PDF.co
Official PDF.co MCP server: convert, merge, split, OCR, search and fill PDFs through the PDF.co API
What can you do with PDF.co?
- PDF → Various Formats: Convert PDFs to JSON, CSV, Text, Excel (XLS/XLSX), XML, HTML, Images (JPG/PNG/WebP/TIFF)
- Various Formats → PDF: Convert documents (DOC/DOCX/RTF/TXT), spreadsheets (CSV/XLS/XLSX), images, web pages, HTML, emails (MSG/EML) to PDF
- Excel Conversions: Convert Excel files to PDF
Install
Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).
pdfco-mcpclaude mcp add pdf-co -e 'X_API_KEY=<your x_api_key>' -- uvx pdfco-mcp==0.0.11
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdf-co": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"pdfco-mcp==0.0.11"
],
"env": {
"X_API_KEY": "<your x_api_key>"
}
}
}
}
Environment variables
X_API_KEYrequired secret Your PDF.co API key (from https://app.pdf.co)
Documentation
From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.
Contents
PDF.co MCP
PDF.co MCP Server provides PDF.co API functionality through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI assistants to easily perform various PDF processing tasks.
🚀 Key Features
📄 PDF Conversion Tools
- PDF → Various Formats: Convert PDFs to JSON, CSV, Text, Excel (XLS/XLSX), XML, HTML, Images (JPG/PNG/WebP/TIFF)
- Various Formats → PDF: Convert documents (DOC/DOCX/RTF/TXT), spreadsheets (CSV/XLS/XLSX), images, web pages, HTML, emails (MSG/EML) to PDF
- Excel Conversions: Convert Excel files to PDF
🛠️ PDF Editing & Modification
- PDF Merging: Combine multiple PDF files into one
- PDF Splitting: Split PDFs by specific pages or page ranges
- Add Annotations & Images: Add text, links, images, shapes to PDFs
- Form Operations: Read PDF form field information, fill forms, create new form elements
🔍 PDF Search & Analysis
- Text Search: Search text in PDFs (supports regular expressions)
- Table Detection: Find table locations and coordinates in PDFs
- AI Invoice Parser: Extract invoice data using AI
- PDF Information: Get detailed information including metadata, page count, security info
🔒 Security & Accessibility
- Password Protection: Add/remove password protection to PDFs
- Searchability: Make PDFs searchable via OCR or remove text layers
- Attachment Extraction: Extract attachments from PDFs
💼 File Management
- File Upload: Upload local files to PDF.co servers
- Job Status Tracking: Monitor progress and results of asynchronous operations
⚙️ Configuration
🔑 Get API Key
- Sign up at PDF.co website
- Get your API key from the dashboard
📦 Install UV
You need to install UV (a fast Python packaging tool) to use this MCP server:
macOS and Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
Windows
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
Alternative Installation Methods
- Homebrew:
brew install uv - PyPI with pipx:
pipx install uv - PyPI with pip:
pip install uv
For more installation options and details, see the UV installation guide.
Connect your client
Step-by-step guides with screenshots for each client are on developer.pdf.co:
Any other client that runs local MCP servers over STDIO uses the same three values: the command uvx, the argument pdfco-mcp, and the environment variable X_API_KEY. In JSON form:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdfco": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["pdfco-mcp"],
"env": {
"X_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Desktop apps often do not see your terminal's PATH; if the server fails to start, use the full path to uvx as the command. uvx keeps the version it first resolved, so run uvx pdfco-mcp@latest once to pick up a new release.
