Get Started

Use this guide to make your first PdfParse API request.

Before you start

You need:

• a PdfParse account
• a project
• a project API key
• curl

Create the API key from Project → API Keys. Copy it when the application shows it.

Store the key in an environment variable:

export PDFPARSE_API_KEY="replace_with_your_project_key"

Do not put the key in browser code. Do not commit it to source control.

1. Check the key

List the tables in the project:

curl "https://api.pdfparse.net/v1/tables" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PDFPARSE_API_KEY}"

A new project can return an empty array. This result confirms that the key works.

• A 401 response means that the key is missing or invalid.
• A 403 response means that the key does not have permission for the operation.

2. Create a table

Create an invoice table with four fields:

curl -X POST "https://api.pdfparse.net/v1/tables" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PDFPARSE_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: getting-started-invoices-v1" \
  -d '{
    "name": "invoices",
    "columns": [
      {
        "name": "invoice_number",
        "prompt": "Invoice number as printed",
        "type": "text"
      },
      {
        "name": "invoice_date",
        "prompt": "Invoice date",
        "type": "date"
      },
      {
        "name": "vendor",
        "prompt": "Vendor name",
        "type": "text"
      },
      {
        "name": "total",
        "prompt": "Final invoice total without a currency symbol",
        "type": "number"
      }
    ]
  }'

Store the returned id and slug. You need them for row queries and extraction jobs.

Use text for identifiers that can contain letters or leading zeros. Use number for values that you must calculate.

3. Confirm the table

List the tables again:

curl "https://api.pdfparse.net/v1/tables" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${PDFPARSE_API_KEY}"

Confirm that the response contains the invoices table.

Next step

Follow How to Extract Data From a PDF to upload a document, create a job, and query the extracted rows.

Use the endpoint reference in the left sidebar when you need request and response details.