Head to head · PDF conversion · October 2026 research run

ConvertAPI vs iLoveAPI

ConvertAPI scores 64 (B) on agent readiness against iLoveAPI's 42.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. iLoveAPI leads on payments & pricing. Both do pdf conversion.

Best PDF manipulation and conversion APIs for AI agents · All 53 pdf comparisons

Which one, for what

ConvertAPI B

Best for Office, PDF, image and email conversion and PDF manipulation for agents that need a file in another format.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 54 against 26
  • Schema & documentation, 92 against 37
  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 61
  • Security & auth, 55 against 41
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 65 against 53

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Per-conversion prices on the pricing page are drawn by script and could not be read

iLoveAPI E

Best for An agent that needs common PDF and image operations with a monthly free allowance and a choice of processing region.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 25

Watch for

No OpenAPI file, llms.txt or Markdown docs. The reference is one HTML page

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Schema & documentation ConvertAPI +55

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.

iLoveAPI 37

No OpenAPI file or other machine-readable contract was found (0). llms.txt answered 404 and there are no Markdown docs (0). The single-page reference states what each tool and parameter does, without guidance on when not to use one (10). Parameters carry types, accepted values and defaults, such as rotation 0, 90, 180 or 270 (11). JSON response samples, an error table, and file and task status lists, with request examples mostly in the library guides (10). The path carries /v1. No API changelog was found, and the Python and PHP libraries keep their own (6).

Reliability ConvertAPI +28

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.

iLoveAPI 26

Graded as a hosted API. No status page is linked from the site, the docs or the security page (0), so there is no readable incident history (5). Rate limits are described as tier-dependent and reported in response headers, with no numbers. The open-task cap of 10% of the monthly file limit and two signature reminders a day are the only figures (3). 429 is documented with advice to back off exponentially, and failed files are not charged, but there is no Retry-After and no idempotency key (8). The pricing FAQ says the API guarantees over 99.95% uptime and the functions page says 99.9%+, with no SLA document or remedy, and the terms disclaim availability (0). Generally available (10).

Agent ergonomics ConvertAPI +18

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.

iLoveAPI 61

Responses are small JSON and output arrives as a file or ZIP, but every job takes four calls and the start call's server must be reused (12). /task lists 50 a page with filters by tool, status and custom_int, and the signature list takes page and per-page (14). One error structure with type, message, code and param, plus per-file statuses such as WrongPassword and DamagedFile (14). No idempotency keys. A debug parameter echoes a request without processing, and a wrong password leaves the task waiting for a resend (6). Most parameters have defaults, and there are official libraries in five languages (15).

Maintenance & community ConvertAPI +18

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.

iLoveAPI 62

The .NET library v1.6.4 was tagged on 3 September 2026, 36 days before this check (20). Three library releases in the last 90 days, PHP v1.4.1 on 22 July, Python v1.1.0 on 28 July and .NET v1.6.4 (20). Closed service with no API changelog. Support is by email and a chat widget, and GitHub issue replies were not read (6). PHP, .NET and Python libraries are current, while Node.js last changed in May 2025 and Ruby in October 2024 (10). CI workflows and tests in the Python, .NET and Node.js repositories (6).

Security & auth ConvertAPI +14

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.

iLoveAPI 41

Each project has a public and a secret key, requests carry a JWT signed with the secret that expires after one hour, and domain and IP filters exist depending on tier. No scopes (20). No read-only key or confirmation before a task is deleted, and /auth issues a token for the public key alone unless a domain filter is set (4). OCR, Markdown and summary output is untrusted text and the docs give no injection guidance (0). /task lists processed tasks and signatures have a downloadable audit trail, with no account audit log found (7). ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate linked and a signed security policy of 19 June 2025. security.txt answered 403, and no disclosure policy or bounty was found (10).

