API Reference

Convert HTML and URLs to pixel-perfect PDFs with a simple REST API.

Quickstart

Three steps to your first PDF: sign up, verify your email, and grab an API key from /app/keys. Then:

bash

curl -X POST https://api.docbrew.io/pdf/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pdfl_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"html": "<h1>Hello, PDF.</h1>"}' \
  --output hello.pdf

That's it. The response is a binary PDF you can stream, save, or pipe.

Authentication

All production calls require an API key sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header. Keys are created in your dashboard and shown in plaintext once — store them somewhere safe.

http

Authorization: Bearer pdfl_live_abc123...

Requests without a key fall through to the public Playground flow (Cloudflare Turnstile, per-IP rate limit) — fine for testing in a browser, not viable for server integrations. Invalid keys return 401.

Endpoints

Base URL: https://api.docbrew.io

`POST /pdf/render`

Renders a raw HTML string to PDF.

json

{
  "html": "<!DOCTYPE html><html>...</html>",
  "options": {
    "format": "A4",
    "landscape": false,
    "margin": { "top": "10mm", "right": "10mm", "bottom": "10mm", "left": "10mm" }
  }
}

html is required. options is optional — see Options. Responds with application/pdf bytes on success.

`POST /pdf/render-url`

Fetches a URL server-side and renders the resulting page. Waits for network idle before snapshotting; 30-second timeout.

json

{
  "url": "https://example.com/invoice/1234",
  "options": { "format": "Letter", "landscape": true }
}

`GET /health`

Unauthenticated liveness probe. Returns {"status":"ok","service":"node-api"}.

Options

Passed as the options object in the request body.

Field	Type	Default	Notes
format	string	"A4"	A3, A4, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid…
landscape	bool	false	Rotates the page.
margin	object	10mm all	top / right / bottom / left — CSS units.

Response headers

On successful keyed calls you'll get quota info in headers:

http

X-Plan: free
X-Plan-Renders-Used: 12
X-Plan-Renders-Limit: 50

Use these to surface usage in your own dashboards and pre-empt 429s.

Errors

Errors return JSON with an error field and a meaningful HTTP status.

Status	Meaning
400	Missing or invalid `html` / `url`.
401	Invalid or revoked API key.
403	Email not verified, or Turnstile failed (browser flow).
408 / 504	Render timed out — simplify content or lower the target URL timeout.
429	Plan render limit reached. Body includes `renders_used` / `renders_limit` / `plan`.
500	Chrome crashed or unreachable — retry.

Examples

Copy-paste starters in a few languages.

curl

bash

curl -X POST https://api.docbrew.io/pdf/render-url \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCBREW_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}' \
  --output page.pdf

Node.js (fetch)

javascript

import fs from "node:fs/promises";

const res = await fetch("https://api.docbrew.io/pdf/render", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.DOCBREW_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html: "<h1>Invoice</h1>",
    options: { format: "A4" },
  }),
});

if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`DocBrew ${res.status}: ${await res.text()}`);
await fs.writeFile("invoice.pdf", Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer()));

Python (requests)

python

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.docbrew.io/pdf/render",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['DOCBREW_KEY']}"},
    json={"html": "<h1>Invoice</h1>", "options": {"format": "A4"}},
    timeout=30,
)
r.raise_for_status()
with open("invoice.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(r.content)

PHP

php

<?php
$res = Http::withToken(env('DOCBREW_KEY'))
    ->post('https://api.docbrew.io/pdf/render-url', [
        'url' => 'https://example.com',
    ]);

file_put_contents('page.pdf', $res->body());

Rate limits & quota

Each account has a monthly render budget tied to its plan. Current plans:free(200 renders/cycle) andpro(15,000 renders/cycle — manage in your dashboard).

Unauthenticated (Playground / Turnstile) traffic is additionally rate-limited per IP. Keyed traffic uses the plan quota instead.

Ready to start?

Create your account →