Form Recognizer API (v1.0-preview)

Form Recognizer extracts key value pairs and tables from documents and includes the following options:

  • Custom - Extracts information from forms (PDFs and images) into structured data based on a model created by a set of representative training forms. Form Recognizer learns the structure of your forms to intelligently extract text and data. It ingests text from forms, applies machine learning technology to identify keys and tables, and then outputs structured data that includes the relationships within the original file.
  • Prebuilt Receipt - Detects and extracts data from receipts using optical character recognition (OCR) and our receipt model, enabling you to easily extract structured data from receipts such as merchant name, merchant phone number, transaction date, transaction total, and more.


This API is currently available in:

  • Australia East - australiaeast.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Canada Central - canadacentral.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Central US - centralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East Asia - eastasia.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East US - eastus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • East US 2 - eastus2.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • North Europe - northeurope.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • South Central US - southcentralus.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • Southeast Asia - southeastasia.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • UK South - uksouth.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West Europe - westeurope.api.cognitive.microsoft.com
  • West US 2 - westus2.api.cognitive.microsoft.com

Analyze Receipt

Extract field text and semantic values from a given receipt document. The input document must be of one of the supported content types - 'application/pdf', 'image/jpeg', 'image/png' or 'image/tiff'. Alternatively, use 'application/json' type to specify the Url location of the document to be analyzed.

Note: this technology is currently only available for English receipts from the United States.

Select the testing console in the region where you created your resource:

Open API testing console

Request URL

Request headers

string
Media type of the body sent to the API.
string
Subscription key which provides access to this API. Found in your Cognitive Services accounts.

Request body

Document containing the receipt image(s) to be analyzed. The POST body should be the raw image binary or the image URL in JSON.
Additional requirements:

  • Image format must be one of JPEG, PNG, PDF or TIFF.
  • For PDF and TIFF, only the first 200 pages are processed.
    • For free tier subscribers, only the first 2 pages are processed.
  • Image file size must be less than 20 MB.
  • Image dimensions must be at least 50 x 50 pixels and at most 10000 x 10000 pixels. PDF dimensions must be at most 17 x 17 inches, corresponding to Legal or A3 paper sizes and smaller.

{"url":"http://example.com/images/test.jpg"}
{
  "description": "JSON containing the URL of the image/document to be analyzed.",
  "type": "object",
  "required": [
    "url"
  ],
  "properties": {
    "url": {
      "description": "Publicly reachable URL of the image/document to be analyzed.",
      "type": "string"
    }
  },
  "example": "{\"url\":\"http://example.com/images/test.jpg\"}"
}
[Binary image data]

Response 202

The service has accepted the request for processing. The client can query the operation status and retrieve the analysis result using the 'Operation-Location' URL header specified in the response. Note that the 'Operation-Location' URL expires in 48 hours.

Operation-LocationURL to query and retrieve the analysis result. This URL expires in 48 hours.
Example: https://cognitiveservice/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/operations/54f0b076-4e38-43e5-81bd-b85b8835fdfb

Response 400

Bad request error. Detailed error code and message are specified in the JSON response:

Error CodeDescription
BadArgumentBad or unrecognizable request JSON or binary file.
InvalidImageURLImage URL is badly formatted.
FailedToDownloadImageFailed to download image from input URL.
InvalidImageThe input data is not a valid image or password protected.
UnsupportedImageFormatImage format unsupported. Supported formats include JPEG, PNG, BMP, PDF and TIFF.
InvalidImageSizeThe input image is too large. It should not be larger than 20MB.
InvalidImageDimensionThe input image dimension is out of range. The minimum image dimension is 50 x 50 pixels and the maximum is 10000 x 10000 pixels. The maximum PDF dimension is 17 x 17 inches.

{
  "error": {
    "code": "BadArgument",
    "message": "Invalid input."
  }
}

Response 415

Unsupported media type error. 'Content-Type' does not match the POST content.

  • For image URL, 'Content-Type' should be application/json.
  • For binary image data, 'Content-Type' should be application/octet-stream.

    • {
  "error": {
    "code": "BadArgument",
    "message": "Unsupported media type."
  }
}

    Response 500

    Internal server error.

    {
  "error": {
    "code": "Unspecified",
    "message": "Internal server error."
  }
}

    Response 503

    Transient fault while querying Microsoft Azure storage services.

