PDF → text

POST /api/pdf-extract-text2 quota units per call · cache hits free

Extract plain text from a PDF over HTTP. Multi-page documents, encrypted-but-readable PDFs, and embedded fonts are all handled. Image-only / scanned PDFs return empty (use OCR for those).

Returns the readable text of a PDF — across multiple pages, multi-column layouts, and embedded fonts. Encrypted PDFs that allow text extraction (the common case for documents flagged but not actually password-protected) work without extra configuration. Image-only / scanned PDFs (where the "text" is actually rendered into the page as bitmap pixels) return empty output — for those, run the file through `document-ocr` first. Options: - `keepLayout` (default false): preserve the original visual layout in the output. Useful for tables; can produce a lot of whitespace for prose. - `quiet` (default false): suppress non-fatal warnings.

Inputs

Name	Type	Default	Description
pdf*	file	—	PDF document bytes.
keepLayout	boolean	false	Pass `-layout` to to preserve visual layout.
quiet	boolean	true	Pass `-q` to suppress non-fatal stderr from.

Response

Modes: text, json. Cache: yes (24h TTL).

Every response carries x-cache (HIT / MISS / BYPASS), x-cache-signature (stable across identical inputs), and the rate-limit headers listed below.

Quota & limits

Cost per call	2 units against the 10,000-unit monthly quota. Cache hits are free — only cache misses decrement.
Burst limit	200 requests per rolling minute, shared across all tools.
Max request size	`25 MiB` (base64 inflates file payloads ~33% — the limit applies to the decoded bytes).
Max response size	`10 MiB`
Timeout	30s wall clock.
Rate-limit headers	`X-RateLimit-Limit`, `X-RateLimit-Remaining`, `X-RateLimit-Burst-Limit` on every response; `X-Quota-Warning` once 80% of the monthly quota is spent; `Retry-After` on 429s.

Errors

Errors are JSON with an error string; schema failures add a details object (Zod's flattened field errors).

Status	When	Body
400	Input fails the tool's schema (wrong type, missing required field, malformed base64) or the file bytes can't be parsed as the expected format.	{ "error": "invalid inputs", "details": { "fieldErrors": { … } } }
401	Missing or invalid X-Api-Key / X-Account-Id headers (or no session when called from the browser).	{ "error": "unauthorized" }
404	Unknown tool id, or calling /api/* on the website hostname instead of api.xtract.bot.	{ "error": "not found" }
413	Request body over the tool's max request size, or an image header declaring more megapixels than the tool's pixel budget.	{ "error": "…exceeds maxRequestBytes…" }
415	Content-Type isn't application/json on the json-body transport.	{ "error": "unsupported content-type; expected application/json" }
429	Monthly quota or the 200/min burst limit exhausted. Check Retry-After and the X-RateLimit-* headers.	{ "error": "monthly quota exceeded", "monthRemaining": 0, … }
5xx	Conversion engine failure. Safe to retry; if it persists, the input is hitting a bug — please report it.	{ "error": "…" }

Code samples

Built from the hello example.

# Download or substitute the example input:
#   curl -O https://xtract.bot/examples/pdf-extract-text/hello.pdf
PDF=$(base64 -w0 < hello.pdf)

curl -X POST https://api.xtract.bot/api/pdf-extract-text \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: text/plain" \
  -H "X-Account-Id: $XTRACT_ACCOUNT_ID" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $XTRACT_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
  "keepLayout": false,
  "quiet": true,
  "pdf": "'"$PDF"'"
}'