Passport OCR API Documentation

Many onboarding processes in mobile or web apps require extracting some data from ID documents. Using Mindee's passport API, you can automatically extract data from passports to offer your users the best onboarding experience. The API extracts:

Birth date
Birth place
Country
Expiry date
Gender
Given names
Id number
Issuance date
Mrz1 (Passport's machine-readable zone line 1)
Mrz2 (Passport's machine-readable zone line 2)
Surname

Set up the API

📘
Before making any API calls, you need to have created your API key.

You'll need to get a picture of a passport. You can use this fake one below.

sample fake passport

Access your Passport API by clicking on the International Passport card in the APIs Store.

From the left navigation, go to documentation > API reference, you'll find sample code in popular languages and command line.

curl -X POST \
  https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict \
  -H 'Authorization: Token my-api-key-here' \
  -F document=@/path/to/your/file.png

import requests

url = "https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict"

with open("/path/to/my/file", "rb") as myfile:
    files = {"document": myfile}
    headers = {"Authorization": "Token my-api-key-here"}
    response = requests.post(url, files=files, headers=headers)
    print(response.text)

// works for NODE > v10
const axios = require('axios');
const fs = require("fs");
const FormData = require('form-data')

async function makeRequest() {
    let data = new FormData()
    data.append('document', fs.createReadStream('./file.jpg'))
    const config = {
        method: 'POST',
        url: 'https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict',
        headers: { 
          'Authorization':'Token my-api-key-here',
          ...data.getHeaders()
           },
        data
    }

    try {
      let response = await axios(config)
      console.log(response.data);
    } catch (error) {
      console.log(error)
    }

}

makeRequest()

<form onsubmit="mindeeSubmit(event)" >
  <input type="file" id="my-file-input" name="file" />
  <input type="submit" />
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
const mindeeSubmit = (evt) => {
  evt.preventDefault()
  let myFileInput = document.getElementById('my-file-input');
  let myFile = myFileInput.files[0]
  if (!myFile) { return }
  let data = new FormData();
  data.append("document", myFile, myFile.name);

  let xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();

  xhr.addEventListener("readystatechange", function () {
    if (this.readyState === 4) {
      console.log(this.responseText);
    }
  });

  xhr.open("POST", "https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict");
  xhr.setRequestHeader("Authorization", "Token my-api-key-here");
  xhr.send(data);
}
</script>

# tested with Ruby 2.5
require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'net/https'
require 'mime/types'

url = URI("https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict")
file = "/path/to/your/file.png"

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Authorization"] = 'Token my-api-key-here'
request.set_form([['document', File.open(file)]], 'multipart/form-data')

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

Replace my-api-key-here with your new API key, or use the "select an API key" feature and it will be filled automatically.
Copy and paste the sample code of your desired choice in your application, code environment, terminal etc.
Replace /path/to/your/file/png with the path to your passport.

❗️
Always remember to replace your API key!

Run your code. You will receive a JSON response with the passport details.

API Response

Below is the full sample JSON response you get when you call the API. Since the response is quite verbose, we will walk through the fields section by section.

{
  "api_request": {
    "error": {},
    "resources": [
      "document"
    ],
    "status": "success",
    "status_code": 201,
    "url": "https://api.mindee.net/v1/products/mindee/passport/v1/predict"
  },
  "document": {
    "id": "c2651887-85f0-4890-88a1-55d1acbe1263",
    "name": "sample_passport.jpg",
    "n_pages": 1,
    "is_rotation_applied": true,
    "inference": {
      "started_at": "2021-05-06T16:37:28",
      "finished_at": "2021-05-06T16:37:29",
      "processing_time": 0.56,
      "pages": [
        {
          "id": 0,
          "orientation": {"value": 0},
          "prediction": { .. },
          "extras": {}
        }
      ],
      "prediction": { .. },
      "extras": {}
    }
  }
}

You can find the prediction within the prediction key found in two locations:

In document > inference > prediction for document-level predictions: it contains the different fields extracted at the document level, meaning that for multi-pages PDFs, we reconstruct a single passport object using all the pages.
In document > inference > pages[ ] > prediction for page-level predictions: it gives the prediction for each page independently. With images, there is only one element on this array, but with PDFs, you can find the extracted data for each PDF page.

Each predicted field may contain one or several values:

a confidence score
a polygon highlighting the information location
a page_id where the information was found (document level only)

