PDFPipe is an HTML-to-PDF API. You send a POST request to https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf with a JSON body containing an HTML string or a URL, and receive an application/pdf file in the response. It handles browser rendering in a managed cloud environment, so you do not need to install or maintain any PDF software on your servers.

How do I use the PDFPipe API?

1. Sign up at pdfpipe.xyz to get an API key (format: pp_live_…). 2. POST to https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf with Authorization: Bearer pp_live_your_key and Content-Type: application/json. 3. Set the request body to {"html": " Hello "} or {"url": "https://example.com"} plus an optional "options" object for format, margins, etc. 4. The response body is the raw PDF file. Full reference at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs.

What programming languages does PDFPipe support?

PDFPipe works with any language that can make an HTTP request. Official SDKs are available for Node.js (npm install pdfpipe-node) and Python (pip install pdfpipe-python). The API also works directly in Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, Rust, C#, Kotlin, Elixir, and others via standard HTTP clients. Framework-specific guides are available at https://pdfpipe.xyz/guides.

What PDF options are available?

Pass an "options" object in the request body. Key options: format (A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid — default A4), landscape (true/false), margin (CSS length or object with top/bottom/left/right), print_background (true/false), scale (0.1 to 2.0), page_ranges (e.g. "1-3, 5"), header_html, footer_html, inject_css, wait_until (load, domcontentloaded, networkidle0, networkidle2), wait_ms, timeout_ms (1000 to 60000, default 30000), pdf_a (true/false for PDF/A-1b). Full reference at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs#options.

How much does PDFPipe cost?

Hobby: free, 500 documents per month, no credit card required. Starter: $19/month, 3,000 documents. Growth: $49/month, 15,000 documents. Scale: $149/month, 50,000 documents. Enterprise: custom volume and SLA. Flat pricing: one document counts as one document with no credit conversion.

What is the PDFPipe API endpoint?

The main render endpoint is POST https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf. Additional endpoints: POST /v1/pdf/batch (batch rendering up to 100 items), POST /v1/pdf/merge (merge PDFs), GET /v1/me (check key and usage), GET /v1/documents (list stored PDFs), POST /v1/demo (playground, no key required). Full endpoint list at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs#endpoints.

Can I not just run Puppeteer or wkhtmltopdf myself?

You can, but running a browser in production means managing memory limits, system font availability, concurrency queues, version pinning, and on-call incidents when it crashes. PDFPipe handles the rendering infrastructure so your team ships product code instead. The API also includes SSRF protection so untrusted HTML cannot reach internal services.

Does PDFPipe support AI agents via MCP?

Yes. Install pdfpipe-mcp-server (npm install pdfpipe-mcp-server), set PDFPIPE_API_KEY, and point any MCP-compatible agent at it. The pdfpipe_generate_pdf tool becomes available for the agent to generate PDFs in a single tool call. Details at https://pdfpipe.xyz/mcp.

Comparison

A hosted alternative to Gotenberg

Gotenberg is an excellent open-source PDF service. The cost shows up elsewhere: you run the Docker container, you manage the RAM each Chromium instance needs, you handle health checks and scaling, and you absorb a cold start on every deploy. For most teams that operational tax is not worth it. PDFPipe is the same idea, hosted, with several long-standing Gotenberg bugs already fixed.

Self-hosted versus hosted

	PDFPipe	Self-hosted Gotenberg
You run	Nothing	A Docker container sized for Chromium
Scaling	Automatic	Your problem (Prometheus config required)
Cold starts	None you see	On every deploy and scale-up
Cost	Flat per document, free below 500/mo	Free software, paid infrastructure and ops time
Memory leaks	None (managed renderer)	Open issue, known to require container restarts
Duplicate image bloat	Fixed (deduplicate_images option)	Open issue #1077, no fix
Digit rendering	Consistent (tabular_nums option)	Known inconsistency, open issue #921
Running headers/footers	Yes (header_html / footer_html)	Partial (limited template substitution)
PDF merge	Yes (/v1/pdf/merge)	Merge via Chromium only, no post-processing
PDF/A output	Best-effort (pdf_a option)	No
Security	SSRF-sandboxed by default	You configure it
AI agents	MCP server (npx pdfpipe-mcp-server)	None

Gotenberg issues that are fixed in PDFPipe

These are open issues in Gotenberg that affect production deployments. PDFPipe does not have these problems because the renderer is managed infrastructure, not a process you operate.

Memory leaks requiring container restarts

Gotenberg's Chromium pool leaks memory under sustained load. Teams running Gotenberg in production report needing scheduled container restarts or Kubernetes liveness probes to recover. PDFPipe manages the renderer: you never touch it.

Blank PDFs after version upgrades

Several Gotenberg versions have shipped with a regression that produces blank PDFs for specific HTML inputs. Diagnosing this requires rolling back the container version and diffing Chromium builds. PDFPipe upgrades are invisible to you.

Duplicate image bloat (issue #1077)

Chromium embeds the same image multiple times when it appears on multiple pages. A 200KB logo on a 50-page invoice inflates the output by ~10MB. PDFPipe's deduplicate_images option post-processes the PDF with pdf-lib to merge identical image XObjects.

Inconsistent digit rendering (issue #921)

Gotenberg inherits a Chromium bug where proportional digits render at slightly different widths, breaking column alignment in tables and invoices. PDFPipe's tabular_nums option injects font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums globally to fix it.

Large file failures (-32000 errors)

Gotenberg returns Chromium's internal -32000 error for HTML above a certain size. PDFPipe returns a structured 413 with a clear message and the exact limit so you can debug without reading Chromium internals.

The request looks familiar

curl -X POST https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pp_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "html": "<h1>Invoice #1042</h1>",
    "options": {
      "format": "A4",
      "header_html": "<div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:right;width:100%\">Page <span class=\"pageNumber\"></span> of <span class=\"totalPages\"></span></div>",
      "deduplicate_images": true,
      "tabular_nums": true
    }
  }' \
  --output invoice.pdf

When to keep Gotenberg

If you need full data sovereignty, run very high volume where per-document pricing adds up, or require LibreOffice document conversion (DOCX, XLSX to PDF), self-hosting Gotenberg wins. PDFPipe is the better trade when you would rather ship product than operate a rendering service.

Try it on the live playground with no signup.

See pricing →