Getting Started

Generate your first PDF with PodPDF in under 5 minutes!

What You'll Build

By the end of this guide, you'll be able to:

• ✅ Get your PodPDF API key
• ✅ Generate your first PDF from HTML
• ✅ Understand which endpoint to use
• ✅ Customize PDF options

Prerequisites

• A valid email address
• cURL or any HTTP client
• Basic knowledge of REST APIs

Step 1: Get Your API Key

Sign in first

Your first key comes from the dashboard. Once you have a signed-in session you can also create and revoke keys through the API key endpoints — they require a Cognito token, not an API key.

Sign Up

1. Go to https://app.podpdf.com/signup
2. Create your account with email and password
3. Verify your email address

Get Your API Key from Dashboard

1. Sign in to your dashboard
2. Navigate to Settings → API Keys
3. Click Create New Key if you don't have one
4. Copy your API key (shown only once)

One-Time Display

API keys are only displayed once when created. Save it immediately! If you lose it, create a new one from the dashboard.

Store Securely

Keep your API key secure! Store it in environment variables, not in your code.

Step 2: Generate Your First PDF

Now let's create a simple PDF from HTML:

curl -X POST https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input_type": "html",
    "html": "<h1>My First PDF</h1><p>This is amazing!</p>"
  }' \
  --output my-first.pdf

Success! 🎉 You now have my-first.pdf on your computer.

Prefer a GUI?

Download the Postman collection from the PodPDF home page. Import it, paste your key into the api_key variable, and every endpoint on this site is ready to send — the convert requests even fill in job_id for the job lookups.

Step 3: Try Markdown

You can also generate PDFs from Markdown:

curl -X POST https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input_type": "markdown",
    "markdown": "# My Report\n\n## Section 1\n\nThis is **bold** and this is *italic*."
  }' \
  --output my-markdown.pdf

Step 4: Customize Options

Add custom margins and formatting:

curl -X POST https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input_type": "html",
    "html": "<h1>Custom PDF</h1><p>With custom margins!</p>",
    "options": {
      "format": "A4",
      "margin": {
        "top": "20mm",
        "right": "20mm",
        "bottom": "20mm",
        "left": "20mm"
      },
      "printBackground": true,
      "landscape": false
    }
  }' \
  --output custom.pdf

Step 5: Generate an Invoice

Here's a practical example - generating an invoice:

curl -X POST https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input_type": "html",
    "html": "<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><style>body{font-family:Arial;padding:40px}.header{border-bottom:2px solid #333;padding-bottom:20px}.invoice-details{margin:30px 0}.total{font-size:24px;font-weight:bold;text-align:right}</style></head><body><div class=\"header\"><h1>INVOICE</h1><p>Invoice #12345<br>Date: Dec 29, 2025</p></div><div class=\"invoice-details\"><p><strong>Bill To:</strong><br>John Doe<br>john@example.com</p><table width=\"100%\" style=\"margin-top:30px;border-collapse:collapse;\"><tr style=\"border-bottom:1px solid #ddd;\"><th align=\"left\">Description</th><th align=\"right\">Amount</th></tr><tr><td>PDF Generation Service</td><td align=\"right\">$100.00</td></tr></table></div><div class=\"total\">Total: $100.00</div></body></html>"
  }' \
  --output invoice.pdf

Choosing Between QuickJob, LongJob and BulkJob

Use /quickjob when:

• ✅ Document is simple and small (up to 25 pages maximum)
• ✅ Need PDF immediately (< 30 seconds, returned in the response body)
• ✅ Synchronous workflow fits your needs
• ✅ Converting images to PDF (up to 25 images maximum)

Use /longjob when:

• ✅ Document is large (more than 25 pages, up to 100)
• ✅ Can wait for generation (async — you get a job_id back)
• ✅ Want webhook notifications when complete

Use /bulkjob when:

• ✅ You have many documents to convert in one request
• ✅ Files ship as a ZIP (with shared CSS/images) or as a list of uploads
• ✅ You want one output ZIP of PDFs plus a manifest.json
• ✅ Up to 200 pages total per job; only successful files are charged

LongJob reference → · BulkJob reference → · Bulk conversion guide →

Using Environment Variables

For security, store your API key in environment variables:

Linux/Mac

export PODPDF_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

curl -X POST https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob \
  -H "X-API-Key: $PODPDF_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"input_type":"html","html":"<h1>Hello</h1>"}' \
  --output output.pdf

Node.js

Create a .env file:

PODPDF_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Use in your code:

require('dotenv').config();

const apiKey = process.env.PODPDF_API_KEY;

fetch('https://api.podpdf.com/quickjob', {
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': apiKey,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  }
});

What's Next?

Explore More Features

• 📚 View All API Endpoints
• 📦 Convert many files at once
• 🎨 See More Code Examples
• 📏 All limits in one place

Common Use Cases

• Generate customer invoices
• Create PDF reports from data
• Issue certificates and credentials
• Convert blog posts to PDF

Need Help?

• API Key Management
• Error Handling Guide
• API Reference

Limits

PodPDF charges per PDF generated. Pay with an optional monthly subscription, one-off credit packs, or both — see Plans & Billing.

• 💳 $0.01 per PDF - Only successful conversions are charged
• 📅 Monthly plans - Starter (2,000 PDFs for $20) or Business (10,000 PDFs for $100), used before one-off credits
• 📄 Up to 25 pages - Per instant conversion (100 with /longjob, 200 per bulk job)
• 📦 5 MB max - Input size limit
• ⚡ No per-account rate limit - On the standard paid plan

See Limits for the complete list.

Troubleshooting

Error: 401 Unauthorized

• Check that your API key is correct
• Make sure you're using the X-API-Key header
• Verify your key hasn't been revoked

Error: 402 Upgrade Required

• The account has no plan yet (an account that has not finished setting up)
• Sign in to the dashboard once, or buy a credit pack or start a subscription, to activate it

Error: 403 Insufficient Credits

• Your free PDFs, subscription allowance and credits cannot cover another PDF
• Buy a credit pack or upgrade your plan in your dashboard

Error: 408 Timeout

• Your document is too large for QuickJob
• Use LongJob instead

More troubleshooting →

Congratulations! 🎉

You've successfully:

• ✅ Got your API key
• ✅ Generated your first PDF
• ✅ Learned the basics
• ✅ Created a real invoice

Start building amazing PDF generation features into your app!