Passport OCR

0.75 ICper page

v2.0.5-20260825 Active Since Feb 2023 Updated 25 Aug 2026 15,000 passports/hour 95.5% verified reads Whitepaper (PDF) POST /v3/store/ekyc/passport

Mobile & Web SDK available

Skip the camera work — our free open-source eKYC SDK (Web, Flutter, iOS, Android & React Native) auto-captures documents and faces and calls this API for you. View on GitHub.

The Passport OCR API reads the machine-readable zone (MRZ) of any ICAO 9303 passport and returns the holder's details — number, names, dates, nationality — together with the face photograph and a set of verification flags. A passport MRZ is self-validating: every key field carries its own check digit, and the valid_* flags report whether each returned value satisfies it, so a read can be trusted arithmetically rather than on faith. The production service answers in 0.4 seconds (median) and sustains 15,000 passports per hour; on the 266-passport benchmark, 95.5 percent of reads return the number, date of birth, and expiry all verified against their check digits, and 100 percent of MRZs parse. See Accuracy.

Live Demo

Upload a passport photo page, or use the specimen below.

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Example Images (Click to try)

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API Key

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Endpoint URL

cURL Command

Upload Passport

Try the SDK (Live Camera)

Prefer not to upload a file? The free open-source iApp eKYC Web SDK captures the passport data page automatically from your camera — it detects the page boundary, waits for a sharp stable frame, perspective-corrects the image, and submits it to this API. See more flows on the full SDK live demo page.

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Quick Start

You need an API key from the API Key Management page. Send the image as multipart/form-data:

curl -X POST https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@passport.jpg"

{
    "number": "AC1062346",
    "valid_number": true,
    "surname": "POSHNASWADIWONG",
    "names": "MATHANIDA",
    "date_of_birth": "10/07/93",
    "valid_date_of_birth": true,
    "expiration_date": "04/03/25",
    "valid_expiration_date": true,
    "nationality": "THA",
    "valid_composite": true
}

valid_number is the field to act on: when it is false, the returned number cannot belong to any real passport and the image should be re-captured rather than the value trusted. The full response schema is in the Technical Reference.

Endpoints and Pricing

Endpoint	Output	Price
POST /v3/store/ekyc/passport	JSON with holder details, check-digit verification flags, and the face photograph	0.75 IC per page

The legacy paths /passport-ocr, /passport-ocr/v2, and /passport-ocr/v2/ocr remain supported at the same price and reach the same service. For on-premise deployment, see Data Security.

Performance

Measured on the production service, August 2026.

Metric	Value
Median processing time	0.4 s per passport
Sustained throughput	4.3 passports per second (15,000 passports per hour)
Supported input formats	JPEG, JPG, PNG, WEBP, PDF (one result per page)
Coverage	Any ICAO 9303 machine-readable passport

Accuracy

A passport MRZ carries its own check digits, so correctness is measured arithmetically on the 266-passport benchmark — no reference transcription and no judgement calls: a returned field either satisfies the check digit printed on the passport or it does not.

Measure	v2.0.3
MRZ parsed	100%
Document number verified	96.2%
Date of birth verified	99.2%
Expiry date verified	98.1%
Personal number verified	98.5%
Number, birth date, and expiry all verified	95.5%

The August 2026 release raised the fully-verified rate from 58.6 percent to 95.5 percent — a returned document number that fails its check digit cannot be real, and such reads dropped from 30 percent of passports to under 4. The measure is deliberately conservative: a check digit is one decimal digit, so roughly one wrong read in ten passes it by coincidence, meaning true accuracy is slightly below these figures in any release measured this way. Full methodology, the engine and validation contributions measured separately, and the safety properties of the repair logic are published in the whitepaper:

Download the benchmark whitepaper (PDF)

Data Security and Compliance

• The service is GDPR and PDPA compliant.
• Uploaded images are processed in memory and are not retained after the response is returned.
• A fully self-contained on-premise deployment is available, in which no passport data leaves your infrastructure. Contact us for details.

Technical Reference

Request

POST with multipart/form-data and the apikey header.

Parameter	Required	Description
file	Yes	Passport image or PDF (JPG, JPEG, PNG, WEBP, PDF). A PDF returns one entry per page, each with page and info
fields	No	Comma-separated subset of fields to return; all are returned if omitted
options	No	Comma-separated. segmentation corrects badly oriented images (roughly 2× slower); no_thresh skips pre-processing of the MRZ crop

Response

200 with a flat JSON object.

Holder details

Field	Description
number	Passport number
surname	Surname, as printed in the MRZ
names	Given names
date_of_birth	DD/MM/YY
expiration_date	DD/MM/YY
sex	M, F, or < if unspecified
nationality	ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
country	Issuing country, ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
personal_number	Optional personal number; blank on many passports
type	Document type as printed in the MRZ, P< for an ordinary passport
mrz_type	MRZ layout, TD3 for passports
face	Face photograph, Base64 JPEG

Verification — whether each field agrees with its check digit, and the check digits as printed.

