PDF.co

All-in-one PDF processing API. Convert, extract, merge, split, compress PDFs and more. Supports OCR for scanned documents.

Official docs: https://docs.pdf.co/

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When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Extract text from PDF files (with OCR support)
• Convert PDF to CSV, JSON, or other formats
• Merge multiple PDFs into one
• Split PDF into multiple files
• Compress PDF to reduce file size
• Convert HTML/URL to PDF
• Parse invoices and documents with AI

---

Prerequisites

1. Create an account at https://pdf.co/
2. Get your API key from https://app.pdf.co/

Set environment variable:

export PDFCO_API_KEY="your-email@example.com_your-api-key"

---

Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY"'

How to Use

1. PDF to Text

Extract text from PDF with OCR support:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

With specific pages (1-indexed):

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-text/sample.pdf",
  "pages": "1-3",
  "inline": true
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

2. PDF to CSV

Convert PDF tables to CSV:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-to-csv/sample.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/csv" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

3. Merge PDFs

Combine multiple PDFs into one:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-merge/sample1.pdf,https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-merge/sample2.pdf",
  "name": "merged.pdf"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/merge" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

4. Split PDF

Split PDF by page ranges:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-split/sample.pdf",
  "pages": "1-2,3-"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/split" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

5. Compress PDF

Reduce PDF file size:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-optimize/sample.pdf",
  "name": "compressed.pdf"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/optimize" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

6. HTML to PDF

Convert HTML or URL to PDF:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a test.</p>",
  "name": "output.pdf"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/from/html" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

From URL:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "name": "webpage.pdf"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/from/url" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

7. AI Invoice Parser

Extract structured data from invoices:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ai-invoice-parser/sample-invoice.pdf",
  "inline": true
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/ai-invoice-parser" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

8. Upload Local File

Upload a local file first, then use the returned URL:

Step 1: Get presigned upload URL

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?name=myfile.pdf&contenttype=application/pdf" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}"' | jq -r '.presignedUrl, .url'

Copy the presigned URL and file URL from the response.

Step 2: Upload file

Replace <presigned-url> with the URL from Step 1:

curl -X PUT "<presigned-url>" --header "Content-Type: application/pdf" --data-binary @/path/to/your/file.pdf

Step 3: Use file URL in subsequent API calls

Replace <file-url> with the file URL from Step 1:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "<file-url>",
  "inline": true
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

9. Async Mode (Large Files)

For large files, use async mode to avoid timeouts:

Step 1: Start async job

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "url": "https://example.com/large-file.pdf",
  "async": true
}

bash -c 'curl -s --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/convert/to/text" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json' | jq -r '.jobId'

Copy the job ID from the response.

Step 2: Check job status

Replace <job-id> with the job ID from Step 1:

Write to /tmp/request.json:

{
  "jobid": "<job-id>"
}

bash -c 'curl --location --request POST "https://api.pdf.co/v1/job/check" --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header "Content-Type: application/json" -d @/tmp/request.json'

---

Common Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
url	string	URL to source file (required)
inline	boolean	Return result in response body
async	boolean	Run as background job
pages	string	Page range, 1-indexed (e.g., "1-3", "1,3,5", "2-")
name	string	Output filename
password	string	PDF password if protected
expiration	integer	Output link expiration in minutes (default: 60)

---

Response Format

{
  "url": "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/.../result.pdf",
  "pageCount": 5,
  "error": false,
  "status": 200,
  "name": "result.pdf",
  "credits": 10,
  "remainingCredits": 9990
}

With inline: true, the response includes body field with extracted content.

---

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
/pdf/convert/to/text	PDF to text (OCR supported)
/pdf/convert/to/csv	PDF to CSV
/pdf/convert/to/json	PDF to JSON
/pdf/merge	Merge multiple PDFs
/pdf/split	Split PDF by pages
/pdf/optimize	Compress PDF
/pdf/convert/from/html	HTML to PDF
/pdf/convert/from/url	URL to PDF
/ai-invoice-parser	AI-powered invoice parsing
/document-parser	Template-based document parsing
/file/upload/get-presigned-url	Get upload URL
/job/check	Check async job status

---

Guidelines

1. File Sources: Use direct URLs or upload files first via presigned URL
2. Large Files: Use async: true for files over 40 pages or 10MB
3. OCR: Automatically enabled for scanned PDFs (set lang for non-English)
4. Rate Limits: Check your plan at https://pdf.co/pricing
5. Output Expiration: Download results within expiration time (default 60 min)
6. Credits: Each operation costs credits; check remainingCredits in response