# CloudConvert API vs ConvertAPI (slim)

> ConvertAPI and CloudConvert score within a point of each other for pdf conversion, 64 and 63.9 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudconvert-vs-convertapi.md (~4,800 tokens) · this version ~3,130 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudconvert-vs-convertapi.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudconvert-vs-convertapi
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

ConvertAPI and CloudConvert API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 64 (B) and 63.9 (B). CloudConvert API leads on reliability, security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do pdf conversion.

- CloudConvert API: B 63.9, rank #491 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudconvert.min.md
- ConvertAPI: B 64, rank #490 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/convertapi.min.md
- CloudConvert API, good for An agent that converts between many file formats, merges to PDF, or needs OCR, PDF/A, encryption and page operations in one job, with storage on S3, Azure or Google Cloud. Ahead on Reliability, 80 against 54; Security & auth, 71 against 55; Payments & pricing, 35 against 25; Transparency & trust, 75 against 65.
- ConvertAPI, good for Office, PDF, image and email conversion and PDF manipulation for agents that need a file in another format. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 92 against 59; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 61; Maintenance & community, 80 against 58. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | CloudConvert API | ConvertAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 80 | 54 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 59 | 92 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 61 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 71 | 55 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 25 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 58 | 80 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 75 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | CloudConvert API | ConvertAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | CloudConvert (Lunaweb GmbH) | ConvertAPI, UAB |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudconvert.com/v2` | `https://mcp.convertapi.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | Proprietary service under CloudConvert's terms of service. The SDKs and the CLI on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service. SDKs on GitHub; the npm SDK is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 34 | 4 |
| Last release | 2026-10-21 | 2026-11-05 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-11-05 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 192 stars, 104k npm/wk | 177k npm/wk, 82k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, ConvertAPI +33: CloudConvert API 59 (No OpenAPI document was found in the docs or llms.txt. `GET /v2/operations` returns each operation's options with types, defaults and enum values, which is a machine-readable contract for options only. The MCP tool schemas sit behind OAuth and were not read (10 of 25). llms.txt, now listing 23 pages, and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). The reference states what each endpoint does and when the synchronous variants are a poor choice, and the MCP tool list gives one line a tool, per the 9 October check (12). Task parameters are typed in the docs, but format options are found at run time through the operations endpoint and `createJob` takes an arbitrary task graph (10). Every operation has a raw request, CLI, cURL and SDK example, and the docs show 422, 429 and failed-task bodies with codes, with no full code list (11). The `/v2` prefix and pinnable engine versions, with no changelog found (6). 10 + 10 + 12 + 10 + 11 + 6 = 59.); ConvertAPI 92 (OpenAPI 3.0.4 at v2.convertapi.com/info/openapi, 333 operations with token, JWT and secret schemes, plus per-conversion documents and wildcard listings (25). A long llms.txt written for agents (10). llms.txt tells agents to discover conversions rather than assume them and explains workflows and storage; converter pages describe each parameter (16 of 20). Per-converter parameter schemas in the OpenAPI document, validated by the MCP convert tool (12 of 15). 25 numbered error codes with meanings and examples throughout (14 of 15). v2 API and a dated public changelog (15). 25+10+16+12+14+15 = 92.)
- Reliability, CloudConvert API +26: CloudConvert API 80 (Graded as a hosted service. Status page at status.cloudconvert.com (Better Stack) with nine components and 90-day bars (20). The incident list and RSS feed, re-read on 1 November, add one incident since 9 October, "iWork and Web are down" on 12 October. iWork recovered within two minutes and Web, the web interface rather than the API, recovered at 11:51 UTC on 13 October. With the EU Central slowdown on 8 October (from about 15:25 to 16:45 UTC), the US East, iWork and EU Central alert on 14 September and the other short incidents since 3 August, each touched one region, one conversion type or one component, so minor incidents only (20). Limits on creating jobs and tasks are described as dynamic, with `X-RateLimit-Limit` and `X-RateLimit-Remaining` headers and a free-plan cap of 5 concurrent tasks. The new `ai/agent` tasks have a fixed 6 requests a minute and 60 an hour, but the main endpoints have no fixed number per plan (8). A 429 carries `Retry-After` in seconds and the docs say CloudConvert retries retryable errors itself. No idempotency key (12). The terms promise 99.9 per cent monthly uptime with refunds on paid plans, re-read on 1 November (10). API v2 is generally available and the MCP server carries no beta label. Only the new `ai/agent` task is marked beta (10). 20 + 20 + 8 + 12 + 10 + 10 = 80.); ConvertAPI 54 (Hosted lines. status.convertapi.com is a Checkly dashboard drawn by script, so its components were not confirmed (10 of 20) and no history could be read (5). Concurrency per plan is published (1 to 4 concurrent conversions), with no request-rate figure (12 of 15). Under load the API answers 503 and llms.txt gives a 5, 10 and 15 second retry pattern; no 429, Retry-After or idempotency key (12 of 15). The compliance page states '99,95% monthly uptime' and says the SLA sits in the terms, but the terms read on 6 November state no uptime figure (5 of 10). Generally available (10). 10+5+12+12+5+10 = 54.)
