Head to head · Pdf generate · October 2026 research run
Foxit PDF Services API vs PDFMonkey
PDFMonkey scores 59.3 (C) on agent readiness against Foxit PDF Services API's 48.3 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do pdf generate.
Best PDF manipulation and conversion APIs for AI agents · All 43 pdf comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for An agent that needs conversion, page operations, protection, redaction, forms and OCR at a flat per-request price with free failures.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
OAuth client credentials carry no scopes, so every application credential can convert, delete and download
Best for Agents that fill known templates with JSON to produce invoices, reports, forms and images, and teams that want an agent to author templates through the CLI.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 60 against 47
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 49
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 38
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 63
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
One secret key with the whole account's privileges, no scopes and no read-only key
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.
Maintenance & community PDFMonkey +43
Foxit PDF Services API 38
The MCP server's last npm release is 1.1.2 on 13 July 2026, 87 days before this check. The API itself has no dated release notes (20 of 30). One release in the last 90 days and no dated changelog entries (0). On GitHub, two bug reports of 27 August 2026 and a fix submitted on 29 August are still open, and the newest topics on the developer forum have no replies. Support runs through a case form (6 of 25). The server is in the official MCP registry under io.github.foxitsoftware, but the entry lists 0.2.3 from December 2025 (10 of 15). The repository has no CI workflow, no tests and no licence file, and its source stops at 0.2.3 while npm carries 1.1.2 (2 of 10).
PDFMonkey 81
Read as a closed service with open-source clients. pdfmonkey-mcp-server 1.0.1 on 26 October 2026, @pdfmonkey/cli 2.1.0 on 15 October and docs pages updated 2 November (30). Node SDK 1.1.0 to 1.4.0 between 2 and 5 October, CLI 2.0.0 and 2.1.0 on 13 and 15 October, MCP 1.0.1 on 26 October (20). Blog posts announce changes, and support answers by in-app chat and email within a few hours in CET business hours per the docs; GitHub issue replies couldn't be read (10 of 15). io.github.pdfmonkey/pdfmonkey-mcp in the official registry, 1.0.1 latest (15). The MCP server has unit tests, a release workflow on tags and a prepublish test step, but no CI on pull requests and a loose ^1.0.4 pin on the MCP SDK (6). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 6 = 81.
Agent ergonomics PDFMonkey +26
Foxit PDF Services API 49
The MCP server at 1.1.2 has 42 tools in about 89 KB of source with no toolsets, the more-than-30 band (5). The API returns a document ID, not the file, and takes page ranges, so responses stay small (15). We averaged the two to 10 because the listing covers both. Page ranges, extract types and image DPI limit output, and nothing lists or pages stored documents (12 of 20). Errors are JSON with a code and a message that names the valid values, and a failed task reports its error (14 of 20). Credits are deduplicated by a request_id, but no header for a client to set one is documented, and the MCP tools carry no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint (6 of 20). Most operations need only documentId. No official SDK package was found beyond the MCP server (7 of 15).
PDFMonkey 75
11 compact MCP tools from a 17 KB tools.ts, and API responses are cards without payload or logs on list and sync endpoints, while a full template fetch is large and the SDK docs warn about it (22). page[number], q[status], q[document_template_id], q[updated_since] and q[search] on document cards, q[folders] on templates and snippets, a meta block with pagination, and the CLI's --json (18). 401 and 422 bodies name the problem, 403 on an expired download URL is explained, and a quota overrun rejects the create rather than making a draft; the MCP server returns the API's error text (14). No idempotency key on create, so a retried create queues and bills a second document; webhooks are at least once with idempotency guidance; the MCP server sets no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint and delete_document is permanent, which the docs leave to the client to confirm (6). Only document_template_id and payload are needed, and official SDKs exist in two languages (Node.js and Ruby) plus the CLI (15). 22 + 18 + 14 + 6 + 15 = 75.
Transparency & trust PDFMonkey +15
Foxit PDF Services API 63
A closed service under a dated API Service Agreement (30 June 2025). The MCP server is MIT per package.json with no licence file (17 of 30). The agreement says uploaded documents are deleted within 30 days. The privacy policy says uploads are deleted when processing completes and outputs typically within a day, and it states an effective date of 10 May 2022. It says customer documents are not used to train AI models. No DPA was found (14 of 30). The agreement promises prior notice of changes with no period, and there is no deprecation policy (4 of 20). Server locations are named as the United States, Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan, the API host is a single na1 address, and no sub-processor list for the API was found (9 of 20).
PDFMonkey 78
Closed service with iubenda terms that name the owner only as PDFMonkey at a Paris address, while the MCP server, CLI, Node SDK and Ruby gem are MIT (20). Retention statements agree across the plans page, the retention page and the data storage page (per-template TTL, 1 day, 7 days or unlimited by plan), the DPA and DsPA of 15 October 2026 are downloadable, and the privacy policy of 16 September 2026 names its processors, though it still lists Heroku where the docs name Fly.io (24). Engine deprecations were announced with a promised heads-up in 2023 and key rotation has a 2-day overlap, but there is no written deprecation policy with notice periods (8). Data locations are named (Paris and Frankfurt) and the DPA carries the approved sub-processor list (18). 20 + 24 + 8 + 18 = 70.
Reliability PDFMonkey +13
Foxit PDF Services API 47
Read with the hosted lines. status.foxit.com keeps 90-day component history for Foxit's cloud products, but has no component for the API gateway at na1.fusion.foxit.com or for PDF Services (8 of 20). With no component there is no readable incident history for this API (5). Rate limits are published as 15 requests a minute in sandbox mode and 100 in production mode, per application, over a rolling 60 seconds (15). The limits guide asks for exponential backoff on 429 and the credits guide says a retried request is not charged twice, but no Retry-After header is documented and 429 also signals an exhausted credit quota (9 of 15). The trust centre states an aim of 99.99 per cent uptime, and the API Service Agreement gives no availability warranty, so no SLA (0). PDF Services is generally available, with structural extraction marked trial (10).
