Stirling-PDF v3.0.0 is out, and its main new piece is the Processor, which automates document workflows. In practice that means connecting a source, stacking PDF operations and picking a destination. Sources include folders, FTP and S3. Runs fire on a schedule, a folder change, a webhook, or when someone uploads or exports a file in the editor.
What it does at scale
The documentation reaches for scan piles as the example: OCR over 10,000 scans, compressing a whole folder, converting a document library. Pipelines keep watching for new arrivals instead of processing once, and the docs pitch a second use for organizations: policies that push every document coming in or going out through a set process. The feature is web-only for now. Admins and team leaders have access by default, and the desktop app does not carry the Processor yet.
The licence line
Automation now includes 1,000 PDFs per month free, and the wording covers the Processor, the API and the AI features. Linking a server to stirling.com adds 500 more a month plus hosted AI, for anyone who does not want to run a model. The editor side stays free: normal editor use remains free and unlimited, and OAuth SSO is now free for every licence type. The AI features themselves stay optional and off by default, and can run against locally hosted models depending on your setup.
The editor itself got a release of its own inside this one. The text editor left alpha with what the notes call a drastic improvement in UI, performance and compatibility, signing from your phone now works through a QR code, signatures can carry RFC3161 timestamps, there is a new Files Library, and the desktop app gains folders mounted from disk, groundwork the notes say will be expanded for automation later.
My read
The meter is drawn around automation, not features: a household converting a few dozen documents a month will never meet it, and anyone automating at volume will. That is a fair place to put a price, and the release states the number plainly. What makes the number worth reading is what sits inside the fence. The useful new capability, batch work that runs by itself, is the metered one; everything the editor could already do stays free.
Sources: the v3.0.0 release notes on GitHub; the official Processor documentation