PDF Info Reader

Get detailed information about a PDF document, it’s properties and security permissions.

Try it live: PDF Info Reader → API Tester — send a real request from your browser.

POST /v1/pdf/info

Extracts basic information about an input PDF file, PDF file security permissions, and other information. If you want to extract information about fillable fields (checkboxes, radiobuttons, listboxes) from PDF then please use /pdf/info/fields instead.

For one-time check of PDF file information and find form fields please use PDF Edit Add Helper.

Attributes

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request. for example: { "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf" }

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	-	URL to the source file url attribute
callback	string	No	-	The callback URL (or Webhook) used to receive the POST data. see Webhooks & Callbacks. This is only applicable when async is set to true.
httpusername	string	No	-	HTTP auth user name if required to access source URL.
httppassword	string	No	-	HTTP auth password if required to access source URL.
password	string	No	-	Password for the PDF file.
async	boolean	No	false	Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint. Also see Webhooks & Callbacks
profiles	object	No	-	See Profiles for more information.
OCRMode	string	No	Auto	Specifies how OCR (Optical Character Recognition) should process input content, offering various modes to tailor text extraction based on content type such as images, fonts, and vector graphics. For more information, see OCR Extraction Modes.
OCRResolution	integer	No	300	Use this parameter to change the OCR resolution from the default 300 dpi. The range is from 72 to 1200 dpi.
RotationAngle	integer	No	-	Use manual rotation to handle PDFs with vertically drawn text. Normally, OCR automatically detects page rotation in PDFs and extracts text accurately. However, in some cases, the PDF might not have an actual rotated page --- Rather, the text itself is drawn vertically. In such scenarios, auto-detection may fail. You can use this parameter to manually set the page rotation. The available angles are: 0, 1, 2, 3.
LineGroupingMode	string	No	None	Controls line grouping in PDF text extraction. Modes: None (no grouping), GroupByRows (merge rows if all cells align), GroupByColumns (merge cells by column), JoinOrphanedRows (merge single-cell rows to above if no separator).
ConsiderFontColors	boolean	No	false	Controls whether font colors should be considered when detecting table structure and merging text objects during PDF extraction. Set to true to consider font colors.
DetectNewColumnBySpacesRatio	string	No	1.2	Controls how spaces between words are interpreted for column detection in PDF text extraction. It defines the ratio of space width that determines when text should be treated as being in separate columns.
AutoAlignColumnsToHeader	boolean	No	true	Controls how columns are detected and aligned during table extraction from PDF documents. It affects both table structure detection and text extraction with formatting preservation. Set to true to automatically align columns to the header row. When set to true (default), the row with the most columns is used as the header, and all other rows are aligned to this structure --- ideal for well-structured tables. When set to false, columns are analyzed independently across all rows to build the structure, which works better for inconsistent or irregular tables.
OCRImagePreprocessingFilters.AddGammaCorrection()	array[string (float format)]	No	["1.4"]	Adds a gamma correction filter to the image preprocessing pipeline used during OCR (Optical Character Recognition). This filter adjusts the brightness and contrast of an image by applying a non-linear gamma correction to improve text recognition quality.
OCRImagePreprocessingFilters.AddGrayscale()	boolean	No	false	Set to true to preprocessing filter that converts a colored document/image to grayscale before performing OCR
DataEncryptionAlgorithm	string	No	-	Controls the encryption algorithm used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information. The available algorithms are: AES128, AES192, AES256.
DataEncryptionKey	string	No	-	Controls the encryption key used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataEncryptionIV	string	No	-	Controls the encryption IV used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataDecryptionAlgorithm	string	No	-	Controls the decryption algorithm used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information. The available algorithms are: AES128, AES192, AES256.
DataDecryptionKey	string	No	-	Controls the decryption key used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataDecryptionIV	string	No	-	Controls the decryption IV used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Responses

Parameter	Type	Description
info	object	Info details.
error	boolean	Indicates whether an error occurred (false means success)
status	string	Status code of the request (200, 404, 500, etc.). For more information, see Response Codes.
credits	integer	Number of credits consumed by the request
remainingCredits	integer	Number of credits remaining in the account
duration	integer	Time taken for the operation in milliseconds

Example Payload

To see the request size limits, please refer to the Request Size Limits.

