Office to PDF API

Available

Convert Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, and RTF documents to high-fidelity PDF documents.

Try in Playground Product Page

Need the general asynchronous conversion lifecycle?

See File Conversion for file upload (POST /api/uploads), status polling, and download token authentication.

View Guide

Unified Engine Profile

Office to PDF is powered by the unified POST /api/conversions endpoint with toFormat: "pdf". There is no separate proprietary endpoint; this document serves as the focused integration recipe for Office documents.

Supported Office Input Formats

The headless rendering engine natively converts the following document formats into standard PDF (PDF 1.7 / PDF/A compliant):

Microsoft Word

.docx, .doc

Microsoft Excel

.xlsx, .xls

Microsoft PowerPoint

.pptx, .ppt

OpenDocument & Text

.odt, .ods, .odp, .rtf, .txt

Request Specification

After uploading your Office document to POST /api/uploads, send the conversion request:

POST /api/conversions HTTP/1.1

Host: api.orbconvert.com

Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>

Content-Type: application/json

{
  "fileId": "<FILE_ID>",
  "toFormat": "pdf",
  "options": {
    "metadata": "remove"
  }
}

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
fileId	string	Yes	The storage key returned by the upload endpoint for your Office document.
toFormat	string	Yes	Must be 'pdf'. Accepted: "pdf"
options.metadata	string	No	Controls whether internal author, organization, and revision history are scrubbed from the output PDF. Accepted: "remove" \| "keep"

Response

{
  "conversionId": "conv_office_987",
  "queued": false,
  "queueDepth": 0
}

Poll GET /api/conversions/:conversionId to track the rendering progress.

Document Fidelity & Known Limitations

• Password Protection: Encrypted or password-protected Office files must have their encryption removed prior to upload.

• Macros: VBA macros and ActiveX controls are stripped during conversion for security isolation.

• Embedded Fonts: Documents utilizing standard system fonts (Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Roboto) render identically. Highly exotic non-embedded fonts fallback to standard OpenType equivalents.

Errors Specific to Office Conversions

HTTP	Error Code	Cause & Resolution
400	FORMAT_UNAVAILABLE	Document is password-protected or contains corrupted XML streams.
400	SAME_FORMAT_NOOP	Uploaded file is already a PDF (PDF -> PDF is rejected as a no-op).
413	FILE_TOO_LARGE	Office file exceeds user plan limit (Guest: 25 MB, Free: 100 MB, Pro: 2 GB, Business: 5 GB).

Code Examples

# Convert an uploaded Word or Office document to PDF
curl -X POST "https://api.orbconvert.com/api/conversions" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <API_KEY>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "fileId": "<FILE_ID>",
    "toFormat": "pdf",
    "options": {
      "metadata": "remove"
    }
  }'

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