How do I extract text from a scanned PDF for an LLM?

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Steps

1. Store your API key in DOCONDA_API_KEY and install the SDK (pip install doconda or npm install @doconda/sdk).
2. Call extract with a path, a public URL, bytes or a file_…/doc_… id.
3. Pass the markdown to your model.

from doconda import Doconda

doconda = Doconda()  # reads the key from DOCONDA_API_KEY
text = doconda.extract("proposal.pdf")["markdown"]
print(text[:500])

import { Doconda } from "@doconda/sdk"

const doconda = new Doconda()
const { markdown } = await doconda.extract("proposal.pdf")
console.log(markdown.slice(0, 500))

curl https://api.eu.doconda.com/v1/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCONDA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "file": { "url": "https://example.com/contract.pdf" } }'

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What you get back

{
  "object": "extraction",
  "id": "doc_01JAB3…",
  "format": "pdf",
  "markdown": "<!-- page 1 -->\n\nLEASE AGREEMENT…",
  "chars": 18342,
  "truncated": false,
  "pages": 7
}

• markdown: the text with its structure. In a PDF, headings, tables and columns in order, with page markers.
• chars, pages and truncated (if it goes over 2,000,000 characters).

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Limits

• Up to 100 scanned pages per PDF; the rest come out marked as “not read”. A PDF can have up to 1,000 pages.
• A long scanned PDF can take a few minutes: after 120 s the API answers 202 with { "id", "status" } and you collect it with GET /extract/{id}. The SDK waits for you.
• Files up to 20 MB. URLs can only point to public addresses.

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FAQ

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Keep reading

• Read files.
• Quickstart.