Tool profile
Carbone: cost, fit and limits
Carbone is a document generation engine made by Carbone, a French company, that merges JSON data into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML or Markdown templates and returns PDF or Office files. It runs as a cloud service, as an on-premise server or on AWS, and developers call it through an API or an MCP server.
What to know first
Carbone works from a template you own, with tags such as loops and conditions typed into a normal Office file. Data goes in as JSON and a finished file comes out, so the quote that matters is per document, not per token. Cloud plans run from a free 100 documents to 500,000 a month, and a free self-hosted Community Edition exists. The AI part helps write templates, while the render itself does not call a model.
Carbone at a glance
| Maker | Carbone, France |
|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes |
| Entry price | 29 euros per month |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Document Generation Software in 2026, rank 1 of 10 |
| Website | carbone.io |
Who Carbone is best for
Backend developers
A REST API, SDKs for several languages and tag-based templates let one engineer wire invoices or reports into an application without a design tool.
Finance teams issuing e-invoices
The pricing page lists PDF/A, PDF/UA export and Factur-X attachments, which matter when invoices must be archived or exchanged in a structured format.
Companies that must self-host
The Community Edition has no document or server limit, and paid licenses start at 1,500 euros a year, so generation can stay inside your own network.
Teams using AI assistants
An official MCP server is included in every plan, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can manage templates and render files from a chat request.
Carbone plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Cloud) | 0 euros | 100 documents a month, 100 templates and 15 days of analytics history, with no cost for the first template experiments. |
| Essential | 29 euros per month, 26 euros billed yearly | 1,000 documents a month; extra documents are billed at the end of the period from 0.02 euro each. |
| Advanced | 159 euros per month, 149 euros billed yearly | 20,000 documents a month, between the 5,000-document Essential Plus and the 100,000-document Advanced Plus tiers. |
| On-Premise Fit | 1,500 euros per year | One server with Enterprise features included. The Free Community edition has no limits but leaves the Enterprise features out. |
| AWS Private Cloud | From $0.15 per document | Usage-based billing that starts at $0.15 for the first 100 documents and falls to $0.008 above 10,000. |
Checked November 2026.
What Carbone does
- Tag-based Office templates
- Designers write placeholders, loops and conditions inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML or Markdown files. Output includes PDF and editable Office formats, and the page lists more than 100 supported conversions.
- Deterministic output
- The AI page states that the same template and data always produce byte-identical output. Rendering does not need a model for each file, which keeps cost per render fixed and makes audit and version control simpler.
- MCP server and Skill
- A remote MCP server lets an assistant manage templates, convert files and render documents. A separate open-source Carbone Skill teaches an assistant the tags, formatters and validation rules, and it can fix or migrate existing templates.
- Localized formatting
- Dates, numbers and currencies follow the locale, including right-to-left languages, so one template and dataset can produce files in several languages without separate template copies.
- Archive-ready PDF
- PDF/A (ISO 19005) and PDF/UA (ISO 14289) export are listed, alongside Factur-X attachments, which suits invoices that must be stored long term or meet accessibility rules.
How Carbone handles your data
Carbone's privacy notice says its servers are located in France, and the pricing page names OVHcloud, Scaleway and BunnyCDN as cloud hosts. Some sub-processors may process data in other countries, including the United States, and the current list sits in its Trust Center. Account data is removed from the active database within 30 days of closure, invoices are kept for 10 years and card data stays with Stripe. The notice does not say whether customer data trains AI models, so the vendor's policy was not checked for this.
Where Carbone falls short in practice
- No certification list on the pages read. The pricing page links a Trust Center and a Security Policy but names no ISO 27001 or SOC 2 status. A buyer with a compliance questionnaire has to open those pages or ask.
- Tags need learning. Loops, conditions and formatters are typed into the template with Carbone's own syntax. A business user can edit a finished template, but building a new complex one is closer to light programming than to a visual designer.
Works with
Alternatives to Carbone
Carbone: common questions
Does Carbone send my documents to an AI model when it renders?
No. The AI page says rendering does not need an AI for each document and that cost is per render. The model helps design the template or fix tags, and the final file is built from your data. Cost stays tied to renders, not to AI tokens.
What does the free Community Edition leave out?
The pricing page says the free on-premise Community Edition has no document or server limit but does not include Enterprise features. The 1,500 euro Fit license adds those features for one server, and Unlimited starts from 2,940 euros a year.
Can Carbone produce Excel and PowerPoint, not only PDF?
Yes. Templates can be Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML or Markdown, and the output can be PDF or an editable Office file. The AI page lists dynamic tables, charts, formulas and barcodes among supported features. One template and one dataset can also feed several output formats and locales.
How is usage above my plan billed?
Documents beyond the monthly allowance are billed at the end of the period, from 0.02 euro each on Essential down to 0.001 euro on the top plans. The plan does not stop at the limit. Plan sizes run from 1,000 documents on Essential to 500,000 on Advanced Ultra, so pick the tier from your monthly peak.
Where does the Carbone cloud run?
The pricing page describes a European cloud on OVHcloud, Scaleway and BunnyCDN, and the privacy notice says servers are in France. For stricter needs the page lists on-premise and EU-sovereign deployment options. A strict buyer can also run the free Community Edition on its own servers instead.