    {
  "error": {
    "code": "StorageException",
    "message": "Transient fault occurred while querying Microsoft Azure storage services. Please try again later."
  }
}

    Code samples

    @ECHO OFF

curl -v -X POST "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze"
-H "Content-Type: application/json"
-H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: {subscription key}"

--data-ascii "{body}" 

    using System;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web;

namespace CSHttpClientSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            MakeRequest();
            Console.WriteLine("Hit ENTER to exit...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
        
        static async void MakeRequest()
        {
            var client = new HttpClient();
            var queryString = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);

            // Request headers
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key", "{subscription key}");

            var uri = "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze?" + queryString;

            HttpResponseMessage response;

            // Request body
            byte[] byteData = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("{body}");

            using (var content = new ByteArrayContent(byteData))
            {
               content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("< your content type, i.e. application/json >");
               response = await client.PostAsync(uri, content);
            }

        }
    }
}	
    // // This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
import java.net.URI;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.utils.URIBuilder;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients;
import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

public class JavaSample 
{
    public static void main(String[] args) 
    {
        HttpClient httpclient = HttpClients.createDefault();

        try
        {
            URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder("https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze");


            URI uri = builder.build();
            HttpPost request = new HttpPost(uri);
            request.setHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
            request.setHeader("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key", "{subscription key}");


            // Request body
            StringEntity reqEntity = new StringEntity("{body}");
            request.setEntity(reqEntity);

            HttpResponse response = httpclient.execute(request);
            HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();

            if (entity != null) 
            {
                System.out.println(EntityUtils.toString(entity));
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
        }
    }
}


    <!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>JSSample</title>
    <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>

<script type="text/javascript">
    $(function() {
        var params = {
            // Request parameters
        };
      
        $.ajax({
            url: "https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze?" + $.param(params),
            beforeSend: function(xhrObj){
                // Request headers
                xhrObj.setRequestHeader("Content-Type","application/json");
                xhrObj.setRequestHeader("Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key","{subscription key}");
            },
            type: "POST",
            // Request body
            data: "{body}",
        })
        .done(function(data) {
            alert("success");
        })
        .fail(function() {
            alert("error");
        });
    });
</script>
</body>
</html>

    #import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
    
    NSString* path = @"https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze";
    NSArray* array = @[
                         // Request parameters
                         @"entities=true",
                      ];
    
    NSString* string = [array componentsJoinedByString:@"&"];
    path = [path stringByAppendingFormat:@"?%@", string];

    NSLog(@"%@", path);

    NSMutableURLRequest* _request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:path]];
    [_request setHTTPMethod:@"POST"];
    // Request headers
    [_request setValue:@"application/json" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];
    [_request setValue:@"{subscription key}" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key"];
    // Request body
    [_request setHTTPBody:[@"{body}" dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding]];
    
    NSURLResponse *response = nil;
    NSError *error = nil;
    NSData* _connectionData = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:_request returningResponse:&response error:&error];

    if (nil != error)
    {
        NSLog(@"Error: %@", error);
    }
    else
    {
        NSError* error = nil;
        NSMutableDictionary* json = nil;
        NSString* dataString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:_connectionData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
        NSLog(@"%@", dataString);
        
        if (nil != _connectionData)
        {
            json = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:_connectionData options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&error];
        }
        
        if (error || !json)
        {
            NSLog(@"Could not parse loaded json with error:%@", error);
        }
        
        NSLog(@"%@", json);
        _connectionData = nil;
    }
    
    [pool drain];

    return 0;
}

    <?php
// This sample uses the Apache HTTP client from HTTP Components (http://hc.apache.org/httpcomponents-client-ga/)
require_once 'HTTP/Request2.php';

$request = new Http_Request2('https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze');
$url = $request->getUrl();

$headers = array(
    // Request headers
    'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key' => '{subscription key}',
);

$request->setHeader($headers);

$parameters = array(
    // Request parameters
);

$url->setQueryVariables($parameters);

$request->setMethod(HTTP_Request2::METHOD_POST);

// Request body
$request->setBody("{body}");

try
{
    $response = $request->send();
    echo $response->getBody();
}
catch (HttpException $ex)
{
    echo $ex;
}

?>
    ########### Python 2.7 #############
import httplib, urllib, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection('*.cognitiveservices.azure.com')
    conn.request("POST", "/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################

########### Python 3.2 #############
import http.client, urllib.request, urllib.parse, urllib.error, base64

headers = {
    # Request headers
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key': '{subscription key}',
}

params = urllib.parse.urlencode({
})

try:
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection('*.cognitiveservices.azure.com')
    conn.request("POST", "/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze?%s" % params, "{body}", headers)
    response = conn.getresponse()
    data = response.read()
    print(data)
    conn.close()
except Exception as e:
    print("[Errno {0}] {1}".format(e.errno, e.strerror))

####################################
    require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://*.cognitiveservices.azure.com/formrecognizer/v1.0-preview/prebuilt/receipt/asyncBatchAnalyze')


request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.request_uri)
# Request headers
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
# Request headers
request['Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key'] = '{subscription key}'
# Request body
request.body = "{body}"

response = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, :use_ssl => uri.scheme == 'https') do |http|
    http.request(request)
end

puts response.body