# Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Mistral OCR API

> Mistral OCR API has a score of 59 (C) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 26 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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

Mistral OCR API has a score of 59 (C) against Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API's 56 (C). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is agent ergonomics, 26 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
- Mistral OCR API: grade C, 59/100, rank #271 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-ocr.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-ocr.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API for reliability (+5), security & auth (+20), maintenance & community (+5).

Pick Mistral OCR API for schema & documentation (+9), agent ergonomics (+26), payments & pricing (+20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Mistral OCR API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 45 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 89 | Mistral OCR API +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 83 | Mistral OCR API +26 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 35 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Mistral OCR API +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 48 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 77 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56 · C** | **59 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | Mistral OCR API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | Adobe | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://pdf-services.adobe.io` | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| 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 | 2026-08-31 |
| Popularity | 165 stars, 82k npm/wk, 58k PyPI/wk | 769 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (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.

**Mistral OCR API.** Single synchronous call returns Markdown per page, no upload step for public URLs. OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September.

## 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

### Mistral OCR API

1. Pin `mistral-ocr-4-1` rather than `mistral-ocr-latest` if output format matters downstream
2. Set `table_format` to `html` for tables with merged cells
3. Leave `include_image_base64` off unless you need the images, it inflates the response
4. Pass `pages` to OCR only the pages you need, since billing is per page
5. Upload private files through `/v1/files` and pass the signed URL

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