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Extraction

Extract many documents at once

Submit a batch and retrieve it as a group.

Goal. Submit several documents in one call and collect their results together, instead of tracking a separate ID per file.

Generated endpoint reference

Use Bulk document extraction to submit files. Use Get extraction details for individual results. Use Get all extractions in a group for multi-extraction results.

Before you start

  • An API key, exported as $DOCAI_API_KEY.

  • Two or more documents. They do not have to share a type.

Step 1 — Build the batch

POST /extract/bulk takes a single required property, files. Each entry is a complete extraction request in its own right — it accepts every parameter the single-document endpoint does, so you can mix types, models and options within one batch.

python -c "
import base64, json

def entry(path, doc_type):
    return {
        'documentType': doc_type,
        'content': base64.b64encode(open(path,'rb').read()).decode()
    }

json.dump({'files': [
    entry('balance-sheet.pdf', 'BalanceSheet'),
    entry('profit-loss.pdf',   'ProfitAndLossStatement'),
    entry('bank-jan.pdf',      'BankStatements'),
]}, open('bulk.json','w'))
"

Because each entry carries its own parameters, a batch is a convenience for submission rather than a shared processing context. Every file is extracted independently.

Step 2 — Submit

A bulk submission is not a group. It returns one independent _id per file and no extractionGroupId — there is nothing to retrieve as a set. Collect every results[]._id and poll each one with GET /document-extractions/{id}, exactly as in Extract asynchronously and poll.

The group endpoint exists for a different case entirely — see Multi-extraction below.

index is the position in the array you submitted, which is what lets you correlate a returned _id back to the file you sent. Use it — the response order is not otherwise guaranteed to be meaningful.

Note the field is document_type here, in snake_case, while every other endpoint on this API uses documentType. A parser that assumes camelCase throughout will silently read undefined.

status: "success" on a result means the file was queued, not extracted. Watch successful against total: a file rejected at submission never gets an _id, so reconcile the counts before you start polling.

Note that base64 inflates payloads by roughly a third. A batch of large scans becomes a very large request body; prefer file_url per entry when your documents already have reachable URLs.

Step 3 — Poll each result

Remember the envelope trap: the job state is extraction.status, not the top-level status, which always reads success. See Conventions.

Step 4 — Handle partial success

Each document succeeds or fails on its own. One unreadable scan in a batch of twenty should not discard the other nineteen, so treat the batch as a set of independent outcomes rather than a single result — reconcile which _ids reached Processed, which reached Failed, and which files never got an _id at all.

Multi-extraction: several documents inside one file

A different problem with a similar shape — and this is the one that produces a group. When a single PDF, Excel workbook or ZIP contains several logical documents, use documentTypes on a normal extraction call instead of documentType:

This call returns 202, where a single-type POST /extract returns 200. The status code varies with the request rather than the endpoint, so do not assert one specific success code for /extract.

Now you have an extractionGroupId, and the group endpoint applies:

Field
Meaning

count

Number of child extractions in the group

extractions

The children, keyed by documentType — an object, not an array

parent

The parent record for the group

Because extractions is keyed by document type, two documents of the same type within one file collide. Duplicate keys are suffixed rather than collapsed, so do not assume exactly one key per type.

Completion webhooks for these carry extractionGroupIndex and extractionGroupTotal — see Webhook payloads.

Which one do you need

You have
Use
You get back

Several files

POST /extract/bulk with files

results[], one _id per file. No group — poll each

One file containing several documents

POST /extract with documentTypes

extractionGroupId + childExtractionIds. Retrieve as a group

When it goes wrong

Symptom
Cause
Fix

400 on submit

files missing, or not an array

It is the one required property

No extractionGroupId in the bulk response

There isn't one — bulk does not create a group

Poll each results[]._id individually

404 from the group endpoint

Using a bulk _id as a group ID

Group IDs come only from a documentTypes request

Request body rejected as too large

Base64 inflation across many files

Use file_url per entry, or split the batch

successful lower than total

Some entries failed at submission

Those files have no _id; reconcile before polling

Reading undefined for the document type

Bulk returns document_type, not documentType

snake_case, on this response only

Cannot tell which result is which file

Relying on response order

Use results[].index, or set metadata per entry

Related pages

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