pdfmux

Universal PDF extraction orchestrator. Routes each page to the best backend, audits the output, re-extracts failures. 5 rule-based extractors + BYOK LLM fallback. One CLI. One API. Zero config.

PDF ──> pdfmux router ──> best extractor per page ──> audit ──> re-extract failures ──> Markdown / JSON / chunks
            |
            ├─ PyMuPDF         (digital text, 0.01s/page)
            ├─ OpenDataLoader  (complex layouts, 0.05s/page)
            ├─ RapidOCR        (scanned pages, CPU-only)
            ├─ Docling          (tables, 97.9% TEDS)
            ├─ Surya            (heavy OCR fallback)
            └─ YOUR LLM        (Gemini / Claude / GPT-4o / Ollama — BYOK via 5-line YAML)

Install

pip install pdfmux

That's it. Handles digital PDFs out of the box. Add backends for harder documents:

pip install "pdfmux[ocr]"             # RapidOCR — scanned/image pages (~200MB, CPU-only)
pip install "pdfmux[tables]"          # Docling — table-heavy docs (~500MB)
pip install "pdfmux[opendataloader]"  # OpenDataLoader — complex layouts (Java 11+)
pip install "pdfmux[llm]"            # LLM fallback — Gemini, Claude, GPT-4o, Ollama
pip install "pdfmux[all]"            # everything

Requires Python 3.11+.

Quick Start

CLI

# zero config — just works
pdfmux convert invoice.pdf
# invoice.pdf -> invoice.md (2 pages, 95% confidence, via pymupdf4llm)

# RAG-ready chunks with token limits
pdfmux convert report.pdf --chunk --max-tokens 500

# cost-aware extraction with budget cap
pdfmux convert report.pdf --mode economy --budget 0.50

# schema-guided structured extraction (5 built-in presets)
pdfmux convert invoice.pdf --schema invoice

# BYOK any LLM for hardest pages
pdfmux convert scan.pdf --llm-provider claude

# batch a directory
pdfmux convert ./docs/ -o ./output/

Python

import pdfmux

# text -> markdown
text = pdfmux.extract_text("report.pdf")

# structured data -> dict with tables, key-values, metadata
data = pdfmux.extract_json("report.pdf")

# RAG chunks -> list of dicts with token estimates
chunks = pdfmux.chunk("report.pdf", max_tokens=500)

Architecture

                           ┌─────────────────────────────┐
                           │     Segment Detector         │
                           │  text / tables / images /    │
                           │  formulas / headers per page │
                           └─────────────┬───────────────┘
                                         │
                    ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │            Router Engine                │
                    │                                        │
                    │   economy ── balanced ── premium        │
                    │   (minimize $)  (default)  (max quality)│
                    │   budget caps: --budget 0.50            │
                    └────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                         │
          ┌──────────┬──────────┬────────┴────────┬──────────┐
          │          │          │                  │          │
     PyMuPDF   OpenData    RapidOCR           Docling     LLM
     digital   Loader      scanned            tables    (BYOK)
     0.01s/pg  complex     CPU-only           97.9%    any provider
               layouts                        TEDS
          │          │          │                  │          │
          └──────────┴──────────┴────────┬────────┴──────────┘
                                         │
                    ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           Quality Auditor               │
                    │                                        │
                    │   4-signal dynamic confidence scoring   │
                    │   per-page: good / bad / empty          │
                    │   if bad -> re-extract with next backend│
                    └────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                         │
                    ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           Output Pipeline               │
                    │                                        │
                    │   heading injection (font-size analysis)│
                    │   table extraction + normalization      │
                    │   text cleanup + merge                  │
                    │   confidence score (honest, not inflated)│
                    └────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key design decisions

• Router, not extractor. pdfmux does not compete with PyMuPDF or Docling. It picks the best one per page.
• Agentic multi-pass. Extract, audit confidence, re-extract failures with a stronger backend. Bad pages get retried automatically.
• Segment-level detection. Each page is classified by content type (text, tables, images, formulas, headers) before routing.
• 4-signal confidence. Dynamic quality scoring from character density, OCR noise ratio, table integrity, and heading structure. Not hardcoded thresholds.
• Document cache. Each PDF is opened once, not once per extractor. Shared across the full pipeline.
• Data flywheel. Local telemetry tracks which extractors win per document type. Routing improves with usage.

