Passport OCR

Reads the machine-readable zone of any ICAO 9303 passport and returns the holder's details, the photograph, and whether each field agrees with its check digit.

POST/v3/store/ekyc/passportTry it

• Price0.75 ICper page
• Measured95.5%
• Capacity15,000 passports/hour
• Served322.2Kcalls

• v2.0.5-20260825
• Updated 25 Aug 2026
• Active
• Benchmark paper (PDF)

Input

OutputPOST /v3/store/ekyc/passport

number

AA1234567

valid_number

true

surname

SPECIMEN

names

SOMCHAI

date_of_birth

01/01/90

valid_date_of_birth

true

expiration_date

31/12/30

valid_expiration_date

true

nationality

THA

valid_composite

true

Every field, under Response

Request

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

Response

200OK. The fields are explained under Response.

{
    "number": "AA1234567",
    "valid_number": true,
    "surname": "SPECIMEN",
    "names": "SOMCHAI",
    "date_of_birth": "01/01/90",
    "valid_date_of_birth": true,
    "expiration_date": "31/12/30",
    "valid_expiration_date": true,
    "nationality": "THA",
    "valid_composite": true
}

Request

multipart/form-data, one passport per request; a PDF returns one entry per page.

Headers

apikeystringrequired

Your API key, created under API Keys in the control panel.

Body

filefilerequired

The passport data page. JPEG, PNG, WEBP or PDF.

fieldsstring

A comma-separated subset of the response fields. All are returned if omitted.

optionsstring

Comma-separated. segmentation corrects a badly oriented image, at roughly twice the time; no_thresh skips the pre-processing of the MRZ crop.

The legacy paths /passport-ocr, /passport-ocr/v2 and /passport-ocr/v2/ocr reach the same service at the same price.

Response

A flat object. Act on valid_number: when it is false, the number cannot belong to a real passport, so capture the page again.

numberstring

Passport number

surnamenames

As printed in the MRZ

date_of_birthexpiration_date

DD/MM/YY; the MRZ does not encode the century

sex

M, F, or < when unspecified

nationalitycountry

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3; country is the issuer

personal_number

Blank on many passports

typemrz_type

P< for an ordinary passport; TD3 for a passport MRZ

face

The photograph, Base64 JPEG

valid_numbervalid_date_of_birthvalid_expiration_datevalid_personal_numbervalid_composite

Whether each value agrees with its check digit; valid_composite covers the MRZ as a whole

valid_score

The share of check digits that verified, 0 to 100

Diagnostics and status codes

Field	Meaning
check_number, check_date_of_birth, check_expiration_date, check_personal_number, check_composite	The check digits as printed
raw_text	The two MRZ lines, 44 characters each
method	How the MRZ band was located
inference	Seconds
file_name, message, status_code	Success and 200 on the happy path

When no MRZ can be found the request still returns 200 with an Error Message field; options=segmentation usually resolves a badly oriented image. The service's own codes: 415 unsupported file type, 461 no file attached, 462 no file key in the form.

Details

Measured

Scored on a 266-passport benchmark by the MRZ's own check digits: a returned field either satisfies the digit printed on the passport or it does not.

Measure	Result
MRZ parsed	100%
Document number verified	96.2%
Date of birth verified	99.2%
Expiry date verified	98.1%
Number, birth date and expiry all verified	95.5%
Median time	0.4 s per passport
Sustained throughput	15,000 passports per hour, production, August 2026

A check digit is one decimal digit, so about one wrong read in ten passes it by chance; true accuracy is slightly under these figures. Method: the benchmark paper (PDF).

Limits

• The machine-readable zone only; text in the visual zone is not read.

Data handling

Images are processed in memory and not kept after the response. iApp keeps no copy; consent and notice under PDPA and GDPR remain with you as the data controller. For an on-premise deployment, in which no passport leaves your network, contact us.

Changelog

Version	Date	Changes
v2.0.5-20260825	25 Aug 2026	Dates return as DD/MM/YY, the format since 2023, so a caller that parsed the interim YYMMDD form must update; adds type, mrz_type, method and valid_score.
v2.0.3-20260825	25 Aug 2026	New recognition with structural MRZ validation: fully verified reads 58.6% to 95.5%, valid_date_of_birth and valid_expiration_date returned, on-premise deployment.
v2.0	Feb 2023	MRZ extraction with the face image and check-digit flags.