Can I try it without making an account?

Yes. The playground compiles real documents without signing up. An account is only needed to save projects, invite co-authors or use the API.

Can I bring a project over from Overleaf?

Yes. Download the project as a zip from Overleaf and import it from your projects page.

Which LaTeX packages can I use?

A complete TeX Live installation, so several thousand packages are already there. If it compiles in a standard TeX Live, it compiles here.

What is in the free plan, and what happens when I reach it?

Fifteen compilations and five assistant requests a month, five projects, and a thirty second compile timeout. The free plan stops at the limit rather than charging you. Pro is $4.99 a month with a two minute timeout and continues past the included quota at five cents a compilation.

Is my writing stored on your servers?

Project files are stored so you can come back to them, and you can delete a project or your whole account at any time. Playground documents are not kept: the source and the PDF are discarded once the compile has been returned.

\usepackage{formatex}

LaTeX without the guesswork.

The online LaTeX editor for theses and papers. It compiles in seconds, and when something breaks it tells you why, with the fix.

Start writing free Try it without an account

Free plan, no card. Unlimited compiles in the editor.

The FormaTeX editor with the LaTeX source of a paper beside its compiled PDF

Figure 1

Type on the left. Read the page on the right. The real TeX Live runs behind it, so what you see is what prints. A compile takes seconds and there is nothing to install.

Figure 2

When it breaks, it tells you why. A missing package or a stray brace gets plain words and a one-click fix, shown as a diff you can accept or dismiss.

Figure 3

Never begin from a blank file. More than 60 templates for theses, papers, CVs, letters and invoices. Fork one and it is already a real project.

Figure 4

Let your AI do the typesetting. An MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code and more, plus a REST API for everything else. Your assistant writes the LaTeX, FormaTeX returns the PDF.

Figure 1
Type on the left. Read the page on the right. The real TeX Live runs behind it, so what you see is what prints. A compile takes seconds and there is nothing to install.
Figure 2
When it breaks, it tells you why. A missing package or a stray brace gets plain words and a one-click fix, shown as a diff you can accept or dismiss.
Figure 3
Never begin from a blank file. More than 60 templates for theses, papers, CVs, letters and invoices. Fork one and it is already a real project.
Figure 4
Let your AI do the typesetting. An MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code and more, plus a REST API for everything else. Your assistant writes the LaTeX, FormaTeX returns the PDF.

\section{Why FormaTeX}

The parts that waste your afternoon.

What gets in the way when you write in LaTeX, and what happens to it here.

Try it without an account

A 5 GB TeX distribution to install and keep working
Nothing to install.
Open a document in the browser and compile. Nothing on your machine to update, break, or set up again on a new laptop.
Cryptic errors with no explanation
Errors in plain language, with the fix.
The assistant reads the log, names the root cause and hands you the corrected line, so you stop guessing what "Undefined control sequence" meant.
Overleaf's free tier runs out fast
A complete editor, free.
Multi-file projects, live preview, outline panel, symbol palette and file history, on the free plan, with no card.
Mailing versions back and forth with a co-author
Everyone in the same document.
Invite co-authors by email, set editor or viewer roles, and see who is in the file. Changes sync live across every open session. Sharing is on paid plans, from Pro.

\section{How it works}

From a blank page to a finished paper.

Open one of the templates and replace the text, or import an existing Overleaf project as a zip.
Your source sits on one side and the compiled page on the other. Press Run, or switch on auto-compile and the page refreshes a moment after you stop typing. Your work saves itself.
Send them a link, pick who can edit and who can only read, and keep writing while they do.

Start writing free

The import dialog with an Overleaf zip chosen: its files listed, main.tex detected, and the project name ready to confirm. — The real import dialog. The zip is read in your browser before anything uploads.

The editor with a short LaTeX file on the left and its compiled page on the right. — The real import dialog. The zip is read in your browser before anything uploads.

Start from a template, or bring your project.
Open one of the templates and replace the text, or import an existing Overleaf project as a zip.
The real import dialog. The zip is read in your browser before anything uploads.
Write, and watch the page take shape.
Your source sits on one side and the compiled page on the other. Press Run, or switch on auto-compile and the page refreshes a moment after you stop typing. Your work saves itself.
A real edit and a real recompile: 0.65 s.
Bring in your co-authors.
Send them a link, pick who can edit and who can only read, and keep writing while they do.
Sharing is on paid plans: up to 3 collaborators per project on Pro, 6 on Max.

