Best Python libraries for reading and filling PDF files (buyer asking for advice)

Requested by a visitor · October 26, 2026

We asked 10 models: I'm a Python developer and need a library to read, edit and fill PDF files in my project. Which would you recommend? Each named its own top 10.

Asked 4 ways: List request · Buyer asking for advice · Search query · Worth paying for?. Share of voice pools every wording.

Agreement between models: 55%
Same model, run twice: 78%
Different picks: 26

When agreement between models is well below a model's agreement with itself, the split reflects real differences in taste rather than randomness.

The consensus

We asked 10 models: I'm a Python developer and need a library to read, edit and fill PDF files in my project. Which would you recommend? Each named its own top 10.

Each cell is the position that model gave the pick; blank means it left the pick off. Click a row for each model's reasoning.

#	Pick	Listed by	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
1	PyMuPDF	10/10	2	2	1	3	2	1	2	1	1	10
Gemini 4 Argon (#1) Fastest and most comprehensive library for reading, editing, and filling PDF forms. GLM-5.3 (#1) Fast C-backed engine; powerful editing, annotation and extraction capabilities. MiniMax M3 (#1) Fast, feature-rich library (fitz) for reading, editing, and filling PDF forms efficiently Mistral Large 4 (#1) Fastest Python PDF library, excellent for reading, editing, and form filling. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#2) Fast, feature-rich rendering, text extraction and editing; AGPL or commercial license. GPT-6 Luna (#2) Fast, capable PDF reading and editing, including annotations, pages, and form widgets. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#2) Fastest, most capable Python PDF library; editing, text extraction, rendering. Kimi K3 (#2) Blazing fast rendering and editing, though AGPL licensing demands care commercially. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#3) Fast fitz module supports widget-based form filling. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#10) Fast rendering, editing, text extraction, and form field manipulation
2	pypdf	9/10	1	1	2	1	1	2	1	5	2
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#1) Pure-Python, actively maintained, handles reading, editing, merging and form filling well. GPT-6 Luna (#1) Best fit for Python projects: reads, edits, merges, and fills forms without external dependencies. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#1) Pure Python, maintained fork of PyPDF2; reads, edits, fills forms easily. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#1) Best pure-Python default for reading, merging, splitting and basic form filling. Kimi K3 (#1) Actively maintained, pure Python, excellent for merging, splitting, and form filling. Gemini 4 Argon (#2) Best pure-Python library for general reading, page manipulation, and form filling. GLM-5.3 (#2) Pure-Python, actively maintained; reads, merges, splits and fills forms easily. Mistral Large 4 (#2) Pure Python, reliable for merging, splitting, and filling PDF forms. MiniMax M3 (#5) Pure Python, lightweight, great for reading/editing/merging PDFs without external dependencies
3	ReportLab	10/10	7	9	10	6	4	3	4	2	3	2
MiniMax M3 (#2) Industry-standard for generating PDFs, excellent for creating fillable forms and complex layouts Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#2) Best for programmatic PDF generation and precise layout control from scratch GLM-5.3 (#3) De facto standard for generating and filling PDFs programmatically. Mistral Large 4 (#3) Industry standard for creating and editing PDFs programmatically in Python. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#4) Reliable programmatic PDF generation and canvas-level drawing control. Kimi K3 (#4) Industry standard for programmatically generating and overlaying PDF content precisely. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#6) Strong creation, limited editing; useful for overlaying fields. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#7) Mature toolkit for generating new PDFs; less suited to editing existing files. Gemini 4 Argon (#10) Industry standard for generating and overlaying PDF content, though lacks native reading.
4	pdfplumber	9/10	3		7	9	3	4	5	3	4	6
Claude Haiku 5.5 (#3) Excellent for extracting text, tables and coordinates; read-focused rather than editing. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#3) Superb text and table extraction; readable API for parsing existing PDFs. MiniMax M3 (#3) Excellent for extracting text/tables and analyzing PDF structure with intuitive API GLM-5.3 (#4) Excellent for reading text and tables from PDFs. Mistral Large 4 (#4) Best for extracting tables and text with high accuracy from PDFs. Kimi K3 (#5) Best-in-class text and table extraction when you need to read PDF data. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#6) Superior text and table extraction with detailed layout metadata Gemini 4 Argon (#7) Unmatched for extracting text and tables, though limited for direct editing.
