Office-to-PDF & Universal Document Converter

Convert DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, DOC, XLS, PPT, ODT, ODS, ODP, RTF, CSV, TXT, and HTML to PDF in bulk — rendered exactly as Microsoft Office would render them. Point it at a list of document URLs (or supply base64 blobs); get back downloadable PDFs with a per-file conversion report. Pure compute on files you supply — no scraping, no personal data collected.

This Office-to-PDF converter is built for developers and teams who need a programmable document conversion API that handles Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files at scale without desktop software, manual uploads, or per-file clicks.

Use cases

• Document archival — batch-convert a folder of Office files to PDF for long-term storage and universal readability.
• Report pipelines — generate PDFs from DOCX/XLSX templates in an automated workflow before emailing or archiving.
• Contract & invoice processing — normalize mixed-format business documents (DOC/DOCX/XLS/PPT) into a single, portable PDF stream.
• Content publishing — convert drafted Word/PPT content to PDF for distribution, print, or compliance.

How to use it (quick start)

1. Feed the Actor a JSON array of document URLs via documentUrls.
2. Optionally set outputFilenameStyle (source to keep the original name, index for output_0.pdf).
3. Optionally set conversionTimeoutSecs (default 120s per file).
4. Run the Actor. Each successfully converted document produces a dataset row with an outputUrl — a direct download link to the generated PDF.
5. Pass the output URLs to a CDN, email pipeline, or document-management system.

Input

documentUrls (required) — array of direct URLs to documents. outputFilenameStyle (source / index, default source). conversionTimeoutSecs (default 120).

{
  "documentUrls": [
    "https://example.com/report.docx",
    "https://example.com/budget.xlsx"
  ]
}

Supported input formats

Category	Extensions
Word	DOCX, DOC, RTF, ODT, WPD, WPS
Excel	XLSX, XLS, XLSM, ODS, CSV
PowerPoint	PPTX, PPT, PPS, PPSX, ODP
Other	TXT, HTML, HTM, XML, VSD, PUB

Output

One dataset item per document: status, source, filename, outputUrl (download the PDF from the run's key-value store), pages, inputBytes, outputBytes. Failed fetches or unsupported formats return a structured error item (never charged).

Pricing (pay-per-event) & cost example

Event	Price	When
actor-start	$0.005	once per run
document-converted (primary)	$0.02	per document successfully converted to PDF

100 documents → ~$2.05. Failed conversions are never charged. Measured platform compute for a typical batch is well under 30% of event revenue, keeping the unit margin positive.

Integrate with AI agents, MCP, REST, Make, or n8n

Chain it after any Actor that outputs document URLs, or call it via the REST API / MCP / Make / n8n. Converted PDFs live in the run's key-value store (download via outputUrl). No browser required — LibreOffice converts headlessly in the container.

Use from Claude, ChatGPT, or another MCP client

Connect your agent to Apify's MCP server, select gp005/office-to-pdf, and pass the Actor input directly:

{
  "documentUrls": ["https://example.com/quarterly-report.docx"],
  "outputFilenameStyle": "source",
  "conversionTimeoutSecs": 120
}

The tool returns a dataset item with status, filename, and outputUrl, so an agent can convert a document and hand the resulting PDF to the next workflow step without a browser. This makes the Actor suitable for agentic document pipelines, report generation, email attachments, and archive automation.

More FORGE actors for document and data work:

• SEC EDGAR Filings & XBRL Fundamentals — company filings and normalized financial fundamentals as JSON.
• Bulk Image Converter & Optimizer — convert, resize, and compress images to WebP/AVIF/JPEG.
• Security Headers Auditor — grade HTTP security headers for any URL.

FAQ

What file formats can I convert to PDF? DOCX, DOC, XLSX, XLS, XLSM, PPTX, PPT, PPS, PPSX, ODT, ODS, ODP, RTF, CSV, TXT, HTML, and more — anything LibreOffice can open. If a format is not supported, the Actor returns a structured error item (never charged).

Do I need Microsoft Word or Microsoft Office to convert DOCX to PDF? No — conversion runs headless on LibreOffice inside the Actor's container, so neither Word, Excel, PowerPoint, nor an Office license is required. Point the Actor at a document URL and it converts with the open-source LibreOffice engine (MPL-2.0).

Does the conversion preserve formatting? Yes. LibreOffice renders documents faithfully — fonts, tables, charts, headers/footers, and embedded objects are preserved in the PDF output. For best results, use standard fonts or embed them in the source document.

Can I convert documents from Python, curl, or another API client? Yes — this is a standard Apify Actor with a REST API: POST your input JSON to https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/gp005~office-to-pdf/runs with your Apify token, and read the PDF links from the run's dataset. Or call it through an agent via Apify's MCP server (see the integration section above).

Can I convert password-protected files? No. Password-protected Office files cannot be converted headlessly. The Actor will return an error item for those files.

Is there a file size limit? Yes — 100 MB per input file. Larger files are rejected with a structured error item (never charged).

How do I download the converted PDFs? Each dataset row includes an outputUrl field — a direct download link to the PDF in the run's key-value store. You can chain to another Actor for upload to S3, a CDN, or a document-management system.

Do I need to upload files? No — the Actor fetches documents by URL. Point it at any publicly accessible document URL.

Can I convert Office files to other formats (not PDF)? This Actor outputs PDF only. For Markdown or text extraction from PDFs, see the OCR & Document Extractor actors on the Store.

Limitations

• Fetches documents by URL (one polite request each); it does not crawl pages to discover documents.
• Output PDFs are stored in the run's key-value store (retention per your Apify plan).
• Conversion fidelity depends on LibreOffice's rendering — rare edge cases (macros, very complex SmartArt) may render slightly differently than in Microsoft Office.
• Password-protected files are not supported.
• Built on LibreOffice (MPL-2.0) — permissive, SaaS-safe, no network-use clause.

Disclaimer

This Actor uses LibreOffice, an open-source office suite licensed under MPL-2.0. It does not use or bundle Microsoft Office. Document rendering follows LibreOffice's engine, which may differ from Microsoft Office in edge cases.