specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Adobe
providerId: adobe
created: '2026-05-04'
modified: '2026-08-13'
generated: '2026-08-13'
method: searched
reconciled: true
source: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/overview/limits/
raw_source: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdobeDocs/pdfservices-api-documentation/main/src/pages/overview/limits.md
# 2026-08-13: upgraded from the 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep GENERATED placeholder (which recorded no
# numbers because WebFetch to adobe.com timed out) to SEARCHED, with the published PDF Services
# figures read from Adobe's own limits page and its source markdown in AdobeDocs.
tags:
  - Rate Limiting
  - Document Services
  - PDF
scope: >-
  Adobe PDF Services / Acrobat Services. Adobe publishes no unified rate limit across its API
  portfolio; Firefly, Experience Platform, Analytics, Acrobat Sign, Marketo and Commerce each define
  their own throttling in product-specific documentation. Only PDF Services publishes concrete
  numbers against a public machine-readable contract, so those are the numbers recorded here.
description: >-
  PDF Services publishes a per-minute request ceiling that differs by tier, a monthly Document
  Transaction quota, and a set of hard per-request usage limits. It publishes NO runtime rate-limit
  response headers — an agent cannot learn its remaining budget from a response, only from which of
  two error codes comes back on a 429.

limit_count: 10

limits:
- scope: per-credential
  tier: Free Tier
  window: minute
  limit: 25
  unit: requests
  burst: null
  status_on_exhaustion: 429
  error_code: TOO_MANY_REQUESTS
  source: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/overview/limits/
- scope: per-credential
  tier: Enterprise
  window: minute
  limit: 100
  unit: requests
  burst: null
  status_on_exhaustion: 429
  error_code: TOO_MANY_REQUESTS
  note: >-
    "Please contact us on RPM or file size if interested in understanding how it can scale under
    your ETLA."
- scope: per-account
  tier: Free Tier
  window: month
  limit: 500
  unit: Document Transactions
  reset: first of each month
  status_on_exhaustion: 429
  error_code: INSUFFICIENT_QUOTA
  note: >-
    NOT transient. Shares HTTP 429 with the rate limit but must not be retried — an agent that
    treats every 429 as backoff-and-retry will loop until the month rolls over.
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 100
  unit: MB
  subject: file size (all documents)
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 20
  unit: documents
  subject: Combine, Insert, Replace, Split
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 50
  unit: output images
  subject: Export (per Document Transaction)
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 400
  unit: pages
  subject: Extract and PDF To Markdown
  note: May be lower for documents with a large number of tables.
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 200
  unit: pages
  subject: Accessibility Auto-Tag
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 150
  unit: pages
  subject: Scanned documents (Extract, PDF To Markdown, Accessibility Auto-Tag)
- scope: per-request
  window: request
  limit: 10
  unit: MB
  subject: JSON file size (Document Generation, HTML to PDF, Import PDF Form Data)

response_headers:
  published: false
  rate_limit_headers: []
  retry_after: false
  note: >-
    Adobe declares no RateLimit-*, X-RateLimit-* or Retry-After header on the 429 in either the
    OpenAPI (48 of 49 operations declare a 429, none with a rate-limit header) or the limits
    documentation. The only headers on a 429 are `content-type` and `x-request-id`.

responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503

metering:
  unit: Document Transaction
  basis: the initial endpoint request and its digital output
  rules:
  - All operations except those below — 1 Document Transaction per document, up to 50 pages
  - Extract and PDF To Markdown — 1 Document Transaction per 5 pages
  - Accessibility Auto-Tag — 10 Document Transactions PER PAGE
  - Electronic Seal — 10 Document Transactions per PDF
  - Protect, Remove Password, Get PDF Properties, Accessibility Checker — the 50-page count does not apply
  docs: https://developer.adobe.com/document-services/docs/overview/pdf-services-api/dcserviceslicensing/

other_products:
  note: >-
    Numbers for the rest of the Adobe portfolio remain unrecorded rather than guessed. Consult the
    product-specific pages.
  sources:
  - https://developer.adobe.com/firefly-services/docs/
  - https://developer.adobe.com/experience-platform-apis/
  - https://opensource.adobe.com/acrobat-sign/developer_guide/
  - https://developer.adobe.com/analytics-apis/docs/2.0/