5	pdfrw	10/10	4	7	9	2	6	10	3	10	5	4
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#2) Lightweight read/write with form field filling support. Kimi K3 (#3) Lightweight and reliable; pairs well with ReportLab for filling AcroForm fields. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#4) Simple pure-Python reader and writer that's good for filling form fields. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#4) Reads and writes PDFs, good for template manipulation and annotations Mistral Large 4 (#5) Lightweight and great for reading, writing, and simple form filling. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#6) Lightweight reading of forms and reusing existing PDF pages as templates. Gemini 4 Argon (#9) Lightweight library great for reading, modifying, and templating PDF forms alongside ReportLab. GLM-5.3 (#10) Lightweight option for manipulating and filling AcroForm fields. MiniMax M3 (#10) Lightweight library ideal for merging, splitting, and filling existing PDF forms
6	pikepdf	9/10	5	10	3	4	5	5	6	6	6
Gemini 4 Argon (#3) Powerful QPDF-backed library ideal for deep low-level PDF editing and manipulation. Qwen 3.8 Flash (#4) Robust editing via QPDF; handles forms and metadata well. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#5) Powerful QPDF-based low-level editing, repair and encryption handling for precise changes. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#5) QPDF-backed power for repairing, transforming and low-level PDF object work. GLM-5.3 (#5) QPDF wrapper for low-level PDF editing, encryption and repair. Kimi K3 (#6) QPDF-based; superb for low-level structure editing, repair, and optimization. Mistral Large 4 (#6) Built on qpdf, ideal for precise PDF editing and robust form handling.
7	borb	7/10		4	6	10	7	6	10	7
GPT-6 Luna (#4) Python library for reading, modifying, and creating PDFs, with form support. Gemini 4 Argon (#6) Feature-rich pure-Python library capable of reading, modifying, and creating complex PDFs. GLM-5.3 (#6) Pure-Python creation/editing library; newer and less battle-tested. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#7) Modern pure-Python layout engine for building and manipulating document PDFs. MiniMax M3 (#7) Modern pure-Python library supporting read/edit/fill with good documentation Qwen 3.8 Flash (#10) Python-native library supporting reading, editing, and form filling. Kimi K3 (#10) Modern, intuitive API for creating and editing, but smaller community and maturity.
8	PyPDF2	5/10	6					8		9	7	1
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#1) Pure Python, reads/writes/merges/splits, easy for basic edits and form filling Claude Haiku 5.5 (#6) Predecessor of pypdf and now deprecated; still found in older projects. Mistral Large 4 (#7) Popular choice for basic PDF manipulation and form field population. GLM-5.3 (#8) Legacy predecessor of pypdf; use only for older codebases.
9	fpdf2	4/10	8				8	7				3
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#3) Lightweight, simple API for creating PDFs from Python code GLM-5.3 (#7) Simple, clean API for creating PDFs from scratch. Claude Haiku 5.5 (#8) Lightweight library for creating PDFs from scratch, not editing existing ones. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#8) Simple, fast generator for invoices and reports with decent text support.
10	pdfminer.six	4/10	9					9		4		5
MiniMax M3 (#4) Robust pure-Python option focused on precise text extraction and layout analysis Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#5) Deep text extraction and analysis, especially for layout-heavy documents Claude Haiku 5.5 (#9) Detailed text layout extraction, but offers no editing or form-filling support. GLM-5.3 (#9) Robust text/layout extraction; read-focused but reliable.
11	Aspose.PDF	4/10		6		5	9		9
Qwen 3.8 Flash (#5) Commercial, full-featured PDF manipulation including forms. GPT-6 Luna (#6) Broad PDF editing and form-filling features with Python support; commercial product.
12	fillpdf	2/10			5						8
Gemini 4 Argon (#5) Simplest dedicated library specifically designed for flattening and filling PDF forms. Mistral Large 4 (#8) Simple wrapper specifically designed for filling PDF forms easily.
13	PDFium	1/10		3
GPT-6 Luna (#3) Reliable rendering and form interaction through Python bindings such as pypdfium2.
14	WeasyPrint	3/10					10			8		7
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (#7) Renders HTML/CSS to PDF with strong styling support MiniMax M3 (#8) HTML/CSS-to-PDF generator, perfect for programmatic PDF creation from templates DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (#10) HTML/CSS to PDF rendering when your layout already lives in web markup.
15	pypdfium2	1/10			4
Gemini 4 Argon (#4) High-performance PDFium bindings offering strong reading, rendering, and form handling capabilities.

