# EU Invoice Extractor with VIES VAT Validation (`n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor`) Actor Extract validated data from EU invoices and receipts. Returns seller, buyer, VAT numbers, invoice number, dates, net/VAT/gross totals, IBAN and line items as JSON. Checks VAT against the official VIES registry, validates IBAN, OCRs scans. Never billed for a failure. - **URL**: https://apify.com/n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor.md - **Developed by:** [Nikita Kubishkin](https://apify.com/n1ckyta) (community) - **Categories:** Agents, MCP servers, Automation - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## EU Invoice Extractor with VIES VAT Validation Turn EU invoices and receipts into **validated** structured JSON. Not just text extraction — every VAT number is checked against the official European Commission VIES registry, and every IBAN is verified with the mod-97 checksum. Built for accounting automation, accounts-payable pipelines and AI agents that need to trust what comes out of a PDF. ### Why this Actor Most document extractors hand you fields and leave you guessing whether they are real. This one tells you: - Is this VAT number actually registered, and to whom? - Does the registered company name match the name printed on the invoice? - Is this IBAN a real IBAN, or OCR noise? - Do net + VAT actually add up to the gross total? That last check alone catches a large share of OCR errors before they reach your ledger. ### You are never billed for a failure This is enforced in code, not promised in marketing copy: | Situation | Billed? | |---|---| | Document parsed successfully | Yes | | Download failed, file corrupt, password-protected | **No** | | Document exceeded the timeout | **No** | | No text could be extracted | **No** | | VIES was down or rate-limited | **No** | | VAT number was not an EU format | **No** | Every run also writes a `SUMMARY` record to the key-value store with the actual success rate for that run. ### What you get per document ```json { "status": "ok", "invoice_number": "INV-2026-0417", "issue_date": "2026-03-14", "due_date": "2026-03-28", "currency": "EUR", "total_net": 2450.00, "total_vat": 539.00, "total_gross": 2989.00, "vat_rate": 22.0, "totals_reconcile": true, "seller_name": "ACME Software OÜ", "seller_vat": "EE101584055", "seller_vat_valid": true, "seller_registered_address": "Tartu mnt 84a, 10112 Tallinn", "buyer_name": "Northwind Trading SIA", "buyer_vat": "LV40003032949", "buyer_vat_valid": true, "iban": "LV80BANK0000435195001", "iban_valid": true, "line_items": [ { "description": "Annual licence", "quantity": 5, "unit_price": 490.0, "amount": 2450.0 } ], "confidence": 1.0, "extraction_method": "text_layer", "billed": true } ```` `confidence` is a transparent 0–1 score. Route anything below 0.6 to human review. ### Languages Field labels are recognised in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian and more. Both European (`1.234,56`) and Anglo (`1,234.56`) number formats are handled, along with parenthesised negatives and space-separated thousands. Scanned documents are OCR'd on-box with Tesseract in 22 languages. **No external AI API is called**, so your invoices never leave the Apify platform — which matters if you are processing documents under GDPR. ### Input | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `documentUrls` | array | Public URLs of PDFs or images. Up to 100 per run. | | `documentsBase64` | array | `{"filename": "...", "data": ""}` for private files. | | `validateVat` | boolean | Check VAT numbers against VIES. Default `true`. | | `validateIban` | boolean | Validate IBAN checksums. Free. Default `true`. | | `forceOcr` | boolean | OCR even when a text layer exists. Default `false`. | | `ocrLanguages` | array | Tesseract codes, priority order. Default `["eng","deu"]`. | | `extractLineItems` | boolean | Return the invoice table rows. Default `true`. | | `includeRawText` | boolean | Attach full extracted text. Default `false`. | | `perDocumentTimeoutSecs` | integer | Hard per-document limit. Default `90`. | ### Use with AI agents (MCP) This Actor is exposed as an MCP tool, so an agent can call it directly: ``` https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=YOUR_USERNAME/eu-invoice-vat-extractor ``` Typical agent prompt: *"Extract this supplier invoice and confirm the seller's VAT number is currently registered."* ### Pricing Pay per event — you pay for results, not for runtime. | Event | What triggers it | |---|---| | `invoice-parsed` | One document turned into a usable record | | `ocr-page` | One page actually rasterised and OCR'd (scanned documents only) | | `vat-validated` | One VIES lookup that actually returned an answer | Repeated VAT numbers within a run are cached and charged once. ### Limits - 100 documents per run, 25 MB per file, first 40 pages of a PDF - Password-protected PDFs are reported as failed, not billed - VIES is operated by the European Commission; individual member states go offline periodically. When that happens you get `status: "unavailable"` and no charge - Party names are read from the layout and are best-effort; where VIES returns a registered name, that authoritative value replaces the guess ### Development ```bash apify login apify run --purge # local run apify push # build on the platform ``` Parsing logic is deterministic and