Exporting to PDF
The PDF export is for when you want to take a search off the platform — share with a partner, present to a client, attach to an email, print. Hilal’s PDFs are clean, branded, and structured for scanning.
In this guide:
- Trigger an export
- What the PDF contains
- File expiry (1 hour)
- Cost
Step 1: Trigger an export
From any results page (search results, expanded search, history detail), top-right: Export → PDF.
You’ll get a confirmation dialog showing:
- The number of products that will be in the PDF.
- The credit cost (1 credit).
- A note that the file expires in 1 hour.
Confirm. The job enqueues and you get a job UUID.
Step 2: Wait for generation
Generation runs in a background worker (off the API thread, so it doesn’t block your UI). Most exports finish in 5–30 seconds.
Three statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| generating | Worker is building the file. |
| ready | File is built and downloadable. |
| failed | Generation errored. Credit is refunded. |
| expired | File was built but is now > 1 hour old; download link is gone. |
The Exports tab in the sidebar shows live status. → Status & downloads
Step 3: Download
When status flips to ready, the row in the Exports tab shows a Download button. Tap → the PDF downloads.
The download link is direct (no sign-in required for a 1-hour window) — share it with anyone you’d like to give read-only access for that window.
What the PDF contains
A typical PDF (one product per page or two, depending on density):
Cover page
- Hilal Software logo and Product Research branding.
- Search context: keyword, marketplace, filters, weights, timestamp.
- Total result count and overall data-quality summary.
One page per product
- Image, title, brand, ASIN.
- SellerScore (big), six sub-score chips.
- Profitability table (sell price, COGS estimate, fees, net margin, net profit).
- Listing metadata (BSR, reviews, rating, fulfillment).
- AI brief (opportunity, risks, positioning, sourcing).
- Score reasoning paragraph.
Footer
- Hilal logo and footer attribution.
- Page numbers.
- Generation timestamp.
The PDF is not editable — it’s a snapshot of the search at the moment of generation. If you need editable, use CSV.
File expiry: 1 hour
The download link expires 1 hour after generation. After expiry:
- The link returns a 410 Gone.
- The file is deleted from storage.
- The export row in the Exports tab shows expired.
If you need the PDF after expiry, regenerate it (1 more credit). The export job is fast enough that this isn’t a hardship in practice.
Why the 1-hour expiry? Storage cost discipline + privacy. Sellers who export sensitive niche research don’t want files lingering on Hilal’s servers indefinitely.
Cost
PDF generation costs 1 credit. Includes:
- The export itself.
- The download (free for the 1-hour window).
- Regeneration if it fails (the failed credit is refunded automatically).
If you export the same search twice (e.g., once to PDF and once to CSV), each export is its own job and credits are charged separately.
Tips
- Tune the search before exporting. A 1-credit export of a search that returned the wrong products is wasted.
- Use Expand if you want a longer PDF. Standard search exports to 10-product PDFs; expanded searches to 50+. For client decks, the longer format is usually better.
- Save the URL for short-term sharing. Within the 1-hour window, the URL works for anyone. Past that, it’s gone.
- Don’t email the URL. A 1-hour expiry is too short for email follow-ups; send the actual file instead.