Private BetaLast updated: August 2026

FastOCR API

Extract text from documents and structured data from bank statements. The bank statement API is private beta and allowlisted per account. Upload a file, poll for completion, and download the result.

What is the FastOCR REST API?

The FastOCR REST API is a developer platform for automated text extraction from scanned PDFs, images, and financial bank statements across more than 100 languages. Operating on an asynchronous five-step pipeline—create job, presigned S3 upload, initiate processing, poll status, and download output—the API delivers raw text, searchable PDFs with embedded text layers, or structured transaction tables in JSON, CSV, and XLSX formats. Bank statement jobs automatically calculate arithmetic balance tie-outs and source-grounding verification signals to facilitate controlled automation. Every registered developer account includes 50 free document pages per month with API keys managed directly through the developer console.

Getting access

The API is in private beta. Access is allowlisted per account — you cannot generate a key until your account is approved.

1Contact us to request API access for your account.
2Once approved, create an API key in the developer console.
3Pass the key as Authorization: Bearer <key> on every request.

APIs

FastOCR offers two APIs, each with its own resource type and output formats. Both follow the same five-step flow: create a job, upload the file, start processing, poll for completion, download the result.

Document OCR

Upload a PDF, run OCR, and get extracted text or a searchable PDF. Supports 100+ languages.

View reference

Bank Statements

Extract transactions as structured data from bank statement PDFs and images. Get JSON, CSV, or best-effort XLSX, plus balance and source-grounding review signals.

View reference

Authentication

All requests require a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Keys are created in the developer console and start with fok_live_.

Authentication

curl https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer fok_live_abc123..."

Pagination

List endpoints return a page of results and an opaque cursor for fetching the next page. Pass the cursor back to get more results.

Parameter	Default	Description
limit	20	1–100. Number of items per page.
cursor	—	Opaque string from `next_cursor` in the previous response.
status	—	Filter by job status.
updated_since	—	ISO 8601 timestamp. Only return jobs updated after this time.

When next_cursor is null, there are no more pages. The results array is named after the resource — documents or bank_statements.

Idempotency

Create endpoints require an Idempotency-Key header. If a request is retried with the same key and body, the original response is returned. If the body differs, a 409 idempotency_key_conflict error is returned.

Idempotency-Key header

curl -X POST https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTOCR_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"filename":"scan.pdf","size_bytes":1048576}'

Errors

A failed job returns HTTP 200 with a terminal status and an error object. HTTP status describes the request, not the work.

error object

{
  "error": {
    "type": "processing_error",
    "code": "timeout",
    "message": "This file took too long to process. Please try again.",
    "retryable": true,
    "request_id": "abc123"
  }
}

Match on code, never on message — messages change without notice.
New codes will be added. Treat any unrecognised code as processing_failed.
Only buy_pages reopens a failed job — buy credits, then call /start again on the same job.

Code	Type	When	Retryable
buy_pages	insufficient_credits	Out of page credits.	No — buy a pack, then call /start again on the same job.
unreadable_statement	invalid_request	Bank statement could not be read.	No
unsupported_statement_type	invalid_request	Credit card or loan statement, not a bank account statement.	No
password_protected	invalid_request	File is password-protected.	No
unreadable_document	invalid_request	PDF could not be read.	No
no_text_detected	invalid_request	No readable text was detected in the input.	No
corrupted_file	invalid_request	Input is corrupted or unsupported.	No
too_many_pages	invalid_request	File exceeds the page cap.	No
empty_file	invalid_request	File has no pages.	No
timeout	processing_error	Processing ran out of time.	Yes
out_of_memory	processing_error	Processing ran out of memory.	Yes
processing_failed	processing_error	Anything else.	Yes

Ready to get started?

Request access, create a key, and try the quickstart.

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