Quickstart
Three steps to your first API call.
- Create an API key from Account › API Keys
- Send a multipart/form-data POST to one of the v1 endpoints with an Authorization: Bearer header.
- Inspect the JSON response — successful calls return a signed download URL valid for 15 minutes.
Base URL
https://whatapdf.com/api/v1
Authentication
Every request must include an Authorization header with your API key as a Bearer token.
Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_a1b2c3d4e5f6...Keep your live keys secret. Treat them like passwords. Never commit them to source control or expose them in client-side code.
Key formats
pdn_live_<32 hex>— Production key. Counts toward your plan's rate limit.pdn_test_<32 hex>— Test key. Same rate limit; useful for distinguishing environments in logs.
Rate limits
Rate limits are calculated per user, per rolling 1-hour window. Every response includes X-RateLimit-* headers so you can plan your retries.
| Plan | Requests / hour |
|---|---|
| Free | 10 |
| Premium | 1,000 |
| Business | 5,000 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
Response headers
X-RateLimit-Limit— Your plan's hourly cap.X-RateLimit-Remaining— Calls remaining in the current window.X-RateLimit-Reset— Unix timestamp when the window resets.Retry-After— Seconds to wait, sent only on 429 responses.
Errors
All errors are returned as JSON with a stable code and a human-readable message.
{
"error": {
"code": "rate_limited",
"message": "Rate limit exceeded for your plan (free: 10/hour)."
},
"meta": { "request_id": "8f9a2b3c1d4e5f6a" }
}Error codes
| Code | HTTP | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
unauthorized | 401 | Missing, malformed, or revoked API key. |
rate_limited | 429 | Hourly rate limit exceeded for your plan. |
invalid_input | 400 | Request body or parameters failed validation. |
payload_too_large | 413 | File or combined payload exceeds your plan's size limit. |
internal_error | 500 | Unexpected server error. Safe to retry with backoff. |
POST /compress
Compress a PDF using Ghostscript when available, with an FPDI fallback. Returns a signed download URL.
POSThttps://whatapdf.com/api/v1/compress
Parameters (multipart/form-data)
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| file * | file | PDF file to compress. |
| level | string | Compression preset. low, medium, high |
Code examples
curl -X POST https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/compress \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-F "[email protected]" \
-F "level=medium"const form = new FormData();
form.append('file', fileInput.files[0]);
form.append('level', 'medium');
const res = await fetch('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/compress', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' },
body: form,
});
const json = await res.json();
console.log(json.data.download.url);import requests
with open('input.pdf', 'rb') as f:
r = requests.post(
'https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/compress',
headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'},
files={'file': f},
data={'level': 'medium'},
)
print(r.json())<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/compress');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'],
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'file' => new CURLFile('input.pdf', 'application/pdf'),
'level' => 'medium',
],
]);
$res = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($res);Example response
{
"data": {
"filename": "report_compressed.pdf",
"original_size": 5242880,
"compressed_size": 2621440,
"savings_percent": 50.0,
"method": "ghostscript",
"download": {
"url": "/api/get-pdf.php?file=...&exp=...&sig=...",
"expires_in": 900
}
},
"meta": { "request_id": "8f9a2b3c1d4e5f6a" }
}POST /merge
Merge 2–20 PDFs into a single document in upload order.
POSThttps://whatapdf.com/api/v1/merge
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| files[] * | file[] | Two or more PDF files (multipart array). |
Code examples
curl -X POST https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/merge \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-F "files[][email protected]" \
-F "files[][email protected]" \
-F "files[][email protected]"const form = new FormData();
for (const f of fileInput.files) form.append('files[]', f);
const res = await fetch('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/merge', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' },
body: form,
});
console.log(await res.json());import requests
files = [
('files[]', open('a.pdf', 'rb')),
('files[]', open('b.pdf', 'rb')),
('files[]', open('c.pdf', 'rb')),
]
r = requests.post(
'https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/merge',
headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'},
files=files,
)
print(r.json())<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/merge');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'],
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'files[0]' => new CURLFile('a.pdf', 'application/pdf'),
'files[1]' => new CURLFile('b.pdf', 'application/pdf'),
'files[2]' => new CURLFile('c.pdf', 'application/pdf'),
],
]);
echo curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);POST /split
Split a PDF into one or more parts by page ranges. Each part is returned with its own signed download URL.
POSThttps://whatapdf.com/api/v1/split
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| file * | file | Source PDF. |
| ranges * | string | Comma-separated page ranges. One range = one output part. e.g. 1-3,5,7-9 |
Code examples
curl -X POST https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/split \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-F "[email protected]" \
-F "ranges=1-3,5,7-9"const form = new FormData();
form.append('file', fileInput.files[0]);
form.append('ranges', '1-3,5,7-9');
const res = await fetch('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/split', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' },
body: form,
});
console.log(await res.json());import requests
with open('input.pdf', 'rb') as f:
r = requests.post(
'https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/split',
headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'},
files={'file': f},
data={'ranges': '1-3,5,7-9'},
)
for part in r.json()['data']['parts']:
print(part['pages'], part['download']['url'])<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/split');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'],
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'file' => new CURLFile('input.pdf', 'application/pdf'),
'ranges' => '1-3,5,7-9',
],
]);
print_r(json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true));
curl_close($ch);POST /ocr
Extract text from an image using Tesseract OCR. Supports 20+ languages.
POSThttps://whatapdf.com/api/v1/ocr
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| image * | file | Image to OCR (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, WebP, or BMP). |
| language | string | Tesseract language code. Default eng |
Code examples
curl -X POST https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/ocr \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" \
-F "[email protected]" \
-F "language=eng"const form = new FormData();
form.append('image', imageInput.files[0]);
form.append('language', 'eng');
const res = await fetch('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/ocr', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' },
body: form,
});
const { data } = await res.json();
console.log(data.text);import requests
with open('scan.png', 'rb') as f:
r = requests.post(
'https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/ocr',
headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'},
files={'image': f},
data={'language': 'eng'},
)
print(r.json()['data']['text'])<?php
$ch = curl_init('https://whatapdf.com/api/v1/ocr');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['Authorization: Bearer pdn_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'],
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => [
'image' => new CURLFile('scan.png', 'image/png'),
'language' => 'eng',
],
]);
$res = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
echo $res['data']['text'];
curl_close($ch);