Layout parser Quickstart

Use layout parser to extract elements from a document, such as text, tables, and lists.

To follow step-by-step guidance for this task directly in the Google Cloud console, click Guide me:

Before you begin

Sign in to your Google Cloud account. If you're new to Google Cloud, create an account to evaluate how our products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers also get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads.

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Document AI, Cloud Storage APIs.

Roles required to enable APIs

To enable APIs, you need the serviceusage.services.enable permission. If you created the project, then you likely already have this permission through the Owner role (roles/owner). Otherwise, you can get this permission through the Service Usage Admin role (roles/serviceusage.serviceUsageAdmin). Learn how to grant roles.

Enable the APIs

In the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project.

Roles required to select or create a project

Select a project: Selecting a project doesn't require a specific IAM role—you can select any project that you've been granted a role on.
Create a project: To create a project, you need the Project Creator role (roles/resourcemanager.projectCreator), which contains the resourcemanager.projects.create permission. Learn how to grant roles.

Go to project selector

Verify that billing is enabled for your Google Cloud project.

Enable the Document AI, Cloud Storage APIs.

Roles required to enable APIs

Enable the APIs

Create a processor

In the Google Cloud console, in the Document AI section, and select Processor Gallery.

Processor Gallery
In the Processor Gallery, search for Layout parser and select Create.
In the side window, enter a Processor name, such as quickstart-layout-processor.
Select the region closest to you.
Click Create.

You're taken to the Processor Details page of your new form parser processor.
Optional: Select a default processor by clicking Manage versions, and selecting a processor from the Versions table. Then click Mark as default and confirm by entering the processor name.

Test processor

After creating your processor, you can send annotation requests to it.

Download the sample document.
Click the Upload Test Document button and select the document you just downloaded.
You should now be on the layout parser analysis page. You can view the blocks or chunks parsed from the document, organized by detected types.

Note: The document view is only available for PDF file type.
Optional: Select Edit Layout Config to enable image or table annotation data.

Process a document

REST

This example shows how to send a document stored in Cloud Storage to the layout parser for processing. This process enables image and table annotation by default.

REST

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

PROJECT_ID: Your Google Cloud project ID.
LOCATION: your processor's location, for example:
- us - United States
- eu - European Union
PROCESSOR_ID: the ID of your custom processor.
MIME_TYPE: Layout parser supports application/pdf and text/html.
GCS_FILE_PATH: The file path for the Cloud Storage bucket with your document.
CHUNK_SIZE: Optional. The chunk size, in tokens, to use when splitting documents.
INCLUDE_ANCESTOR_HEADINGS: Optional. Boolean. Whether or not to include ancestor headings when splitting documents.

HTTP method and URL:

POST https://LOCATION-documentai.googleapis.com/v1beta3/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/processors/PROCESSOR_ID/processorVersions/pretrained-layout-parser-v1.5-2025-08-25:process

Request JSON body:

{
  "gcsDocument": {
    "gcsUri": "GCS_FILE_PATH",
    "mimeType": "MIME_TYPE"
  },
  "processOptions": {
    "layoutConfig": {
      "enableTableAnnotation": "true",
      "enableImageAnnotation": "true",
      "chunkingConfig": {
        "chunkSize": "CHUNK_SIZE",
        "includeAncestorHeadings": "INCLUDE_ANCESTOR_HEADINGS",
      }
    }
  }
}

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login , or by using Cloud Shell, which automatically logs you into the gcloud CLI . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://LOCATION-documentai.googleapis.com/v1beta3/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/processors/PROCESSOR_ID/processorVersions/pretrained-layout-parser-v1.5-2025-08-25:process"

PowerShell

Note: The following command assumes that you have logged in to the gcloud CLI with your user account by running gcloud init or gcloud auth login . You can check the currently active account by running gcloud auth list.

Save the request body in a file named request.json, and execute the following command:

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://LOCATION-documentai.googleapis.com/v1beta3/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/processors/PROCESSOR_ID/processorVersions/pretrained-layout-parser-v1.5-2025-08-25:process" | Select-Object -Expand Content

You should receive a successful status code (2xx) and an empty response.

Review the output

A successful request returns a document object in JSON. The most important fields for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is document.chunked_document.chunks.

The following is the output form parsing the third page of "Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne.

{
  "document": {
  document_layout {
    blocks {
      block_id: "1"
      text_block {
        text: "WE ARE INTRODUCED 3"
        type_: "header"
      }
      page_span {
        page_start: 1
        page_end: 1
      }
    }
    blocks {
      block_id: "2"
      page_span {
        page_start: 1
        page_end: 1
      }
      image_block {
        mime_type: "image/png"
        annotations {
          description: "This is an ink drawing depicting Winnie-the-Pooh sitting outside his house.\n\nHere are the facts and conclusions that can be derived from the image:\n\n*   **Character:** The central figure is a bear, identifiable as Winnie-the-Pooh, sitting on a log.\n*   **Location:** He is positioned outside what appears to be a small, rustic shelter or house.\n*   **Signage:** Above the doorway of the shelter, there is a sign that reads \"MR SANDERZ\". Below this sign, there is another partial sign visible, where the letters \"RNIG\" and \"ALSO\" can be seen.\n*   **Doorbell:** To the left of the doorway, a bell is hanging, indicating a doorbell mechanism.\n*   **Setting:** The dwelling is surrounded by what looks like brush, trees, and general wilderness, suggested by the lines representing foliage and twigs.\n*   **Log:** Pooh is seated on a cut log or tree trunk. To the left of this log, there are other smaller logs or branches piled up.\n*   **Style:** The image is a black and white line drawing, characteristic of classic book illustrations."
        }
        blob_asset_id: "blob_1"
      }
    }
    blocks {
      block_id: "3"
      text_block {
        text: ""Winnie-the