File Download

Download files from PDF.co Files Storage using a unique filetoken; access is restricted to the account that owns the file.

GET /v1/file/download/{filetoken}

Endpoint URL Format:

https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/download/{filetoken}

Replace {filetoken} with the actual filetoken identifier. For example:

https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/download/a1d30e75adf5eaa.................

Key Features:

• Exclusive Access: The endpoint strictly controls access, allowing only the account owner with the correct filetoken to retrieve the associated file.
• Secure File Retrieval: Files are securely stored and can only be accessed through the authenticated API endpoint using the filetoken.
• File Token Based: Uses a unique filetoken identifier to access files stored in PDF.co’s built-in file storage.

Files must be uploaded to PDF.co’s built-in file storage at https://app.pdf.co/files to obtain a filetoken. The filetoken is used to securely reference and retrieve files through the API.

Request Headers

Header	Type	Required	Description
x-api-key	string	Yes	Your API key for authentication. Get your API key by registering at https://app.pdf.co

Response

The endpoint returns the file content directly with the appropriate Content-Type header based on the file type. The response is a binary file stream.

Response Headers

Header	Type	Description
Content-Type	string	The MIME type of the file (e.g., application/pdf, image/png)
Content-Disposition	string	The filename and disposition information
Content-Length	integer	The size of the file in bytes

Error Responses

If an error occurs, the endpoint returns a JSON response with the following structure:

Parameter	Type	Description
error	boolean	Indicates whether an error occurred (true means error)
status	integer	Status code of the request (200, 404, 403, 500, etc.). For more information, see Response Codes.
message	string	Error message describing what went wrong
errorCode	integer	Error code of the request (400, 401, 403, 404, 500, etc.)

Example Response (Success)

On successful request, the endpoint returns the file binary content directly. The following example shows the response headers for a PDF file:

Response Headers:

Content-Type: application/pdf
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="document.pdf"
Content-Length: 245678

Example Error Response

To see the main response codes, please refer to the Response Codes page.

{
    "status": "error",
    "errorCode": 404,
    "error": true,
    "message": "record not found. IMPORTANT: If you need to set JSON data then convert it into string first (e.g. using JSON.stringify(obj) ). Check https://docs.pdf.co for more details."
}

Inconsistent URL Encoding in cURL Output: When using cURL to make API requests, the output JSON may show URL characters encoded as Unicode escape sequences. For example, the ampersand character (&) may appear as \u0026 in the cURL output. This is normal JSON encoding behavior and does not affect the validity of the URL. The URL will function correctly when used, as JSON parsers automatically decode these escape sequences. If you’re parsing the response programmatically, your JSON parser will handle this conversion automatically.

Code Samples

CURL

curl --location --request GET 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/download/YOUR_FILETOKEN_HERE' \
--header 'x-api-key: *******************' \
--output downloaded-file.pdf

JavaScript/Node.js

var https = require("https");
var fs = require("fs");

const API_KEY = "*************************************";
const FILETOKEN = "YOUR_FILETOKEN_HERE";

function downloadFile(apiKey, filetoken) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    // Prepare request to `file/download` API endpoint
    let reqOptions = {
      host: "api.pdf.co",
      path: `/v1/file/download/${filetoken}`,
      headers: { "x-api-key": apiKey }
    };
    
    // Send request
    https.get(reqOptions, (response) => {
      if (response.statusCode === 200) {
        // Create write stream for downloaded file
        const fileStream = fs.createWriteStream("downloaded-file.pdf");
        response.pipe(fileStream);
        
        fileStream.on("finish", () => {
          fileStream.close();
          console.log("File downloaded successfully");
          resolve();
        });
      } else {
        // Handle error response
        let data = "";
        response.on("data", (chunk) => {
          data += chunk;
        });
        response.on("end", () => {
          try {
            const errorData = JSON.parse(data);
            console.log("Error: " + errorData.message);
            reject(errorData);
          } catch (e) {
            console.log("Error: " + response.statusCode);
            reject(new Error(`HTTP ${response.statusCode}`));
          }
        });
      }
    })
    .on("error", (e) => {
      // Request error
      console.log("error: " + e);
      reject(e);
    });
  });
}

downloadFile(API_KEY, FILETOKEN);

Python

import requests
import os

# The authentication key (API Key).
# Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
API_KEY = "*************************************"

# Base URL for PDF.co Web API requests
BASE_URL = "https://api.pdf.co/v1"

# File token from PDF.co file storage
FILETOKEN = "YOUR_FILETOKEN_HERE"

# Destination file path
DESTINATION_FILE = "downloaded-file.pdf"

# Prepare URL for file download
url = f"{BASE_URL}/file/download/{FILETOKEN}"

# Execute request
response = requests.get(url, headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY}, stream=True)

if response.status_code == 200:
    # Save file to disk
    with open(DESTINATION_FILE, "wb") as file:
        for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8192):
            file.write(chunk)
    print(f"File downloaded successfully as '{DESTINATION_FILE}'")
else:
    # Handle error response
    try:
        error_data = response.json()
        print(f"Error: {error_data.get('message', 'Unknown error')}")
    except:
        print(f"Error: HTTP {response.status_code}")

PHP

<?php
  $apiKey = "***************";
  $filetoken = "YOUR_FILETOKEN_HERE";
  $destinationFile = "downloaded-file.pdf";
  
  $url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/download/" . $filetoken;
  
  // Create request
  $curl = curl_init();
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("x-api-key: " . $apiKey));
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, false);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
  
  // Open file for writing
  $fileHandle = fopen($destinationFile, "w");
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_FILE, $fileHandle);
  
  // Execute request
  curl_exec($curl);
  $httpCode = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
  
  fclose($fileHandle);
  curl_close($curl);
  
  if ($httpCode == 200) {
    echo "File downloaded successfully as '$destinationFile'";
  } else {
    echo "Error: HTTP $httpCode";
  }
?>

C#

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;

namespace PDFcoApiExample
{
    class Program
    {
        // The authentication key (API Key).
        // Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
        const String API_KEY = "***********************************";
        
        const string FILETOKEN = "YOUR_FILETOKEN_HERE";
        const string DESTINATION_FILE = "downloaded-file.pdf";
        
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Create standard .NET web client instance
            WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
            
            // Set API Key
            webClient.Headers.Add("x-api-key", API_KEY);
            
            // Prepare URL for file download
            string url = $"https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/download/{FILETOKEN}";
            
            try
            {
                // Download file
                webClient.DownloadFile(url, DESTINATION_FILE);
                
                Console.WriteLine($"File downloaded successfully as '{DESTINATION_FILE}'");
            }
            catch (WebException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error: {e.Message}");
            }
            finally
            {
                webClient.Dispose();
            }
            
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Press any key...");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}