Extract tables from PDF with Nutrient Document Web Servic...

This tutorial shows you how to extract structured table data from PDF files using the Nutrient Document Web Services API on Zapier. You’ll trigger the workflow when a PDF is uploaded to Google Drive and extract its tables into a structured JSON format for reporting, analytics, or automation.

What is Zapier?

Zapier(opens in a new tab) is a no-code automation tool that connects your favorite apps and services. You can create workflows (“Zaps”) that automate actions between tools like Google Drive, Gmail, Slack, Notion, and more.

What is Nutrient DWS Processor API?

Nutrient Document Web Services API provides more than 30 document automation tools for PDFs, images, and Office files. With your free account(opens in a new tab), you get 50 credits to experiment with:

Converting documents to/from PDF
Extracting tables, text, or metadata
Adding digital signatures or redactions
Running OCR, annotations, and form actions

What you’ll need

A Zapier(opens in a new tab) account (a pro plan is necessary for multistep Zaps)
A Google Drive account
A PDF file stored in Google Drive (table content inside)
A Nutrient DWS Processor API key — get one here(opens in a new tab)

Step 1 — Trigger a new file in a Google Drive folder

Select Google Drive as the trigger app.

Select Google Drive as the Zap trigger

Choose the New File in Folder trigger event.

Choose 'New File in Folder' trigger event

Connect your Google Drive account.
Configure the trigger:

In the Drive field, select your Google Drive.
Select or create a folder where PDFs with tables will be uploaded (e.g. /extract-tables).

Configure the folder to watch for PDF files with tables

Test with a sample PDF containing tables.

Test the trigger with a sample PDF containing table data

Choose Nutrient Document Web Services API as the action app.

Choose Nutrient as the action app

Select the Extract Tables from PDF action.

Select the 'Extract Tables from PDF' action event

Connect your Nutrient DWS Processor API account using your API key.

Paste your API key to connect to Nutrient DWS Processor API

You can find your API key in the Nutrient dashboard(opens in a new tab).

Copy your API key from the Nutrient dashboard

Fill out the fields:
- PDF File URL — From step 1 (Google Drive trigger).
- Output File Name — Optional (e.g. extracted_table.json).

Fill in the action fields including PDF file and output name

Ensure the PDF is publicly accessible via URL or shared through Zapier’s Google Drive integration.

Test the step. The result will be a structured JSON file containing extracted table data.

Successful test showing table data extracted into JSON format

Add Google Drive as the final app and select Upload File.

Choose Google Drive 'Upload File' action

Configure:
- Drive — Select your drive.
- Folder — Choose a destination like /extracted-json.
- File — Use the output from step 2 (JSON file).

Map the extracted table JSON from the Nutrient step

Run a test to confirm the JSON file is uploaded to drive.

Final test shows JSON file uploaded to Drive

Conclusion

You’ve now automated the process of extracting tabular data from PDFs and saving it as a JSON file using Zapier(opens in a new tab) and Nutrient DWS Processor API(opens in a new tab). This workflow is perfect for pulling out table-based data from receipts, invoices, reports, or financial documents. Enhance this workflow with OCR text recognition, table-to-Excel extraction, or key-value pair extraction for even more data capture capabilities.

You can expand this Zap to:

Add parsed data to Google Sheets(opens in a new tab).
Send alerts when new tables are extracted.
Automatically archive or analyze extracted tables using other apps.

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