🔧 Available Tools
PDF Conversion Tools
pdf_to_json: Convert PDF and scanned images into JSON representation with text, fonts, images, vectors, and formatting preservedpdf_to_csv: Convert PDF and scanned images into CSV representation with layout, columns, rows, and tablespdf_to_text: Convert PDF and scanned images to text with layout preservedpdf_to_xls: Convert PDF and scanned images to XLS (Excel 97-2003) formatpdf_to_xlsx: Convert PDF and scanned images to XLSX (Excel 2007+) formatpdf_to_xml: Convert PDF and scanned images to XML formatpdf_to_html: Convert PDF and scanned images to HTML formatpdf_to_image: Convert PDF and scanned images to various image formats (JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF)
Document to PDF Conversion Tools
document_to_pdf: Convert various document types (DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, CSV, HTML, JPG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP) into PDFcsv_to_pdf: Convert CSV or spreadsheet files (XLS, XLSX) to PDFimage_to_pdf: Convert various image formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF) to PDFwebpage_to_pdf: Convert external webpage URL to PDFhtml_to_pdf: Convert HTML to PDFemail_to_pdf: Convert email to PDF
Excel Conversion Tools
Retirement Notice — January 5, 2027
The following Excel conversion tools are scheduled for retirement on January 5, 2027, following the discontinuation of their underlying PDF.co API endpoints:
excel_to_csv,excel_to_json,excel_to_html,excel_to_txt,excel_to_xml. These tools will remain available until the retirement date. After January 5, 2027, requests to their underlying API endpoints will no longer be supported.excel_to_pdfis not affected.
excel_to_csv: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to CSV (retiring January 5, 2027)excel_to_json: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to JSON (retiring January 5, 2027)excel_to_html: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to HTML (retiring January 5, 2027)excel_to_txt: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to TXT (retiring January 5, 2027)excel_to_xml: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to XML (retiring January 5, 2027)excel_to_pdf: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to PDF
PDF Editing Tools
pdf_add_annotations_images_fields: Add text, images, forms, other PDFs, fill forms, links to external sites and external PDF files. You can update or modify PDF and scanned PDF filespdf_merge: Merge PDF from two or more PDF, DOC, XLS, images, even ZIP with documents and images into a new PDFpdf_split: Split a PDF into multiple PDF files using page indexes or page ranges
PDF Form Tools
read_pdf_forms_info: Extracts information about fillable PDF fields from an input PDF filefill_pdf_forms: Fill existing form fields in a PDF documentcreate_fillable_forms: Create new fillable form elements in a PDF document
PDF Search Tools
find_text: Find text in PDF and get coordinates. Supports regular expressionsfind_table: Find tables in PDF and get their coordinates
PDF Analysis Tools
ai_invoice_parser: AI Invoice Parser: Extracts data from invoices using AIextract_attachments: Extracts attachments from a source PDF filepdf_info_reader: Get detailed information about a PDF document - number of pages, metadata, security, form fields, and more
PDF Security Tools
pdf_add_password: Add password protection to a PDF filepdf_remove_password: Remove password protection from a PDF file
PDF Searchability Tools
pdf_make_searchable: Convert scanned PDF documents or image files into a text-searchable PDF. Runs OCR and adds an invisible text layer that can be used for text searchpdf_make_unsearchable: Make existing PDF document non-searchable by removing the text layer from it
File Management Tools
upload_file: Upload a file to the PDF.co APIget_job_check: Check the status and results of a job. Status can be: working, success, failed, aborted, or unknownwait_job_completion: Wait for a job to complete
📖 Usage Examples
Convert PDF to Text
Convert this PDF file to text: https://example.com/document.pdf
Merge Multiple Images into PDF
Create a PDF from these images: image1.jpg, image2.png, image3.jpg
Search for Specific Text in PDF
Find the word "contract" in this PDF document
Fill PDF Form Fields
Fill the name field in this PDF form with "John Doe"
Convert Web Page to PDF
Convert https://example.com webpage to PDF
Extract Invoice Data
Extract invoice information from this PDF using AI
Add Password Protection
Add password protection to this PDF file
📞 Support & Contact
- PDF.co: https://pdf.co
- PDF.co API Documentation: https://developer.pdf.co
- Issue Reports: Please report issues through GitHub Issues
📄 License
This project is distributed under the MIT License.
Note: A valid PDF.co API key is required to use this tool. Create a free account at PDF.co to get your API key.
Frequently asked questions
What is PDF.co?
Official PDF.co MCP server: convert, merge, split, OCR, search and fill PDFs through the PDF.co API
How do I install PDF.co?
It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add pdf-co -e 'X_API_KEY=<your x_api_key>' -- uvx pdfco-mcp==0.0.11. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.
Does PDF.co need an API key?
Yes. It expects X_API_KEY, which you set in its configuration.
Is PDF.co open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.
Who maintains PDF.co?
It is published by pdfdotco. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.
From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.