Features

Feature	What it does	Command
Zero-config extraction	Routes to best backend automatically	pdfmux convert file.pdf
RAG chunking	Section-aware chunks with token estimates	pdfmux convert file.pdf --chunk --max-tokens 500
Cost modes	economy / balanced / premium with budget caps	pdfmux convert file.pdf --mode economy --budget 0.50
Schema extraction	5 built-in presets (invoice, receipt, contract, resume, paper)	pdfmux convert file.pdf --schema invoice
BYOK LLM	Gemini, Claude, GPT-4o, Ollama, any OpenAI-compatible API	pdfmux convert file.pdf --llm-provider claude
Benchmark	Eval all installed extractors against ground truth	pdfmux benchmark
Doctor	Show installed backends, coverage gaps, recommendations	pdfmux doctor
MCP server	AI agents read PDFs via stdio or HTTP	pdfmux serve
Batch processing	Convert entire directories	pdfmux convert ./docs/
Streaming	Bounded-memory page iteration for large files	for page in ext.extract("500pg.pdf")

CLI Reference

pdfmux convert

pdfmux convert <file-or-dir> [options]

Options:
  -o, --output PATH          Output file or directory
  -f, --format FORMAT        markdown | json | csv | llm (default: markdown)
  -q, --quality QUALITY      fast | standard | high (default: standard)
  -s, --schema SCHEMA        JSON schema file or preset (invoice, receipt, contract, resume, paper)
  --chunk                    Output RAG-ready chunks
  --max-tokens N             Max tokens per chunk (default: 500)
  --mode MODE                economy | balanced | premium (default: balanced)
  --budget AMOUNT            Max spend per document in USD
  --llm-provider PROVIDER    LLM backend: gemini | claude | openai | ollama
  --confidence               Include confidence score in output
  --stdout                   Print to stdout instead of file

pdfmux serve

Start the MCP server for AI agent integration.

pdfmux serve              # stdio mode (Claude Desktop, Cursor)
pdfmux serve --http 8080  # HTTP mode

pdfmux doctor

pdfmux doctor
# ┌──────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
# │ Extractor        │ Status      │ Version │ Install                          │
# ├──────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
# │ PyMuPDF          │ installed   │ 1.25.3  │                                  │
# │ OpenDataLoader   │ installed   │ 0.3.1   │                                  │
# │ RapidOCR         │ installed   │ 3.0.6   │                                  │
# │ Docling          │ missing     │ --      │ pip install pdfmux[tables]       │
# │ Surya            │ missing     │ --      │ pip install pdfmux[ocr-heavy]    │
# │ LLM (Gemini)     │ configured  │ --      │ GEMINI_API_KEY set               │
# └──────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘

pdfmux benchmark

pdfmux benchmark report.pdf
# ┌──────────────────┬────────┬────────────┬─────────────┬──────────────────────┐
# │ Extractor        │   Time │ Confidence │      Output │ Status               │
# ├──────────────────┼────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────────────┤
# │ PyMuPDF          │  0.02s │        95% │ 3,241 chars │ all pages good       │
# │ Multi-pass       │  0.03s │        95% │ 3,241 chars │ all pages good       │
# │ RapidOCR         │  4.20s │        88% │ 2,891 chars │ ok                   │
# │ OpenDataLoader   │  0.12s │        97% │ 3,310 chars │ best                 │
# └──────────────────┴────────┴────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────────────┘

Python API

Text extraction

import pdfmux

text = pdfmux.extract_text("report.pdf")                    # -> str (markdown)
text = pdfmux.extract_text("report.pdf", quality="fast")    # PyMuPDF only, instant
text = pdfmux.extract_text("report.pdf", quality="high")    # LLM-assisted

Structured extraction

data = pdfmux.extract_json("report.pdf")
# data["page_count"]   -> 12
# data["confidence"]   -> 0.91
# data["ocr_pages"]    -> [2, 5, 8]
# data["pages"][0]["key_values"]  -> [{"key": "Date", "value": "2026-02-28"}]
# data["pages"][0]["tables"]      -> [{"headers": [...], "rows": [...]}]

RAG chunking

chunks = pdfmux.chunk("report.pdf", max_tokens=500)
for c in chunks:
    print(f"{c['title']}: {c['tokens']} tokens (pages {c['page_start']}-{c['page_end']})")

Schema-guided extraction

data = pdfmux.extract_json("invoice.pdf", schema="invoice")
# Uses built-in invoice preset: extracts date, vendor, line items, totals
# Also accepts a path to a custom JSON Schema file

Streaming (bounded memory)

from pdfmux.extractors import get_extractor

ext = get_extractor("fast")
for page in ext.extract("large-500-pages.pdf"):  # Iterator[PageResult]
    process(page.text)  # constant memory, even on 500-page PDFs

Types and errors

from pdfmux import (
    # Enums
    Quality,              # FAST, STANDARD, HIGH
    OutputFormat,         # MARKDOWN, JSON, CSV, LLM
    PageQuality,          # GOOD, BAD, EMPTY

    # Data objects (frozen dataclasses)
    PageResult,           # page: text, page_num, confidence, quality, extractor
    DocumentResult,       # document: pages, source, confidence, extractor_used
    Chunk,                # chunk: title, text, page_start, page_end, tokens

