mcp for · updated September 2026

The 10 best MCP servers for PDF work

These servers let an assistant read, extract, and work with PDF files, including large or scanned documents that need OCR. Check each page for how a server handles size limits.

Ranked from the 62 servers we track for this job, on monthly installs, GitHub stars, and commit recency. Checked nightly.

01 PDF Reader MCP ★ 933 · commit 2026-09-17 Evidence-first PDF MCP. Agent Document Twin with citeable page+bbox evidence. 8,386 installs/mo · no env vars documented 02 Open Takeoff ★ 129 · commit 2026-09-17 The measurement engine for building plans - built so an AI agent can drive it, and so an estimator wants to. 6,436 installs/mo · no env vars documented 03 Pdf MCP ★ 135 · commit 2026-09-17 Agentic RAG over your PDFs, one file or a whole folder, as a single MCP tool. 6,105 installs/mo · needs 1 env var 04 Google Surf MCP ★ 290 · commit 2026-09-10 English | Korean Sponsored by SearchApi "Turn Google Search, Papers, and Codebases into an Automatic Local Knowledge Graph and lineage for AI Agents with Zero API Key, Zero External Server." 5,535 installs/mo · needs 4 env vars 05 Zoteus ★ 40 · commit 2026-09-17 Zotero MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT: search, citations, safe writes, PDF passages and pages. 8,132 installs/mo · needs 1 env var 06 Pdfmux ★ 82 · commit 2026-09-12 PDF-to-Markdown extraction that audits its own output and flags any extractor's silent drops. 1,977 installs/mo · needs 1 env var 07 Immich Photo Manager ★ 48 · commit 2026-09-03 Photo management for self-hosted Immich: search, albums, duplicates, faces, PDF reports. 94 tools. 4,628 installs/mo · needs 3 env vars 08 Content ★ 10 · commit 2026-09-16 Turn URLs, files and text into media, transcripts, summaries, translations and PDF. 2,511 installs/mo · needs 1 env var 09 Boxpdf ★ 16 · commit 2026-09-14 Resource-only MCP server with docs and templates for the boxpdf TypeScript PDF layout library. 1,354 installs/mo · no env vars documented 10 oxidize-pdf MCP Server ★ 5 · commit 2026-09-17 12 documented tools with a focus on pdf; local stdio install. 2,475 installs/mo · needs 1 env var

Before you pick

3 of these 10 run with no credentials documented, so the fastest test drive is one config paste away. 1 offers a remote endpoint, so you can connect by URL with nothing installed. Every server on this list has its own page with install configs, tool coverage, and alternatives.

Quick answers

Which MCP server is best for PDF work?

PDF Reader MCP ranks first on our installs + stars + recency blend, with 8,386 installs last month. The right pick still depends on your stack: the list above says what each one plugs into.

What do these servers need before they run?

3 of the 10 document no required env vars, so you can paste the config and go. The rest need credentials first, and each server's page lists exactly which. 1 also offer a remote endpoint, so there is nothing to install at all.

How this list is ranked

A server appears here when its category or its own description says it does this job, and it clears our quality bar: actively maintained, real adoption, a working repository. Ranked on monthly installs, GitHub stars, and commit recency, recomputed nightly. No pay-to-rank, ever. Full recipe: how we verify.