PDF APIs for agents, backend jobs, and real workflows

Automate ExactPDF's strongest workflows: exact-size compression handoffs, merge/split, images-to-PDF, structured Markdown for RAG, OCR routing, and PDF audio jobs. Start free, then buy one-time credits when the first output works.

Get 20 free credits Copy curl recipes

REST API

Stable /api/v1 endpoints with structured JSON errors and binary outputs.

MCP

Use @exactpdf/mcp from Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex, and local agents.

Credits

20 free test credits, then one-time packs. Standard tools cost 1 credit on success.

Idempotent

Request IDs and atomic ledger updates make retries safe.

First-run path

The paid path should feel boringly reliable: prove auth, inspect the file, run one output, then scale.

STEP 1

Create an API key from Max Account.

STEP 2

Call /api/v1/account to verify credits.

STEP 3

Probe the file with /api/v1/pdf-info before paid work.

STEP 4

Run one successful 1-credit workflow.

STEP 5

Buy one-time credits only after the automation works.

Copy-paste workflows

Start with these three because they match real pro pain: upload limits, RAG ingestion, and agent automation.

Portal-ready packets

Merge application PDFs or photos, best-effort repack to 1MB/2MB/5MB, and read output-size headers before upload.

curl https://exactpdf.com/api/v1/merge-compress \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -F "file=@cover.pdf" -F "file=@form.pdf" \
  -F "target_bytes=2097152" \
  -D headers.txt -o portal-ready.pdf

RAG-ready Markdown

Convert PDFs into Markdown with headings, lists, page breaks, and cleaner chunk boundaries for embeddings.

curl https://exactpdf.com/api/v1/pdf-structured-markdown \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -F "file=@manual.pdf" -F "mode=rag"

MCP inside agents

Give Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex, and local agent runners the same ExactPDF workflows with one npm package.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exactpdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@exactpdf/mcp"],
      "env": { "EXACTPDF_API_KEY": "sk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Best API wedge: PDF to Markdown for RAG

Generic PDF converters dump flat text. ExactPDF's structured Markdown endpoint preserves headings, lists, page references, and cleaner chunk boundaries. This is the developer story to push hardest.

/api/v1/pdf-structured-markdown

1 credit on success

LangChain / LlamaIndex ready

Pricing for developers

Use credits for API/MCP. Use Max when the user wants UI history, background jobs, larger files, or folder workflows.

Starter

5,000 credits

₹399 / $5

Good for first real automations and agent demos.

Pro

25,000 credits

₹1,599 / $20

Good for teams, recurring jobs, and RAG pipelines.

Scale

100,000 credits

₹5,599 / $70

Good for agencies, batch processing, and production bots.

Ready to wire it in?

Create a key, run the account probe, then use one small PDF. If the first output is not right, do not buy credits yet.

Get 20 free credits OpenAPICurl examples