How to Parse PDF Files in Go

Stdlib

2026-04-17T12:05:42+00:00

Use a third-party library like unidoc or go-pdf to parse PDF files in Go, as the standard library lacks native support.

Go does not include a built-in PDF parser, so you must use a third-party library like unidoc or go-pdf to read PDF files. Install the library and use its Open function to load the file, then iterate over pages to extract text or metadata.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"github.com/unidoc/unipdf/v3/reader"
)

func main() {
	r, err := reader.FromFile("document.pdf")
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	pages, _ := r.GetNumPages()
	fmt.Printf("PDF has %d pages\n", pages)
}