Perform document extraction inference on the service

Perform document extraction inference on the service Experimental; Added in 9.6.0

POST /_inference/document_extraction/{inference_id}

Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

Extract the content of documents, such as PDFs or images of documents, into a textual format.

Required authorization

Cluster privileges: monitor_inference

Path parameters

inference_id string Required

The unique identifier for the inference endpoint.

Query parameters

timeout string

The amount of time to wait for the inference request to complete.

Default value is 120s.

application/json

Body Required

input object | array[object] Required
The documents to extract the content from. Either a content object or an array of content objects.

content object example:
```
"input": {
  "content": {
    "type": "pdf",
    "format": "base64",
    "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
  }
}
```
content object array example:
```
"input": [
  {
    "content": {
      "type": "pdf",
      "format": "base64",
      "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
    }
  },
  {
    "content": {
      "type": "image",
      "format": "url",
      "value": "https://example.com/scanned-page.png"
    }
  }
]
```
One of:
DocumentExtractionContentObject object array-2 array[object]
A wrapper object which contains a single document to extract the content from.
Hide attribute Show attribute

content object Required

The document to extract the content from.

Hide content attributes Show content attributes object

type string Required

The type of the document. Not all services and models support all types.

Values are image or pdf.

format string

The format of the document. If not specified, this defaults to base64. Not all services and models support all formats.

Values are base64 or url.

value string Required

The value of the document. For the base64 format, this must be a base64-encoded data URI, that is, "data:content/type;base64,...". For the url format, this must be a URL that points to the document, that is, "https://example.com/document.pdf".
A wrapper object which contains a single document to extract the content from.
task_settings object

Task settings for the individual inference request. These settings are specific to the task type you specified and override the task settings specified when initializing the service.

Responses

200 application/json
Hide response attribute Show response attribute object
- document_extraction array[object] Required
  
  The document extraction result object representing the content extracted from a single document.
  
  Hide document_extraction attributes Show document_extraction attributes object
  
  The document extraction result object representing the content extracted from a single document.
  
  content string Required
  
  The content extracted from the document.
  
  format string Required
  
  The format of the extracted content, for example markdown.
  
  metadata object
  
  Additional information about the document, such as its title. The available fields depend on the service and model.
  
  Hide metadata attribute Show metadata attribute object
  
  * object Additional properties

POST /_inference/document_extraction/{inference_id}

POST _inference/document_extraction/my-document-extraction-endpoint
{
  "input": [
    {
      "content": {
        "type": "pdf",
        "format": "base64",
        "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

resp = client.inference.document_extraction(
    inference_id="my-document-extraction-endpoint",
    input=[
        {
            "content": {
                "type": "pdf",
                "format": "base64",
                "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
            }
        }
    ],
)

const response = await client.inference.documentExtraction({
  inference_id: "my-document-extraction-endpoint",
  input: [
    {
      content: {
        type: "pdf",
        format: "base64",
        value: "data:application/pdf;base64,...",
      },
    },
  ],
});

response = client.inference.document_extraction(
  inference_id: "my-document-extraction-endpoint",
  body: {
    "input": [
      {
        "content": {
          "type": "pdf",
          "format": "base64",
          "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
        }
      }
    ]
  }
)

$resp = $client->inference()->documentExtraction([
    "inference_id" => "my-document-extraction-endpoint",
    "body" => [
        "input" => array(
            [
                "content" => [
                    "type" => "pdf",
                    "format" => "base64",
                    "value" => "data:application/pdf;base64,...",
                ],
            ],
        ),
    ],
]);

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: ApiKey $ELASTIC_API_KEY" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"input":[{"content":{"type":"pdf","format":"base64","value":"data:application/pdf;base64,..."}}]}' "$ELASTICSEARCH_URL/_inference/document_extraction/my-document-extraction-endpoint"

Request examples

Run `POST _inference/document_extraction/my-document-extraction-endpoint` to extract the content of the example PDF document

{
  "input": [
    {
      "content": {
        "type": "pdf",
        "format": "base64",
        "value": "data:application/pdf;base64,..."
      }
    }
  ]
}

Run `POST _inference/document_extraction/my-document-extraction-endpoint` to extract the content of an image of a document referenced by URL as markdown.

{
  "input": {
    "content": {
      "type": "image",
      "format": "url",
      "value": "https://example.com/scanned-page.png"
    }
  },
  "task_settings": {
    "output_format": "markdown"
  }
}

Response examples (200)

An abbreviated response from `POST _inference/document_extraction/my-document-extraction-endpoint`.

{
  "document_extraction": [
    {
      "content": "# Annual Report 2025\n\n...",
      "format": "markdown",
      "metadata": {
        "title": "Annual Report 2025"
      }
    }
  ]
}