Docling Serve Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

Docling Serve hosting on xCloud gives you a self-hosted document conversion API for turning PDFs, Office files, HTML and images into structured Markdown, JSON or HTML. Deploy Docling Serve from the OneClick catalog and xCloud starts the pinned v1.35.0 CPU image with its five models baked in, generates the API key every request must carry and publishes the API, the /ui playground and the /docs reference over HTTPS.

Deploy your Docling Serve

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is Docling Serve?

Docling Serve, according to its README, is Docling running as an API service. It converts documents such as PDFs, Office files, HTML and images into structured Markdown, JSON or HTML, using layout analysis, table structure recognition and OCR models. The server also offers an interactive UI playground at /ui and an OpenAPI reference at /docs. Self-hosted Docling Serve is a document conversion API you run yourself instead of sending files to a hosted extraction service. It is licensed under MIT.

On xCloud this template deploys Docling Serve v1.35.0 as the CPU image, pinned by digest, with all five conversion models baked in, so nothing downloads at runtime. It is stateless: uploads and results live in a scratch directory for the life of a request. Because inference runs on CPU and loads every model into memory, the manifest asks for 4 GB of RAM and 2 cores.

From Sign-Up to a Live Conversion API In Just 3 Easy Steps

A document conversion API normally means a large image, model downloads, an API key, a domain and a certificate before the first PDF. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick Docling Serve from the OneClick catalog. Choose your domain and target server. There is nothing else to fill in: xCloud generates the API key. The first image pull is about 4.4 GB, so the first install takes a few minutes.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the upstream Docling Serve v1.35.0 image, pinned by immutable digest, and publish it over HTTPS on your domain.
Step 03
Send A Document
Copy the API key from the credentials panel and send requests with the X-Api-Key header: a file to /v1/convert/file as multipart form data, or a URL to /v1/convert/source as JSON. Use the async endpoints for large documents, or try the /ui playground in a browser.

Everything Docling Serve Does, On Your Own Server

Docling Serve runs in full here: conversion, chunking and status endpoints, the playground and the OpenAPI docs, with every model already in the image.

PDF, Office, HTML, Images In
Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDFs, HTML and images accepted.
Markdown, JSON Or HTML Out
Structured output ready for search indexes, RAG pipelines and archives.
Models Baked In
Layout, table structure, picture classification and two OCR engines ship in the image; nothing downloads at runtime.
Key On Every Request
Conversion, chunking and status endpoints require the X-Api-Key header; only /health and /docs stay open.
Async For Big Jobs
Synchronous requests give up after 120 seconds; the async endpoints let you poll instead.
Bounded For CPU Inference
Documents are capped at 50 MB and 200 pages by default to protect memory; raise the limits in the environment.

Everything You Need To Run Your Conversions 24/7

Managed hosting for Docling Serve, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

Docling Serve v1.35.0 deployed instantly
Pinned upstream image digest
API key generated for you
Kept behind xCloud nginx on port 5001
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With Docling Serve

Prepare documents for a retrieval pipeline
Your pipeline posts PDFs and Office files to the API and gets back clean Markdown or JSON to chunk and index, without sending the files to an outside service.
Extract tables from reports
An analyst converts reports and scans, and the table structure recognition returns tables in the JSON or Markdown output instead of flat text.
Convert large files in the background
A batch job submits long documents to the async endpoints and polls for the result, because synchronous requests give up after 120 seconds by default.
Try conversions in a browser first
A developer opens the /ui playground, enters the API key, drops in a sample file and checks the output before writing any client code.

Docling Serve vs Alternatives

Amazon Textract: Docling Serve runs on a server you rent, so files and conversion results stay with you instead of going to a third-party service. This page makes no accuracy or speed comparison with Amazon Textract.
Azure Document Intelligence: Choose self-hosted Docling Serve over Azure Document Intelligence when files must not leave your own server and CPU inference with models baked into the image is fast enough for your volume.
Unstructured: Unstructured is a separate document-processing project with its own OneClick page. Compare its output formats and options with Docling Serve's Markdown, JSON and HTML before choosing.
Apache Tika: Apache Tika has its own OneClick page. Docling Serve converts documents using layout analysis, table structure recognition and OCR models, returning Markdown, JSON or HTML.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for Docling Serve hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 16 GB

Cloud VPS 24 GB

More cores and memory for concurrent conversions and larger documents.

$84.99per month

24 GB RAM
8 vCPU cores
300 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. Docling Serve itself is free and open source under the MIT licence.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy Docling Serve on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

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Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready To Run Your Own Conversion API?

Docling Serve on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

Is Docling Serve free?

Yes. Docling Serve is open source under the MIT licence, linked from this page at the pinned v1.35.0 tag. xCloud bills for the Cloud VPS under it, not for Docling Serve, and there is no per-page fee. The conversion models ship inside the image, so you pay no separate model charge either.

Can you self-host Docling Serve with Docker?

Yes, and this Docling Serve Docker hosting template does it for you: the CPU container image, pinned by digest, runs on your own server with HTTPS in front of port 5001. It is not a Docling Serve cloud account. The first pull is about 4.4 GB, so the first install takes a few minutes.

How much RAM does Docling Serve need?

The template manifest requires 4096 MB of RAM, 2 CPU cores and 10 GB of disk, because all five inference models load into memory at startup. Concurrent or large conversions can need more. That floor is why this page sells the 16 GB tier rather than the 6 GB one.

How do I send a document to Docling Serve?

Send a multipart file to /v1/convert/file, or a URL as JSON to /v1/convert/source, with the X-Api-Key header set to your generated key. For slow or large jobs use the async endpoints and poll for the result. Open /ui for a playground or /docs for the OpenAPI reference.

Does Docling Serve need an API key?

Yes. Conversion, chunking and status endpoints require the generated key in the X-Api-Key header. /health and /docs stay reachable without it by design, and /ui loads but asks for the key before converting. Never blank the key setting, because the app then fails to start.

How do I rotate the Docling Serve API key?

Change DOCLING_SERVE_API_KEY in the Environment editor and Save and Redeploy, then update every client to send the new value. Removing the line entirely turns authentication off and leaves the conversion API open to anyone who reaches the domain, so replace the value instead.

What file size can Docling Serve convert?

The proxy accepts uploads up to about 100 MB. Within that, the template caps documents at 50 MB and 200 pages to protect memory during CPU-only inference. You can raise the file-size and page-count settings in the environment if your server has the memory for it.

Does Docling Serve keep my documents?

Not by design. The template is stateless: uploads and conversion results live in an ephemeral scratch directory for the life of a request and do not persist across a restart. Store your source files and the converted output in your own system, because the server will not keep them.

How do I back up Docling Serve?

There is no data volume to back up, because the template is stateless. Keep the generated API key in your protected recovery records, and keep source files and results in your own storage. Server-level backups and snapshots still cover the Cloud VPS itself.

Backups in xCloud

How do I upgrade Docling Serve?

Your running v1.35.0 server stays as it is when the catalog moves on; you decide when to adopt a newer template version, after a server backup, rather than editing the image tag or digest. Read the upstream release notes and the v1 API migration notes first, since client calls may change, and re-test your conversions after moving to a newer version.

Is Docling Serve an alternative to Amazon Textract?

Docling Serve turns documents into structured Markdown, JSON or HTML on your own server, with CPU inference and the models in the image, so files stay with you. This page makes no accuracy or speed claim against Amazon Textract, so test both on your own documents.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.