6 min readJustAPI

What compressing a 59-page PDF costs in five APIs

The same 59-page, 27 MB report priced in five PDF APIs. Each formula is shown, the sources are listed, and the cheapest option depends on how each vendor counts.

Bars to scale comparing the cost of compressing one 59-page PDF: PDF.co is far above pdf4me and JustAPI

Most pricing pages tell you the price of one unit. Almost none of them tell you what your file costs.

So we took one real file and did the arithmetic for each vendor. You can check every number below.

The short answer

  • For this file, the computable prices run from about $0.026 to $1.15.
  • The range is that wide because vendors bill different things: pages, credits, calls, transactions, or files.
  • The cheapest option depends on one rule that some vendors do not state clearly.

The file

  • 59 pages, 27.2 MB, mostly photographs.
  • One run of ours compressed it to 5.1 MB, which is 81% smaller, in 11 seconds.
  • This article compares price. It does not compare output quality. We have not measured that yet across these vendors.

The table

Vendor What they bill Units for this file Cost for this file Where the number comes from
PDF.co Credits, 35 per page 2,065 credits $1.13 to $1.15, depending on plan PDF.co credit table and plan prices (see Sources)
pdf4me Calls, usually 1 per document 1 $0.026 to $0.05, on prepaid packs pdf4me developer pricing; sources disagree
iLoveAPI Credits, 10 per file 10 credits Not computable: no public price per credit iloveapi.com/pricing
Adobe PDF Services Transactions, 1 per 50 pages 2, if compression counts as "other" Free up to 250 such files a month Adobe developer pricing
JustAPI Per call, graduated by monthly volume 1 $0.040 per file above 10,000 calls a month; $0.060 for the first 1,000 Our pricing page

How to read it

  • Per-page pricing punishes long documents. PDF.co bills 35 credits for every page. A 59-page file pays for 59 pages.
  • Per-file pricing ignores page count. Our price is per call. The page count does not change it.
  • Adobe's free tier is the cheapest option at low volume. It needs an account and is limited in requests per minute. A third-party guide reports 25 per minute on the free tier.

Where we are not the cheapest

  • pdf4me's largest prepaid pack brings one call to $0.026. That is below our $0.040 rate at high volume.
  • At low volume, Adobe's free tier costs less than any paid option here.
  • We win on other terms:
    • no subscription and no minimum,
    • one price per file, whatever its page count,
    • no charge for a failed request or for a compression that does not make the file smaller,
    • 1 USD of credit when you sign up, with no card.

Check it yourself

Units times unit price. That is the whole formula.

  • PDF.co: 59 pages x 35 credits = 2,065 credits. Multiply by the plan's price per credit.
  • JustAPI: one call per file. Look up the tier for your monthly volume on the pricing page.

If a vendor's public price is not clear, we say so in the table. We do not fill the gap with a guess.

Sources

Checked 2026-10-20 unless noted.

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