    # Errors
    PdfmuxError,          # base -- catch this for all pdfmux errors
    FileError,            # file not found, unreadable, not a PDF
    ExtractionError,      # extraction failed
    ExtractorNotAvailable,# requested backend not installed
    FormatError,          # invalid output format
    AuditError,           # audit could not complete
)

Framework Integrations

LangChain

pip install langchain-pdfmux

from langchain_pdfmux import PDFMuxLoader

loader = PDFMuxLoader("report.pdf", quality="standard")
docs = loader.load()  # -> list[Document] with confidence metadata

LlamaIndex

pip install llama-index-readers-pdfmux

from llama_index.readers.pdfmux import PDFMuxReader

reader = PDFMuxReader(quality="standard")
docs = reader.load_data("report.pdf")  # -> list[Document]

MCP Server (AI Agents)

Listed on mcpservers.org. One-line setup:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdfmux": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "pdfmux-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or via Claude Code:

claude mcp add pdfmux -- npx -y pdfmux-mcp

Tools exposed: convert_pdf, analyze_pdf, extract_structured, get_pdf_metadata, batch_convert.

BYOK LLM Configuration

pdfmux supports any LLM via 5 lines of YAML. Bring your own keys -- nothing leaves your machine unless you configure it to.

# ~/.pdfmux/llm.yaml
provider: claude          # gemini | claude | openai | ollama | any OpenAI-compatible
model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
api_key: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
base_url: https://api.anthropic.com  # optional, for custom endpoints
max_cost_per_page: 0.02   # budget cap

Supported providers:

Provider	Models	Local?	Cost
Gemini	2.5 Flash, 2.5 Pro	No	~$0.01/page
Claude	Sonnet, Opus	No	~$0.015/page
GPT-4o	GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini	No	~$0.01/page
Ollama	Any local model	Yes	Free
Custom	Any OpenAI-compatible API	Configurable	Varies

Benchmark

Tested on opendataloader-bench -- 200 real-world PDFs across financial reports, legal filings, academic papers, and scanned documents.

Engine	Overall	Reading Order	Tables (TEDS)	Headings	Requires
opendataloader hybrid	0.909	0.935	0.928	0.828	API calls ($)
pdfmux	0.900	0.918	0.887	0.844	CPU only, $0
docling	0.877	0.900	0.887	0.802	~500MB models
marker	0.861	0.890	0.808	0.796	GPU recommended
opendataloader local	0.844	0.913	0.494	0.761	CPU only
mineru	0.831	0.857	0.873	0.743	GPU + ~2GB models

#2 overall, #1 among free tools. 99% of the paid #1 score at zero cost per page. Best heading detection of any engine tested.

Confidence Scoring

Every result includes a 4-signal confidence score:

• 95-100% -- clean digital text, fully extractable
• 80-95% -- good extraction, minor OCR noise on some pages
• 50-80% -- partial extraction, some pages unrecoverable
• <50% -- significant content missing, warnings included

When confidence drops below 80%, pdfmux tells you exactly what went wrong and how to fix it:

Page 4: 32% confidence. 0 chars extracted from image-heavy page.
  -> Install pdfmux[ocr] for RapidOCR support on 6 image-heavy pages.

Cost Modes

Mode	Behavior	Typical cost
economy	Rule-based backends only. No LLM calls.	$0/page
balanced	LLM only for pages that fail rule-based extraction.	~$0.002/page avg
premium	LLM on every page for maximum quality.	~$0.01/page

Set a hard budget cap: --budget 0.50 stops LLM calls when spend reaches $0.50 per document.

Why pdfmux?

pdfmux is not another PDF extractor. It is the orchestration layer that picks the right extractor per page, verifies the result, and retries failures.

Tool	Good at	Limitation
PyMuPDF	Fast digital text	Cannot handle scans or image layouts
Docling	Tables (97.9% accuracy)	Slow on non-table documents
Marker	GPU ML extraction	Needs GPU, overkill for digital PDFs
Unstructured	Enterprise platform	Complex setup, paid tiers
LlamaParse	Cloud-native	Requires API keys, not local
Reducto	High accuracy	$0.015/page, closed source
pdfmux	Orchestrates all of the above	Routes per page, audits, re-extracts

Open source Reducto alternative: what costs $0.015/page elsewhere is free with pdfmux's rule-based backends, or ~$0.002/page average with BYOK LLM fallback.

Development

git clone https://github.com/NameetP/pdfmux.git
cd pdfmux
python3.12 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

pytest              # 151 tests
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format src/ tests/

Contributing

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a branch (git checkout -b feature/your-feature)
3. Write tests for new functionality
4. Ensure pytest and ruff check pass
5. Open a PR

License

MIT