Setting HTML content

You can set the HTML content of the page to render dynamically generated content as well.

danger

When this propriety is set, the url propriety must not be present.

Rest API (Without Stealth)

Here’s the request in the specified format, with examples for curl, JavaScript, Python, Java and C#.

Bot detection

Browserless recommends using our REST API to generate PDFs, unless you need to get past bot detectors.

JSON payload

// JSON body
// `options` are the options available via puppeteer's Page.pdf() method
// (see our Open API documentation)
{
  "html": "<h1>Hello World!</h1>",
  "options": {
    "displayHeaderFooter": true,
    "printBackground": false,
    "format": "A0"
    // Queue the lack of a `path` parameter
  }
}

cURL

curl -X POST \
  https://production-sfo.browserless.io/pdf?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE \
  -H 'Cache-Control: no-cache' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "html": "<h1>Hello World!</h1>",
  "options": {
    "displayHeaderFooter": true,
    "printBackground": false,
    "format": "A0"
  }
}'

Javascript

import fs from 'fs/promises';

const TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
const url = `https://production-sfo.browserless.io/pdf?token=${TOKEN}`;
const headers = {
  "Cache-Control": "no-cache",
  "Content-Type": "application/json"
};

const data = {
  html: "<h1>Hello World!</h1>",
  options: {
    displayHeaderFooter: true,
    printBackground: false,
    format: "A0"
  }
};

const generatePDF = async () => {
  const response = await fetch(url, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: headers,
    body: JSON.stringify(data)
  });

  const pdfBuffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
  await fs.writeFile("output.pdf", Buffer.from(pdfBuffer));
  console.log("PDF saved as output.pdf");
};

generatePDF();

Python

import requests

TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE"
url = f"https://production-sfo.browserless.io/pdf?token={TOKEN}"
headers = {
    "Cache-Control": "no-cache",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

data = {
    "html": "<h1>Hello World!</h1>",
    "options": {
        "displayHeaderFooter": True,
        "printBackground": False,
        "format": "A0"
    }
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)

with open("output.pdf", "wb") as file:
    file.write(response.content)

print("PDF saved as output.pdf")

Java

import java.io.*;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;
import java.nio.file.*;

public class GeneratePDFWithHTML {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
        String url = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/pdf?token=" + TOKEN;

        String jsonData = """
        {
            "html": "<h1>Hello World!</h1>",
            "options": {
                "displayHeaderFooter": true,
                "printBackground": false,
                "format": "A0"
            }
        }
        """;

        HttpClient client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();

        HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create(url))
            .header("Cache-Control", "no-cache")
            .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
            .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(jsonData))
            .build();

        try {
            HttpResponse<InputStream> response = client.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofInputStream());
            Files.copy(response.body(), Paths.get("output.pdf"), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING);
            System.out.println("PDF saved as output.pdf");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

C#

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
    static async Task Main(string[] args)
    {
        string TOKEN = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
        string url = $"https://production-sfo.browserless.io/pdf?token={TOKEN}";

        string jsonData = @"
          {
              ""html"": ""<h1>Hello World!</h1>"",
              ""options"": {
                  ""displayHeaderFooter"": true,
                  ""printBackground"": false,
                  ""format"": ""A0""
              }
          }";

        using var client = new HttpClient();

        var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, url)
        {
            Content = new StringContent(jsonData, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json")
        };

        request.Headers.Add("Cache-Control", "no-cache");

        try
        {
            var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
            response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
            var pdfBytes = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();

            await File.WriteAllBytesAsync("output.pdf", pdfBytes);
            Console.WriteLine("PDF saved as output.pdf");
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Error: {ex.Message}");
        }
    }
}

warning

We do not allow to set a options.path

BQL (Stealth)

If the /pdf API is getting blocked by bot detectors, then we would recommend trying BrowserQL.

BQL Query

mutation PDF {
  content(html: "<h1>Hello, World!</h1>") {
    status
  }

  pdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {
    base64
  }
}

cURL

curl --request POST \
  --url 'https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '{"query":"mutation PDF {\ncontent(html: \"<h1>Hello, World!</h1>\") {\n  status\n}\n\npdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {\n  base64\n}\n}","variables":"","operationName":"PDF"}'

Javascript

const endpoint = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql";
const token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({"query":"mutation PDF {\ncontent(html: \"<h1>Hello, World!</h1>\") {\n  status\n}\n\npdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {\n  base64\n}\n}","variables":"","operationName":"PDF"})
};

const url = `${endpoint}?token=${token}`;
const response = await fetch(url, options);
const data = await response.json();

console.log(data);

Python

import requests

endpoint = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql"
query_string = {
    "token": "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE",
}
headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
}
payload = {
    "query": "mutation PDF {\ncontent(html: \"<h1>Hello, World!</h1>\") {\n  status\n}\n\npdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {\n  base64\n}\n}",
    "variables": None,
    "operationName": "PDF",
}

response = requests.post(endpoint, params=query_string, headers=headers, json=payload)
print(response.json())

Java

String url = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql";
String token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
String endpoint = String.format("%s?token=%s%s%s", url, token);

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post(endpoint)
    .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
    .body({"query":"mutation PDF {\ncontent(html: \"<h1>Hello, World!</h1>\") {\n  status\n}\n\npdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {\n  base64\n}\n}","variables":"","operationName":"PDF"})
    .asString();

C#

string url = "https://production-sfo.browserless.io/chromium/bql";
string token = "YOUR_API_TOKEN_HERE";
string endpoint = $"{url}?token={token}";

var payload = new
{
    query = @"mutation PDF {
content(html: ""<h1>Hello, World!</h1>"") {
  status
}

pdf(displayHeaderFooter: true, printBackground: false, format: a0) {
  base64
}
}",
    variables = "",
    operationName = "PDF"
};

using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
    var jsonPayload = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Serialize(payload);
    var content = new StringContent(jsonPayload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

    var response = await client.PostAsync(endpoint, content);
    string responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    
    Console.WriteLine(responseBody);
}

BQL Schemas

For more details on BQL mutations, refer to the BrowserQL Schema reference pages.