Business document scanning costs about $120 to $350 per banker's box, or roughly 4 to 9 cents a page, when a scanning bureau publishes its rate. We checked the websites of 30 US scanning providers on September 27, 2026. Twelve publish a figure. For 50 boxes of office records, year one runs from about $6,000 at the cheapest published per-box rate to about $30,000 on a per-pound mail-in service, a 5 to 1 spread for the same paper.
That spread is not about scan quality. It comes from the unit. One bureau prices by the box, another by the page, a third by the image (so a two-sided sheet counts twice), a fourth by the pound. Each one bundles a different set of prep, indexing, OCR, pickup and shredding into the headline number. This guide lines them up so a records manager, practice administrator or office manager holding two quotes can see which one is actually cheaper for their boxes.
Every figure below was read on the provider's own website. Where a provider publishes only an industry range, or nothing at all, the tables say so rather than repeating a number from a directory.
How much does document scanning cost per box?
A standard banker's box (about 15 x 12 x 10 inches, roughly 2,000 to 2,500 letter pages) costs $120 to $350 to scan at the bureaus that publish a box rate. Most land between $137 and $279. The price usually includes 300 dpi scanning, OCR to searchable PDF and a few index fields, but shredding, extra fields and pickup vary.
The two numbers that move the quote most are pages per box and what the box price includes. ARC Document Solutions charges $279 but includes three index fields and pickup on five boxes or more. VDOCS charges $149 and lists prep and indexing as included. StoreMore charges $350 for one to nine boxes and drops to $250 at ten, then bills every image over 2,400 separately.
Document scanning pricing by provider
The table lists what each provider states on its own site. "Starting at" and "average" figures are labeled as such, because they are not quotes. Rows that publish nothing are kept in on purpose: if a provider will not print a rate, you cannot hold it to one.
| Provider | Published price (checked September 27, 2026) | Unit | What the price includes | Extras and minimums |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARC Document Solutions | $279 per box | Box, 15 x 12 x 10 in | 300 dpi, auto color, OCR, up to 3 index fields, up to 50 folders, secure download | Extra index field $7.50 per box; shredding $10.50; HIPAA request documents $20.00; extra 50 folders $10.00; thumb drive $25.00; pickup included within 20 miles on 5+ boxes |
| StoreMore Store | $350 per box (1 to 9 boxes); $250 per box (10+ boxes) | Box, about 2,400 images | 300 dpi full color, OCR, multi-page PDF | Images over 2,400 billed per image; certified shredding +$8.25 per box; index file +$90 per box; originals held 60 days, then $1.25 per box per month |
| VDOCS (Florida) | $149 per box, or $0.069 per page; custom $0.05 to $0.15 per scan | Box (2,000 to 2,500 pages) or page | Prep, indexing, color and B&W, 300 dpi, blank page removal, OCR, QC | Pickup for larger jobs in Florida; no minimum stated |
| File 2 Disc (Florida) | $150 per box (special offer); pages from $0.04 | Box or page | Basic prep (staples, clips), duplex, 300 dpi, 20 index fields per box, OCR, CD or USB | 3 box minimum; shredding "small fee", amount not published |
| Green Shredding (San Diego) | About $150 per file box (stated average) | Box | Pickup and delivery, up to 20 index fields, OCR, certified destruction | $200 project minimum; prep, color and extra indexing quoted separately |
| ScansAmerica (Virginia) | From $120 per banker box | Box | "Turnkey processing", not itemized | None stated |
| Turn Source Imaging (Southern California) | $0.055 per image, $137.50 per box (billed averages, Jan to Jun 2026) | Image or box (about 2,500 images) | Not itemized | Per-file indexing $0.35 to $0.85; smallest job billed $455 |
| ScanPros | From about $0.08 per image, roughly $200 per box | Image (a two-sided page is two images) | Described as all inclusive, OCR, 300 dpi | None stated |
| SecureScan | $0.09 per sheet (calculator rate), about $225 per box | Sheet | Not itemized | Calculator assumes 2,200 to 2,500 sheets per box |
| Scannmore | $0.09 per sheet (calculator rate) | Sheet | Not itemized | OCR $1.00 per box; shredding one month after scanning, fee not shown |
| Smooth Photo Scanning (mail-in) | $0.08 to $0.38 per page | Page, up to 11 x 17 in | Not itemized | Free two-way shipping on orders over $250 |
| Heirloom (mail-in) | $24.99 per pound simple, $49.99 per pound complex | Pound | 300 dpi searchable PDF with OCR, originals returned | Shipping kit from $20; label $14.99; itemized quote after inspection |
| Iron Mountain | Quote only; instant quote page blocked by a security check | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Five more providers publish nothing at all: Vital Records Control, Access (which now owns what was Cintas document management), DataBank IMX, Southwest Solutions and Allied Document Solutions. Iron Mountain's enterprise scanning page is quote only as well. Another eight, among them Corodata ($300 to $500), Recordsforce ($200 to $400) and Emerald Document Imaging ($0.08 to $0.18 a page), quote only industry ranges, not their own rate. ScanHouse, Docufree and Shred-it blocked our checks.
