PDF to text API, page by page

$0.005 per call · failed calls are never charged · no account or subscription: pay per call with a card key or USDC

Extract the text of a PDF from its URL: downloads a public PDF (up to 10 MB) and returns the text page by page, with title, author, page count and character counts. Choose a first page and how many pages to read (up to 200); cap the output with maxChars. arXiv abstract links are read as the PDF. Scanned PDFs without a text layer, encrypted files and non-PDF URLs fail uncharged. Use to read papers, invoices, reports and manuals into an agent.

When to use it

Guide: PDF to text API

Run it free (25 free calls) Buy credits by card (from $1) Example result (JSON)

Try it with your own inputs

Absolute public http(s) URL of the PDF

Uses one of your 25 free calls. Nothing is charged, and a call that fails is not counted.

Inputs

NameTypeDescription
url (required)stringAbsolute public http(s) URL of the PDF
firstPageintegerFirst page to read (default 1)
pagesintegerHow many pages to read (1-200, default 20)
maxCharsintegerMaximum characters of text returned across all pages (1000-200000, default 50000)

Request

Over HTTP, with a card key from /credits:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer adt_…" "https://tools.funwords.eu/pdf/text?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbitcoin.org%2Fbitcoin.pdf"

Or one of your 25 free calls, no key:

curl "https://tools.funwords.eu/pdf/text?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbitcoin.org%2Fbitcoin.pdf&trial=1"

Without a key, the same URL answers 402 Payment Required with x402 and MPP terms, so an agent with a wallet pays per call in USDC (Base, Polygon, Arbitrum or Solana over x402; Base or Tempo over MPP) and retries.

Example result

{
  "url": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf",
  "title": null,
  "author": null,
  "totalPages": 9,
  "firstPage": 1,
  "pagesRead": 1,
  "chars": 46,
  "truncated": true,
  "pages": [
    {
      "page": 1,
      "chars": 46,
      "text": "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System"
    }
  ]
}

From an AI agent (MCP)

Add the MCP server to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client. This tool is pdf_text, and the first 25 successful calls are free:

https://tools.funwords.eu/mcp

Questions

Does it OCR scanned PDFs?

No, it extracts the text layer. Scanned images without text return little or nothing.

How do I pay?

Each successful call costs $0.005; failed calls are not charged. The first 25 calls are free. Then pay with card credits (from $1; the key goes in an Authorization header or, for clients that can only fetch a URL, as api_key= in the URL) or per call in USDC over x402 or MPP. No account is needed.

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