# Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs OpenDocRouter

> OpenDocRouter and Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 56.6 (C) and 55.9 (C). Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-opendocrouter
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-opendocrouter.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-opendocrouter.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-opendocrouter.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: 2026-10-08

OpenDocRouter and Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 56.6 (C) and 55.9 (C). Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do docs parse.

- Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API: grade C, 55.9/100, rank #497 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/adobe-pdf-extract.json
- OpenDocRouter: grade C, 56.6/100, rank #489 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opendocrouter.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/opendocrouter.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.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 50 against 43
- Security & auth, 55 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 47

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

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

### OpenDocRouter (C)

Good for: Agents that need page-level markdown from PDFs and images and want to choose or compare models on price and published benchmark scores with one key.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 80
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 65 against 53

Watch for: Launched on 7 October 2026. The domain was registered on 23 September 2026 and both SDKs have one release, 1.0.0


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | OpenDocRouter | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 43 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 85 | OpenDocRouter +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 84 | OpenDocRouter +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 40 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | OpenDocRouter +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 65 | OpenDocRouter +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 47 | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API +31 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.9 · C** | **56.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API | OpenDocRouter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Adobe | LlamaIndex |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://pdf-services.adobe.io` | `https://www.opendocrouter.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for docs parse | not published | $0.80 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under the LlamaIndex Terms of Service with an OpenDocRouter addendum. The Python and TypeScript SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-08-10 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-24 | 2024-03-30 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 165 stars, 82k npm/wk, 58k PyPI/wk | 127 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.

**OpenDocRouter.** One endpoint reaches 11 parsing models, each with a dated recipe version, a published token price and a ParseBench score, and failed pages aren't charged. The service launched on 7 October 2026, so it has no status page, incident history, SLA or changelog yet, and no key scopes were found in the reviewed documentation.

## 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

### OpenDocRouter

1. Call `GET /v1/models` first, which needs no key, and choose a model by `avg_charge_per_page_usd` and its ParseBench scores. Send its `id` as `model`
2. Send `cache: true` on any request you might repeat. Without it the markdown exists only in the POST response and a resend is charged as a new request
3. Raise the SDK timeout above its 60-second default for sync parses. Pages can run for 270 seconds and the SDKs retry a timed-out request twice
4. Check every page's `status` before using its markdown. A 200 can be `partial`, and failed pages can be resent alone with `pages`
5. Treat 402 as final until credit is added. The hold is the model's maximum charge per page times the page count, and `GET /v1/credits` shows `available_usd`

## Questions

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

OpenDocRouter and Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 56.6 (C) and 55.9 (C). Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API leads on reliability, security & auth and transparency & trust.

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

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

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

Yes. Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API has a hosted endpoint at https://pdf-services.adobe.io and OpenDocRouter at https://www.opendocrouter.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

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