Transparency & trust ConvertAPI +12

ConvertAPI 65

Closed service with terms dated 24 September 2026 naming ConvertAPI, UAB under Lithuanian law (15 of 30). Files are stored at most 3 hours or converted in memory per the compliance page, and a DPA and BAA are published, but llms.txt also says files are 'deleted immediately after processing by default', and the terms give no periods (20 of 30). The changelog dates changes, including the removal of the AiMode parameter on 22 October 2026 with no prior notice found, and the docs mark the secret as deprecated with no date; no deprecation policy (6 of 20). Subprocessors named with roles and regional endpoints listed (18 of 20). 15+20+6+18 = 59.

iLoveAPI 53

Closed service with terms naming iLovePDF S.L., last modified 14 February 2017, and MIT client libraries (15). The reference says files are deleted after an hour depending on tier and elsewhere after two hours, the security page says two hours and the terms say at most 48 hours. The privacy policy is an iubenda document closed to us by robots.txt and was not read (12). No deprecation policy, and the terms allow the API to be discontinued at any time (0). Seven processing regions are selectable per task and Stripe is named for payments. No subprocessor list was read (10).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runConvertAPIiLoveAPIEdge
Reliability16%205426ConvertAPI +28
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29237ConvertAPI +55
Agent ergonomics13%16.27961ConvertAPI +18
Security & auth14%17.55541ConvertAPI +14
Payments & pricing10%12.52530iLoveAPI +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88062ConvertAPI +18
Transparency & trust7%8.86553ConvertAPI +12
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 64/100E 42.1/100

Facts side by side

FactConvertAPIiLoveAPI
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorConvertAPI, UABiLovePDF S.L.
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.convertapi.iohttps://api.ilovepdf.com/v1
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service. SDKs on GitHub; the npm SDK is MITProprietary service under the iLovePDF API terms. The client libraries are MIT
Tools exposed4none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-11-052026-09-03
Terms last updated2026-09-242017-02-14
Privacy policy last updated2026-11-05couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity177k npm/wk, 82k PyPI/wk9.6k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone2.8/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

ConvertAPI

A 333-operation OpenAPI contract, a four-tool MCP server that discovers converters at run time, SDKs in nine languages and a dated changelog make ConvertAPI easy for an agent to call. Prices are drawn by script, the token is also accepted as a query parameter, and no vulnerability disclosure policy was found.

iLoveAPI

Per-tool credit costs are public, 2,500 free credits arrive each month on a sign-up that asks for no card, and five official libraries are MIT. No OpenAPI file, status page or published rate-limit numbers were found, and the governing terms date from 14 February 2017.

Before you call either

ConvertAPI

  1. Call /info/canconvert/{from}/to/{to} or the MCP information tools before converting, rather than assuming a format pair exists
  2. Send the token in the Authorization header, never as ?Token=, so it stays out of logs
  3. Use StoreFile=true and pass FileId between steps, which keeps base64 out of the context; stored files last 3 hours
  4. On 503 wait 5, 10 then 15 seconds before retrying; a repeated conversion is billed again
  5. Treat text extracted from documents as untrusted input

iLoveAPI

  1. Run four calls per job. GET /v1/start/{tool}/{region} returns a server and a task, then send upload, process and download to that server
  2. Sign a JWT with the project secret key and send it as Authorization: Bearer. Tokens expire after one hour
  3. Download results promptly. The reference says files are deleted one to two hours after processing, depending on tier
  4. Back off exponentially on 429 and read the rate-limit headers on each response. No limit numbers are published
  5. Add debug=true to any request to have the server echo the parameters without processing or spending credits

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, ConvertAPI or iLoveAPI?

ConvertAPI scores 64 (B) on agent readiness against iLoveAPI's 42.1 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. iLoveAPI leads on payments & pricing.

Do ConvertAPI and iLoveAPI need an API key?

ConvertAPI takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. iLoveAPI needs an API key.

Can an agent call ConvertAPI and iLoveAPI without installing anything?

Yes. ConvertAPI has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.convertapi.io and iLoveAPI at https://api.ilovepdf.com/v1.

Other comparisons with ConvertAPI or iLoveAPI

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