PDFMonkey 60
Read with the hosted lines. status.pdfmonkey.io is an updown.io page with six checks (API, dashboard, preview, website, generation latency, queue size) and one month of rolling uptime per check, but no incident write-ups (15). The readable record is the uptime figures (API 99.98 per cent and queue 99.97 per cent since 3 October 2026) and the one incident the vendor wrote up, a slowdown of a little under an hour on 29 September 2026 with a post-mortem on 1 October; the 90-day list itself isn't published, so minor incidents only (20). The docs say there is no hard rate limit, only the monthly quota, so no request-rate numbers (5 for the quota numbers). The Node.js SDK retries 408, 429 and 5xx with backoff and honours Retry-After, and the webhook docs say delivery is at least once and to make handlers idempotent, but document creation has no idempotency key (10). No SLA found in the terms or pricing (0). GA (10). 15 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 60.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Foxit PDF Services API | PDFMonkey | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 47 | 60 | PDFMonkey +13 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 62 | 61 | Foxit PDF Services API +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 49 | 75 | PDFMonkey +26 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 40 | 36 | Foxit PDF Services API +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 38 | 81 | PDFMonkey +43 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 63 | 78 | PDFMonkey +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 48.3/100 | C 59.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Foxit PDF Services API | PDFMonkey |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Foxit Software Incorporated | PDFMonkey |
| Hosted endpoint | https://na1.fusion.foxit.com/pdf-services | https://api.pdfmonkey.io/api/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Foxit API Service Agreement. The MCP server is MIT per its package.json, with no licence file in the repository | MIT (MCP server, CLI and SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 42 | 11 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | io.github.foxitsoftware/foxit-pdf-api-mcp-server | io.github.pdfmonkey/pdfmonkey-mcp |
| Last release | 2026-07-13 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-06-30 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 12 stars, 47 npm/wk | 97 npm/wk |
How the scores have moved
PDFMonkey
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Foxit PDF Services API
One credit per successful request, with failed calls, uploads, polling and downloads free, and a 500-credit yearly free plan. Access has no scopes, and the official MCP server reads and writes any local path. The status page has no component for the API, and no changelog was found.
PDFMonkey
An agent gets 11 compact MCP tools, a scriptable CLI and a sync endpoint, with public euro prices and a free plan. The one account-wide key has no scopes, document creation has no idempotency key, and there is no OpenAPI document, SLA or security disclosure policy.
Before you call either
Foxit PDF Services API
- Exchange the client ID and secret at
https://na1.fusion.foxit.com/oauth/tokenand cache the Bearer token.expires_inis about 24 hours and there is no refresh token - Upload first with
POST /pdf-services/api/documents/upload, start the operation, pollGET /pdf-services/api/tasks/{task-id}untilCOMPLETED, then downloadresultDocumentId - Read the body of a 429. It means either the rate limit (15 a minute in sandbox, 100 in production) or
QUOTA_EXCEEDEDwhen credits run out - Keep uploads under 100 MB, and delete documents with
DELETE /pdf-services/api/documents/{document-id}when done. Deletion is permanent - With the MCP server, pass only paths the task needs.
upload_documentreads anyfile://path anddownload_documentwrites to any absolute path
PDFMonkey
- Use
POST /api/v1/documents/syncor the MCPgenerate_documenttool for one document; for batches create withstatus: pendingand polldocument_cardsor take the webhook - Fetch the template first (
get_templateorpdfmonkey template get --json) to learn the payload shape; a mismatched payload generates a blank or wrong document, not an error - Download within the hour;
download_urlreturns 403 after 60 minutes, and fetching the document again gives a fresh link - Do not retry a create on a timeout without checking
list_documentsfirst; there is no idempotency key and each generation counts against the quota - Expect a 422 with field names when a required field is missing, and a rejected create at 100 per cent of the monthly quota unless pay-as-you-go is on
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Foxit PDF Services API or PDFMonkey?
PDFMonkey scores 59.3 (C) on agent readiness against Foxit PDF Services API's 48.3 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.
Do Foxit PDF Services API and PDFMonkey need an API key?
Foxit PDF Services API uses an OAuth sign-in. PDFMonkey needs an API key.
Can an agent call Foxit PDF Services API and PDFMonkey without installing anything?
Yes. Foxit PDF Services API has a hosted endpoint at https://na1.fusion.foxit.com/pdf-services and PDFMonkey at https://api.pdfmonkey.io/api/v1.
Other comparisons with Foxit PDF Services API or PDFMonkey
- CloudConvert API vs Foxit PDF Services API
- Foxit PDF Services API vs iLoveAPI
- Foxit PDF Services API vs Nutrient DWS Processor API
- Foxit PDF Services API vs PDF.co API + MCP
- Foxit PDF Services API vs pdfRest API Toolkit
- CloudConvert API vs PDFMonkey
- DocRaptor vs Foxit PDF Services API
- DocRaptor vs PDFMonkey
- iLoveAPI vs PDFMonkey
- Nutrient DWS Processor API vs PDFMonkey
- PDF.co API + MCP vs PDFMonkey
- PDFMonkey vs pdfRest API Toolkit
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/foxit-pdf-services-vs-pdfmonkey.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/foxit-pdf-services.json·/api/v1/tools/pdfmonkey.json - From a terminal
anchor compare foxit-pdf-services pdfmonkey(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "foxit-pdf-services", "b": "pdfmonkey"}at/mcp, no key