Use case

Invoice PDF API

Generate professional invoice PDFs programmatically. Send HTML and get a PDF back in under a second — no headless browser to manage, no Puppeteer dependency to maintain.

Why use an API instead of a library?

No server overhead

Puppeteer and wkhtmltopdf consume significant memory per instance. Papyr handles the Chromium cluster — your server stays lean.

Consistent output

Local Chromium versions drift across developer machines and staging/production environments. One API means one renderer.

Under 1 second

Managed Chromium instances with a concurrency queue. No cold start on your server, no waiting for the browser to launch.

Generate an invoice PDF

Send your invoice HTML and receive a PDF binary. The example below generates a simple invoice with line items and a total.

cURL
curl -X POST https://api.getpapyr.dev/v1/render/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "html": "<html><body style=\"font-family:sans-serif;padding:40px\">
      <h1 style=\"font-size:28px;margin-bottom:4px\">Invoice #1042</h1>
      <p style=\"color:#666\">Due: January 31, 2026</p>
      <table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;margin-top:24px\">
        <tr style=\"border-bottom:2px solid #eee\">
          <th style=\"text-align:left;padding:8px 0\">Description</th>
          <th style=\"text-align:right;padding:8px 0\">Amount</th>
        </tr>
        <tr><td style=\"padding:12px 0\">Development — 40hrs</td>
            <td style=\"text-align:right\">$4,000.00</td></tr>
        <tr><td style=\"padding:12px 0\">Design review</td>
            <td style=\"text-align:right\">$800.00</td></tr>
        <tr style=\"border-top:2px solid #eee;font-weight:bold\">
          <td style=\"padding:12px 0\">Total</td>
          <td style=\"text-align:right\">$4,800.00</td></tr>
      </table>
    </body></html>",
    "options": { "format": "A4", "margin": { "top": "20mm", "bottom": "20mm" } }
  }'
Node.js
const response = await fetch("https://api.getpapyr.dev/v1/render/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": "Bearer pk_live_...",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html: buildInvoiceHtml(invoice), // your HTML template function
    options: {
      format: "A4",
      margin: { top: "20mm", right: "20mm", bottom: "20mm", left: "20mm" },
    },
  }),
});

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();
// Save to disk, return to user, or upload to S3
Python
import httpx

response = httpx.post(
    "https://api.getpapyr.dev/v1/render/pdf",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer pk_live_..."},
    json={
        "html": build_invoice_html(invoice),  # your HTML template function
        "options": {
            "format": "A4",
            "margin": {"top": "20mm", "right": "20mm",
                       "bottom": "20mm", "left": "20mm"},
        },
    },
)

pdf_bytes = response.content
# Save to disk, return to user, or upload to S3

Common invoice patterns

Save to cloud storage

Pipe the PDF binary directly to S3, GCS, or R2. No temp files needed — stream the response body straight to your upload client.

Email as attachment

Convert the response to a Buffer or Blob and attach it to your email (Resend, SendGrid, Nodemailer). Typical invoice PDF is 50–200KB.

Return to browser for download

Set Content-Type: application/pdf and Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=invoice-1042.pdf on your API response. The browser triggers a download.

Store in your database

For audit trails or regeneration, store the raw PDF bytes in a BYTEA (Postgres) column or as a base64-encoded string alongside the invoice record.

Pricing

Free
$0
100 invoices/mo
Starter
$19
1,000 invoices/mo
Pro
$49
10,000 invoices/mo
Scale
$149
100,000 invoices/mo

Start generating invoice PDFs

100 free invoices per month. No credit card required. API key in 30 seconds.

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