11 lower-scoring picks are not shown; every ballot below lists them in full.

Most divisive

Picks most models listed, at very different positions

PyMuPDF#1 for Gemini 4 Argon #10 for Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
ReportLab#2 for MiniMax M3 #10 for Gemini 4 Argon
pdfrw#2 for Qwen 3.8 Flash #10 for MiniMax M3

Hot takes

Picks that appear on only one ballot

PDFium at #3, only GPT-6 Luna
pypdfium2 at #4, only Gemini 4 Argon
PDFlib at #5, only GPT-6 Luna
Spire.PDF for Python at #7, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
PDFtk at #7, only Kimi K3
PyPDFForm at #8, only Gemini 4 Argon
Camunda... no, 'FPDF' at #8, only Qwen 3.8 Flash
pdf2image at #8, only Kimi K3
PDFKit at #8, only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
pdfrw-ng at #9, only Mistral Large 4
xhtml2pdf at #9, only Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
pdfrw2 at #10, only Mistral Large 4

Every ballot

Hover a pick to find it on the other ballots. Marked picks appear on no other ballot.

Claude Haiku 5.5

pypdf
PyMuPDF
pdfplumber
pdfrw
pikepdf
PyPDF2
ReportLab
fpdf2
pdfminer.six
Apache PDFBox

71% with consensus · 92% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff June 2026

GPT-6 Luna

pypdf
PyMuPDF
PDFium
borb
PDFlib
Aspose.PDF
pdfrw
Apache PDFBox
ReportLab
pikepdf

50% with consensus · 77% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff May 18, 2026

Gemini 4 Argon

PyMuPDF
pypdf
pikepdf
pypdfium2
fillpdf
borb
pdfplumber
PyPDFForm
pdfrw
ReportLab

71% with consensus · 95% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff March 2026

Qwen 3.8 Flash

pypdf
pdfrw
PyMuPDF
pikepdf
Aspose.PDF
ReportLab
Spire.PDF for Python
Camunda... no, 'FPDF'
pdfplumber
borb

53% with consensus · 81% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

pypdf
PyMuPDF
pdfplumber
ReportLab
pikepdf
pdfrw
borb
fpdf2
Aspose.PDF
WeasyPrint

76% with consensus · 99% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

GLM-5.3

PyMuPDF
pypdf
ReportLab
pdfplumber
pikepdf
borb
fpdf2
PyPDF2
pdfminer.six
pdfrw

94% with consensus · 70% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

Kimi K3

pypdf
PyMuPDF
pdfrw
ReportLab
pdfplumber
pikepdf
PDFtk
pdf2image
Aspose.PDF
borb

71% with consensus · 76% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

MiniMax M3

PyMuPDF
ReportLab
pdfplumber
pdfminer.six
pypdf
pikepdf
borb
WeasyPrint
PyPDF2
pdfrw

78% with consensus · 57% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

Mistral Large 4

PyMuPDF
pypdf
ReportLab
pdfplumber
pdfrw
pikepdf
PyPDF2
fillpdf
pdfrw-ng
pdfrw2

95% with consensus · 75% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

Nemotron 3.5 Super VL

PyPDF2
ReportLab
fpdf2
pdfrw
pdfminer.six
pdfplumber
WeasyPrint
PDFKit
xhtml2pdf
PyMuPDF

31% with consensus · 61% self-consistent · knowledge cutoff not published

Who agrees with whom

Overlap between two models' lists, weighted toward the top · 100 means identical · Color runs from 5 (lightest) to 88 (darkest)

	Claude Haiku 5.5	GPT-6 Luna	Gemini 4 Argon	Qwen 3.8 Flash	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	GLM-5.3	Kimi K3	MiniMax M3	Mistral Large 4	Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
Claude Haiku 5.5		63	54	71	88	68	82	53	70	27
GPT-6 Luna	63		49	61	67	49	64	34	47	5
Gemini 4 Argon	54	49		48	57	73	52	56	69	6
Qwen 3.8 Flash	71	61	48		70	49	77	33	53	17
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	88	67	57	70		74	85	61	71	23
GLM-5.3	68	49	73	49	74		64	78	88	27
Kimi K3	82	64	52	77	85	64		51	70	25
MiniMax M3	53	34	56	33	61	78	51		74	37
Mistral Large 4	70	47	69	53	71	88	70	74		30
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL	27	5	6	17	23	27	25	37	30