unit-tested: ```bash python -m pytest tests/ -q ``` # Actor input Schema ## `documentUrls` (type: `array`): Public URLs of invoices or receipts. PDF, PNG, JPG, TIFF and WEBP are supported. Up to 100 documents per run. ## `documentsBase64` (type: `array`): For files that are not publicly reachable. Each item: {"filename": "invoice.pdf", "data": ""}. ## `validateVat` (type: `boolean`): Check every detected EU VAT number against the official European Commission VIES registry and return the registered name and address. Billed separately, never billed when VIES is unreachable. ## `validateIban` (type: `boolean`): Verify detected IBANs with the mod-97 checksum. Free. ## `forceOcr` (type: `boolean`): Run OCR even when the PDF already has a text layer. Slower, billed per page, helps with broken text layers. ## `ocrLanguages` (type: `array`): Tesseract language codes for scanned documents, in priority order. ## `extractLineItems` (type: `boolean`): Detect the invoice table and return line items with description, quantity, unit price and amount. ## `includeRawText` (type: `boolean`): Add the full extracted text to each record. Useful for debugging, makes output much larger. ## `perDocumentTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`): Hard limit for one document. Exceeding it returns status "timeout" and is not billed, instead of hanging the run. ## Actor input object example ```json { "validateVat": true, "validateIban": true, "forceOcr": false, "ocrLanguages": [ "eng", "deu" ], "extractLineItems": true, "includeRawText": false, "perDocumentTimeoutSecs": 90 } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = {}; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = {} # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{}' | apify call n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=n1ckyta/eu-invoice-vat-extractor", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "EU Invoice Extractor with VIES VAT Validation", "description": "Extract validated data from EU invoices and receipts. Returns seller, buyer, VAT numbers, invoice number, dates, net/VAT/gross totals, IBAN and line items as JSON. Checks VAT against the official VIES registry, validates IBAN, OCRs scans. Never billed for a failure.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "uezQ4wik0TQoiHdu6" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/n1ckyta~eu-invoice-vat-extractor/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-n1ckyta-eu-invoice-vat-extractor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/n1ckyta~eu-invoice-vat-extractor/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-n1ckyta-eu-invoice-vat-extractor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/n1ckyta~eu-invoice-vat-extractor/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-n1ckyta-eu-invoice-vat-extractor", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "documentUrls": { "title": "Document URLs", "type": "array", "description": "Public URLs of invoices or receipts. PDF, PNG, JPG, TIFF and WEBP are supported. Up to 100 documents per run.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "documentsBase64": { "title": "Documents as base64", "type": "array", "description": "For files that are not publicly reachable. Each item: {\"filename\": \"invoice.pdf\", \"data\": \"\"}." }, "validateVat": { "title": "Validate VAT numbers via VIES", "type": "boolean", "description": "Check every detected EU VAT number against the official European Commission VIES registry and return the registered name and address. Billed separately, never billed when VIES is unreachable.", "default": true }, "validateIban": { "title": "Validate IBAN", "type": "boolean", "description": "Verify detected IBANs with the mod-97 checksum. Free.", "default": true }, "forceOcr": { "title": "Force OCR", "type": "boolean", "description": "Run OCR even when the PDF already has a text layer. Slower, billed per page, helps with broken text layers.", "default": false }, "ocrLanguages": { "title": "OCR languages", "type": "array", "description": "Tesseract language codes for scanned documents, in priority order.", "items": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "eng", "deu", "fra", "spa", "ita", "nld", "pol", "ces", "lav", "lit", "est", "swe", "dan", "fin", "por", "ron", "hun", "bul", "ell", "slk", "slv", "hrv" ], "enumTitles": [ "English", "German", "French", "Spanish", "Italian", "Dutch", "Polish", "Czech", "Latvian", "Lithuanian", "Estonian", "Swedish", "Danish", "Finnish", "Portuguese", "Romanian", "Hungarian", "Bulgarian", "Greek", "Slovak", "Slovenian", "Croatian" ] }, "default": [ "eng", "deu" ] }, "extractLineItems": { "title": "Extract line items", "type": "boolean", "description": "Detect the invoice table and return line items with description, quantity, unit price and amount.", "default": true }, "includeRawText": { "title": "Include raw text", "type": "boolean", "description": "Add the full extracted text to each record. Useful for debugging, makes output much larger.", "default": false }, "perDocumentTimeoutSecs": { "title": "Per-document timeout (seconds)", "minimum": 15, "maximum": 600, "type": "integer", "description": "Hard limit for one document. Exceeding it returns status \"timeout\" and is not billed, instead of hanging the run.", "default": 90 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```