# Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Mindee API

> Mindee API has a score of 61.5 (C) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 32 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-mindee.md (~1,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-mindee.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-mindee.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

Mindee API has a score of 61.5 (C) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 32 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
- Mindee API: grade C, 61.5/100, rank #227 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mindee.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mindee.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API for security & auth (+15), transparency & trust (+13).

Pick Mindee API for reliability (+15), schema & documentation (+6), agent ergonomics (+11), payments & pricing (+5), maintenance & community (+32).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Mindee API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 65 | Mindee API +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 86 | Mindee API +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 68 | Mindee API +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 40 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 25 | Mindee API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 85 | Mindee API +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 67 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56 · C** | **61.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Mindee API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adobe | Mindee |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://pdf-services.adobe.io` | `https://api-v2.mindee.net/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| 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 | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-10 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 165 stars, 82k npm/wk, 58k PyPI/wk | 42 stars, 33k npm/wk, 5.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (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.

**Mindee API.** Extracted data kept 12 hours by default (1 to 24 configurable), deletable on fetch, source files never stored. Every call needs a model_id created in the web platform first.

## 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

### Mindee API

1. Create the model in the Mindee app and store its `model_id`; the API can't create one for you
2. Enqueue returns 202; poll the job or use a webhook, and keep polling under 1,200 a minute
3. Send `Authorization: $MINDEE_API_KEY` with no Bearer prefix
4. Turn on confidence scores only when needed, since they cost 1.5 credits a page instead of 1
5. Keep schemas to 25 fields or fewer, the documented recommendation

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