- Maintenance & community, ConvertAPI +22: CloudConvert API 58 (cloudconvert-cli 3.0.2 was published to npm on 21 October 2026 and adds an `ai/agent` command for the new AI tasks, which the privacy policy's dated entry of 19 October also records (30). In the 90 days from 3 August, the MCP server launch post (3 September), and Java 1.2.5, Ruby 1.2.0 (both 24 August) and CLI 3.0.2, the package tags counted half, so 2.5. The privacy policy's dated entry of 19 October records a policy text, not a release, and the `ai/agent` launch it describes is already counted through CLI 3.0.2 (0). No changelog. Support is a contact form and email, and dependency pull requests on the Java and CLI repositories were merged on 5 October and 23 October 2026. Issue replies were not read (8 of 15). Six official SDKs, four released in 2026. The Node.js SDK's last tag is still April 2025 (3.0.0) and the Python SDK's March 2022, and the MCP server is not in the official registry, searched on 1 November (12). Every SDK repository has a test workflow (8). 30 + 0 + 8 + 12 + 8 = 58.); ConvertAPI 80 (Closed service. Newest changelog entry 5 November 2026 (30). Twelve dated entries from 1 October to 5 November (20). Public changelog, support email, phone and form, and SDK repositories on GitHub; issue replies not sampled (10 of 15). Current official SDKs, npm 1.16.0 on 26 October and PyPI 2.0.1 on 20 October 2026 (15). The MCP repository's last commit is 12 May 2026 and has no LICENSE file though its README says MIT; SDK CI not checked (5 of 10). 30+20+10+15+5 = 80.)
- Agent ergonomics, ConvertAPI +18: CloudConvert API 61 (The MCP docs, re-read on 1 November, list 34 tools, up from 24, adding docs lookup, task cancel, retry and delete, job and task deletion, metadata writing and three webhook tools. That's above 30 and the tools have no toolsets or read-only subset, and the API returns links and status objects with an `include` parameter for the larger parts (6). List endpoints take `per_page` (100 by default, 1,000 at most), `page`, and filters by status, tag, operation and API key (17). Errors carry a `code` and a `message`, validation errors name the field, and failed tasks report codes such as `OPEN_FAILED` and, for AI tasks, `AGENT_DECLINED` and `AI_RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` (15). No idempotency key. Jobs take a `tag`, a retry endpoint creates a new task, only successful conversions are charged, and the docs ask callers not to retry automatically. MCP annotations were not read (8). A job needs three short tasks, and there are official SDKs in six languages and a CLI (15). 6 + 17 + 15 + 8 + 15 = 61.); ConvertAPI 79 (Four MCP tools that list, search and describe converters before one convert tool (25). `StoreFile=true` returns a URL and FileId instead of base64, and converters can be filtered by tag or search; nothing to paginate (14 of 20). Numbered codes such as 4014 balance exhausted and 5003 password protected an agent can act on (17 of 20). No idempotency key; a repeated conversion is billed again, and MCP tool annotations weren't found (8 of 20). SDKs in nine languages and a CLI, with one required file parameter on most converters (15). 25+14+17+8+15 = 79.)
- Security & auth, CloudConvert API +16: CloudConvert API 71 (API keys are created with any of six scopes and can be revoked, and OAuth 2.0 issues tokens for third-party clients, though the implicit grant is still supported and no key rotation is documented. Signed URLs carry an HMAC signature, not the key (27). A key limited to `task.read` is read-only, and the MCP server asks for three scopes, one of them `task.write`, plus the two webhook scopes for its webhook tools. No confirmation step for deletes (12). Results come back as download links, and the `metadata` and `capture-website` operations handle untrusted content. The MCP page tells users to connect only the official URL, with no prompt-injection guidance (6). The security page says all access is logged and reviewable by the customer in activity logs, and jobs can be filtered by API key (11). ISO 27001 from TÜV Süd, and a valid security.txt (re-read on 1 November, Expires 2027-05-01) with a disclosure policy and rewards only at CloudConvert's discretion, so no formal bounty. No public advisories and nothing on OSV for the SDK packages. That's above ahasend's 12 (ISO 27001 and a disclosure route, no security.txt) (15). 27 + 12 + 6 + 11 + 15 = 71.); ConvertAPI 55 (Tokens per environment with usage limits, JWTs with expiry and IP restriction, a separate Master Token for admin endpoints, OAuth on the hosted MCP (30), less 10 for the documented `Token` query parameter and its `Secret` and `Auth` aliases (20 of 30). Usage limits per token, but no read-only token, and stored files can be deleted (8 of 20). Extracted text and OCR output come from the documents, with no prompt-injection guidance (3 of 15). Usage statistics and per-environment consumption through the Master Token (10 of 15). ISO 27001 certificate linked, SOC 2 Type 2 stated with the report on request, cyber insurance; no disclosure policy, security.txt or bug bounty found (14 of 20). 20+8+3+10+14 = 55.)
- Payments & pricing, CloudConvert API +10: CloudConvert API 35 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The credit cost of each conversion type is published (1, 2 or 4 credits, plus 1 a minute), and the API page says prices start at $0.008 a file at 10,000 files, but the price per credit is drawn by a script and was not read, per the 9 October check, so 15 of 20. Free plan of 10 credits a day with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser to create a key or approve OAuth (0). 0 + 15 + 20 + 0 = 35.); ConvertAPI 25 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan quotas are public, but the prices and per-conversion overage on the pricing page are drawn by script and could not be read (5 of 20). A free trial of 250 conversions with no card, per llms.txt (20). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+5+20+0 = 25.)