Build deterministic document workflows for AI

Parse PDFs, scans, images, and Office files into spatial JSON or Markdown with coordinates, confidence, and page context. Extract structured data for agents, RAG, search, automation, and human review.


Trusted by enterprises, governments, and AI-native teams building document workflows at scale.

Used by Lufthansa, Disney, Autodesk, UBS, Dropbox, IBM
Lufthansa
Disney
Autodesk
UBS
Dropbox
IBM

Capabilities

Parse PDFs. Extract structured data. Build deterministic workflows for AI.

Parse

Turn complex files into document structure


Detect every document element

Identify tables, forms, formulas, images, charts, handwriting, key-value regions, headings, lists, and reading order across complex files.


Preserve page context

Keep elements connected to page position, confidence, and reading order so teams can validate, highlight, and use results downstream.


Choose speed, cost, or depth

Select the processing mode that fits the document — from low-cost Markdown to AI-augmented parsing for complex visual layouts.


Handle real-world files

Process PDFs, images, Office files, scans, and multilingual documents through one API.


Extract

Extract data for systems, agents, and review


Map data to your schema

Define a JSON Schema for the fields you need, or scaffold one from example documents using the schema generator in Studio. Every extracted value comes back with bounding boxes, match labels, and confidence scores.


Extract complex tables

Extract tables, forms, images, and handwriting with rows, columns, spans, captions, and footnotes preserved.


Trace every value

Keep values connected to page position, confidence scores, reading order, and source evidence for review.


Send downstream

Return output ready to map into databases, ERPs, CRMs, review queues, and document workflows.


Structure

Return predictable output your systems can use


Spatial JSON for structured operations

Use spatial JSON for layout-aware elements, tables, key-value regions, coordinates, confidence scores, and page context.


Markdown for AI and search

Use Markdown for fast, cost-efficient content for RAG, search indexing, knowledge bases, and content migration.


Predictable output for the next step

Return results in predictable formats so downstream systems can validate, route, review, automate, or feed AI and search workflows.


Process

Build governed document workflows, from extraction to downstream use


Validate before automating

Use confidence scores, coordinates, and word-level details to review the output before sending it downstream.


Route exceptions

Move clean results forward and hold low-confidence, incomplete, or mismatched files for review.


Reconcile and map

Compare extracted values against business rules, records, or downstream systems before posting.


Support review and recovery

Keep results tied to the source so teams can trace, fix, and recover issues.


Automate downstream workflows

Send typed JSON to business systems and review queues. Or, send Markdown to AI, search, knowledge bases, and content pipelines.


Try it live

See the parse API in action — no signup required

Switch processing modes and inspect live output from a sample invoice as rendered Markdown, raw Markdown, or spatial JSON.

Start free

5,000 free Data Extraction API credits/month

No credit card required.

Your free plan includes:

    • 5,000 Data Extraction API credits each month
    • Parse and extract from PDFs, images, and Office files
    • Markdown or spatial JSON output
    • Available modes: text, structure, and understand

Processing modes

Pick the right path: one API, four modes

Choose speed, cost, or depth per workflow. Set mode per request.

Text

Available

Low-cost Markdown for born-digital PDFs and Office files

PDF to Markdown RAG Search

Structure

Available

Spatial JSON with OCR, tables, key-value regions, bounds, confidence, and page context

Scans Forms Tables

Understand

Available

AI-augmented parsing for complex layouts, handwriting, formulas, and OCR correction

Invoices KYC Legal Medical

Agentic

Available

Agent-guided extraction for documents that need deeper reasoning, review, and recovery

Handwriting Degraded scans Complex layouts

INDUSTRIES AND DOCUMENTS

Made for high-stakes documents

Structured output for high-stakes teams.

MEDICAL

Patient onboarding, record digitization, claim review

Patient intake forms · Medical records · Claim forms

LEGAL

Contract review, discovery, due diligence

Contracts · Legal filings · Applications

Output formats

Spatial JSON. Or Markdown. From the same API.

Elements, bounds, confidence, metadata, and usage. Choose
output: "json" or Markdown per request.

Spatial JSON

For extraction · validation · review

.json
{
"status": "processed",
"usage": {
"pages": 4,
"credits": 6
},
"pages": [
{
"index": 0,
"elements": [
{
"type": "key_value_pair",
"label": "Invoice number",
"value": "INV-20241108",
"confidence": 0.98,
"page": 1,
"bounds": [82, 128, 284, 152]
},
{
"type": "table",
"rows": 3,
"columns": 4,
"confidence": 0.96,
"bounds": [70, 320, 516, 482]
}
]
}
]
}

Markdown

For RAG · search · knowledge bases

.md
# Invoice INV-20241108
**From** Acme Studios LLC
**Issued** Nov 8, 2024
## Line items
| Item | Qty | Total |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Visual identity | 1 | $8,500 |
| Brand guidelines | 1 | $2,200 |
**Total · $13,500.00**

Built for production

Deterministic document infrastructure for trusted AI workflows

Handle messy real-world files

Process PDFs, photos, scans, Office files, and archives without building a separate parser for each format.