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-info/sample.pdf",
  "async": false
}

Example Response

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

{
  "info": {
    "PageCount": 1,
    "Author": "Alice V. Knox",
    "Title": "Kid's News 1",
    "Producer": "Acrobat Distiller 4.0 for Windows",
    "Subject": "Kid's News 1",
    "CreationDate": "8/15/2001 2:50:36 PM",
    "Bookmarks": "",
    "Keywords": "",
    "Creator": "Adobe PageMaker 6.52",
    "Encrypted": false,
    "PageRectangle": {
      "Location": {
        "IsEmpty": true,
        "X": 0,
        "Y": 0
      },
      "Size": "612, 792",
      "X": 0,
      "Y": 0,
      "Width": 612,
      "Height": 792,
      "Left": 0,
      "Top": 0,
      "Right": 612,
      "Bottom": 792,
      "IsEmpty": false
    },
    "ModificationDate": "9/20/2001 6:23:02 PM",
    "EncryptionAlgorithm": 0,
    "PermissionPrinting": true,
    "PermissionModifyDocument": true,
    "PermissionContentExtraction": true,
    "PermissionModifyAnnotations": true,
    "PermissionFillForms": true,
    "PermissionAccessibility": true,
    "PermissionAssemble": true,
    "PermissionHighQualityPrint": true
  },
  "error": false,
  "status": 200,
  "remainingCredits": 77732
}

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 POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info' \
--header 'x-api-key: *******************' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
"url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-info/sample.pdf",
"async": false
}'

JavaScript/Node.js

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

// `request` module is required for file upload.
// Use "npm install request" command to install.
var request = require("request");

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


// Source PDF file to get information
const SourceFile = "./sample.pdf";


// 1. RETRIEVE THE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD THE FILE.
getPresignedUrl(API_KEY, SourceFile)
  .then(([uploadUrl, uploadedFileUrl]) => {
      // 2. UPLOAD THE FILE TO CLOUD.
      uploadFile(API_KEY, SourceFile, uploadUrl)
          .then(() => {
              // 3. GET INFORMATION FROM UPLOADED FILE
              getPdfInfo(API_KEY, uploadedFileUrl);
          })
          .catch(e => {
              console.log(e);
          });
  })
  .catch(e => {
      console.log(e);
  });


function getPresignedUrl(apiKey, localFile) {
  return new Promise(resolve => {
      // Prepare request to `Get Presigned URL` API endpoint
      let queryPath = `/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?contenttype=application/octet-stream&name=${path.basename(SourceFile)}`;
      let reqOptions = {
          host: "api.pdf.co",
          path: encodeURI(queryPath),
          headers: { "x-api-key": API_KEY }
      };
      // Send request
      https.get(reqOptions, (response) => {
          response.on("data", (d) => {
              let data = JSON.parse(d);
              if (data.error == false) {
                  // Return presigned url we received
                  resolve([data.presignedUrl, data.url]);
              }
              else {
                  // Service reported error
                  console.log("getPresignedUrl(): " + data.message);
              }
          });
      })
          .on("error", (e) => {
              // Request error
              console.log("getPresignedUrl(): " + e);
          });
  });
}

function uploadFile(apiKey, localFile, uploadUrl) {
  return new Promise(resolve => {
      fs.readFile(SourceFile, (err, data) => {
          request({
              method: "PUT",
              url: uploadUrl,
              body: data,
              headers: {
                  "Content-Type": "application/octet-stream"
              }
          }, (err, res, body) => {
              if (!err) {
                  resolve();
              }
              else {
                  console.log("uploadFile() request error: " + e);
              }
          });
      });
  });
}

function getPdfInfo(apiKey, uploadedFileUrl) {
  // Prepare URL for `PDF Info` API call
  var queryPath = `/v1/pdf/info`;