{
 "prediction": {
   "birth_date": {
     "confidence": 1,
     "page_id": 0,
     "polygon": [[0.342, 0.689], [0.569, 0.689], [0.569, 0.713], [0.342, 0.713]],
     "value": "1995-05-20"
    },
    "birth_place": {
      "confidence": 0.89,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.442, 0.725], [0.555, 0.725], [0.555, 0.743], [0.442, 0.743]],
      "value": "CAMTETH"
    },
    "country": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.509, 0.548], [0.558, 0.548], [0.558, 0.567], [0.509, 0.567]],
      "value": "GBR"
    },
    "expiry_date": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.34, 0.797], [0.575, 0.797], [0.575, 0.82], [0.34, 0.82]],
      "value": "2017-04-22"
    },
    "gender": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.054, 0.92], [0.927, 0.92], [0.927, 0.944], [0.054, 0.944]],
      "value": "M"
    },
    "given_names": {
      "confidence": 0.99,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.342, 0.617], [0.435, 0.617], [0.435, 0.638], [0.342, 0.638]],
      "value": "HENERT"
    },
    "id_number": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.723, 0.548], [0.899, 0.548], [0.899, 0.568], [0.723, 0.568]],
      "value": "707797979"
    },
    "issuance_date": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.34, 0.763], [0.564, 0.763], [0.564, 0.785], [0.34, 0.785]],
      "value": "2012-04-22"
    },
    "mrz1": {
      "confidence": 0.99,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.056, 0.883], [0.926, 0.883], [0.926, 0.911], [0.056, 0.911]],
      "value": "P<GBRPUDARSAN<<HENERT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<"
    },
    "mrz2": {
      "confidence": 1,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.054, 0.92], [0.927, 0.92], [0.927, 0.944], [0.054, 0.944]],
      "value": "7077979792GBR9505209M1704224<<<<<<<<<<<<<<00"
    },
    "orientation": {
      "confidence": 0.99,
      "degrees": 0
    },
    "surname": {
      "confidence": 0.99,
      "page_id": 0,
      "polygon": [[0.34, 0.581], [0.472, 0.581], [0.472, 0.603], [0.34, 0.603]],
      "value": "PUDARSAN"
    }
  }
 }

Additional Attributes

Depending on the field type specified, additional attributes can be extracted from the passport object. Using the above passport example, the following are the basic fields that can be extracted.

Birth Informations
Country
Date
Gender
ID Number
Machine Readable Zone
Names
Orientation

Birth Informations

birth_date: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the holder's birth date in ISO format(yyyy-mm-dd).

{
  "birth_date": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.341, 0.689], [0.571, 0.689], [0.571, 0.689], [0.341, 0..714]],
    "value": "1995-05-20"
  }
}

birth_place: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the holder's birth place.

{
  "birth_date": {
    "confidence": 0.9,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.441, 0.724], [0.556, 0.724], [0.556, 0.744], [0.441, 0.744]],
    "value": "CAMTETH"
  }
}

Country

country: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the passport's country in ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code format (three-letter country codes).

{
  "country": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.508, 0.547], [0.559, 0.547], [0.559, 0.568], [0.508, 0.568]],
    "value": "GBR"
  }
}

Date

expiry_date: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the passport's expiry date in ISO format(yyyy-mm-dd).

{
  "expiry_date": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.34, 0.796], [0.576, 0.796], [0.576, 0.82], [0.34, 0.82]],
    "value": "2017-04-22"
  }
}

issuance_date: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the passport's date of issuance in ISO format(yyyy-mm-dd).

{
  "issuance_date": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.341, 0.763], [0.565, 0.763], [0.565, 0.788], [0.34, 0.788]],
    "value": "2012-04-23"
  }
}

Gender

gender: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the holder's gender.

{
  "gender": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.054, 0.919], [0.928, 0.919], [0.928, 0.945], [0.054, 0.095]],
    "value": "M"
  }
}

ID Number

id_number: In the JSON response below, the value ID number is the passport's number.

{
  "id_number": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.723, 0.547], [0.899, 0.547], [0.899, 0.569], [0.723, 0.569]],
    "value": "707797979"
  }
}

Machine Readable Zone

mrz1: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the passport's machine-readable zone line 1.

{
  "mrz1": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.055, 0.882], [0.926, 0.882], [0.926, 0.911], [0.055, 0.911]],
    "value": "P<GBRPUDARSAN<<HENERT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<"
  }
}

mrz2: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the passport's machine-readable zone line 2.

{
  "mrz2": {
    "confidence": 1,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.54, 0.919], [0.928, 0.919], [0.928, 0.945], [0.054, 0.945]],
    "value": "7077979792GBR9505209M1704224<<<<<<<<<<<<<<00"
  }
}

Names

given_names: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the holder's given names.

{
  "given_names": {
    "confidence": 0.99,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.341, 0.617], [0.435, 0.617], [0.341, 0.638], [0.341, 0.638]],
    "value": "HENERT"
  }
}

surname: In the JSON response below, we have the value of the holder's surname.

{
  "surname": {
    "confidence": 0.99,
    "page_id": 0,
    "polygon": [[0.34, 0.581], [0.473, 0.581], [0.473, 0.604], [0.34, 0.604]],
    "value": "PUDARSAN"
  }
}

Orientation

orientation: The orientation field is only available at the page level as it describes whether the page image should be rotated to be upright. The rotation value is also conveniently available in the JSON response at:
document > inference > pages [ ] > orientation > value.
If the page requires rotation for correct display, the orientation field gives a prediction among these 3 possible outputs:
- 0 degree: the page is already upright
- 90 degrees: the page must be rotated clockwise to be upright
- 270 degrees: the page must be rotated counterclockwise to be upright

{
  "orientation": {
    "confidence": 0.99,
    "degrees": 0
  }
}

📘
All polygon fields across the JSON response are already rotated accordingly!

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