Searchable PDF API

How the searchable PDF API works

1. 1

   Upload the file

   Create a document, then upload the scanned PDF (up to 1 GiB) or image (up to 20 MiB) straight to the presigned URL you get back.

2. 2

   Start and poll

   Start the job and poll its status until it is completed, partial or failed. No webhook to host.

3. 3

   Download format=pdf

   Ask for format=pdf to get a one-hour link to the searchable PDF. format=text gives the plain text of the same job.

Concurrency: 2 documents at a time; 10 for accounts with a prepaid API page allowance or API page credits.

Code: scanned PDF to searchable PDF

Each example reads your key from FASTOCR_API_KEY and writes searchable.pdf. Endpoint details are in the Document OCR reference.

# pip install fastocr-sdk
from fastocr_sdk import FastOCR

with FastOCR() as client:
    job = client.documents.process("scan.pdf")
    client.documents.download_searchable_pdf(job.id, "searchable.pdf")
    print(job.id, job.status, job.pages_billed)

export FASTOCR_API_KEY="your_api_key"

# 1. Create a document
RESPONSE=$(curl -sS --fail-with-body -X POST https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTOCR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"filename":"scan.pdf","size_bytes":'$(wc -c < scan.pdf | tr -d ' ')'}')
DOCUMENT_ID=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r .id)
UPLOAD_URL=$(echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -r .upload_url)

# 2. Upload the file to the presigned URL
curl -sS --fail-with-body -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/pdf" \
  --data-binary @scan.pdf

# 3. Start processing
curl -sS --fail-with-body -X POST https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents/$DOCUMENT_ID/start \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTOCR_API_KEY"

# 4. Poll until the status is completed, partial, or failed
while true; do
  BODY=$(curl -sS --fail-with-body https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents/$DOCUMENT_ID \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTOCR_API_KEY") || exit 1
  STATUS=$(echo "$BODY" | jq -r .status)
  case "$STATUS" in completed|partial|failed) break;; esac
  sleep 2
done
echo "Final status: $STATUS"

# 5. Get the download link, then download the searchable PDF (a failed document has no output)
RESULT_URL=$(curl -sS --fail-with-body "https://api.fastocr.org/v1/documents/$DOCUMENT_ID/output?format=pdf" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FASTOCR_API_KEY" | jq -r .url)
curl -sS --fail-with-body "$RESULT_URL" -o searchable.pdf

// Node.js 18+, no dependencies. Save as quickstart.mjs and run: node quickstart.mjs
import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto';

const BASE = 'https://api.fastocr.org';
const auth = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FASTOCR_API_KEY}` };

async function api(path, init = {}) {
  const response = await fetch(BASE + path, { ...init, headers: { ...auth, ...init.headers } });
  const body = await response.json();
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`${response.status} ${body.error?.code ?? body.message}`);
  return body;
}

const pdf = await readFile('scan.pdf');

// 1. Create a document
const created = await api('/v1/documents', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Idempotency-Key': randomUUID() },
  body: JSON.stringify({ filename: 'scan.pdf', size_bytes: pdf.length }),
});

// 2. Upload the file to the presigned URL
const upload = await fetch(created.upload_url, {
  method: 'PUT',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/pdf' },
  body: pdf,
});
if (!upload.ok) throw new Error(`Upload failed: ${upload.status}`);

// 3. Start processing
await api(`/v1/documents/${created.id}/start`, { method: 'POST' });

// 4. Poll until the status is completed, partial, or failed
let document;
do {
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 2000));
  document = await api(`/v1/documents/${created.id}`);
} while (!['completed', 'partial', 'failed'].includes(document.status));
if (document.status === 'failed') throw new Error(document.error.code);

// 5. Get the download link, then download the searchable PDF
const output = await api(`/v1/documents/${created.id}/output?format=pdf`);
const searchable = await fetch(output.url);
if (!searchable.ok) throw new Error(`Download failed: ${searchable.status}`);
await writeFile('searchable.pdf', Buffer.from(await searchable.arrayBuffer()));
console.log(document.status, document.pages_billed);

Frequently asked questions