What is the federal benchmark for scanning prices?
The National Archives publishes sample digitization pricing drawn from GSA Schedule contracts: $0.04 to $0.07 per image for standard black and white paper, $0.05 to $0.15 for color, $0.90 to $1.80 for oversized sheets, and $0.005 to $0.019 per keystroke for indexing. Its worked example prices a 2,000 page box at $145.50, including $5.50 to destroy the originals.
That $145.50 is a useful sanity check. A commercial quote well above it usually means heavy prep, many index fields or a small job. A quote well below it usually means something in the NARA bundle is missing from the headline.
Per page, per image, per box or per pound: why quotes don't line up
| Billing unit | Who uses it | What trips buyers up |
|---|---|---|
| Per box | ARC, StoreMore, VDOCS, File 2 Disc, Green Shredding, ScansAmerica | The box is defined by size, not pages. An overstuffed box or legal paper can push you into per-image overage (StoreMore bills past 2,400). |
| Per page or sheet | VDOCS, SecureScan, Scannmore, Smooth | "Page" may mean a sheet or a side. Green Shredding counts both sides as one page; that halves the cost of duplex records against a per-image quote. |
| Per image | ScanPros, Turn Source, NARA sample pricing | Every scanned side is an image. Double-sided HR files or invoices can almost double the image count against the sheet count. |
| Per pound | Heirloom | Office paper weighs about 5 pounds per 500 sheets, so a 2,400 page box is roughly 24 pounds, or about $600 at $24.99 a pound. Per pound suits small mixed mail-in jobs, not office archives. |
The pages per box figure alone swings a quote by a third. The providers above define a banker's box as anything from 1,800 pages (WCD) and 2,000 (NARA) to 2,400 (StoreMore) and 2,500 (Turn Source, SecureScan's upper bound). Before you compare, count one real box: pull a two inch stack, count it, and multiply by the inches in the box.
What does it cost to scan 50 boxes of records?
We priced one scenario on each published rate: 50 banker's boxes, 2,400 single-sided letter pages each (120,000 pages), OCR, a few index fields per box, and the originals shredded afterward. Where a provider bundles shredding or indexing, we did not add it twice.
| Quote basis | 50 boxes, 120,000 pages | How we got there |
|---|---|---|
| ScansAmerica, from $120 per box | $6,000 and up | Starting price only, contents not itemized |
| Turn Source Imaging, $137.50 billed average | About $6,875 | Average billed in H1 2026, not a quote |
| NARA GSA sample, $145.50 per box | $7,275 | $0.07 per side plus $5.50 per box destruction |
| VDOCS, $149 per box | $7,450 | Prep, indexing and OCR included; shredding not listed |
| Green Shredding, about $150 per box | About $7,500 | Stated average; pickup, 20 index fields and destruction included |
| File 2 Disc, $150 per box | $7,500 plus shredding | Special offer price; shredding fee not published |
| VDOCS, $0.069 per page | $8,280 | 120,000 pages on the per-page rate |
| ScanPros, about $200 per box | About $10,000 | Starting estimate, described as all inclusive |
| SecureScan or Scannmore calculator, $0.09 per sheet | $10,800 to $10,850 | Plus $1.00 per box OCR at Scannmore |
| StoreMore, $250 per box (10+) | $12,913 to $17,413 | $12,500 plus $8.25 shredding per box; $90 per box more for an index file |
| ARC, $279 per box | $14,475 | Includes OCR, 3 index fields and pickup; plus $10.50 shredding per box |
| Heirloom, $24.99 per pound | About $30,000 | About 24 pounds per box at 5 pounds per 500 sheets |
Three things stand out. First, the cheapest real rate card (VDOCS at $149 with prep and indexing included) lands within $200 of the federal benchmark, so the low end is not a teaser. Second, the $90 per box index file at StoreMore adds more to the job than the shredding at any provider. Third, per pound pricing is built for a family shoebox, not for 50 boxes of patient charts or AP files. At office volume it costs about four times a box rate.
What drives the quote beyond the scan itself
Indexing. The scan is cheap; keying the fields that make a file findable is not. NARA's range is $0.005 to $0.019 per keystroke, Turn Source bills $0.35 to $0.85 per file, and ARC charges $7.50 per extra field per box. Decide the fields before the quote (client name, date, document type is usually enough) and ask for the price at that field count. The rule we give for a contract repository setup holds here too: ten fields captured well beat forty captured badly.
Prep. Staples, sticky notes, folded pages and bound files are hand work. File 2 Disc includes basic prep in its box price; Green Shredding quotes it separately. Records that sat in a storage unit for ten years can double the labor.
