Gotenberg
Self-hosted Docker API for document-to-PDF conversion and PDF manipulation.
Where your files are processed
Your own instance
This runs on a server you operate rather than on your own device: The container, on Linux, A self-hosted instance, The HTTP API it exposes. Documents do not reach a server the vendor runs, and they do not stay in your browser either.
Files are sent to the Gotenberg instance the operator runs. That instance may be on the same machine or on remote infrastructure, and the software itself is not a hosted service, so the honest statement is about the deployment rather than about the product. It is also not a zero-outbound component: the documentation covers converting a URL, downloading remote resources, filtering outbound requests, webhooks and file downloads, so what leaves depends on how the instance is configured.
What it does
Gotenberg is a Docker container that exposes an HTTP API for turning URLs, HTML, Markdown and Office documents into PDFs, using bundled headless Chromium and LibreOffice so you do not have to run those yourself. The same API post-processes PDFs: merge, split, rotate, watermark, stamp, flatten forms, read and write metadata and bookmarks, embed attachments, convert to PDF/A or PDF/UA, and encrypt with passwords. It can also pull inputs from, and push results to, your own S3-compatible storage, and official SDKs exist for several languages.
Best for: Backend and platform teams that need dependable PDF generation and manipulation inside their own network without paying a hosted conversion service.
Worth knowing: It is an API with no user interface at all, so you must run, scale and secure the container yourself. The image is large because it bundles Chromium and LibreOffice. The clients listed on the documentation site are maintained by different people, so they should be checked individually rather than described as official SDKs.
Details, and where each comes from
Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.
- Versions covered
- Linux · API · Self-hosted
- Website
- gotenberg.dev
- Requires an account
- No
- Watermark on the free tier
- Not verified
- Maximum file size
- Not verified
- Batch processing
- Not verified
- Data residency
- Self-hosted
- Open source
- Yes
- Self-hostable
- Yes
- Licence
- MIT
- Redaction
- No redaction feature
- Programmatic access
- HTTP API
- Last availability check
- Responded in 99 ms 16 October 2026
Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.
What the redaction verdict rests on
From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.
What that does not establish: The vendor’s own site was read on 22 September 2026 and contains no mention of redaction, sanitisation, blackout or whiteout. Absence from a vendor’s own material is not proof that a feature does not exist — it may be undocumented, or on a page the reading did not reach — but for a NEGATIVE claim it is the strongest evidence available, and it is weaker than a positive quote. Recorded as such rather than presented as certainty.
Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.
Related reading
- Open source PDF tools, and what their licences require — what open source does and does not tell you.