# PDF Text Extractor — text, metadata, per page (`x402opklaar/pdf-text-extractor`) Actor

PDF URLs in, clean text out: full text, per-page text, title/author/page-count metadata. No browser, no OCR overhead — fast digital-PDF extraction. You only pay for PDFs that actually extract; failures are free.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/x402opklaar/pdf-text-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Opklaar](https://apify.com/x402opklaar) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$4.00 / 1,000 pdf processeds

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 Extractor — text, metadata, per page

Give it PDF URLs, get back clean text plus document metadata as structured JSON. Built for pipelines: feed contracts, reports, papers, invoices, or documentation PDFs straight into your RAG index, LLM prompt, spreadsheet, or database.

- **Full text** of the document (page-joined, whitespace-normalized)
- **Per-page text** (optional) — ideal for chunking in RAG / embedding pipelines
- **Metadata**: title, author, page count, character & word counts
- **No browser, no queue** — direct HTTP download + native extraction, so runs finish in seconds
- **Honest pricing**: you pay per successfully extracted PDF. Download failures, broken files, and password-protected or scanned image-only PDFs (no extractable text) are **free**.

### Input

```json
{
    "pdfUrls": ["https://example.com/report.pdf"],
    "includePages": false,
    "maxPages": 0
}
```

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `pdfUrls` | Direct links to PDF files |
| `includePages` | Also output a `pages` array with each page's text separately |
| `maxPages` | Stop after N pages per document (0 = all) |

### Output (one dataset item per PDF)

```json
{
    "url": "https://example.com/report.pdf",
    "text": "Annual Report 2025\n\nRevenue grew…",
    "page_count": 42,
    "pages_extracted": 42,
    "char_count": 83214,
    "word_count": 12876,
    "title": "Annual Report 2025",
    "author": "ACME Corp"
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per event — **only successful extractions are charged** (`pdf-processed`). A PDF that fails to download, fails to parse, is password-protected, or contains no extractable text costs you nothing.

### Scope & limits

- Digital PDFs only. Scanned/image-only PDFs have no text layer; they are reported with a clear note and **not charged** (OCR is deliberately out of scope — it would multiply the price for everyone).
- PDFs up to 100 MB.

### Works with AI agents

This Actor is exposed through Apify's MCP server, so AI agents (Claude, GPT, LangGraph, CrewAI…) can call it as a tool: *"extract the text of this PDF and summarize it."* Structured JSON output means no post-processing.

### FAQ

**Does it OCR scanned documents?** No — and that's why it's cheap. If the PDF has a text layer, you get it fast; if not, you're told so and not charged.

**How fast is it?** No browser starts up: a typical 30-page PDF extracts in ~2–4 seconds.

**Can I extract only the first pages?** Yes, set `maxPages` (e.g. `5`) — useful for classifying large documents cheaply.

# Actor input Schema

## `pdfUrls` (type: `array`):

Direct links to PDF files to extract text from.

## `includePages` (type: `boolean`):

Also output a `pages` array with the text of each page separately (useful for chunking / RAG pipelines).

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

Stop after this many pages per document (0 = all pages).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "pdfUrls": [
    "https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/xhtml/testfiles/resources/pdf/dummy.pdf"
  ],
  "includePages": false,
  "maxPages": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "pdfUrls": [
        "https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/xhtml/testfiles/resources/pdf/dummy.pdf"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("x402opklaar/pdf-text-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "pdfUrls": ["https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/xhtml/testfiles/resources/pdf/dummy.pdf"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("x402opklaar/pdf-text-extractor").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 '{
  "pdfUrls": [
    "https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tests/xhtml/testfiles/resources/pdf/dummy.pdf"
  ]
}' |
apify call x402opklaar/pdf-text-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,x402opklaar/pdf-text-extractor"
        }
    }
}

```

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/7uyVlUwqAdjgoAgzl/builds/qfk7eik0svp74Ir6p/openapi.json