# PDF

Turn the whole rendered page into a PDF — JavaScript run, web fonts and lazy-loaded images in, its headings as bookmarks — on A4, Letter or the paper you choose, or as one long page exactly as it looks in a browser. The PDF comes back Base64-encoded, with a link to it in the response headers.

It uses no AI, and costs **1 credit** per call — whichever options you use. See [Credits](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/credits).

POST/pdf

## Save a page as PDF

### Body parameters

- **Name**
  : `url`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Required**
  : Required
  **Description**
  : The absolute URL of the page to process. Rendered with headless Chrome, so JavaScript runs and redirects are followed. It must not include a username or password (`https://user:pass@example.com`).
- **Name**
  : `pdf_options`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : How to print it: paper, orientation, margins, scale and stylesheet. Every key is optional and included in the credit — see [Options](#options). Leave it out for A4 portrait.
- **Name**
  : `page_options`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : Wait for the page, and remove ads, cookie banners or your own elements from it before it is read — gone from this result, not merely hidden. See [Page options](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/page-options).
- **Name**
  : `residential`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Fetch the page from a [residential exit](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/residential) — an address on a home broadband line rather than one in a datacentre. Reach for it when a site serves you less than it serves a browser, or nothing at all. Defaults to `false`. Adds **25 credits** per page fetch on top of what the operation costs, and its results are kept separate from the ordinary ones.
- **Name**
  : `report_to`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : Webhook URL — an `http` or `https` address URLpipe POSTs the result to when it's ready. **Optional**: without it we deliver to your project's [default endpoint](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#where-results-go) if it has one, and otherwise send no webhook at all — the result still waits for you at [GET /result/:token](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/results). A value we cannot deliver to returns `422`. Ignored on a `sync=true` request. Deliveries can be [signed](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#signature) so your endpoint can verify they came from us.
- **Name**
  : `sync`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Process the request synchronously, returning the result inline in the response. Defaults to `false` (async: return a token now, and either receive the result at a [webhook](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async#where-results-go) or fetch it with [GET /result/:token](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/results)). See [Async & sync modes](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/async) for the full contract.
- **Name**
  : `max_age`
  **Type**
  : string | integer
  **Description**
  : How fresh a cached result must be to be accepted. Either an **integer** number of seconds (`3600`) or a **duration string** of the form `"<number> <unit>"` — units `s`/`min`/`h`/`d`/`w` (e.g. `"2 hours"`, `"3 days"`, `"30m"`). Defaults to `7 days`, clamped to a max of `30 days`; `0` always bypasses the cache. See [Caching](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/caching) for all accepted units.
- **Name**
  : `labels`
  **Type**
  : object
  **Description**
  : Your own keys to find and account for this request by — a client, a project, a campaign: `{"client": "acme"}`. Returned with the result, in the webhook and in the `X-Labels` header, and your dashboard filters history and totals credits by them. Up to 16 keys; string values. See [Labels](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/labels).

### Response

Content type `text/plain` — the body is the PDF, Base64-encoded. Decode it to bytes and save it as a `.pdf` file.

The whole page is printed, not just what fits on screen: it is scrolled through first, so images that load on scroll are on every sheet. By default it is printed the way the browser's own Print does — with the page's print stylesheet, if it has one, and its background colours.

The response also carries an `X-Result-Url` header: a link to the same PDF that needs no API key, to put in an email or hand to a user. It stays valid for the 30 days the result is kept — see [Response headers](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/response-headers).

```
curl -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "pdf_options": {"paper_size":"letter"}, "page_options": {"block_cookie_banners":true}}'
```

Response

```
JVBERi0xLjQKJdPr6eEKMSAwIG9iago8PC9DcmVhdG9yIChDaHJvbWl1bSkK…
(Base64-encoded PDF, truncated)
```

## Options

The keys of `pdf_options`. Each one you leave out is its default, and a request that spells out a default is the same request as one that omits it — it is served the same [stored result](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/caching). A value out of range, or a key not listed here, is refused with `invalid_options` before anything is fetched or spent.

Request body

```
{
  "url": "https://example.com/blog/post",
  "pdf_options": {
    "paper_size": "letter",
    "margin": 15,
    "print_background": false
  },
  "page_options": {
    "block_ads": true,
    "block_cookie_banners": true
  }
}
```

- **Name**
  : `paper_size`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : The paper: `letter`, `legal`, `tabloid`, `a3`, `a4`, `a5`. Default `a4`.
- **Name**
  : `landscape`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Turn the paper sideways. Default false.
- **Name**
  : `print_background`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Print background colours and images. Default true; turn it off for a lighter, ink-friendly PDF.
- **Name**
  : `scale`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : The page's size on the paper, 10 to 200 percent. Default 100. Lower it to fit a wide page on narrow paper.
- **Name**
  : `margin`
  **Type**
  : integer
  **Description**
  : Margin on every side, 0 to 50 millimetres. Default 10.
- **Name**
  : `media`
  **Type**
  : string
  **Description**
  : `print` (the default) uses the page's print stylesheet, the way a browser prints it — many sites hide their navigation and ads for print. `screen` prints the page as it looks on screen.
- **Name**
  : `single_page`
  **Type**
  : boolean
  **Description**
  : Put the whole page on one page, as wide as the browser window and as tall as the document — the PDF twin of a full-page screenshot, with selectable text and working links. `paper_size` and `landscape` do not apply. A page taller than 200 inches, the most PDF viewers show, carries on onto a second one.

What the page is made to wait for or leave out — ads, cookie banners, an element that loads late — is set with [page\_options](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/page-options), which every endpoint that loads the page takes.

## Saving the file

curl

```
curl -s https://urlpipe.dev/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $URLPIPE_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "sync": true}' | base64 --decode > page.pdf
```

A PDF larger than 20 MB is refused with `pdf_too_large`, like an oversized screenshot. Turning off `print_background` or removing what you do not need with `page_options` brings it back under.

## Responses

Whatever the status, the response carries [metadata headers](https://urlpipe.dev/docs/response-headers): the result token, whether it was served from cache and how old that result is, how long we took, what it cost in credits, and the allowance you have left.

Status

When

Body

`200 OK`

The request succeeded.

Sync: the result, in this endpoint's format (see Response above). Async: a job token and the request's labels — { "token": "…", "status": "accepted", "labels": {} }.

`422 Unprocessable Entity`

The analysis failed, or a parameter was invalid (a bad max\_age, a screenshot\_options value out of range, labels that break the rules, or a report\_to we will not deliver to).

{ "error": "<message>" }

`429 Too Many Requests`

Three causes, told apart by the error field: concurrency\_limit (too many of your requests already running), rate\_limited (sending too fast), or quota\_exceeded (Free plan only — out of credits with no card on file to bill the extra to, and checked only on a cache miss; a paid plan keeps serving at the overage rate and is never refused for credits).

All three carry "error" and "message". Extra fields: concurrency\_limit → "limit", "running" · rate\_limited → "retry\_after" · quota\_exceeded → "limit", "used", "needed", "resets\_at".

`504 Gateway Timeout`

Sync only: the analysis didn't finish within 60s. It keeps running — fetch it via GET /result/:token.

{ "error": "processing\_timeout", "token": "…" }

`401 Unauthorized`

Missing or invalid API key.

{ "error": "invalid\_api\_key", "message": "…" }

Try it live — no API key needed

Run this endpoint against any URL right in your browser.

[Open tool](https://urlpipe.dev/tools/website-to-pdf)

Source: https://urlpipe.dev/docs/pdf