# PDF Text & Table Extractor — PDF URL to Structured JSON (`toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables`) Actor

Extract text and tables from PDF files. Send PDF URLs; get JSON back with per-page text, detected tables as row arrays, page count and metadata. Deterministic parsing, no model inference. Docs: https://toolkitlabs.org/?s=apify-pdf

- **URL**: https://apify.com/toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables.md
- **Developed by:** [Toolkit Labs](https://apify.com/toolkitlabs) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$10.00 / 1,000 pdf extracteds

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 web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## PDF Text & Tables Extractor

Give it direct links to PDF files. It downloads each one, pulls out the text page
by page, detects tables and returns them as rows, and writes one dataset item per
PDF.

### What you get back, per PDF

| field | meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `url` | the link you supplied |
| `ok` | `true` when text or a table came out |
| `pages` | pages read |
| `characters` | characters of text extracted |
| `text` | the text, pages joined with a newline |
| `tables` | `[{ "page": n, "rows": [[cell, ...], ...] }]` |
| `error` | why a link produced nothing, when it produced nothing |

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"],
  "extractTables": true,
  "maxPages": 0
}
```

`maxPages: 0` reads every page. `extractTables: false` returns text only.

### Price

Pay per event: **$0.01 per PDF extracted**. A link that returns no text and no
table is not charged.

### How it works

One Python file and one library, [pdfplumber](https://github.com/jsvine/pdfplumber)
(MIT). No model inference, no proxy, no third-party service, no telemetry, and
nothing is stored beyond the dataset the run writes for you. Files above 25 MB and
responses that are not PDFs are refused before parsing, with the reason in `error`.

Text extraction reads what the PDF actually contains. A scanned page with no text
layer returns no text — this Actor does not do OCR.

Public domain (CC0-1.0).

Other deterministic tools from the same shop, and the free JSON-repair leaderboard:
<https://toolkitlabs.org/?s=apify-pdf>

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Direct links to PDF files. Each one is downloaded and turned into text and tables. One charged event per PDF from which text or a table was extracted.

## `extractTables` (type: `boolean`):

Also return each detected table as an array of rows. Turn off for plain text only.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many pages of a document. 0 means every page.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"
  ],
  "extractTables": true,
  "maxPages": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `extracted` (type: `string`):

One dataset item per PDF: url, ok, pages, characters, text and tables.

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables").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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": ["https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf"
  ]
}' |
apify call toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,toolkitlabs/pdf-text-tables"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/rkfXo6ak4cJFMiPZc/builds/vkTc7j4NkEgTWEtVH/openapi.json