2 creditsPDF to DOCX API — editable text and tables
Editable text and tables; layout is best-effort.
pdf-to-docx converts a PDF into an editable Word document. The conversion is lossy in one direction that matters — a PDF stores positioned glyphs, not paragraphs and tables — so the reliable way to use it is to convert, then assert in code that the structures you needed survived.
How does the PDF to DOCX API work?
One HTTP request from any language. Every ASHDOCS endpoint uses the same X-API-Key header.
curl -X POST https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx \ -H "X-API-Key: ash_live_..." \ -F "file=@document.pdf"
import requests
r = requests.post(
"https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx",
headers={"X-API-Key": "ash_live_..."},
files=[("file", open("document.pdf", "rb"))],
)
job = r.json()
print(job["status"], job.get("url"))import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises";
const form = new FormData();
form.append("file", new Blob([await readFile("document.pdf")]), "document.pdf");
const res = await fetch("https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx", {
method: "POST",
headers: { "X-API-Key": "ash_live_..." },
body: form,
});
const job = await res.json();
console.log(job.status, job.url);using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-API-Key", "ash_live_...");
using var form = new MultipartFormDataContent();
form.Add(new ByteArrayContent(await File.ReadAllBytesAsync("document.pdf")), "file", "document.pdf");
var res = await client.PostAsync("https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx", form);
var job = await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
Console.WriteLine(job);import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;
public class Sample {
static final String BOUNDARY = "AshdocsBoundary7MA4YWxkTrZu0gW";
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
ByteArrayOutputStream body = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
addFile(body, "file", "document.pdf");
body.write(("--" + BOUNDARY + "--\r\n").getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
HttpRequest req = HttpRequest.newBuilder(URI.create("https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx"))
.header("X-API-Key", "ash_live_...")
.header("Content-Type", "multipart/form-data; boundary=" + BOUNDARY)
.POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofByteArray(body.toByteArray()))
.build();
HttpResponse<String> res = HttpClient.newHttpClient().send(req, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
System.out.println(res.body());
}
static void addFile(ByteArrayOutputStream body, String name, String path) throws Exception {
body.write(("--" + BOUNDARY + "\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + name + "\"; filename=\""
+ Path.of(path).getFileName() + "\"\r\nContent-Type: application/octet-stream\r\n\r\n").getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
body.write(Files.readAllBytes(Path.of(path)));
body.write("\r\n".getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
}
static void addField(ByteArrayOutputStream body, String name, String value) throws Exception {
body.write(("--" + BOUNDARY + "\r\nContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"" + name + "\"\r\n\r\n"
+ value + "\r\n").getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
}
}#include <stdio.h>
#include <curl/curl.h>
int main(void) {
CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
if (!curl) return 1;
struct curl_slist *headers = NULL;
headers = curl_slist_append(headers, "X-API-Key: ash_live_...");
curl_mime *mime = curl_mime_init(curl);
curl_mimepart *part;
part = curl_mime_addpart(mime);
curl_mime_name(part, "file");
curl_mime_filedata(part, "document.pdf");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_MIMEPOST, mime);
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://www.ashdocs.com/api/v2/tools/pdf-to-docx");
curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, headers);
CURLcode rc = curl_easy_perform(curl);
printf("\n");
curl_mime_free(mime);
curl_slist_free_all(headers);
curl_easy_cleanup(curl);
return rc == CURLE_OK ? 0 : 1;
}Common use cases
- →Turning a received PDF contract into an editable draft
- →Extracting a report's tables into Word for further editing
- →Converting scanned-then-OCR'd PDFs into editable documents
Frequently asked questions
Will my tables come out as tables?+
Ruled tables usually do; whitespace-implied tables often do not. Assert the table count after conversion rather than assuming.
Can it convert a scanned PDF?+
No — it returns 422 no_text_layer rather than a document full of images. Run ocr first, then convert the OCR'd file.
Is there a mode that preserves the exact layout?+
No. The route takes the file and no options, so there is one conversion path, and layout on multi-column or heavily designed pages is best-effort.
What does it cost?+
Two credits per conversion.