Sides. Ask whether the quote is per sheet or per side. On double-sided files a per-image rate of 5.5 cents behaves like 11 cents a sheet.
What happens to the paper. Certified shredding runs $8.25 (StoreMore) to $10.50 (ARC) per box, and NARA budgets $5.50. Green Shredding includes it. If you keep the originals in the bureau's facility, StoreMore charges $1.25 per box per month after 60 days.
Minimums and small jobs. File 2 Disc has a 3 box minimum, Green Shredding a $200 project minimum, and Turn Source's smallest billed job was $455. Under five boxes, the minimum often sets the price, not the rate.
Where the files go. A folder of PDFs on a USB drive is the default. Loading them into your document system with the index fields mapped is a separate line item. If you are also choosing that system, our DMS pricing guide lists what 13 document management vendors charge per user, and backfile conversion is usually the biggest year one cost on it.
Is it cheaper to scan records or keep them in storage?
It depends on how often anyone pulls a box. The National Archives' own model is the clearest answer we found: 1,000 boxes stored five years at a federal records center cost $180.53 per box if three quarters of them are retrieved twice a year, against $145.50 per box to digitize and destroy them. If only 5% are retrieved once a year, storage costs $19.94 per box and scanning loses.
For a private business the logic is the same, with commercial storage at roughly $1.25 per box per month (StoreMore's published rate) instead of the federal $0.24. Fifty boxes cost $750 a year to store, so scanning them for about $7,500 pays back on rent alone only after a decade. The case for scanning is retrieval: every time someone drives to a unit, or waits a day for a box delivery, to find one invoice or one signed form. If your team pulls files weekly, scan the active years and leave closed files in storage until they hit their destruction date.
How to get a firm quote from a scanning company
A bureau can only price what it can see. Send every provider the same one page brief so the quotes come back comparable:
- Number of boxes and a counted pages per box figure, plus the share that is double sided.
- Paper condition: staples, bound files, sticky notes, sizes above legal.
- The index fields you want and whether they are on a folder tab or inside the document.
- Output: searchable PDF, file naming rule, and where it is delivered.
- Shredding, return or storage of originals, and whether you need a certificate of destruction.
- Any regulated content (patient records, SSNs, card data) and the paperwork you need for it.
Then ask for one test box. Most bureaus price a pilot, and it is the only way to see their real page count and their indexing accuracy before you sign for 50 boxes. If your boxes are mostly supplier bills left over from a paper vendor invoice management process, the scan is only half of the job: to get the vendor, date and amounts into your books you also need to pull the data off each scanned invoice, and it is worth asking whether the bureau's index can carry the invoice number so the two line up.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to scan a box of documents?
Scanning a standard banker's box costs about $120 to $350 at US bureaus that publish a rate, with most between $137 and $279. The federal GSA sample works out to $145.50 per 2,000 page box including destruction. Expect the higher end when you need many index fields, heavy prep or pickup on a small order.
How much does it cost to scan documents per page?
Published per page rates run from $0.04 (File 2 Disc, starting price) to about $0.09 per sheet for standard office paper, and $0.08 to $0.38 at a mail-in service. NARA's GSA benchmark is $0.04 to $0.07 per black and white image. Oversized sheets cost $0.90 to $1.80 each.
How many pages are in a banker's box?
A standard 15 x 12 x 10 inch banker's box holds about 2,000 to 2,500 letter pages when filled normally. Providers use different figures in their pricing: WCD assumes 1,800, NARA 2,000, StoreMore 2,400 and Turn Source about 2,500. Count a sample box before you compare box quotes.
Do document scanning services shred the originals?
Most offer it, at a separate fee. StoreMore charges $8.25 per box for certified shredding and ARC $10.50, while Green Shredding includes certified destruction in its box price. Ask for a certificate of destruction and a hold period so you can check the images before the paper is gone.
Are document scanning services HIPAA compliant?
Many claim HIPAA compliance on their sites, but almost none mention a business associate agreement, which is what a covered entity actually needs before handing over patient records. Of the providers we checked, only Scannmore names BAAs explicitly. ARC lists a $20 per box HIPAA documentation fee. Get the signed BAA before the first box leaves the building.
Is bulk scanning cheaper per page?
Yes, but the discount is modest at published rates. StoreMore drops from $350 to $250 a box at ten boxes, and custom VDOCS pricing runs $0.05 to $0.15 per scan for large projects. Below five boxes, project minimums ($200 to $455) often matter more than the per page rate.
The short version
Budget $150 to $280 per banker's box, or about $7,500 to $14,500 for 50 boxes, with OCR, basic indexing and shredding. Before comparing quotes, pin down three things every bureau defines differently: pages per box, sheets versus sides, and what the box price includes. Use the NARA $145.50 per box figure as the benchmark, pay for one pilot box, and scan the files your team actually pulls. Closed files that nobody opens are usually cheaper left in a box until their destruction date.