Skip to main content
When you parse a document with the API or complete an ADE Parse Job, the parsed data is returned in a structured JSON format.

​
Response Structure

The response contains the following top-level fields:
  • markdown: Complete Markdown representation of the document.
  • chunks: Array of chunk objects, one for each parsed region.
  • splits: Array of split objects organizing chunks by page or section.
  • grounding: Object mapping chunk IDs to detailed grounding information, which includes the page number and bounding box coordinates.
  • metadata: Processing information (credit usage, duration, filename, job ID, page count, version). For partial content responses, includes a failed_pages array listing page numbers that failed to process.

​
Parsed Chunks (chunks)

Each chunk object in the chunks array contains:
  • id: Unique identifier (UUID format)
  • markdown: Markdown content for the chunk
  • type: chunk type
  • grounding: Location information with:
    • box: Bounding box coordinates (normalized 0-1 values)
      • left: Left edge position
      • top: Top edge position
      • right: Right edge position
      • bottom: Bottom edge position
    • page: Zero-indexed page number

​
Grounding Information (grounding)

A grounding represents the location of a chunk in the document, including the page number and bounding box coordinates. The grounding allows you to map extracted content back to its precise location in the original document. The grounding object provides additional metadata about HTML elements in the document, keyed by element ID. This includes grounding for chunks, table cells, and other HTML objects. Each entry contains:
  • box: Same bounding box structure as in chunk grounding
  • page: Zero-indexed page number
  • type: Detailed classification (e.g., chunkText, chunkTable, chunkScanCode, tableCell, table)
  • position: Table cells have a position field that details the cell position (learn more here):
    • row: Row position (integer, zero-indexed)
    • col: Column position (integer, zero-indexed)
    • rowspan: Number of rows the cell spans (integer)
    • colspan: Number of columns the cell spans (integer)
    • chunk_id: Associated chunk identifier (string)
The keys in the grounding object can be:
  • Chunk IDs: UUID-format IDs (e.g., 7d58c5cf-e4f5-4a7e-ba34-0cd7bc6a6506) for chunks
  • Table cell IDs: Format {page_number}-{base62_sequential_number} (e.g., 0-2, 0-3) for table cells
  • Table IDs: Format {page_number}-{base62_sequential_number} (e.g., 0-1) for entire tables
The type field in the grounding object is more specific than the chunk’s type field. For example, a table chunk might have type table in the chunk object, but its grounding type could be chunkTable or tableCell.

​
Table Cell Position Information

For tables in documents, grounding entries with type: "tableCell" include a position field that provides the cell’s location in the table grid. This allows you to:
  • Map parsed data back to specific cells in the original table (for example, verify that a dollar amount came from row 2, column 3)
  • Identify merged cells through the rowspan and colspan values
  • Programmatically reference cells by their row and column indices
The row and col values are zero-indexed, where row: 0, col: 0 represents the first row and first column of the table. The rowspan and colspan values indicate merged cells, with a value of 1 meaning the cell is not merged in that direction.

​
Working with Bounding Box Coordinates

All bounding box coordinates use normalized values between 0 and 1, where:
  • (0, 0) represents the top-left corner of the page
  • (1, 1) represents the bottom-right corner of the page
To convert to pixel coordinates, multiply the normalized values by the image dimensions: 
x1 = left * image_width
y1 = top * image_height
x2 = right * image_width
y2 = bottom * image_height
For practical examples of working with bounding box coordinates using the Python library, see:

​
Example Responses

The response structure varies based on whether you use the split parameter. Below are examples showing both scenarios.

​
Without Split Parameter

When no split parameter is specified, the splits array is empty: 
{
  "markdown": "<complete markdown content>",
  "chunks": [
    {
      "id": "7d58c5cf-e4f5-4a7e-ba34-0cd7bc6a6506",
      "type": "text",
      "markdown": "<a id='7d58c5cf-e4f5-4a7e-ba34-0cd7bc6a6506'></a>\n\nSKU\nWH-2847-BLK",
      "grounding": {
        "page": 0,
        "box": {
          "left": 0.0663,
          "top": 0.0951,
          "right": 0.4665,
          "bottom": 0.2678
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "splits": [],
  "grounding": {
    "7d58c5cf-e4f5-4a7e-ba34-0cd7bc6a6506": {
      "page": 0,
      "type": "chunkText",
      "box": {
        "left": 0.0663,
        "top": 0.0951,
        "right": 0.4665,
        "bottom": 0.2678
      }
    }
  },
  "metadata": {
    "credit_usage": 3.0,
    "duration_ms": 3806,
    "filename": "document.pdf",
    "job_id": "nqwf8swa1rxo5ad56ykmvvr7m",
    "page_count": 1,
    "version": "dpt-2-20250919"
  }
}

​
With Split Parameter Set to Page

When the split parameter is set to page, the response includes a populated splits array that organizes chunks by page: 
{
  "markdown": "<a id='fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042'></a>\n\nSKU\n**WH-2847-BLK**\n\nQUANTITY\n**48 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n2847 000 4812\n\n<!-- PAGE BREAK -->\n\n<a id='7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410'></a>\n\nSKU\n**EL-5039-RED**\n\nQUANTITY\n**72 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n5039 0000 7216",
  "chunks": [
    {
      "id": "fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042",
      "type": "card",
      "markdown": "<a id='fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042'></a>\n\nSKU\n**WH-2847-BLK**\n\nQUANTITY\n**48 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n2847 000 4812",
      "grounding": {
        "page": 0,
        "box": {
          "left": 0.2696,
          "top": 0.3639,
          "right": 0.7316,
          "bottom": 0.6365
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410",
      "type": "card",
      "markdown": "<a id='7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410'></a>\n\nSKU\n**EL-5039-RED**\n\nQUANTITY\n**72 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n5039 0000 7216",
      "grounding": {
        "page": 1,
        "box": {
          "left": 0.2698,
          "top": 0.3639,
          "right": 0.7313,
          "bottom": 0.6361
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "splits": [
    {
      "class": "page",
      "identifier": "page_0",
      "pages": [0],
      "markdown": "<a id='fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042'></a>\n\nSKU\n**WH-2847-BLK**\n\nQUANTITY\n**48 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n2847 000 4812",
      "chunks": ["fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042"]
    },
    {
      "class": "page",
      "identifier": "page_1",
      "pages": [1],
      "markdown": "<a id='7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410'></a>\n\nSKU\n**EL-5039-RED**\n\nQUANTITY\n**72 Units**\n\n[BARCODE]\n5039 0000 7216",
      "chunks": ["7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410"]
    }
  ],
  "grounding": {
    "fb9a5162-54da-4671-ba2c-db8f02007042": {
      "page": 0,
      "type": "chunkCard",
      "box": {
        "left": 0.2696,
        "top": 0.3639,
        "right": 0.7316,
        "bottom": 0.6365
      }
    },
    "7fd7a324-b87a-4dc3-918c-e56ec7265410": {
      "page": 1,
      "type": "chunkCard",
      "box": {
        "left": 0.2698,
        "top": 0.3639,
        "right": 0.7313,
        "bottom": 0.6361
      }
    }
  },
  "metadata": {
    "filename": "pallet-label-2-pages.pdf",
    "page_count": 2,
    "duration_ms": 24382,
    "credit_usage": 6.0,
    "job_id": "td8wu72tq2g9l9tfgkwn3q3kp",
    "version": "dpt-2-20251103"
  }
}