Summarize a PDF

Fetch a PDF from a URL, extract its text, and return a concise AI-generated summary - factual, no information added beyond what's in the document. Send POST /api/pdf-summarize with the required field url and pay $0.030 per call over x402 or MPP (there is no free tier). It returns a JSON object with url, pages, wordCount, summary, summaryWordCount and 2 more.

Body: {"url":"https://…/file.pdf","maxWords":200?}. Uses the same OpenAI-compatible gateway as /v1/chat/completions internally; the model that actually served is disclosed in the response.

Category: Web & documents · Tags: pdf summarize summary documents ai text-extraction

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Parameters

Example request

curl -i -X POST https://agent402.tools/api/pdf-summarize \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf","maxWords":150}'

Without payment this returns HTTP 402 Payment Required with the exact price for pdf-summarize; any x402 v2 or MPP client pays it and retries.

Example response

{
  "url": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf",
  "pages": 9,
  "wordCount": 3604,
  "summary": "The paper proposes a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that lets online payments move directly between parties without a financial institution, using a proof-of-work chain as a timestamp server to prevent double-spending…",
  "summaryWordCount": 148,
  "model": "openai/gpt-4o-mini",
  "truncatedInput": false
}

From an MCP client

catalog.call {
  "slug": "pdf-summarize",
  "params": {
    "url": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf",
    "maxWords": 150
  }
}

The hosted connector at https://agent402.tools/mcp needs a payment for pdf-summarize; the stdio package pays it from a wallet or from AGENT402_CREDITS_KEY. Local install: npx -y agent402-mcp.

Errors and behavior

• url is required. An input the tool rejects returns an HTTP 4xx whose body carries error, tool, expected, required and example, so the caller can correct it.
• A paid call that ends in any status of 400 or above is not charged: settlement is cancelled when the tool fails.
• Wallet-only: this tool runs a model, so it has no proof-of-work tier. A prepaid card-credits key (Authorization: Bearer a402_...) also pays it.
• Model-backed: the answer is generated by a model, so the same input can produce different wording.
• A GET or HEAD to /api/pdf-summarize returns the same 402 quote, so the price can be read without a body.
• An Idempotency-Key header makes a retried paid call replay the first 200 instead of charging again.

Paid call (JavaScript agent)

import { wrapFetchWithPayment } from "@x402/fetch";
import { x402Client } from "@x402/core/client";
import { registerExactEvmScheme } from "@x402/evm/exact/client";
import { privateKeyToAccount } from "viem/accounts";

const client = new x402Client();
client.setSpendControls?.(false); // keep your own spending ceiling in code
registerExactEvmScheme(client, { signer: privateKeyToAccount(KEY) });
const payFetch = wrapFetchWithPayment(fetch, client);

const res = await payFetch("https://agent402.tools/api/pdf-summarize", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "url": "https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf",
    "maxWords": 150
  }),
});

Part of these workflows

Summarize a PDF is one step in this skill pack, each sold as a single call:

• Document brief - Metadata, an AI-written summary, and a preview of the opening pages of a PDF - understand what a document says without reading the whole thing. The catalog's first AI-summarization pack, complementary to document-intel's deterministic format extraction (no AI, no summarization there).

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