Hosted PDF API · Edge runtime

The PDF API that runs at the edge, not in a headless browser.

I run several SaaS businesses, and kept hitting the same wall: every stack is on the edge, but every PDF library wants a backend. Invoices, filled forms, signed contracts, inspection reports, receipts — it never seems like it'll be a big problem, until I sit down to do it.

Hosted PDF APIs charge $0.05 to $0.20 per document and bill you for render time. Headless Chrome on Lambda works until it doesn't. So I built this once, as a hosted API, and made it self-serve so you can too: PDFops fills and merges real PDFs deterministically on the V8 edge — no headless browser, no Lambda layer, no per-document render tax.

Try it in your browser → Get a free API key

curl · invoice-template.pdf

curl -X POST https://pdfops.dev/api/fill-form \
  -F "pdf=@invoice-template.pdf" \
  -F 'fields={"customer_name":"Acme Co","total":"$1,250.00"}' \
  -o filled.pdf

What it is, in four bullets

Hosted PDF API, globally distributed. Sub-100ms response times wherever your traffic is. No region config, no VPC tuning, no warm-pool sizing.
Six endpoints today: POST /api/fill-form (fill PDF form fields), POST /api/merge (merge N PDFs into one), POST /api/inspect (list a PDF's form fields), POST /api/invoice (a complete invoice PDF from JSON), POST /api/signup (self-serve API key), GET /api/usage (quota check). Prefer a UI? The free invoice generator, field inspector, and make-fillable editor run in your browser. Prefer no code at all? Email a blank form to fill@pdfops.dev and get it back filled.
Free to try. 100 requests per IP per month with no key at all, or a free API key with 250/month — email in, key out, no card. Paid tiers from $16/mo.
Roughly 10x cheaper than incumbents. Indie is $16/mo for 4,000 requests — about $0.004 per document. The unit economics work because the platform PDFops runs on isn't where the incumbents priced their margins from.

Try it

Zero friction. Copy, paste, run. 100 requests per IP per month are free with no key at all — grab a free API key (250/mo) on the pricing page when you outgrow that. No terminal handy? The playground, the free invoice generator, and the free field inspector run the same API from your browser.

Fill a PDF form

No fillable PDF on hand? Grab a sample invoice-template.pdf — the field names match the curl below verbatim.

POST /api/fill-form

curl -X POST https://pdfops.dev/api/fill-form \
  -F "pdf=@invoice-template.pdf" \
  -F 'fields={"customer_name":"Acme Co","total":"$1,250.00"}' \
  -o filled.pdf

The fields JSON keys must match AcroForm field names that already exist in your PDF — customer_name and total in the sample above. Bring a template with named form fields you authored in Acrobat / Preview / LibreOffice, or use the sample to see the round-trip first.

Merge PDFs

POST /api/merge

curl -X POST https://pdfops.dev/api/merge \
  -F "pdf=@part1.pdf" \
  -F "pdf=@part2.pdf" \
  -F "pdf=@part3.pdf" \
  -o merged.pdf

Full request/response schemas live in the docs. Calling from code? Per-language guides: fill a PDF in Python, in Node.js, or in JavaScript. For end-to-end patterns — invoices, contracts, reports — see the use cases.

Plans

The anonymous trial — 100 requests per IP per month, no signup — is what the playground and the curl above run on. Building for real? Pick a plan:

Free

250 requests / mo

API key emailed to you — no card
All endpoints
Hard stop at the ceiling (429)

Get Key

Indie Most popular

$16/mo

4K requests / mo

Hard stop at the ceiling (429)
Mid-month raise? Reply to your key email
Email support

Buy

Pro

$79/mo

25K requests / mo

Hard stop at the ceiling (429)
Mid-month raise? Reply to your key email
Priority email support

Buy

Enterprise

Custom

Volume · SLA

Custom quotas & endpoints
Priority support
Negotiated terms

Coming from a different hosted PDF API? vs DocRaptor · vs PDFShift · vs PDFMonkey

Filling a government form? The form compatibility registry has tested field schemas and quirks for the W-9, W-4, 1040 and more.