TableJSON — PDF Table Extractor API

Extract tables from text-layer PDFs into clean JSON. Built for RapidAPI, Zapier, and direct HTTP use.

Live playground: https://tablejson.com

Site pages: About · Privacy · Terms · Contact

Contact: [email protected]

This API reads the PDF text layer. It does not OCR scanned or image-only PDFs.

Endpoints

Method	Path	Auth	Description
GET	/	No	Interactive playground
GET	/v1/health	No	Health check
GET	/v1/example	No	Tiny 2-row example JSON (RapidAPI Hub test)
POST	/v1/example	No	Same example JSON, with body {"file":"https://tablejson.com/sample-mini.pdf"}
GET	/openapi.json	No	OpenAPI 3 spec (RapidAPI import)
POST	/v1/extract-tables	Yes	Upload a PDF, get tables as JSON
POST	/v1/invoice-xlsx	Yes	Invoice PDF to a checksummed Excel workbook

Opening /v1/extract-tables in a browser redirects to the playground. Clients must POST a file.

Authentication

Direct / Zapier calls need the production API key:

X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

or

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

The playground on tablejson.com works without a key (same-origin, rate limited).

When the API is listed on RapidAPI, set RAPIDAPI_PROXY_SECRET on Railway. RapidAPI traffic is then accepted via X-RapidAPI-Proxy-Secret.

Rate limit: 20 extract requests per minute per IP.

Quick start

curl -X POST "https://tablejson.com/v1/extract-tables" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "[email protected]"

Example success shape:

{
  "status": "success",
  "filename": "invoice.pdf",
  "total_pages": 3,
  "tables_found": 1,
  "metadata": {
    "execution_time_ms": 42,
    "extraction_mode": "text"
  },
  "tables": [
    {
      "table_id": 1,
      "page_number": 1,
      "page_end": 3,
      "headers": ["date", "amount"],
      "total_rows": 12,
      "rows": []
    }
  ]
}

Local development

cp .env.example .env
npm install
npm run dev

Server: http://localhost:3000

npm run build
npm start
npm run test:sample

Required env:

PORT=3000
NODE_ENV=development
PUBLIC_BASE_URL=https://tablejson.com
API_KEY=change-me
# RAPIDAPI_PROXY_SECRET=

RapidAPI listing

1. Go to rapidapi.com/studio → Add API Project
2. Import OpenAPI from https://tablejson.com/openapi.json
3. Name: TableJSON — PDF Table to JSON
4. Category: Data (or Documents)
5. Base URL / target: https://tablejson.com
6. Security: RapidAPI gateway headers. On Railway, set RAPIDAPI_PROXY_SECRET to the secret RapidAPI shows you.
7. Suggested plans: Basic (free, 100 calls/month), Pro $19/mo (500,000 calls)

RapidAPI Hub testers should run GET /v1/example or GET /v1/invoice-example first. Those are small sample responses and will not freeze Chrome. Re-import openapi.json in RapidAPI Studio to add invoice Excel.

Short Hub description:

Upload a PDF and get structured tables as JSON. Supports large files (up to 500MB). Text-layer PDFs only — not scanned documents.

Zapier

The Zapier app TableJSON is registered and pushed (version 1.0.3). Actions: Extract Tables From PDF, Invoice PDF to Excel.

Invite testers now: https://zapier.com/developer/public-invite/246538/82421bacbfa80fcb07b5cf70c00f4e06/

Until the directory listing is approved, anyone can also use Webhooks by Zapier:

• URL: https://tablejson.com/v1/extract-tables or https://tablejson.com/v1/invoice-xlsx
• Method: POST
• Header: X-API-Key
• Body: multipart field file

To work on the app:

cd zapier
npm install
npx zapier login
npx zapier push

Deploy

Hosted on Railway. After code changes:

npm run build
railway up -s pdf-table-extractor-api -y --ci

Custom domain: tablejson.com (Cloudflare DNS → Railway). SSL is automatic.

License

MIT