Return source-grounded outputs

Return coordinates, confidence, page context, and review paths so AI outputs stay tied to source evidence.

Flag uncertainty before automation

Use confidence scores and page context to catch extraction issues before agents or automations rely on them.

Choose speed, cost, or depth

Pick the cheapest mode that meets your accuracy bar. Then increase depth only when documents require it.

Prepare schema-ready data

Use /extract to pull specific fields from any document — each value is returned with bounding boxes and match labels so you can validate, route to human review, or send directly downstream.

Connect the full workflow

Parse first. Then convert, redact, generate, sign, view, edit, or approve across Nutrient DWS and SDKs.

SOC 2 Type 2 audited

Audited annually. Reports available under NDA.

Regional processing options

Choose supported processing regions for enterprise deployments.

Trust and compliance

Built for enterprise
workflows

Secure document handling

Files are discarded once their data is extracted.

HTTPS/TLS encryption

API communication is encrypted by default, and unencrypted requests are rejected.


Data Extraction API questions

What file formats can this document parsing API process?

Data Extraction API processes PDFs, images, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other common document formats. Upload files directly, send raw binary content, or point the API at a hosted document URL. It handles scanned PDFs, fillable forms, and mixed digital/image-based documents without requiring a separate OCR pipeline.

Can I extract JSON from PDFs, scans, and forms?

Yes. The /extract API maps a document to your JSON Schema and returns the requested fields with per-field citations back to the source — so every value traces back to an exact location in the original document. It works with PDFs, scans, images, and Office files.

How is this different from using a general LLM for document extraction?

A general LLM can reason over document text, but it doesn’t give you a document processing layer by itself. Data Extraction API returns layout-grounded elements with reading order, coordinates, confidence scores, and page references, so teams can validate, route, highlight, and automate with traceability.

Can I get spatial JSON and Markdown in the same request?

Spatial JSON and Markdown are separate output formats on the same API. Choose spatial JSON when your workflow needs structured elements with layout context, or Markdown when you need clean structured content for RAG, search, or document Q&A. Send two requests if your pipeline needs both.

How do I validate and review extracted data before sending it downstream?

Every extracted element comes back with confidence scores, page references, coordinates, and word-level details, so you can compare outputs across sample documents, flag low-confidence fields for human review, highlight results on the original document, and route exceptions to a review queue. Because results stay connected to the source document, teams can trace outputs back to the original page and correct downstream records when needed.

Can Data Extraction API support full document workflows?

Yes. Use Data Extraction API as the parsing layer. Then connect the output to AI Document Processing for templates and validation; DWS Processor for conversion, redaction, generation, and signing; and Nutrient SDKs when humans need to review, edit, annotate, or approve documents in your application.

Is the Data Extraction API SOC 2 compliant?

Yes. The API is backed by Nutrient’s broader security practices, including SOC 2 Type 2-audited infrastructure and TLS-encrypted transport — built for use in business-critical and regulated workflows.

How does pricing work, and what’s included in the free tier?

New accounts get 5,000 free Data Extraction API credits per month with no credit card required. Beyond the free tier, you control cost by choosing the processing mode that fits each workflow: text for low-cost Markdown extraction, structure for spatial JSON, understand for AI-augmented parsing, and agentic for advanced extraction workflows.

How do I define a schema for extraction?

Use the schema generator in Studio — upload up to five example documents and describe the document type, and it generates a JSON Schema you can use directly with /extract. You can also write the schema manually. Refer to the documentation for supported field types, constraints, and size limits.

What is understand mode?

Understand mode uses an AI-augmented extraction pipeline for complex documents that need richer layout understanding, OCR correction, handwriting support, formulas, and structure-aware output.

What is a data extraction API?

A data extraction API is a service that parses documents — PDFs, scans, images, and Office files — and returns structured, usable data rather than just readable text. Instead of manually pulling values from documents or building custom parsers for each file format, you send a document to the API and get back structured output: spatial JSON with element types, coordinates, confidence scores, and page context, or Markdown for AI and search workflows. Nutrient Data Extraction API handles this across four processing modes — text, structure, understand, and agentic — so teams can choose speed, cost, or depth per workflow.

How is a data extraction API different from OCR?

OCR makes scanned or image-based documents machine-readable by identifying text on a page. A data extraction API goes further: It identifies which values matter, where they sit in the document, how they relate to each other, and how to structure them for downstream use. OCR gives you a wall of text. A data extraction API gives you typed fields with coordinates, confidence scores, page references, and reading order — output that a system can validate, route, and act on without additional processing.

What types of documents work with a data extraction API?

Most document formats used in business and regulated workflows are supported, including PDFs (digital, scanned, and image-based), images, and Office files such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Within those formats, the API handles forms, tables, key-value regions, handwriting, revision histories, stamps, and mixed layouts. Different document types — invoices, contracts, RFIs, submittals, medical records, permits — carry different data in different formats, so extraction workflows often define document-specific schemas rather than applying a single generic approach.


Documents in, structured data out

5,000 free Data Extraction API credits per month — no credit card required. Parse PDFs, images, scans, and Office files into spatial JSON or Markdown for AI workflows, automation, and human review.