Document to Markdown: PDF, DOCX, XLSX, CSV, HTML to LLM-ready markdown

Why agents pick this

• $0.001 per page. A 15-page PDF costs $0.016. Failed, scanned-only (NO_TEXT_LAYER) and password-protected files are never charged.
• Tables survive. DOCX and XLSX tables come out as GFM tables, not flattened text, and PDFs get <!-- page N --> markers so you can cite pages.
• RAG-ready chunks (optional), each with its heading and page number.
• File type is detected from the bytes, not the URL, so links without a file extension still work. maxChars caps tokens, and you pay only for what is returned.

What it does: turns documents at public URLs (or inline base64 files) into clean markdown: headings, lists and tables kept, PDF page numbers marked, optional RAG chunks with heading and page per chunk. One flat JSON row per document with status, source url, page counts and, on failure, errorCode + errorMessage.

Use it when an agent needs to: read a PDF report, contract, filing or paper; turn a Word or Excel file into text it can reason over; or chunk documents for a vector store.

Don't use it for: scanned/image-only PDFs (returns NO_TEXT_LAYER, not charged: OCR is not included), password-protected files, PowerPoint (not yet), web search, or reading normal web pages (use catalyst-labs/agent-web-reader).

Cost per call

Event	Price	When
page	$0.001	per PDF page converted; other formats count 1 page per 3,000 characters returned
actor-start	$0.001	once per batch run (not charged in Standby/HTTP mode)

Examples: a 15-page PDF = $0.016; a short DOCX = $0.002. Failed documents are never charged, and with maxChars you only pay for what is returned. Use maxTotalChargeUsd to cap a run.

Input (only urls or files is required)

{ "urls": ["https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"] }

{ "urls": ["https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.03762"], "pages": "1-5", "chunkSize": 1500, "chunkOverlap": 150 }

Field	Default	Notes
urls	–	Up to 100 links. Type detected from file bytes.
files	–	[{"name":"a.docx","base64":"..."}] for agents that hold the bytes (input limit ~9 MB).
maxChars	50000	Token budget per document; 0 = unlimited.
pages	all	PDF range: 1-10, 5, 20-.
maxPages	200	PDF safety cap.
chunkSize	0 (off)	Chunk size in characters for RAG.
chunkOverlap	200	Overlap between chunks.
includeFullMarkdown	false	Also return markdown when chunking.
pageMarkers	true	<!-- page N --> before each PDF page.
keepLinks	false	Keep hyperlinks.
maxRowsPerSheet	500	Spreadsheet rows per sheet.

Output

{
  "status": "ok", "url": "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf", "fileName": "fw9.pdf",
  "docType": "pdf", "title": "Form W-9 (Rev. March 2024)", "pageCount": 6, "pagesProcessed": 6, "billedPages": 6,
  "markdown": "<!-- page 1 -->\n\n#### Request for Taxpayer Identification Number ...",
  "chars": 21000, "totalChars": 21000, "truncated": false,
  "chunks": null, "chunkCount": 0, "fetchedAt": "2026-10-25T05:00:00.000Z", "ms": 900,
  "errorCode": null, "errorMessage": null
}

With chunking, chunks is [{"index":0,"heading":"Revenue","page":3,"text":"...","chars":1480}].

Error codes: INVALID_URL, INVALID_FILE, DNS_NOT_FOUND, TIMEOUT, HTTP_4xx/HTTP_5xx, TOO_LARGE (>50 MB), NO_TEXT_LAYER, ENCRYPTED, UNSUPPORTED_TYPE, EMPTY_CONTENT, PARSE_FAILED, SPENDING_LIMIT.

Formats and quality notes

• DOCX: headings, lists, bold/italic and tables become markdown (tables as GFM tables).
• XLSX/XLS/CSV: each sheet becomes a markdown table (first row as header).
• HTML/TXT/MD: main content extracted / passed through.
• PDF: text per page in reading order; headings guessed from font size. PDF tables come out as text lines, not markdown tables (honest limitation).

Fast calls: Standby (HTTP) mode

$curl "https://catalyst-labs--document-to-markdown.apify.actor/?urls=https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf&maxChars=4000&token=$APIFY_TOKEN"

Use from MCP

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=catalyst-labs/document-to-markdown → tool catalyst-labs--document-to-markdown.

Deterministic: the same file and options give the same output. Files are processed in memory and not stored beyond the run's dataset.

Made by Catalyst Labs. Also see: Agent Web Reader, Google Trends API, YouTube Transcript API.