How to Use the PDF.ai Summarize API

What Summarize is for

• You sent a docId from a v1 upload with your X-API-Key

• The response includes a content string with the summary

• Nothing was saved as a chat — the docs say the summary result is not saved as a Chat

Practical rule: Summarize is a one-shot read. If you want the summary to show up in the document's chat history, use Chat with save_chat instead, because Summarize does not save anything.

The request at a glance

How to call Summarize

1. Have an API key

2. Get a docId

3. Example: summarize in English

import requests

url = "https://pdf.ai/api/v1/summary"
headers = {
    "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

data = {
    "docId": "YOUR_DOC_ID"
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
print(response.json()["content"])

4. Example: summarize in another language with a chosen model

import requests

url = "https://pdf.ai/api/v1/summary"
headers = {
    "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

data = {
    "docId": "YOUR_DOC_ID",
    "language": "french",
    "use_gpt4": True,
    "model": "gpt-4o"
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)
print(response.json())  # {"content": "..."}

curl -X POST https://pdf.ai/api/v1/summary \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"docId": "YOUR_DOC_ID", "language": "french"}'

5. Handle the documented errors

• 200 — {"content": "..."} with the summary

• 401 — {"error": "Invalid API key"}: fix the key or header before you touch the request body

• 400 — e.g. {"error": "No API key present"}: the API key or docId is missing

Practical rule: store the content string next to the docId in your own database. Summarize does not keep a copy in a chat thread, so a second call is a second request.

Credits and limits before you scale

• Upload: 2 credits per file upload on the Dedicated API plan credit model (API limits)

• Messages by model on that same page: 1 credit per gpt-3.5-turbo or gpt-4o-mini message, 2 credits per gpt-4o message, 4 credits per gpt-4-turbo message

• Rate limit on the Dedicated API plan: 500 requests/minute

When Summarize is the wrong tool

• You want a summary of one specific part ("summarize the payment terms"). Use Chat with a precise message (How to Use the PDF.ai Chat API). Chat also returns page references; Summarize returns only content.

• You want the summary saved to the document's history. Use Chat with save_chat.

• You work on v2 parsed documents. Ask (POST https://pdf.ai/api/v2/ask) takes a prompt and one or more parsed docIds (How to Use the PDF.ai Ask API). Do not assume a v1 upload docId works there without checking.

• You need named fields as JSON, not prose. Use POST /v2/extract with a schema (How to Use the PDF.ai Extract API).

• You wanted a generic "pdf api" hub. Stay on https://pdf.ai/developer. This page is the Summarize how-to, not a replacement hub.

A short action plan

1. Open https://pdf.ai/developer, create a key, store it once.

2. Upload the PDF through v1 and keep the docId (OCR first if it is a scan).

3. POST https://pdf.ai/api/v1/summary with docId, plus language or model if you need them.

4. Save content in your own store, spot-check a few summaries against the source, then scale.