Automatically Remove Specific Pages from PDFs in Google Drive Using n8n and PDF.co

Step 1: Set Up Google Drive Folders

• Create INPUT_FOLDER and OUTPUT_FOLDER in Google Drive.
• Copy the folder IDs from their URLs.

Success looks like: Two accessible folders with their IDs ready to use in n8n.

Step 2: Google Drive Trigger

Node: Google Drive Trigger Settings:

• Trigger On: Specific Folder
• Folder to Watch: INPUT_FOLDER
• Event: File Created
• Poll Time: Every Minute

Result: The workflow starts whenever a new PDF is uploaded to the input folder.

Step 3: Search for Target Text

Node: PDF.co API – Search in PDF Settings:

• Operation: Search in PDF
• URL: ={{ $json.webContentLink }}
• Search String: e.g. Atlas Office Solutions (can be dynamic too)

Result: PDF.co returns all pages containing the target string.

Sample output:

{

"body": [

{ "pageIndex": 2 },

{ "pageIndex": 5 }

]

}

Step 4: Extract Page Indexes

Node: Code (JavaScript) This node converts the list of page indexes into a clean, comma-separated string.

const items = $input.all();

const body = items[0].json.body || [];

const pageIndexes = body.map(entry => entry.pageIndex);

pageIndexes.sort((a, b) => a - b);

return [{ json: { pageIndexes: pageIndexes.join(',') } }];

Result:

{

"pageIndexes": "2,5"

}

Step 5: Delete Pages

Node: PDF.co API – Delete PDF Pages Settings:

• URL: ={{ $('Google Drive Trigger').item.json.webContentLink }}
• Pages: ={{ $json.pageIndexes }}

Result: PDF.co returns a URL to the updated PDF without the unwanted pages:

{

"url": "https://pdf-co-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/Cleaned_File.pdf",

"name": "Cleaned_MyDocument.pdf"

}

Step 6: Download File

Node: HTTP Request

Settings:

• Method: GET
• URL: ={{ $json.url }}

Result: n8n retrieves the binary version of the cleaned PDF.

Step 7: Upload to Google Drive

Node: Google Drive – Upload

Settings:

• Input Data Field: data
• File Name: Cleaned_{{ $json.name }}
• Folder: OUTPUT_FOLDER
• Drive: My Drive

Result: The processed PDF appears in the output folder automatically.

Step 8: Test the Automation

• Upload a sample PDF to your INPUT folder.
• Wait 30–60 seconds.
• Check your OUTPUT folder — the unwanted pages are gone.