Cheap PDF generation API: eight entry plans from $1 to $29 a month and what they include

Cheap PDF generation API plans, lowest monthly price first

Of eight PDF generation APIs priced in US dollars, the cheapest on monthly billing is Api2Pdf at $1 a month plus usage, then PDFShift Starter at $9, DocRaptor Basic at $15 and Doppio Premium at $16. CraftMyPDF Lite, at $29, is the highest of the eight.

Prices are as read on October 10, 2026, and each allowance is named in the unit its vendor counts. PDFMonkey, PDF Generator API and Carbone are left out because their hosted plans show no US dollar price.

From $1 to $19 a month: Api2Pdf, PDFShift, DocRaptor, Doppio, DocuGenerate and Placid

• Api2Pdf bills usage on top of the $1, and new accounts get one month of free credit first. It has one plan and no tiers.
• PDFShift counts one credit per 5 MB of output, so a 14 MB PDF uses 3 credits.
• DocRaptor Basic covers 125 documents, and each extra document costs 12 cents.
• Doppio Premium covers up to 4,000 documents. Below its Pro plan, renders pause at the quota until the next billing cycle.
• DocuGenerate Plus bills $0.04 for each document beyond its 500.
• Placid Basic gives 500 credits and a PDF page costs 2, so the plan covers 250 PDF pages. Placid charges no overage fees, and at zero credits it generates only previews.

From $24 to $29: APITemplate.io and CraftMyPDF

APITemplate.io comes from the same team as CraftMyPDF. PDF Basic is $24 a month on its Bill Monthly view, or $19 a month on its Billed Annually view, for 3,000 PDFs and 20 templates. CraftMyPDF Lite is $29 a month on monthly billing, or $290 a year on annual billing, for 1,200 PDFs or images and 6 templates.

A credit is CraftMyPDF's unit for the monthly allowance, and one PDF is one credit whatever its page count. APITemplate.io's annual view prints a monthly figure and CraftMyPDF's prints a yearly total, so only the monthly-billing prices, $24 and $29, compare directly.

Both vendors email you at 80% and 100% of the allowance. Cheaper still is free: CraftMyPDF's Free plan covers 50 PDFs or images a month before Lite is needed, and CraftMyPDF pricing lists all six plans.

Why the lowest price is not the lowest bill

DocRaptor's $15 buys 125 documents, while Doppio's $16 buys up to 4,000. Placid counts 2 credits for each PDF page where CraftMyPDF counts one credit for a whole PDF. Api2Pdf has no allowance at all: the bill follows the megabytes and seconds you use, so its $1 is a floor, not an estimate.

At the limit, Doppio pauses renders below its Pro plan, DocRaptor and DocuGenerate bill each extra document, and Placid generates only previews at zero credits. CraftMyPDF emails you at 80% and 100% and never upgrades a plan automatically, but it publishes no overage price and does not say what the API does at 100%.

The PDF generation API cost comparison names the plan each of seven vendors needs at 1,000 and at 10,000 PDFs a month, and the free PDF generation API page covers the free tiers that come before any of them.

• Pick Api2Pdf or PDFShift for the lowest monthly price on your own HTML.
• Pick Doppio for up to 4,000 documents at $16 a month.
• Pick APITemplate.io for 3,000 PDFs at $24 a month.
• Pick CraftMyPDF Lite for a drag-and-drop editor, with Zapier, Make.com and Bubble.io listed on every plan, at $29 a month.