Build with the API

Everything the interface does is available over HTTP. Same Parsli's parsing engine, same field definitions, same results.

Base URL and authentication

https://parsli.co/api/v1

Every request carries an API key as a bearer token. A key is scoped to one Parser — which parser is inferred from the key, so no request needs a parser id.

Authorization: Bearer ext_YOUR_API_KEY

Create keys in the parser's Settings. See authentication.

Choose the right route

This is the decision that matters, and getting it wrong is the most common integration bug.

Inline is simpler, and it is a trap for anything big. The whole file has to fit in a JSON request body, and the extraction has to finish inside one HTTP request. A forty-page scan will not.

Upload-and-poll has no such ceiling. The bytes go straight to storage without passing through the API, and a worker does the extraction, so nothing is bounded by request wall-clock. Files over 300MB must use this route.

If you are building something that accepts documents from users, use upload-and-poll. You cannot predict what they will send you.

The shortest possible integration

curl -X POST https://parsli.co/api/v1/extract \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ext_YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "file": {
      "name": "invoice.pdf",
      "type": "application/pdf",
      "data": "'"$(base64 -i invoice.pdf)"'"
    }
  }'

{
  "success": true,
  "parser_id": "6f3a…",
  "document_id": "b71c…",
  "results": {
    "invoice_number": "INV-2026-0417",
    "total_amount": 1284.5,
    "line_items": [
      { "description": "Steel brackets", "quantity": 40, "unit_price": 12.5 }
    ]
  }
}

results keys are your field names. Whatever you called a field is the key you get back.

Getting results without polling

Polling is not the only option. A parser can push results to you instead — configure an outbound Webhook and Parsli calls your endpoint the moment a document finishes, whatever route it came in by.

That is usually the better shape for a queue: submit and forget, handle results as they arrive. See receiving results.

Read this next

• Authentication — creating, scoping, and rotating keys
• Extract a document — the inline route in full
• Large and slow files — upload-and-poll in full
• Receiving results — webhooks and polling
• Errors — every status code and what to do about it