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

Foxit PDF Services API D

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

PDFMonkey C

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

CategoryWeight this runFoxit PDF Services APIPDFMonkeyEdge
Reliability16%204760PDFMonkey +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26261Foxit PDF Services API +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.24975PDFMonkey +26
Security & auth14%17.54036Foxit PDF Services API +4
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.83881PDFMonkey +43
Transparency & trust7%8.86378PDFMonkey +15
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 48.3/100C 59.3/100

Facts side by side

FactFoxit PDF Services APIPDFMonkey
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorFoxit Software IncorporatedPDFMonkey
Hosted endpointhttps://na1.fusion.foxit.com/pdf-serviceshttps://api.pdfmonkey.io/api/v1
TransportsHTTP, stdiostdio
AuthOAuthAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Foxit API Service Agreement. The MCP server is MIT per its package.json, with no licence file in the repositoryMIT (MCP server, CLI and SDKs)
Tools exposed4211
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registryio.github.foxitsoftware/foxit-pdf-api-mcp-serverio.github.pdfmonkey/pdfmonkey-mcp
Last release2026-07-132026-10-26
Terms last updated2025-06-30couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity12 stars, 47 npm/wk97 npm/wk

How the scores have moved

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

  1. Exchange the client ID and secret at https://na1.fusion.foxit.com/oauth/token and cache the Bearer token. expires_in is about 24 hours and there is no refresh token
  2. Upload first with POST /pdf-services/api/documents/upload, start the operation, poll GET /pdf-services/api/tasks/{task-id} until COMPLETED, then download resultDocumentId
  3. Read the body of a 429. It means either the rate limit (15 a minute in sandbox, 100 in production) or QUOTA_EXCEEDED when credits run out
  4. Keep uploads under 100 MB, and delete documents with DELETE /pdf-services/api/documents/{document-id} when done. Deletion is permanent
  5. With the MCP server, pass only paths the task needs. upload_document reads any file:// path and download_document writes to any absolute path

PDFMonkey

  1. Use POST /api/v1/documents/sync or the MCP generate_document tool for one document; for batches create with status: pending and poll document_cards or take the webhook
  2. Fetch the template first (get_template or pdfmonkey template get --json) to learn the payload shape; a mismatched payload generates a blank or wrong document, not an error
  3. Download within the hour; download_url returns 403 after 60 minutes, and fetching the document again gives a fresh link
  4. Do not retry a create on a timeout without checking list_documents first; there is no idempotency key and each generation counts against the quota
  5. 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

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