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/

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"' | jq .

How to Use

1. PDF to Text

Extract text from PDF with OCR support:

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

With specific pages (1-indexed):

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

2. PDF to CSV

Convert PDF tables to CSV:

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

3. Merge PDFs

Combine multiple PDFs into one:

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'"'"' --data-raw '"'"'{
  "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"
  }'"'"' | jq .'

4. Split PDF

Split PDF by page ranges:

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

5. Compress PDF

Reduce PDF file size:

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

6. HTML to PDF

Convert HTML or URL to 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'"'"' --data-raw '"'"'{
  "html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is a test.</p>",
  "name": "output.pdf"
  }'"'"' | jq .'

From URL:

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'"'"' --data-raw '"'"'{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "name": "webpage.pdf"
  }'"'"' | jq .'

7. AI Invoice Parser

Extract structured data from invoices:

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

8. Upload Local File

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

# Step 1: Get presigned upload URL
UPLOAD_RESPONSE=$(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}")

PRESIGNED_URL=$(echo $UPLOAD_RESPONSE | jq -r '.presignedUrl')
FILE_URL=$(echo $UPLOAD_RESPONSE | jq -r '.url')

# Step 2: Upload file
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
echo "Use this URL: $FILE_URL"

9. Async Mode (Large Files)

For large files, use async mode to avoid timeouts:

# Start async job
RESPONSE=$(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' --data-raw '{
  "url": "https://example.com/large-file.pdf",
  "async": true
  }')

JOB_ID=$(echo $RESPONSE | jq -r '.jobId')

# Check job status
bash -c 'curl --location --request POST '"'"'https://api.pdf.co/v1/job/check'"'"' --header "x-api-key: ${PDFCO_API_KEY}" --header '"'"'Content-Type: application/json'"'"' --data-raw "{\"jobid\": \"$JOB_ID\"}"' | jq .

Common Parameters

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

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