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 Nutrient alternative for server-side PDF generation

Nutrient (formerly PSPDFKit) is built for embedding a PDF viewer and editor inside native apps and browsers. It is a great tool for that job. If your goal is generating PDFs from HTML on a server, it is the wrong category entirely. PDFPipe is a plain HTTP API: POST your HTML, get back a PDF, no SDK installation required.

Different categories, different problems

Nutrient solves PDF viewing, annotation, and editing inside a product UI. Server-side generation from HTML is not its primary use case. PDFPipe exists specifically for that use case: invoices, reports, certificates, and any document your server needs to produce at runtime from HTML and CSS.

How they compare

	PDFPipe	Nutrient (PSPDFKit)
Primary use case	Server-side HTML to PDF generation	PDF viewer and editor SDK for apps
Deployment	HTTP API, no installation	SDK embedded in your app or server
Pricing model	Per document, flat rate	Commercial license, thousands per year
Free tier	500 documents a month	Trial only, no production free tier
Batch generation	Batch endpoint for high-volume jobs	No equivalent server-side batch API
AI agent support	First-class MCP server	None
HTML/CSS input	Full web standards, CSS Grid, flexbox, custom fonts	Not the intended input format
SDK required	None, plain HTTP POST	SDK required for all integrations

Generate a PDF with a single request

There is no SDK to install and no license file to provision. Add your API key, POST your HTML, and the response body is the PDF.

// Node.js
const res = await fetch("https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer pp_live_your_key",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html: "<h1>Invoice #1042</h1><p>Amount due: $240.00</p>",
    options: { format: "A4", margin: { top: "20mm", bottom: "20mm" } },
  }),
});
const pdf = await res.arrayBuffer();
fs.writeFileSync("invoice.pdf", Buffer.from(pdf));

Pricing

Nutrient licenses start in the thousands per year for commercial use. PDFPipe starts free with 500 documents a month, and paid plans begin at $19 per month.

Plan	Documents / month	Price
Free	500	$0
Starter	5,000	$19 / mo
Growth	25,000	$59 / mo
Scale	100,000	$149 / mo

When Nutrient is still the right choice

If you need users to view, annotate, sign, or edit PDFs inside your product UI, Nutrient is purpose-built for that. PDFPipe does not provide a viewer component. The two tools solve different problems. Choose PDFPipe when you need to produce PDFs from HTML on your server. Choose Nutrient when you need to display or edit existing PDFs inside an app.

Try PDFPipe on the live playground with no signup, then read the docs.

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