Actual Capture — Paper Receipts: Scan API Developer Guide

This guide covers server-side receipt processing via the Scan API. Use this when you need to process receipt images without a mobile SDK, such as from a web app, file transfer, or batch pipeline.

How It Works

1. Submit — Send receipt images to the Scan API as file uploads or publicly accessible URLs.
2. Extract — The API processes the image and returns structured JSON with merchant, date, total, line items, payment method, and more.
3. Enrich (optional) — If Product Intelligence is enabled, extracted line items are matched against the product catalog for UPC, brand, category, and normalized product names.

Authentication

Every request requires your license_key in the request body. Obtain your key from your Actual account manager or via the Developer Hub.

Single-Frame Requests

Send one receipt image with frame_idx=1 and last_frame=true. The API returns structured JSON with all extracted data.

Image upload (multipart form-data):

curl -X POST "https://api.blinkreceipt.com/v14" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -F "license_key=your_license_key" \
  -F "image=@receipt.jpg" \
  -F "frame_idx=1" \
  -F "last_frame=true"

curl -X POST "https://api.blinkreceipt.com/v14" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -F "license_key=your_license_key" \
  -F "image=@receipt.jpg" \
  -F "frame_idx=1" \
  -F "last_frame=true"

Image URL (application/x-www-form-urlencoded):

curl -X POST "https://api.blinkreceipt.com/v14" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "license_key=your_license_key" \
  -d "image_urls[0]=https://example.com/receipt.jpg" \
  -d "detect_duplicates=true"

curl -X POST "https://api.blinkreceipt.com/v14" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "license_key=your_license_key" \
  -d "image_urls[0]=https://example.com/receipt.jpg" \
  -d "detect_duplicates=true"

Multi-Frame Requests (Long Receipts)

For receipts that span multiple images:

1. Submit the first frame with frame_idx=1 and last_frame=false.
2. Save the blink_receipt_id from the response.
3. Submit subsequent frames with the same blink_receipt_id, incrementing frame_idx.
4. Set last_frame=true on the final frame.

Frames must be submitted in order. If you don’t know the last frame during real-time processing, make a final call with just the license_key, blink_receipt_id, and last_frame=true.

Request Parameters

Image Upload (multipart/form-data)

Image URL (application/x-www-form-urlencoded)

Duplicate Detection

Enable detect_duplicates=true in your request to check whether a receipt has been submitted before. The response includes isDuplicate and duplicateBlinkReceiptIds if a match is found. Duplicate detection uses trip and basket data and checks within a 2-week window across your instance.

Image Requirements

• Formats: PNG or JPEG
• Maximum size: 10 MB per image
• Higher quality images (good lighting, minimal blur, flat receipt) produce better results

Response

The API returns a JSON object with:

• Trip-level fields: merchant name, date, time, total, subtotal, tax, payment method, store location, transaction ID, cashier, register
• Basket-level fields: product descriptions, quantities, prices, UPCs (with Product Intelligence)
• Confidence scores: trip_confidence, item_confidence, ocr_confidence
• Quality indicators: is_receipt, is_blurry, is_screen, is_fraudulent, is_duplicate

Scan API Reference (SwaggerHub)

Receipt Quality & Feedback

Testing Recommendations

• Test with both high-quality and low-quality images to understand accuracy thresholds
• Test multi-frame submissions with long receipts
• Test duplicate detection by submitting the same receipt twice
• Test with various receipt types: thermal, inkjet, laser-printed

Implementation Timeline

Related

• Actual Capture — Paper Receipts: iOS Developer Guide
• Actual Capture — Paper Receipts: Android Developer Guide