  // JSON payload for api request
  var jsonPayload = JSON.stringify({
      url: uploadedFileUrl
  });

  var reqOptions = {
      host: "api.pdf.co",
      method: "POST",
      path: queryPath,
      headers: {
          "x-api-key": apiKey,
          "Content-Type": "application/json",
          "Content-Length": Buffer.byteLength(jsonPayload, 'utf8')
      }
  };
  // Send request
  var postRequest = https.request(reqOptions, (response) => {
      response.on("data", (d) => {
          response.setEncoding("utf8");
          // Parse JSON response
          let data = JSON.parse(d);
          if (data.error == false) {
              // Display PDF document information
              for (var key in data.info) {
                  console.log(`${key}: ${data.info[key]}`);
              }
          }
          else {
              // Service reported error
              console.log("getPdfInfo(): " + data.message);
          }
      });
  })
      .on("error", (e) => {
          // Request error
          console.log("getPdfInfo(): " + e);
      });

  // Write request data
  postRequest.write(jsonPayload);
  postRequest.end();
}

Python

import os
import requests # pip install requests

# 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"

# Source PDF file
SourceFile = ".\\sample.pdf"

def main(args = None):
  uploadedFileUrl = uploadFile(SourceFile)
  if (uploadedFileUrl != None):
      getInfoFromPDF(uploadedFileUrl)


def getInfoFromPDF(uploadedFileUrl):
  """Get Information using PDF.co Web API"""

  # Prepare requests params as JSON
  # See documentation: https://docs.pdf.co/
  parameters = {}
  parameters["url"] = uploadedFileUrl

  # Prepare URL for 'PDF Info' API request
  url = "{}/pdf/info".format(BASE_URL)

  # Execute request and get response as JSON
  response = requests.post(url, data=parameters, headers={ "x-api-key": API_KEY })
  if (response.status_code == 200):
      json = response.json()

      if json["error"] == False:
          # Display information
          print(json["info"])
      else:
          # Show service reported error
          print(json["message"])
  else:
      print(f"Request error: {response.status_code} {response.reason}")


def uploadFile(fileName):
  """Uploads file to the cloud"""
  
  # 1. RETRIEVE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD FILE.

  # Prepare URL for 'Get Presigned URL' API request
  url = "{}/file/upload/get-presigned-url?contenttype=application/octet-stream&name={}".format(
      BASE_URL, os.path.basename(fileName))
  
  # Execute request and get response as JSON
  response = requests.get(url, headers={ "x-api-key": API_KEY })
  if (response.status_code == 200):
      json = response.json()
      
      if json["error"] == False:
          # URL to use for file upload
          uploadUrl = json["presignedUrl"]
          # URL for future reference
          uploadedFileUrl = json["url"]

          # 2. UPLOAD FILE TO CLOUD.
          with open(fileName, 'rb') as file:
              requests.put(uploadUrl, data=file, headers={ "x-api-key": API_KEY, "content-type": "application/octet-stream" })

          return uploadedFileUrl
      else:
          # Show service reported error
          print(json["message"])    
  else:
      print(f"Request error: {response.status_code} {response.reason}")

  return None


if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

namespace PDFcoApiExample
{
class Program
{
  // The authentication key (API Key).
  // Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
  const String API_KEY = "***********************************";
  
  // Source PDF file to get information
  const string SourceFile = @".\sample.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);

    // 1. RETRIEVE THE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD THE FILE.
    // * If you already have a direct file URL, skip to the step 3.
    
    // Prepare URL for `Get Presigned URL` API call
    string query = Uri.EscapeUriString(string.Format(
      "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?contenttype=application/octet-stream&name={0}", 
      Path.GetFileName(SourceFile)));

    try
    {
      // Execute request
      string response = webClient.DownloadString(query);

      // Parse JSON response
      JObject json = JObject.Parse(response);

      if (json["error"].ToObject<bool>() == false)
      {
        // Get URL to use for the file upload
        string uploadUrl = json["presignedUrl"].ToString();
        string uploadedFileUrl = json["url"].ToString();

        // 2. UPLOAD THE FILE TO CLOUD.

        webClient.Headers.Add("content-type", "application/octet-stream");
        webClient.UploadFile(uploadUrl, "PUT", SourceFile); // You can use UploadData() instead if your file is byte[] or Stream
        
        // 3. GET INFORMATION FROM UPLOADED FILE

        // URL for `PDF Info` API call
        var url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info";

        // Prepare requests params as JSON
        Dictionary<string, object> parameters = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        parameters.Add("url", uploadedFileUrl);

        // Convert dictionary of params to JSON
        string jsonPayload = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(parameters);