Field	Description
valid_number	Passport number agrees with its check digit
valid_date_of_birth	Date of birth agrees with its check digit
valid_expiration_date	Expiry date agrees with its check digit
valid_personal_number	Personal number agrees with its check digit
valid_composite	The MRZ as a whole agrees with its composite check digit
valid_score	Percentage of the check digits that verified, 0–100
check_number, check_date_of_birth, check_expiration_date, check_personal_number, check_composite	The printed check digits

Diagnostics

Field	Description
raw_text	The two MRZ lines, 44 characters each
method	How the MRZ band was located
inference	Processing time in seconds
file_name, message, status_code	Success / 200 on the happy path

When no MRZ can be located the request still returns 200 with an Error Message field; options=segmentation usually resolves badly oriented images.

Response Codes

Status Code	Description
200	Success (including no-MRZ-found, reported in the body)
415	Unsupported file type
461	No file attached
462	Request form did not contain a file key

Code Examples

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport \
  -H "apikey: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@passport.jpg"

Python

import requests

url = "https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport"
headers = {"apikey": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
files = {"file": open("passport.jpg", "rb")}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, files=files)
result = response.json()
if not result.get("valid_number"):
    print("Re-capture: the number failed its check digit")
print(result)

JavaScript

const axios = require("axios");
const FormData = require("form-data");
const fs = require("fs");

const data = new FormData();
data.append("file", fs.createReadStream("passport.jpg"));

axios.post("https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport", data, {
    headers: { apikey: "YOUR_API_KEY", ...data.getHeaders() },
})
    .then((response) => console.log(response.data))
    .catch((error) => console.log(error));

PHP

<?php
$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
    CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport',
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_POST => true,
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array(
        'file' => new CURLFILE('passport.jpg')
    ),
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
        'apikey: YOUR_API_KEY'
    ),
));

$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
echo $response;
?>

Swift

import Foundation

let url = URL(string: "https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport")!
var request = URLRequest(url: url)
request.httpMethod = "POST"
request.addValue("YOUR_API_KEY", forHTTPHeaderField: "apikey")

let boundary = "Boundary-\(UUID().uuidString)"
request.setValue("multipart/form-data; boundary=\(boundary)", forHTTPHeaderField: "Content-Type")

var body = Data()
body.append("--\(boundary)\r\n".data(using: .utf8)!)
body.append("Content-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file\"; filename=\"passport.jpg\"\r\n".data(using: .utf8)!)
body.append("Content-Type: image/jpeg\r\n\r\n".data(using: .utf8)!)
if let fileData = try? Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: "passport.jpg")) {
    body.append(fileData)
}
body.append("\r\n--\(boundary)--\r\n".data(using: .utf8)!)
request.httpBody = body

URLSession.shared.dataTask(with: request) { data, response, error in
    if let data = data {
        print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!)
    }
}.resume()

Kotlin

import okhttp3.*
import okhttp3.MediaType.Companion.toMediaTypeOrNull
import okhttp3.RequestBody.Companion.asRequestBody
import java.io.File

val client = OkHttpClient()
val file = File("passport.jpg")

val requestBody = MultipartBody.Builder()
    .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
    .addFormDataPart("file", file.name, file.asRequestBody("image/jpeg".toMediaTypeOrNull()))
    .build()

val request = Request.Builder()
    .url("https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport")
    .addHeader("apikey", "YOUR_API_KEY")
    .post(requestBody)
    .build()

client.newCall(request).execute().use { response ->
    println(response.body?.string())
}

Java

import okhttp3.*;
import java.io.File;

OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
File file = new File("passport.jpg");

RequestBody requestBody = new MultipartBody.Builder()
    .setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
    .addFormDataPart("file", file.getName(),
        RequestBody.create(MediaType.parse("image/jpeg"), file))
    .build();

Request request = new Request.Builder()
    .url("https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport")
    .addHeader("apikey", "YOUR_API_KEY")
    .post(requestBody)
    .build();

try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
    System.out.println(response.body().string());
}

Dart

import 'package:http/http.dart' as http;

var request = http.MultipartRequest(
    'POST',
    Uri.parse('https://api.iapp.co.th/v3/store/ekyc/passport'),
);
request.files.add(await http.MultipartFile.fromPath('file', 'passport.jpg'));
request.headers.addAll({'apikey': 'YOUR_API_KEY'});

var response = await request.send();
print(await response.stream.bytesToString());

Limitations

• Reads the machine-readable zone only; visual-zone text outside the MRZ is not extracted.
• Two-digit years in the DD/MM/YY dates are a property of the MRZ standard, which does not encode the century.
• Badly oriented or skewed captures may need options=segmentation, at roughly double the processing time.

Changelog

Version	Date	Changes
v2.0.5-20260825	25 Aug 2026	The public endpoint now serves the unified passport service. Dates return as DD/MM/YY — the format this service has returned to its integrators since 2023; callers that parsed the interim YYMMDD form must update. Adds type, mrz_type, method, and valid_score (percentage of check digits verified). Sustained throughput increased to 15,000 passports per hour.
v2.0.3-20260825	25 Aug 2026	Upgraded recognition and added structural MRZ validation. Fully check-digit-verified reads (number, birth date, and expiry together) rose from 58.6% to 95.5% on the 266-passport benchmark, and every MRZ now parses. Median processing time reduced from 0.26 s to 0.2 s. The documented valid_date_of_birth and valid_expiration_date fields are now actually returned. Fully self-contained on-premise deployment available.
v2.0	Feb 2023	MRZ extraction with face image and check-digit flags.