Extract text from API files
To convert your API file to another format, you need Adobe Acrobat or other Plugin software.
To convert other file formats to the "Application Extension" file type, you need software like Adobe Acrobat or a similar tool.
The .API file extension serves two distinctly different purposes, creating significant confusion for users. Primarily (approx. 47% of cases), it is an Adobe Acrobat Plug-in, which is essentially a Windows executable (DLL) renamed to .api. These files add specific functionality to Adobe Acrobat, such as specialized printing, form processing, or third-party integration (e.g., Enfocus PitStop). Users typically encounter friction here because these files cannot be "opened" or "read" like a document; they are binary code meant to be placed in the Acrobat plug_ins installation folder. Trying to open them in a text editor results in gibberish.
However, a growing number of .API files are actually plain text JSON or XML data responses from web services (used by platforms like Patreon or gaming mods like ScriptHookV for Grand Theft Auto V). These files are human-readable but lack the correct extension to open automatically. Users frequently need to convert these text-based API files to CSV or Excel for data analysis, or PDF for documentation/archiving. For the Adobe plug-in variant, conversion is generally impossible as it is compiled code, though developers may inspect resources using tools like Resource Hacker.
Convert.Guru analyzes your API file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted YAML, JSON, SEQU, MJS, PYX, MCP, SG, PDF and SDK files.
If you want to convert API file to MCP, SG, JSON, PDF, SDK, DLL, SO, DYLIB, BUNDLE, PLUGIN, XPI or CRX, you can use Adobe Acrobat or similar software from the "Acrobat Functionality Extension" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert LV2, DYLIB, VST, AAX, DRV, TDE, LADSPA, BUNDLE, AU, DLL, RTAS or SO files to API, try Adobe Acrobat or another comparable tool in the "Acrobat Functionality Extension" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our API converter.