Quickstart: Generate Your First PDF with Blink PDF

This guide walks you through everything you need to generate your first PDF with Blink PDF. By the end you’ll have a working API key, a successful render, and a PDF file saved locally — in about five minutes.

Create your account and get an API key

Sign up for a free account at app.blinkpdf.io/login. The free tier includes 250 render units per month with no credit card required.Once you’re logged in:

Open the API Keys section of your dashboard.
Click Create new key.
Copy the key — it starts with bp_ and is shown only once.

Store your API key somewhere safe immediately. For security reasons, the dashboard will not show the full key again after you navigate away. If you lose it, you’ll need to rotate it and update any services using the old key.

Make your first API call

Send a POST request to https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render with your Markdown content in the request body. Replace bp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your actual API key.

curl https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render \
  --request POST \
  --header 'Accept: application/pdf' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: bp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' \
  --data '{
    "markdown": "# Invoice 0042\n\nHi Jane, thanks for your business!\n\n## What'\''s included\n\n- **Pro plan** subscription\n- Priority support\n\n**Total: $39** — paid on May 23, 2026.",
    "metadata": { "title": "Invoice 0042" }
  }' \
  --output invoice.pdf

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render",
    headers={
        "x-api-key": "bp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
        "Accept": "application/pdf",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "markdown": (
            "# Invoice 0042\n\n"
            "Hi Jane, thanks for your business!\n\n"
            "## What's included\n\n"
            "- **Pro plan** subscription\n"
            "- Priority support\n\n"
            "**Total: $39** — paid on May 23, 2026."
        ),
        "metadata": {"title": "Invoice 0042"},
    },
)

response.raise_for_status()

with open("invoice.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

print("PDF saved to invoice.pdf")
print(f"Request ID: {response.headers['X-Request-Id']}")

import fs from "fs";

const response = await fetch("https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": "bp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    Accept: "application/pdf",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    markdown:
      "# Invoice 0042\n\n" +
      "Hi Jane, thanks for your business!\n\n" +
      "## What's included\n\n" +
      "- **Pro plan** subscription\n" +
      "- Priority support\n\n" +
      "**Total: $39** — paid on May 23, 2026.",
    metadata: { title: "Invoice 0042" },
  }),
});

if (!response.ok) {
  throw new Error(`Render failed: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
}

const buffer = Buffer.from(await response.arrayBuffer());
fs.writeFileSync("invoice.pdf", buffer);

console.log("PDF saved to invoice.pdf");
console.log(`Request ID: ${response.headers.get("X-Request-Id")}`);

A successful response looks like this:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/pdf
X-Request-Id: 4dcbe381-c0e8-4832-9a2f-1b7c0e9d2f5a
X-Render-Status: ok
X-Render-Rendered-As-Requested: true
X-BlinkPDF-Billing: counted
X-BlinkPDF-Usage-PDFs-This-Period: 4

The body is a raw PDF binary. Several response headers give you visibility into every render:

Header	Description
`X-Request-Id`	Unique request ID — include this when emailing [email protected]
`X-Render-Status`	`ok` or `degraded` depending on warn/error-level diagnostics
`X-Render-Rendered-As-Requested`	`true` when the PDF matches your Markdown; `false` when errors changed the output
`X-Render-Diagnostics`	Base64url JSON array of diagnostics — present only when issues occurred
`X-BlinkPDF-Billing`	Whether the render was billed: `counted`, `deduped-cache`, or `deduped-idempotent`
`X-BlinkPDF-Usage-PDFs-This-Period`	Render units used in the current billing period

Simple Markdown renders are designed to complete quickly. Remote images, large documents, and network distance can add latency.

Save and verify the PDF

If you used the curl command above, the --output invoice.pdf flag writes the PDF directly to disk. For Python and Node.js, the examples above write invoice.pdf to your current working directory.Open the file in any PDF viewer to confirm the render. You should see a formatted document with the heading Invoice 0042, a bullet list, and the total line — all typeset from the Markdown you sent.

Every PDF produced by Blink PDF is PDF/UA-1 compliant, meaning it passes accessibility audits and works correctly with screen readers — no extra configuration required.

Move your API key to an environment variable

Before you ship any code, move your API key out of your source files and into an environment variable. Hardcoded keys are a common source of credential leaks.

export BLINKPDF_API_KEY="bp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Then reference it in your code:

import os, requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["BLINKPDF_API_KEY"]},
    json={"markdown": "# Hello, world!"},
)

const response = await fetch("https://api.blinkpdf.io/v1/render", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": process.env.BLINKPDF_API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ markdown: "# Hello, world!" }),
});

See the Authentication guide for a full security checklist and details on key rotation.

What to explore next

Authentication

Key formats, security best practices, environment variables, and error handling.

API Reference

Every request parameter, response header, and error code for POST /v1/render.

AI & LLM Workflows

Connect OpenAI or Claude output to Blink PDF for fully automated document pipelines.

Plans & Pricing

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Quickstart: Generate Your First PDF with Blink PDF

What to explore next

Authentication

API Reference

AI & LLM Workflows

Plans & Pricing

​What to explore next

Authentication

API Reference

AI & LLM Workflows

Plans & Pricing

What to explore next