Parse

Overview

The Parse endpoint converts any document into structured JSON. It extracts text, tables, figures, and metadata with precise bounding boxes for every element. Credits: 1 credit per page

Basic Usage

curl -X POST "https://platform.aifano.com/parse" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIFANO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"input": "https://example.com/report.pdf"}'

import requests

result = requests.post(
    "https://platform.aifano.com/parse",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {AIFANO_API_KEY}"},
    json={"input": "https://example.com/report.pdf"}
).json()

for chunk in result["result"]["chunks"]:
    print(chunk["content"][:200])

Input Options

The input field accepts:

Format	Example	Description
Public URL	`https://example.com/doc.pdf`	Any publicly accessible document URL
Presigned URL	`https://s3.amazonaws.com/...`	AWS S3 presigned URLs
Aifano reference	`aifano://abc123.pdf`	File uploaded via `/upload`
Job reference	`jobid://job_abc123`	Reuse parsed result from a previous job

Configuration Options

Enhance

Use vision language models to improve accuracy for specific block types:

{
  "input": "aifano://document.pdf",
  "enhance": {
    "agentic": [
      { "scope": "table" },
      { "scope": "figure", "prompt": "Describe the chart data points" }
    ],
    "summarize_figures": true
  }
}

Chunking & Retrieval

Configure how content is chunked for RAG pipelines:

{
  "input": "aifano://document.pdf",
  "retrieval": {
    "chunking": {
      "chunk_mode": "variable",
      "chunk_size": 1000
    },
    "embedding_optimized": true
  }
}

Chunk Mode	Description
`disabled`	No chunking (default)
`variable`	Variable-size chunks based on content
`section`	One chunk per document section
`page`	One chunk per page
`block`	One chunk per block
`page_sections`	Sections within pages

Formatting

Control output format for tables and special content:

{
  "input": "aifano://document.pdf",
  "formatting": {
    "table_output_format": "html",
    "add_page_markers": true,
    "merge_tables": true,
    "include": ["hyperlinks", "signatures"]
  }
}

Settings

Fine-tune OCR and processing behavior:

{
  "input": "aifano://document.pdf",
  "settings": {
    "ocr_system": "standard",
    "extraction_mode": "hybrid",
    "page_range": { "start": 1, "end": 10 },
    "document_password": "secret123"
  }
}

Setting	Options	Description
`ocr_system`	`standard`, `legacy`	Standard supports all languages; legacy for Germanic only
`extraction_mode`	`hybrid`, `ocr`	Hybrid combines OCR + embedded text for best accuracy
`page_range`	`{start, end}`	Process only specific pages
`document_password`	string	Password for encrypted PDFs

Response Structure

{
  "job_id": "job_abc123",
  "duration": 3.21,
  "usage": { "num_pages": 10, "credits": 10 },
  "result": {
    "type": "full",
    "chunks": [
      {
        "content": "# Section Title\n\nParagraph text...",
        "embed": "Section Title. Paragraph text...",
        "blocks": [
          {
            "type": "Title",
            "content": "Section Title",
            "bbox": { "left": 0.1, "top": 0.05, "width": 0.8, "height": 0.04, "page": 1 },
            "confidence": "high"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Block Types

Type	Description
`Title`	Document or section title
`Section Header`	Sub-section heading
`Text`	Body text paragraph
`Table`	Tabular data
`Figure`	Image or chart
`List Item`	Bulleted or numbered list item
`Header`	Page header
`Footer`	Page footer
`Page Number`	Page number
`Key Value`	Key-value pair
`Comment`	Annotation or comment
`Signature`	Signature block

Async Processing

For large documents, use the async variant:

curl -X POST "https://platform.aifano.com/parse_async" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AIFANO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"input": "aifano://large-document.pdf"}'

See Async Processing for details on polling and webhooks.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Configuration

Reference

Overview

Basic Usage

Input Options

Configuration Options

Enhance

Chunking & Retrieval

Formatting

Settings

Response Structure

Block Types

Async Processing

​Overview

​Basic Usage

​Input Options

​Configuration Options

​Enhance

​Chunking & Retrieval

​Formatting

​Settings

​Response Structure

​Block Types

​Async Processing

Overview

Basic Usage

Input Options

Configuration Options

Enhance

Chunking & Retrieval

Formatting

Settings

Response Structure

Block Types

Async Processing