        // Execute POST request with JSON payload
        response = webClient.UploadString(url, jsonPayload);

        // Parse JSON response
        json = JObject.Parse(response);

        if (json["error"].ToObject<bool>() == false)
        {
          // Display PDF document information
          foreach (JToken token in json["info"])
          {
            JProperty property = (JProperty) token;
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", property.Name, property.Value);
          }
        }
        else
        {
          Console.WriteLine(json["message"].ToString());
        }
      }
      else
      {
        Console.WriteLine(json["message"].ToString());
      }
    }
    catch (WebException e)
    {
      Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
    }

    webClient.Dispose();

    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine("Press any key...");
    Console.ReadKey();
  }
}
}

Java

package com.company;

import com.google.gson.JsonElement;
import com.google.gson.JsonObject;
import com.google.gson.JsonParser;
import okhttp3.*;

import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.nio.file.Path;
import java.nio.file.Paths;
import java.util.Map;

public class Main
{
  // The authentication key (API Key).
  // Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
  final static String API_KEY = "***********************************";

  // Source file name
  final static Path SourceFile = Paths.get(".\\sample.pdf");


  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
  {
      // Create HTTP client instance
      OkHttpClient webClient = new OkHttpClient();

      // 1. RETRIEVE THE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD THE FILE.
      // * If you already have a direct file URL, skip to the step 3.

      // Prepare URL for `Get Presigned URL` API call
      String query = String.format(
              "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url?contenttype=application/octet-stream&name=%s",
              SourceFile.getFileName());

      // Prepare request
      Request request = new Request.Builder()
              .url(query)
              .addHeader("x-api-key", API_KEY) // (!) Set API Key
              .build();
      // Execute request
      Response response = webClient.newCall(request).execute();

      if (response.code() == 200)
      {
          // Parse JSON response
          JsonObject json = new JsonParser().parse(response.body().string()).getAsJsonObject();

          boolean error = json.get("error").getAsBoolean();
          if (!error)
          {
              // Get URL to use for the file upload
              String uploadUrl = json.get("presignedUrl").getAsString();
              // Get URL of uploaded file to use with later API calls
              String uploadedFileUrl = json.get("url").getAsString();

              // 2. UPLOAD THE FILE TO CLOUD.

              if (uploadFile(webClient, uploadUrl, SourceFile.toFile()))
              {
                  // 3. GET INFORMATION FROM UPLOADED FILE

                  getPdfInfo(webClient, uploadedFileUrl);
              }
          }
          else
          {
              // Display service reported error
              System.out.println(json.get("message").getAsString());
          }
      }
      else
      {
          // Display request error
          System.out.println(response.code() + " " + response.message());
      }
  }

  public static void getPdfInfo(OkHttpClient webClient, String uploadedFileUrl) throws IOException {
      // Prepare URL for `PDF Info` API call
      String query = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info";

      // Make correctly escaped (encoded) URL
      URL url = null;
      try
      {
          url = new URI(null, query, null).toURL();
      }
      catch (URISyntaxException e)
      {
          e.printStackTrace();
      }

      // Create JSON payload
  String jsonPayload = String.format("{\"url\": \"%s\"}",
              uploadedFileUrl);

      // Prepare request body
      RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("application/json"), jsonPayload);
      
      // Prepare request
      Request request = new Request.Builder()
          .url(url)
          .addHeader("x-api-key", API_KEY) // (!) Set API Key
          .addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
          .post(body)
          .build();
      
      // Execute request
      Response response = webClient.newCall(request).execute();
      

      if (response.code() == 200)
      {
          // Parse JSON response
          JsonObject json = new JsonParser().parse(response.body().string()).getAsJsonObject();

          boolean error = json.get("error").getAsBoolean();
          if (!error)
          {
              // Display PDF document information
              JsonObject info = (JsonObject) json.get("info");
              for (Map.Entry<String, JsonElement> entry : info.entrySet())
              {
                  System.out.println(entry.getKey() + ": " + entry.getValue());
              }
          }
          else
          {
              // Display service reported error
              System.out.println(json.get("message").getAsString());
          }
      }
      else
      {
          // Display request error
          System.out.println(response.code() + " " + response.message());
      }
  }

  public static boolean uploadFile(OkHttpClient webClient, String url, File sourceFile) throws IOException
  {
      // Prepare request body
      RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("application/octet-stream"), sourceFile);

