MintPDF

HTML & Markdown → PDF, as a REST API and an MCP server.

No template editor. No template IDs. No dashboard. No signup to try.

Try it · MCP setup · API · Self-host

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Agents write Markdown. People need documents. MintPDF is the missing step: send HTML or Markdown, get a clean PDF back, from your code or straight from an AI agent via MCP.

• MCP native — generate_pdf and pdf_from_url over streamable HTTP. Claude can render a document mid-conversation.
• Markdown looks right by default — tables, code blocks, blockquotes and headings come out styled, so agent-written documents don't look like a text file.
• No templates — your code or your agent already produced the content; skip the template step.
• Nothing is kept — generated files auto-delete after one hour, no document storage, no account needed to try it.

Quickstart

No signup, no key:

curl -X POST https://mintpdf.dev/v1/pdf \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"markdown":"# Invoice #42\n\n| Item | Price |\n|---|---|\n| Widget | $9.00 |","pageNumbers":true}' \
  --output invoice.pdf

Want more than 3 renders a day? A free key (email only, no card) raises it to 100 a month:

curl -X POST https://mintpdf.dev/v1/keys \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com"}'
# → {"key":"pm_…","daily_limit":100}   # 100 renders per month

Then send Authorization: Bearer pm_… with your requests.

Use it from Claude (or any MCP client)

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

Prefer the hosted endpoint directly? Use mcp-remote instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mintpdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://mintpdf.dev/mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Restart your client, then just ask:

"Summarise this thread as a one-page brief with page numbers and give me a PDF."

Tool	Input	Returns
generate_pdf	html or markdown, plus options	download URL, valid 1 hour
pdf_from_url	url (public http/https), plus options	download URL, valid 1 hour

API

POST /v1/pdf

Body takes exactly one source, plus options:

Field	Type	Notes
html	string	Full document or fragment
markdown	string	Rendered with the default stylesheet
url	string	Public page to render. Private/internal addresses are blocked
format	string	A4 (default), Letter, Legal, A3, A5
landscape	boolean	default false
margin	string	all sides, e.g. "18mm"
headerText / footerText	string	small text on every page
pageNumbers	boolean	adds 3 / 7 to the footer
output	"pdf" | "url"	default returns PDF bytes; "url" returns JSON with a link

POST /v1/keys

{"email":"you@example.com"} → a free key. No card, no verification loop.

POST /mcp

MCP streamable-HTTP endpoint, stateless. Same capabilities as the REST API.

Limits

Tier	Limit	Price
Anonymous	3 renders/day per IP	free, no signup
Free key	100 renders/month	free, email only
Solo	2,000 renders/month	$19/month

Self-host

MintPDF is MIT-licensed; run your own if you'd rather.

npm install
npm run build
npm start                # http://localhost:3000
node dist/smoke.js       # end-to-end render check

Or with Docker (Chromium and fonts included):

docker build -t mintpdf .
docker run -p 3000:3000 -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 mintpdf

Environment: BASE_URL (used in download links), DATA_DIR (defaults to /tmp/mintpdf; mount a volume to persist keys), ANON_DAILY_LIMIT, FREE_MONTHLY_LIMIT, SOLO_MONTHLY_LIMIT.

If you want a fuller self-hosted PDF toolchain (Office formats, merging, splitting), Gotenberg is excellent and does more than this does.

How it works

TypeScript, Fastify, Puppeteer driving one shared Chromium (page per request), node:sqlite for keys and quotas so there are no native dependencies. Requests to private and internal addresses are blocked both at URL validation and at Chromium's request layer, so embedded resources can't reach them either.

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE.