TOOLS
Extract Text from PDF API
Extract the text of a PDF, by URL or as an inline base64 upload. Optionally restrict it to a page range and detect tables, returned as Markdown. Runs locally on PDFium — no third-party document API, no per-page fee.
How to call it
Send one POST to api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post with your key in the X-Api-Key header and the parameters below as a JSON body. Each call spends 2 weighted units of your monthly quota. The operation times out after 25 seconds. Identical requests are served from cache for 86400 seconds, unbilled.
POST https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post
Extract Text from PDF API reference
Request parameters
- url
- string — Public URL of the PDF to read (e.g. https://example.com/report.pdf). Provide this OR
file, not both. - file
- string — The PDF itself, base64-encoded (no data: URI prefix). Max 3.7 MB decoded — base64 inflates by 4/3 and the API request body is capped at 5 MB. Supply
urlinstead for anything larger. Expected media type application/pdf. - pages
- string — Page range to extract, 1-based and inclusive (e.g. 1-5,8,11-13). Omit for the whole document.
- tables
- boolean — Also detect tables and return each one as a Markdown table (e.g. false). Slower — leave off unless you need them.
Response fields
- text
- stringrequired — All extracted text, pages joined by a blank line
- pages
- integerrequired — Number of pages the document contains
- tables
- array — Detected tables; null unless
tableswas true - pageTexts
- arrayrequired — Text of each extracted page, in order
- truncated
- booleanrequired — True when output was cut at the 600000-character response cap
- extractedPages
- arrayrequired — 1-based page numbers actually extracted
Example request and response
The example response is generated from this operation’s published output schema — it shows the shape and field names, not values from a recorded call.
{
"url": "https://example.com/report.pdf",
"tables": false
}{
"text": "Hello, world",
"pages": 1,
"tables": [
{
"page": 1,
"rows": 1,
"index": 1,
"columns": 1,
"markdown": "example"
}
],
"pageTexts": [
"example"
],
"truncated": false,
"extractedPages": [
1
]
}Code snippets
cURL
curl -X POST https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
-d '{ "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf", "tables": false }'JavaScript
const response = await fetch('https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"url": "https://example.com/report.pdf",
"tables": false
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);Python
import requests
response = requests.post(
'https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post',
headers={
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
json={
"url": "https://example.com/report.pdf",
"tables": False
},
)
print(response.json())Go
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
payload := []byte(`{ "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf", "tables": false }`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post", bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
client := &http.Client{}
resp, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
var result map[string]any
json.Unmarshal(body, &result)
fmt.Println(result)
}PHP
<?php
$payload = json_encode([
'url' => 'https://example.com/report.pdf',
'tables' => false,
]);
$ch = curl_init('https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
'Content-Type: application/json',
'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY',
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$data = json_decode($response, true);
var_dump($data);Ruby
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'json'
uri = URI('https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post')
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.path)
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
request.body = { "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf", "tables": false }.to_json
response = http.request(request)
puts JSON.parse(response.body)Java
import okhttp3.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import java.util.Map;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
String json = "{ \"url\": \"https://example.com/report.pdf\", \"tables\": false }";
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(json, MediaType.get("application/json"));
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url("https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post")
.post(body)
.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
.addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
.build();
try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
Map<?, ?> result = mapper.readValue(response.body().string(), Map.class);
System.out.println(result);
}C#
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Text.Json;
using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY");
var payload = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<object>("{ \"url\": \"https://example.com/report.pdf\", \"tables\": false }");
var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync("https://api.upapi.io/pdf-extract-text.post", payload);
var result = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>();
Console.WriteLine(result);Frequently asked questions
How much does the Extract Text from PDF API cost per call?
Each call spends 2 weighted units of your plan's monthly quota. Full pricing is at https://upapi.io/pricing.
How do I authenticate to the Extract Text from PDF API?
Send your key in the X-Api-Key header. A free guest key is available without creating an account.
Are Extract Text from PDF API responses cached?
Yes — identical requests are served from cache for 86400 seconds, and a cache hit is not billed.