      // Prepare request
      Request request = new Request.Builder()
              .url(url)
              .addHeader("x-api-key", API_KEY) // (!) Set API Key
              .addHeader("content-type", "application/octet-stream")
              .put(body)
              .build();

      // Execute request
      Response response = webClient.newCall(request).execute();

      return (response.code() == 200);
  }
}

PHP

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>PDF Information Results</title>
</head>
<body>

<?php

// Get submitted form data
$apiKey = $_POST["apiKey"]; // The authentication key (API Key). Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co


// 1. RETRIEVE THE PRESIGNED URL TO UPLOAD THE FILE.
// * If you already have the direct PDF file link, go to the step 3.

// Create URL
$url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/file/upload/get-presigned-url" .
  "?name=" . urlencode($_FILES["file"]["name"]) .
  "&contenttype=application/octet-stream";
  
// 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, 1);
// Execute request
$result = curl_exec($curl);

if (curl_errno($curl) == 0)
{
  $status_code = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
  
  if ($status_code == 200)
  {
      $json = json_decode($result, true);
      
      // Get URL to use for the file upload
      $uploadFileUrl = $json["presignedUrl"];
      // Get URL of uploaded file to use with later API calls
      $uploadedFileUrl = $json["url"];
      
      // 2. UPLOAD THE FILE TO CLOUD.
      
      $localFile = $_FILES["file"]["tmp_name"];
      $fileHandle = fopen($localFile, "r");
      
      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $uploadFileUrl);
      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("content-type: application/octet-stream"));
      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_PUT, true);
      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_INFILE, $fileHandle);
      curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_INFILESIZE, filesize($localFile));

      // Execute request
      curl_exec($curl);
      
      fclose($fileHandle);
      
      if (curl_errno($curl) == 0)
      {
          $status_code = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
          
          if ($status_code == 200)
          {
              // 3. GET INFORMATION ABOUT UPLOADED PDF DOCUMENT
              ExtractInfo($apiKey, $uploadedFileUrl);
          }
          else
          {
              // Display request error
              echo "<p>Status code: " . $status_code . "</p>"; 
              echo "<p>" . $result . "</p>"; 
          }
      }
      else
      {
          // Display CURL error
          echo "Error: " . curl_error($curl);
      }
  }
  else
  {
      // Display service reported error
      echo "<p>Status code: " . $status_code . "</p>"; 
      echo "<p>" . $result . "</p>"; 
  }
  
  curl_close($curl);
}
else
{
  // Display CURL error
  echo "Error: " . curl_error($curl);
}

function ExtractInfo($apiKey, $uploadedFileUrl)
{
  // Create URL
  $url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info";
  
  // Prepare requests params
  $parameters = array();
  $parameters["url"] = $uploadedFileUrl;

  // Create Json payload
  $data = json_encode($parameters);

  // Create request
  $curl = curl_init();
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array("x-api-key: " . $apiKey, "Content-type: application/json"));
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
  curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);

  // Execute request
  $result = curl_exec($curl);
  
  if (curl_errno($curl) == 0)
  {
      $status_code = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
      
      if ($status_code == 200)
      {
          $json = json_decode($result, true);
          
          if (!isset($json["error"]) || $json["error"] == false)
          {
              $documentInfo = $json["info"];

              // Display the document info
              echo "<div><h2>Document Info:</h2><p>";
              foreach ($documentInfo as $key => $value) 
              {
                  if(is_array($value)){
                      echo $key . ' = ' . json_encode($value) . '<br/>';
                  }
                  else{
                      echo $key . ' = ' . $value . '<br/>';
                  }
              }
              echo "</p></div>";
          }
          else
          {
              // Display service reported error
              echo "<p>Error: " . $json["message"] . "</p>"; 
          }
      }
      else
      {
          // Display request error
          echo "<p>Status code: " . $status_code . "</p>"; 
          echo "<p>" . $result . "</p>"; 
      }
  }
  else
  {
      // Display CURL error
      echo "Error: " . curl_error($curl);
  }
}

?>

</body>
</html>