# Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Amazon Textract

> Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 55.9 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 55.9 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do docs parse.

- Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API: grade C, 55.9/100, rank #578 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.json
- Amazon Textract: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #85 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-textract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json

## Which one, for what

### Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API (C)

Good for: Teams already on Adobe that want PDF extraction and PDF manipulation on one credential, with EU processing.

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No published paid price, paid use goes through sales

### Amazon Textract (BB)

Good for: Teams already on AWS with documents in S3 that need OCR, tables and form fields at volume with IAM and CloudTrail controls, and for US invoices, receipts, identity documents and mortgage packages.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 96 against 50
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 57
- Security & auth, 74 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 58 against 53

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: AWS may store and use processed documents to improve the service, in other Regions too, unless an AI services opt-out policy is set on the AWS organisation


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Amazon Textract | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 96 | Amazon Textract +46 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 82 | Amazon Textract +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 70 | Amazon Textract +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 74 | Amazon Textract +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 35 | Amazon Textract +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 58 | Amazon Textract +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 82 | Amazon Textract +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.9 · C** | **73.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Amazon Textract |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adobe | Amazon Web Services |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://pdf-services.adobe.io` | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement. The AWS SDKs and the Textractor helper library are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-10 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-08-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-24 | 2026-05-18 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 165 stars, 82k npm/wk, 58k PyPI/wk | 1.9M npm/wk, 208k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API.** Public OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec covering Extract, PDF to Markdown and 20 other operations. No published paid price, paid use goes through sales.

**Amazon Textract.** IAM policies limit a credential to single operations, CloudTrail logs every call, and page prices start at $1.50 per 1,000 in US East. Multipage files need S3 and an asynchronous job. Text detection covers six languages. Under the AWS Service Terms AWS may store and use documents to improve the service unless an AI services opt-out policy is set.

## Before you call either

### Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API

1. Cache the access token and reuse it until it expires
2. Budget 1 Document Transaction per 5 pages for Extract and PDF to Markdown, so 500 free transactions cover about 2,500 pages
3. Pass `notifiers` with a callback URL instead of polling the job status
4. Use `pdf-services-ew1.adobe.io` when documents must stay in the EU
5. Check `/operation/pdfproperties` first, since copy-protected PDFs fail Extract with DISQUALIFIED_PERMISSIONS

### Amazon Textract

1. Sign with SigV4 for service `textract` at `textract.<region>.amazonaws.com`, or call `aws textract detect-document-text`. The AWS CLI can't send image bytes, so reference an S3 object
2. Use `StartDocumentTextDetection` or `StartDocumentAnalysis` for any PDF or TIFF of more than one page, pass a `ClientRequestToken`, then page `Get` calls with `NextToken` (1,000 blocks at most each)
3. Fetch results within 7 days of starting a job, or set `OutputConfig` to write them to your own S3 bucket
4. Request only the `FeatureTypes` you need. Forms cost $50 per 1,000 pages against $15 for tables or queries in US East
5. Back off on `ProvisionedThroughputExceededException` (HTTP 400) and `ThrottlingException` (HTTP 500). Neither carries Retry-After, and default quotas are 1 call a second in most Regions
6. Set the AI services opt-out policy on the AWS organisation before sending customer documents

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API or Amazon Textract?

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 55.9 (C), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API and Amazon Textract need an API key?

Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API uses an OAuth sign-in. Amazon Textract needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API and Amazon Textract without installing anything?

Yes. Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API has a hosted endpoint at https://pdf-services.adobe.io and Amazon Textract at https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-amazon-textract.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "adobe-pdf-extract", "b": "amazon-textract"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare adobe-pdf-extract amazon-textract`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json

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