# Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Extend API + MCP

> Extend API + MCP has a score of 62.9 (B) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 29 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-extend
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-extend.md (~1,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-extend.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-extend.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: 2026-10-05

Extend API + MCP has a score of 62.9 (B) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 29 points.

- Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API: grade C, 56/100, rank #307 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.json
- Extend API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #211 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/extend.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/extend.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API for security & auth (+12), transparency & trust (+13).

Pick Extend API + MCP for reliability (+17), schema & documentation (+7), agent ergonomics (+11), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+29).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Extend API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 67 | Extend API + MCP +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 87 | Extend API + MCP +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 68 | Extend API + MCP +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 43 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Extend API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 82 | Extend API + MCP +29 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 67 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56 · C** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Extend API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adobe | Extend |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://pdf-services.adobe.io` | `https://api.extend.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 86 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.extend/extend` |
| Last release | 2026-08-10 | 2026-09-25 |
| Popularity | 165 stars, 82k npm/wk, 58k PyPI/wk | 124k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4/5 (2) |

## 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.

**Extend API + MCP.** Hosted MCP with OAuth scoped to workspaces and to test or production, and a tools filter with nine groups. Parse is billed on top of Extract, Split and Classify, so Performance Extract costs 5 credits a page.

## 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

### Extend API + MCP

1. Connect with `https://mcp.extend.ai/mcp?tools=parse,extract,files` to keep the schema small
2. Every MCP call names a workspace and TEST or PRODUCTION; start in TEST
3. Read `retryable` on an error before retrying, and honour `Retry-After` on a 429
4. Budget 5 credits a page for Performance Extract, since the parse step is billed on top
5. Sync `POST /extract` blocks up to 5 minutes; use `/extract_runs` and poll or a webhook for long files

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