Invoice Create

Overview

The Invoice Create endpoint builds a complete invoice PDF from structured data. Choose a template, send your company, client and line item details, and Give Me PDF returns a link to the finished PDF — no HTML or CSS required.

If you need full control over the layout, design your own HTML and send it to PDF Render.

Creating an invoice

Send a POST request to the following endpoint to generate an invoice:

POST https://www.givemepdf.com/api/v1/invoice/create

Credits are only deducted after your PDF has been created successfully. Validation errors and failed renders are free.

Credits required: 3 / request

Authentication

Every API call must include an API-KEY header.

You can find your API key in your dashboard.

Templates

Pick a design with the template parameter. Every template displays all of the fields below, and blocks you leave empty are hidden automatically.

You can preview both templates with your own data in our free invoice generator.

Request body

Send the request body as JSON with a Content-Type: application/json header (recommended). Form-data also works, using keys such as line_items[0][description] for line items.

All text is treated as plain text. HTML tags are stripped and special characters are escaped.

Template & PDF options

Branding

Your company

Invoice details

Client

Line items

Example line_items value. The first item has an explicit amount; the second is calculated as quantity × rate:

"line_items": [
    {
        "description": "Brand strategy workshop",
        "quantity": 1,
        "rate": 1275,
        "amount": 1275
    },
    {
        "description": "Logo design",
        "quantity": 2,
        "rate": 375
    }
]

The same line items sent as form-data:

line_items[0][description]=Brand strategy workshop
line_items[0][quantity]=1
line_items[0][rate]=1275
line_items[0][amount]=1275
line_items[1][description]=Logo design
line_items[1][quantity]=2
line_items[1][rate]=375

Totals

Payment & notes

Example request

curl -X POST https://www.givemepdf.com/api/v1/invoice/create \
  -H "API-KEY: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template": "modern",
    "brand_color": "#4F46E5",
    "company_logo_url": "https://example.com/logo.png",
    "company_name": "Northwind Studio",
    "street_address": "221 Market Street",
    "city_state_zip": "San Francisco, CA 94105",
    "your_country": "United States",
    "your_email": "billing@northwind.test",
    "your_phone": "+1 415 555 0134",
    "invoice_number": "INV-2026-0042",
    "issue_date": "Oct 13, 2026",
    "due_date": "Oct 28, 2026",
    "payment_terms": "Net 15",
    "po_number": "PO-7781",
    "currency": "$",
    "client_company": "Acme Corporation",
    "client_street_address": "1 Infinite Loop",
    "client_city_state_zip": "Cupertino, CA 95014",
    "client_country": "United States",
    "line_items": [
      { "description": "Brand strategy workshop", "quantity": 1, "rate": 1275 },
      { "description": "Logo design", "quantity": 2, "rate": 375 }
    ],
    "discount_amount": 100,
    "tax_percent": 10,
    "payment_details": "Bank: First National\nAccount: 0123456789",
    "notes": "Thank you for your business!",
    "company_website": "https://northwind.test",
    "misc_footer_info": "Tax ID 12-3456789"
  }'

In this example the subtotal ($2,025.00) and total due ($2,117.50) are calculated for you.

Response

When the invoice is created, you will receive a JSON response with status code 200 and a link to download your PDF. Here is a sample response:

{
    "message": "OK",
    "data": {
        "location": "https://givemepdf.com/storage/8b6293cb05ee815c/ossrPslsisxeRLp0.pdf",
        "template": "modern",
        "file_ttl_days": 1,
        "warning": "This file is available for limited time. Please download as soon as possible."
    },
    "meta": {
        "remaining_free_credit": 3467,
        "remaining_paid_credit": 10000
    }
}

Validation errors return status 422 with an errors object keyed by field name:

{
    "message": "The invoice number field is required. (and 1 more error)",
    "errors": {
        "invoice_number": ["The invoice number field is required."],
        "line_items.0.rate": ["The line_items.0.rate field must be a number."]
    }
}

Possible errors

Troubleshooting

• Your logo must be an absolute, publicly reachable URL, for example https://example.com/logo.png. Images behind a login or on localhost cannot be loaded.
• Colours must be hex values such as #1F4D3A or #FFF. Named colours like red are rejected.
• Send amounts as plain numbers (1275.5, not "$1,275.50"). The currency symbol is added from the currency field and numbers are formatted with two decimals.
• Use \n inside payment_details or notes to start a new line.
• Add an Accept: application/json header so errors are always returned as JSON.