checking to stay readable
Plans and drawings, A2 to A0Wide format equipment, and rolled sheets need relaxing flat first
Microfiche and microfilmSpecialist equipment
Photos, slides and negativesHandled individually rather than fed

Included, not extra

This is the part worth comparing. The middle column is what the rest of the market charges for the same thing, on top of the scan. On a box of 200 documents, per-field indexing alone usually adds $40 to $180.

What you getTypical market rateOur price
OCR, so every page is searchable$0.02 - $0.08 per pageIncluded
AI reads each document and works out what it isnot offeredIncluded
Files named by what is in them, not Scan0001.pdf$0.05 - $0.25 per documentIncluded
Metadata fields captured per document$0.50 - $2.00 per documentIncluded
Blank and duplicate pages removedcharged as scanned pagesIncluded
One PDF per real document, not one per sheetrarely offeredIncluded
Delivery to SharePoint, a drive, your app or a USBUSB or download onlyIncluded
Audit report of every file we handledon requestIncluded
How we index without charging per field

Everything else

Charged only if you want it.

ServicePrice
Drop your boxes to usFree
Pickup from you, Gold Coast and BrisbaneCharged, including handling time
Return of your originals to youCharged, including handling time
Secure shredding after scanningQuoted
Storage while you decideQuoted
Rush turnaroundQuoted
Integration into your CRM, or a cloud document portal we buildFree on longer term contracts
Custom AI tagging flow for your document typesQuoted

Why choose us

Why choose HotSnail over another scanning bureau?

Because we are a software company that owns commercial scanners, not a scanning bureau that bought some software. Most bureaus hand back a folder of PDFs named Scan0001 to Scan4312. We read each document, name it from its contents and tag it, and we will put it into the system your staff already use. On longer term contracts we will build that system for you at no charge.

Why not just hire someone to scan it in-house?

Plenty of businesses try, and it is worth doing the sum first. Even on award rates an employee costs you north of $30 an hour once superannuation at 12%, workers compensation and leave are counted, because you pay for roughly 46 productive weeks out of 52. So yes, our hourly rate is about double theirs. The comparison that matters is what each hour produces. Ours includes a production scanner running several times faster than anything that sits on a desk, and software that reads, names and tags every document as it goes. Theirs includes an office multifunction and somebody typing file names. On a 2,000 page box that difference is not marginal: our box rate works out at around three hours of employee time, and three hours is nowhere near enough for one person to prepare, scan, name and index that box. You also avoid buying the scanner, which is $5,000 to $15,000 for a production machine and more again for wide format, and you avoid the thing nobody budgets for, which is the project stalling at box nine because the person doing it has an actual job to get back to. Our work finishes. An employee does not.

Can you put the documents into our CRM?

Yes. We build software for a living, so integrating into your CRM, practice management system or job management tool is ordinary work for us rather than a special project. If you do not have anywhere sensible to put the documents, we will build you a searchable cloud document library instead. Both are included free on contracts of 6 months or longer, and quoted as a project otherwise.

Can you tag our documents automatically with AI?

Yes, and it is the main reason to use us. Our AI reads each page, works out what the document is, and pulls out the fields that matter to you, such as invoice numbers, dates, client names, job or matter references, and property addresses. For document types specific to your business we build a custom AI flow trained on your paperwork. Where the AI is not confident it flags the document for a human rather than guessing, because a wrong label is worse than no label.

Can you handle our incoming mail as well as our archive?

Yes, and as far as we know we are the only people in South East Queensland who do both. HotSnail has run a mail scanning service for 17 years. That means we can digitise the archive sitting in your storeroom and then keep the paper from piling up again, by receiving your post, scanning it and filing it into the same place with the same tagging. Your old records and your new post end up in one searchable library instead of two systems.

Are your staff checked?

Everyone who handles your documents has passed a national police check. HotSnail has handled confidential mail for Australian customers since 2009, so looking after other people's private paperwork is the whole business rather than a sideline.

What happens to our documents if something goes wrong?

Every file we take is accounted for: scanned, held for the next run, or reported to you as an error. Nothing is ever quietly skipped or deleted, and you get an audit report listing every file we handled and what became of it. Your boxes stay in a controlled room, not on a warehouse floor.

Questions about the price

How much does it cost to scan a box of documents?

From $100 a box for loose paper that feeds straight through a document scanner, covering up to 2,000 A4 pages, scanning, OCR, AI indexing and delivery. Boxes with staples, bindings, folded or fragile paper cost more because every fastener has to come out by hand, and those are quoted once we have seen a box.

How much does bulk document scanning cost?

Large jobs are priced per box from $100, or at $60 an hour for ongoing work. Per box suits a one-off archive clearout where you want a fixed number before you commit. Hourly suits regular collections, where volume varies week to week, and requires a minimum of 5 hours booked each week. If you expect to book more than a day a week, talk to us, because regular volume is priced differently.

How many pages are in a standard archive box?

About 2,000 to 2,500 A4 pages when packed properly. A rough check: a 5cm bundle of paper is around 500 sheets, so a full box is four to five bundles deep. If you are not sure, we will count the first box and tell you.

Why does stapled paper cost more to scan?

Because scanning is the fast part. A production scanner gets through a box of loose paper in well under an hour. Taking out staples and clips, flattening folds and repairing tears takes considerably longer and has to be done by hand. Every bureau prices this the same way, which is why our per box rate assumes loose, feedable paper.

What happens to documents that will not go through a scanner?

They are pulled out during preparation and handled separately, then put back in the right order in the output. Fragile, torn and small items are fed inside clear carrier sleeves. Bound books go on a flatbed a page at a time, or have the spine guillotined if you authorise destroying the original. Plans and drawings go through wide format equipment. Nothing is forced through a feeder and nothing is skipped.

Do you charge for pickup?

Yes. Pickup is charged, and so is the handling time at either end, because a collection run between the Gold Coast and Brisbane is real time out of the day. Bringing your originals back afterwards is charged the same way. If you would rather avoid it, dropping your boxes to us on the Gold Coast is free, and so is collecting them again at the end. We give you the address when you book. Both options are quoted with the job so you can see the difference before choosing.

Can I get a fixed price rather than a range?

Yes, and that is how we prefer to work. Send us one box, or let us collect one. We scan it free, you see exactly what comes back, and we quote the rest of the job as a fixed price based on what that box actually contained.

Do you charge for blank pages?

No. Double sided scanning produces a blank image for every single sided sheet, and some bureaus bill those as scanned pages. We detect and drop them, so you are not charged for them and you do not have to click past them later.

Is scanning cheaper than paying for document storage?

Usually, over any length of time. Offsite storage runs from around $4 a box a month and never stops. Scanning is paid once, and afterwards the box is gone rather than accruing rent. The crossover is typically three to five years, sooner if anyone ever has to retrieve a file.

Do you scan documents outside the Gold Coast and Brisbane?

We collect in person between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, including Logan, Ipswich and the Tweed. Further afield, send the boxes by courier and we handle them the same way, then return or shred them.

Want a fixed price?

Send us a box count and a rough idea of what is in it. Better still, let us collect one box and scan it free, so you can see the output and we can quote the rest as a fixed price.

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