Bank Check OCR API: request, response, and field reference

1. Submit a cheque

Send a multipart POST to the provisioned base URL. The example uses shell variables so credentials are not hard-coded.

export BASE_URL="https://your-chequedb-host"
export CHEQUEDB_API_KEY="your_api_key"

curl -X POST "$BASE_URL/v1/extract" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CHEQUEDB_API_KEY" \
  -F "front_image=@cheque-front.jpg" \
  -F "back_image=@cheque-back.jpg" \
  -F 'options={
    "extract_micr": true,
    "extract_amount": true,
    "extract_payee": true,
    "extract_date": true,
    "validate_amounts": true,
    "confidence_threshold": 0.85
  }'

Python example:

import os
import json
import requests

base_url = os.environ["CHEQUEDB_BASE_URL"].rstrip("/")
api_key = os.environ["CHEQUEDB_API_KEY"]

with open("cheque-front.jpg", "rb") as front:
    files = {"front_image": front}
    data = {
        "options": json.dumps({
            "extract_micr": True,
            "extract_amount": True,
            "extract_payee": True,
            "extract_date": True,
            "validate_amounts": True,
            "confidence_threshold": 0.85,
        })
    }
    response = requests.post(
        f"{base_url}/v1/extract",
        headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}"},
        files=files,
        data=data,
        timeout=30,
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    result = response.json()

print(result["extracted_data"]["payee"]["value"])
print(result["extracted_data"]["amount"]["numeric"])

2. Read the response

Every field carries a confidence score. The top-level requires_manual_review flag aggregates the field-level signals and is the canonical routing signal.

{
  "extraction_id": "ext_20260523_a1b2c3d4",
  "status": "success",
  "processing_time_ms": 310,
  "image_quality": {
    "front_score": 0.97,
    "status": "good"
  },
  "extracted_data": {
    "micr_line": {
      "raw": "⑆021000021⑈8675309001⑆1042⑈",
      "routing_number": { "value": "021000021", "confidence": 0.99 },
      "account_number": { "value": "8675309001", "confidence": 0.98 },
      "cheque_number":  { "value": "1042",       "confidence": 0.97 }
    },
    "amount": {
      "numeric":    1750.00,
      "written":    "One thousand seven hundred fifty and 00/100",
      "currency":   "USD",
      "confidence": 0.93,
      "validation": { "amounts_match": true }
    },
    "payee": {
      "value":        "Riverside Property Group",
      "confidence":   0.91,
      "needs_review": false
    },
    "date": {
      "value":      "2026-05-20",
      "confidence": 0.96,
      "validation": { "not_future": true, "not_stale": true }
    }
  },
  "validation_summary": {
    "overall_confidence":    0.95,
    "requires_manual_review": false
  }
}

Field reference

Related resources