--- title: "DWS Data Extraction API" canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/" md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction.md" last_updated: "2026-06-11T00:00:00.000Z" description: "Extract structured content from PDFs, images, and Office files using the Nutrient Data Extraction API. Get typed document elements with spatial data or whole-document Markdown." --- # DWS Data Extraction API Use the Nutrient DWS Data Extraction API to extract structured content from PDFs, images, and Office files. Send a document to the API and receive typed document elements with spatial data, whole-document Markdown, or schema-shaped JSON. ## What it does Use the DWS Data Extraction API to build document extraction workflows that need structured output. - Extract paragraphs, tables, formulas, pictures, and key-value pairs from documents, with bounding box coordinates and confidence scores. - Convert documents to structured Markdown for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, search indexing, and content migration. - Extract domain-specific JSON data mapped to your schema, with per-field citations back to the source. - Choose between four processing modes: text extraction, optical character recognition (OCR)-based structure extraction, AI-augmented document understanding, and vision language model (VLM)-augmented agentic extraction. - Process documents in more than 100 languages with multilingual OCR support. DWS Data Extraction API is part of Nutrient Document Web Services (DWS). It focuses on content extraction workflows. For document generation, conversion, and editing actions, refer to the [DWS Processor API](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-processor.md) guide. ## Two endpoints Choose the endpoint that matches the output you need from a document. **Parse endpoint** Return the document’s full structure as typed spatial elements with bounding boxes or whole-document Markdown. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing.md) **Extract endpoint** Map a document to your JSON Schema and return the requested fields with per-field citations. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/extract.md) ## Processing modes Choose the processing pipeline that fits your document type and output requirements. **Text mode** Markdown extraction from born-digital documents. No OCR or AI. 1 credit per page. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/processing-modes.md) **Structure mode** OCR-based extraction with typed spatial elements and bounding boxes. 1.5 credits per page. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/processing-modes.md) **Understand mode** Full AI-augmented pipeline with layout analysis, table detection, and semantic classification. 9 credits per page. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/processing-modes.md) **Agentic mode** VLM-augmented extraction that builds on understand mode for deep visual understanding. 18 credits per page. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/processing-modes.md) ## Output formats Choose an output format based on what your downstream system needs. **Spatial elements** Typed document elements — such as paragraphs, tables, formulas, pictures, and key-value pairs — with bounding boxes, confidence scores, and reading order. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/extract-document-elements.md) **Markdown** Whole-document Markdown representation for RAG, search indexing, and content pipelines. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/extract-markdown.md) ## Essential guides Start with these guides to set up your first request, explore the API, or review pricing. **Get started** Sign up, get an API key, and send your first extraction request. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/getting-started.md) **Developer guides** API reference, request formats, output schemas, and integration patterns. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/api-overview.md) **Pricing** Credit costs per mode and plan options. [Read more](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/dws-data-extraction/pricing.md) --- ## Related pages - [API overview](/guides/dws-data-extraction/api-overview.md) - [Error handling](/guides/dws-data-extraction/errors.md) - [Supported file types](/guides/dws-data-extraction/file-types.md) - [Get started](/guides/dws-data-extraction/getting-started.md) - [Privacy](/guides/dws-data-extraction/privacy.md) - [Support](/guides/dws-data-extraction/support.md) - [Security](/guides/dws-data-extraction/security.md) - [Supported languages](/guides/dws-data-extraction/supported-languages.md) ## Pages in this section - [extract.py](/guides/dws-data-extraction/examples/build-document-extraction-pipeline.md) - [ingestion/extract.py](/guides/dws-data-extraction/examples/build-rag-ingestion-pipeline.md) - [Examples](/guides/dws-data-extraction/examples.md) - [schema.py](/guides/dws-data-extraction/examples/extract-invoice-data-with-schema.md) - [Define a schema](/guides/dws-data-extraction/extract/define-a-schema.md) - [Citations and confidence](/guides/dws-data-extraction/extract/citations-and-confidence.md) - [Parse configuration](/guides/dws-data-extraction/extract/parse-configuration.md) - [Extract endpoint](/guides/dws-data-extraction/extract.md) - [Extract Markdown](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/extract-markdown.md) - [API returns render-space pixels; display at 850 px wide.](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/coordinate-spaces.md) - [Multilingual extraction](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/multilingual-extraction.md) - [Extract document elements](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/extract-document-elements.md) - [Parse endpoint](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing.md) - [Processing modes](/guides/dws-data-extraction/parsing/processing-modes.md) - [Pricing](/guides/dws-data-extraction/pricing.md)