Generating Documents

Generate, manage, and configure PDF documents from your templates.

Before you start

To generate a document, you first need a template. You can create one using the visual Builder or with HTML, CSS, and Liquid code.

Generate Documents from the Dashboard

Generate PDF documents manually through the PDFMonkey dashboard. Create a document from a template, fill in the dynamic data payload, and download the result.

Generate PDFs with the API

Generate PDF documents programmatically using the PDFMonkey REST API with code examples in curl, Ruby, Node.js, Python, and PHP.

Generate PDFs with No-Code Integrations

Generate PDF documents without writing code using Zapier, Make, n8n, and other automation platforms. Connect PDFMonkey to your existing tools in minutes.

Document Statuses and Lifecycle

Every PDFMonkey document moves through five statuses — draft, pending, generating, success, and failure. Learn what each status means, how transitions work, and how to handle errors.

Download URL

PDFMonkey download URLs are temporary signed links valid for 1 hour. Learn how they work, how to refresh expired URLs, and best practices for storing your generated PDFs and images.

Set a Custom Filename for Generated Documents

Control the filename of PDFs and images generated by PDFMonkey. Pass the _filename key in document metadata via the API or Dashboard.

Generate Images Instead of PDFs

PDFMonkey can generate WebP, PNG, and JPG images alongside PDFs. Create an image template, configure dimensions and transparency, and use meta options to control the output.

Permanent Share Links for Generated Documents

Share generated PDFs and images with a permanent public URL that never expires. No authentication needed. Available on Pro+ and Premium plans.

Document Retention and Automatic Deletion (TTL)

Control how long PDFMonkey stores your generated documents. Configure per-template TTL settings, understand plan-based retention limits, and learn what data gets deleted.

Webhooks: Receive Real-Time Document Generation Notifications

Set up webhook endpoints to get notified when PDFMonkey documents finish generating. Covers payload format, event types, channel routing, and signature verification.

Embedding a Document Preview

Embed a live PDF preview of any PDFMonkey document — including drafts — directly in your app using an iframe and the preview_url field.