# 📄 PDF Text Extractor (`scrapio/pdf-text-extractor`) Actor

📄 PDF Text Extractor (pdf-text-extractor) extracts clean text from PDF files for faster search, data analysis, and content reuse. ⚡ Saves time & boosts productivity for research, automation, and document workflows.

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

## Pricing

from $3.99 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.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/platform/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

## 📄 PDF Text Extractor & Chunker

Extract clean, ordered text from any PDF on the web — page-by-page or split into **LLM-ready chunks** with controllable size and overlap. Point it at one URL or thousands; results stream into your dataset **section by section, live**.

Perfect for building **RAG pipelines**, **question-answering** systems, document search, and any workflow that needs PDF content as plain text. 🚀

### 🌟 Why Choose This Actor?

- **⚡ Live results** — every page/chunk is saved the moment it's ready. A long run never leaves you staring at an empty output table.
- **🧩 LLM-friendly chunking** — character-based chunking with overlap, so context isn't cut mid-sentence.
- **📦 Bulk input** — drop in a whole list of PDF URLs at once.
- **🛡️ Smart anti-rate-limit ladder** — starts with a direct connection and automatically falls back to datacenter, then residential proxies if a host blocks you.
- **🎉 Engaging real-time logs** — watch exactly what's happening, page by page.

### ✨ Key Features

- Extract text from PDFs provided as URLs.
- Toggle between **page mode** (one record per page) and **chunk mode**.
- Configure `chunkSize` and `chunkOverlap` for perfect LLM context windows.
- Resilient downloads with proxy fallback and retries.
- Output ready for JSON / CSV / XLSX export.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `urls` | array | 🔗 Direct URLs of the PDF files (bulk supported). |
| `performChunking` | boolean | ✂️ `true` → split into chunks. `false` → one record per page. |
| `chunkSize` | integer | 📏 Max characters per chunk (chunk mode). Default `1000`. |
| `chunkOverlap` | integer | 🔁 Characters shared between adjacent chunks. Default `0`. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | 🛡️ Apify proxy used to power the automatic fallbacks. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"],
  "performChunking": true,
  "chunkSize": 1000,
  "chunkOverlap": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}
````

### 📤 Output

Each record is one text section:

```json
{
  "url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856",
  "index": 0,
  "text": "A Real-World WebAgent with Planning, Long Context Understanding…"
}
```

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `url` | 🔗 Source PDF URL. |
| `index` | 🔢 Position of the section (chunk number, or page number in page mode). |
| `text` | 📝 Extracted text for that section. |

### 🛡️ How the connection ladder works

1. **🌐 Direct** — no proxy; the request goes straight to the PDF host.
2. **🛰️ Datacenter proxy** — engaged automatically if the host blocks or rate-limits the direct request.
3. **🏠 Residential proxy** — the final fallback, retried up to **3 times**. Once residential is engaged, the run **sticks with it** for every remaining PDF.

Every switch is logged clearly so you always know which path delivered your data.

### 🚀 How to Use (Apify Console)

1. Log in at [Apify Console](https://console.apify.com) → **Actors**.
2. Open **PDF Text Extractor & Chunker**.
3. Paste your PDF URLs, set chunking options, pick a proxy.
4. Click **Start** and watch the sections roll in live. 📡
5. Open the **Output** tab and export to JSON / CSV / XLSX.

### 🤖 Use via API

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"urls":["https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"],"performChunking":true,"chunkSize":1000,"chunkOverlap":0}'
```

### 💡 Best Use Cases

- 📚 Build RAG / knowledge bases from PDF libraries.
- 🤖 Feed document text into LLMs (chunk mode).
- 🔍 Full-text search across PDF collections.
- 🧾 Convert reports, papers, and manuals to plain text.

### ❓ FAQ

**Does it work on scanned/image-only PDFs?** It extracts the text layer of a PDF. Image-only scans without an embedded text layer will return little or no text (OCR is not performed).

**Can I pass many URLs?** Yes — `urls` accepts a bulk list, processed one after another with results saved live.

**What if a host rate-limits me?** The Actor automatically falls back through datacenter and residential proxies and retries, then sticks with residential.

### 🛟 Support & Feedback

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab in the Apify Console.

***

> ⚖️ Use responsibly. Only extract content from PDFs you are authorized to access. You are responsible for compliance with applicable laws and the source site's terms.

# Actor input Schema

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

📥 Paste the direct URLs of the PDF files you want to extract text from. Supports bulk input — add as many as you like, one per line.

## `performChunking` (type: `boolean`):

🧩 Turn ON to split the full document text into overlapping chunks (great for LLMs / RAG). Turn OFF to get one record per PDF page.

## `chunkSize` (type: `integer`):

🔢 Maximum number of characters per chunk. Only used when chunking is ON.

## `chunkOverlap` (type: `integer`):

↔️ How many characters neighbouring chunks share, so context isn't cut mid-sentence. Must be smaller than the chunk size. Only used when chunking is ON.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

🌐 By default the Actor connects directly (no proxy). If a PDF host blocks or rate-limits the request, it automatically falls back to a datacenter proxy, then to a residential proxy — and sticks with residential for the rest of the run. Configure the Apify proxy here to power those fallbacks.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"
  ],
  "performChunking": false,
  "chunkSize": 1000,
  "chunkOverlap": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# 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://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapio/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 = {
    "urls": ["https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapio/pdf-text-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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12856"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call scrapio/pdf-text-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapio/pdf-text-extractor",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "📄 PDF Text Extractor",
        "description": "📄 PDF Text Extractor (pdf-text-extractor) extracts clean text from PDF files for faster search, data analysis, and content reuse. ⚡ Saves time & boosts productivity for research, automation, and document workflows.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "UBubemHOggvpSIjlg"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/scrapio~pdf-text-extractor/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-scrapio-pdf-text-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": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/scrapio~pdf-text-extractor/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-scrapio-pdf-text-extractor",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/scrapio~pdf-text-extractor/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-scrapio-pdf-text-extractor",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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",
                "required": [
                    "urls"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "urls": {
                        "title": "🔗 PDF URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "📥 Paste the direct URLs of the PDF files you want to extract text from. Supports bulk input — add as many as you like, one per line.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "performChunking": {
                        "title": "✂️ Perform chunking",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "🧩 Turn ON to split the full document text into overlapping chunks (great for LLMs / RAG). Turn OFF to get one record per PDF page.",
                        "default": false
                    },
                    "chunkSize": {
                        "title": "📏 Chunk size (characters)",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "🔢 Maximum number of characters per chunk. Only used when chunking is ON.",
                        "default": 1000
                    },
                    "chunkOverlap": {
                        "title": "🔁 Chunk overlap (characters)",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "↔️ How many characters neighbouring chunks share, so context isn't cut mid-sentence. Must be smaller than the chunk size. Only used when chunking is ON.",
                        "default": 0
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "🛡️ Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "🌐 By default the Actor connects directly (no proxy). If a PDF host blocks or rate-limits the request, it automatically falls back to a datacenter proxy, then to a residential proxy — and sticks with residential for the rest of the run. Configure the Apify proxy here to power those fallbacks.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": true
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```