by pdfdotco
Automate document workflows with PDF.co: convert PDF into text, use OCR text recognition, merge, split, and process PDFs
Connects to PDF.co's cloud API to handle document processing tasks like PDF conversion, form filling, OCR, merging, splitting, and password protection. Requires a PDF.co API key to access 30+ document processing tools.
PDF.co is an official MCP server published by pdfdotco that provides AI assistants with tools and capabilities via the Model Context Protocol. Automate document workflows with PDF.co: convert PDF into text, use OCR text recognition, merge, split, and process PDFs It is categorized under productivity, auth security.
You can install PDF.co in your AI client of choice. Use the install panel on this page to get one-click setup for Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code, and other MCP-compatible clients. This server runs locally on your machine via the stdio transport.
MIT
PDF.co is released under the MIT license. This is a permissive open-source license, meaning you can freely use, modify, and distribute the software.
Add new capabilities to Claude beyond text generation
Example
Access external data sources, execute code, interact with tools and services
Transform Claude from chatbot to action-taking agent
Provide Claude with access to relevant context and data
Example
Load project documentation, access knowledge bases, query databases
Get more accurate, context-aware responses
Automate multi-step workflows combining AI and external tools
Example
Research → Summarize → Create document → Send notification
Complete complex tasks end-to-end without manual steps
Share your MCP server with the developer community
PDF.co has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
PDF.co is among the better-indexed MCP projects we tried; the explainx.ai summary tracks the official description.
PDF.co reduced integration guesswork — categories and install configs on the listing matched the upstream repo.
Strong directory entry: PDF.co surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
According to our notes, PDF.co benefits from clear Model Context Protocol framing — fewer ambiguous “AI plugin” claims.
Strong directory entry: PDF.co surfaces stars and publisher context so we could sanity-check maintenance before adopting.
We evaluated PDF.co against two servers with overlapping tools; this profile had the clearer scope statement.
Useful MCP listing: PDF.co is the kind of server we cite when onboarding engineers to host + tool permissions.
PDF.co has been reliable for tool-calling workflows; the MCP profile page is a good permalink for internal docs.
PDF.co is a well-scoped MCP server in the explainx.ai directory — install snippets and categories matched our Claude Code setup.
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PDF.co MCP Server provides PDF.co API functionality through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI assistants to easily perform various PDF processing tasks.
You need to install UV (a fast Python packaging tool) to use this MCP server:
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"
brew install uvpipx install uvpip install uvFor more installation options and details, see the UV installation guide.
Add the following to your .cursor/mcp.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdfco": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["pdfco-mcp"],
"env": {
"X_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pdfco": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["pdfco-mcp"],
"env": {
"X_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
}
}
}
}
pdf_to_json: Convert PDF and scanned images into JSON representation with text, fonts, images, vectors, and formatting preservedpdf_to_csv: Convert PDF and scanned images into CSV representation with layout, columns, rows, and tablespdf_to_text: Convert PDF and scanned images to text with layout preservedpdf_to_xls: Convert PDF and scanned images to XLS (Excel 97-2003) formatpdf_to_xlsx: Convert PDF and scanned images to XLSX (Excel 2007+) formatpdf_to_xml: Convert PDF and scanned images to XML formatpdf_to_html: Convert PDF and scanned images to HTML formatpdf_to_image: Convert PDF and scanned images to various image formats (JPG, PNG, WebP, TIFF)document_to_pdf: Convert various document types (DOC, DOCX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, CSV, HTML, JPG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP) into PDFcsv_to_pdf: Convert CSV or spreadsheet files (XLS, XLSX) to PDFimage_to_pdf: Convert various image formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF) to PDFwebpage_to_pdf: Convert external webpage URL to PDFhtml_to_pdf: Convert HTML to PDFemail_to_pdf: Convert email to PDFexcel_to_csv: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to CSVexcel_to_json: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to JSONexcel_to_html: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to HTMLexcel_to_txt: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to TXTexcel_to_xml: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to XMLexcel_to_pdf: Convert Excel(XLS, XLSX) to PDFpdf_add_annotations_images_fields: Add text, images, forms, other PDFs, fill forms, links to external sites and external PDF files. You can update or modify PDF and scanned PDF filespdf_merge: Merge PDF from two or more PDF, DOC, XLS, images, even ZIP with documents and images into a new PDFpdf_split: Split a PDF into multiple PDF files using page indexes or page rangesread_pdf_forms_info: Extracts information about fillable PDF fields from an input PDF filefill_pdf_forms: Fill existing form fields in a PDF documentcreate_fillable_forms: Create new fillable form elements in a PDF documentfind_text: Find text in PDF and get coordinates. Supports regular expressionsfind_table: Find tables in PDF and get their coordinatesai_invoice_parser: AI Invoice Parser: Extracts data from invoices using AIextract_attachments: Extracts attachments from a source PDF filepdf_info_reader: Get detailed information about a PDF document - number of pages, metadata, security, form fields, and morepdf_add_password: Add password protection to a PDF filepdf_remove_password: Remove password protection from a PDF filepdf_make_searchable: Convert scanned PDF documents or image files into a text-searchable PDF. Runs OCR and adds an invisible text layer that can be used for text searchpdf_make_unsearchable: Make existing PDF document non-searchable by removing the text layer from itupload_file: Upload a file to the PDF.co APIget_job_check: Check the status and results of a job. Status can be: working, success, failed, aborted, or unknownwait_job_completion: Wait for a job to completeConvert this PDF file to text: https://example.com/document.pdf
Create a PDF from these images: image1.jpg, image2.png, image3.jpg
Find the word "contract" in this PDF document
Fill the name field in this PDF form with "John Doe"
Convert https://example.com webpage to PDF
Extract invoice information from this PDF using AI
Add password protection to this PDF file
This project is distributed under the MIT License.
Note: A valid PDF.co API key is required to use this tool. Create a free account at PDF.co to get your API key.
Prerequisites
Time Estimate
15-60 minutes depending on server complexity
Steps
Troubleshooting
✓ Do
✗ Don't
💡 Pro Tips
Architecture
Model Context Protocol standardizes how AI hosts (Claude, Cursor) communicate with external tools and data sources through server implementations.
Protocols
Compatibility
✓ Use when
Use when you need Claude to access external data, execute actions, or integrate with tools. Best for extending AI capabilities beyond conversation.
✗ Avoid when
Avoid when native integrations exist (use official APIs directly), for real-time critical systems, or when security/compliance requires zero external dependencies.