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Quickstart — your first extraction

Updated

1. Get an API key#

Sign in to the client portal at https://app.docxtract.io/ and generate a key from Settings. Keys look like sk_ followed by 32 hex characters.

Note
The separator matters. sk_ with an underscore is a DocXtract key. sk- with a hyphen belongs to a different API provider and will not authenticate here.

2. Find out which document types your key can use#

curl https://api.docxtract.io/v3.1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

This call costs no credits, so use it freely — including to populate dropdowns in your own UI. It returns only the document types your key is permitted to use.

3. Extract a document#

curl -X POST https://api.docxtract.io/v3.1/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@invoice.pdf" \
  -F 'options={"model":"invoice"}'

Accepted files: PDF, JPG, PNG, up to 10 MB and 150 pages.

Warning
options is a JSON string in a form field, not nested form data. And if you omit document_type/model, it defaults to invoice — a passport sent without it is extracted as an invoice. Always set it explicitly.

4. Read the response#

{
  "success": true,
  "data": { "vendor": "ABC Suppliers Pvt Ltd", "total": 5900.00 },
  "processing_time_ms": 5577,
  "model_used": "invoice",
  "pages": 1,
  "extraction_id": "abc123"
}

Metadata sits at the root level beside data, not nested under meta. The field is extraction_id, not id, and it appears only when store_db is true.

data varies by document type — an invoice returns vendor/totals/line_items, a passport returns name/number/dob. Only the envelope is stable, so treat data as an open map.

5. Handle the multi-page case#

A PDF of more than 3 pages does not return 200. It returns 202 with a chunk manifest and requires two more calls. This is not optional and cannot be turned off, so any integration that accepts arbitrary PDFs must handle it — see Multi-page documents.

Base URL#

https://api.docxtract.io/ — with no /api prefix. The endpoint is /v3.1/documents.

docxtract.rpatech.ai is a legacy alias that redirects here; do not use it in new code.

Next steps#

  • API versions — build against v3.1
  • Error codes — branch on error.code, never on the message
  • Interactive reference and Postman collection: https://app.docxtract.io/api-reference.php

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