PDF
About PDFPipe
The PDF conversion API built for workflows that can't afford to break.
PDFs are everywhere - invoices, reports, contracts, government filings - but getting structured data out of them is surprisingly hard. Most tools work fine for simple, inline PDFs. But the real world is messier: token-gated downloads, JavaScript-triggered attachments, redirect chains, CAPTCHAs.
PDFPipe was built to solve that. One API endpoint that handles both inline and auto-download PDFs, returning clean structured data in any of 10 formats - JSON, Markdown, CSV, images, and more. No browser automation to manage, no edge cases to debug, no infrastructure to maintain.
Whether you're building an invoice processing pipeline, a document ingestion system, or connecting PDFs to Zapier and Make, PDFPipe is the reliable layer between a PDF URL and the data you actually need.
What we care about
Reliability first
PDFs come in every shape - inline, behind redirects, token-gated, JS-triggered downloads. PDFPipe handles them all so you don't have to.
Developer experience
One endpoint, one API key, 10 output formats. No SDKs to install, no binaries to manage, no servers to maintain.
Privacy by design
Documents are processed ephemerally. No long-term storage, no training on your data, presigned URLs scoped to the exact object. Your PDFs stay yours.
Transparent pricing
A generous free tier to get started, clear per-tier limits, and no surprise overages. Pay for what you use, upgrade when you need to.
How PDFPipe works
When you send a URL to PDFPipe, we first issue a HEAD request to determine how the PDF is served. If it's an inline PDF, we fetch and parse it directly using optimized extraction libraries. If the PDF triggers an auto-download - common with enterprise document portals, government sites, and token-gated links - we spin up a headless Chromium browser to navigate the page, handle redirects and JavaScript triggers, and capture the downloaded file.
Either way, you get the same clean output: structured data in your choice of 10 formats. JSON gives you page-by-page text with coordinates, detected tables, and metadata. Markdown preserves formatting for LLM pipelines. CSV extracts tabular data. Image formats render each page as PNG, JPG, or WebP.
The entire process is ephemeral. PDFs are processed in memory, results are stored temporarily via presigned S3 URLs scoped to the exact object, and everything is cleaned up automatically. We never store your documents long-term and never use them for training.
Built for real workflows
Invoice processing
Extract line items, totals, and vendor information from invoices in JSON format for accounting automation.
Document ingestion for AI
Convert PDFs to Markdown for RAG pipelines, vector databases, and LLM context windows.
No-code automation
Connect via Power Automate, Zapier, or Make to process PDFs from SharePoint, email, or cloud storage.
Data extraction
Pull tables from financial reports, research papers, and government filings into CSV for analysis.
Ready to try it?
Start converting PDFs in minutes - no credit card required.