Performance

PDF Reader MCP is optimized for speed and efficiency.

Benchmarks

Benchmarks run on Node.js 22, measuring operations per second.

Operation	Ops/sec	Notes
Metadata only	~5,000	Fastest extraction mode
Single page text	~5,300	Minimal parsing
Full text (10 pages)	~4,500	Depends on content
With images	~2,000	Image encoding overhead

Optimization Tips

1. Request Only What You Need

// Fast - metadata only
{
  "sources": [{ "path": "doc.pdf" }],
  "include_metadata": true,
  "include_page_count": true,
  "include_full_text": false,
  "include_images": false
}

2. Use Page Ranges

Instead of full text extraction, request specific pages:

{
  "sources": [{
    "path": "doc.pdf",
    "pages": [1, 2]  // Only first two pages
  }],
  "include_full_text": false,
  "include_metadata": false,
  "include_page_count": false,
  "include_images": false
}

3. Batch Sources

Process multiple PDFs in one request for better throughput:

{
  "sources": [
    { "path": "doc1.pdf" },
    { "path": "doc2.pdf" },
    { "path": "doc3.pdf" }
  ],
  "include_full_text": true,
  "include_metadata": false,
  "include_page_count": false,
  "include_images": false
}

4. Avoid Images Unless Needed

Image extraction involves encoding to PNG and base64, which adds overhead:

// Slower
{ "include_images": true }

// Faster
{ "include_images": false }

Concurrency

The server processes multiple sources concurrently with a default limit of 3 simultaneous operations to prevent memory exhaustion.

File Size Limits

• Maximum file size: 100MB
• Files exceeding this limit will return an error

Memory Usage

Memory usage scales with:

• Number of concurrent sources
• PDF complexity
• Image extraction enabled

For large PDFs or many concurrent requests, ensure adequate system memory.