Start writing free

\section{Use cases}

Who is writing in it.

The same editor, doing rather different jobs.

Thesis and dissertation writers

Graduate students, over months rather than days

A long document that has to survive chapters, figures, a bibliography and a supervisor's comments. Start from the dissertation template, keep everything in one project, and hand your supervisor a link instead of a fourteenth attachment.

Papers going out to journals

Researchers preparing a submission

Conference and journal manuscripts have their own classes and their own ways of breaking. Start from the manuscript template, and when the compile fails at midnight before the deadline, read the error in plain language instead of decoding the log.

Course material and problem sets

Lecturers, teaching assistants, tutors

Lecture notes, exam sheets and weekly problem sets, all heavy on mathematics and all needed again next term. Keep them as projects, reuse the preamble, and compile a fresh PDF whenever the numbers change.

\section{Features}

The editor, and the API under it.

Write in the browser, or drive the same compiler from your own code.

Errors explained, with the fix.

Ask what went wrong and the assistant names the cause and hands back the corrected line, with your document as context.

$The assistant panel in the editor: the question "Why is the sum missing from my equation?" and a reply that names \summ as the cause and offers \sum, with Insert and Copy buttons.$

The compiled page as written: the equation has lost its summation sign. — As written

The compiled page after the fix: the equation has its summation sign. — Corrected

Comments on the line they are about.

Invite editors or viewers, or send a read-only link to a supervisor. A comment is anchored to its line and can be resolved when it is done.

The comments panel with two comments from two co-authors, each anchored to a line of main.tex, one of them resolved.

Sharing is on paid plans, from Pro.

See who changed what.

Every save is kept with its author. Open any entry and read the change word for word, so a co-author's edit is never a surprise.

The file history panel: edits to main.tex by two co-authors, with one entry open to show the line that changed, a page margin from 1in to 2.5cm.

Two accounts, one file.

Mathematics, set the way it should be.

You write the markup; TeX handles the spacing, the alignment and the numbering of a displayed equation.

Source

\begin{align}
  \eta_{t+1} &= \frac{\eta_t}
    {\sqrt{1+\beta\,\|g_t\|^2}} \\
  G_t &= \sum_{s\le t}\|g_s\|^2
\end{align}

The page

$The page the markup compiled to: two equations set one above the other, aligned on the equals sign and numbered (1) and (2).$

One real compile: this source, this page.

Your AI agent, LaTeX-native.

Claude, Cursor, Codex and n8n compile through the Model Context Protocol, with the same engines and the same quota.

Write a one-page invoice for Acme and compile it.

compile_latex (formatex-mcp 1.1.1)

engine: "pdflatex", latex: "\documentclass[11pt]{article}…"

Compilation successful. Engine: pdflatex, Duration: 325 ms, PDF size: 42628 bytes

The invoice page the call returned: three line items and a total.

A recorded run: formatex-mcp 1.1.1, 13 tools.

Compile from your own code.

One endpoint, four engines, sync or async. Post LaTeX, get a PDF back.

jq -Rs '{latex: ., engine: "pdflatex"}' \
  invoice.tex > payload.json

curl https://api.formatex.io/api/v1/compile \
  -H "X-API-Key: $FORMATEX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @payload.json -o invoice.pdf

import os, requests

url = "https://api.formatex.io/api/v1/compile"
key = os.environ["FORMATEX_API_KEY"]
latex = open("invoice.tex").read()

res = requests.post(
    url,
    headers={"X-API-Key": key},
    json={"latex": latex, "engine": "pdflatex"},
)
res.raise_for_status()
open("invoice.pdf", "wb").write(res.content)

import fs from "node:fs/promises";

const url = "https://api.formatex.io/api/v1/compile";
const latex = await fs.readFile("invoice.tex", "utf8");
const payload = { latex, engine: "pdflatex" };

const res = await fetch(url, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": process.env.FORMATEX_API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify(payload),
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(await res.text());
const pdf = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
await fs.writeFile("invoice.pdf", pdf);

const url = "https://api.formatex.io/api/v1/compile"
key := os.Getenv("FORMATEX_API_KEY")

latex, _ := os.ReadFile("invoice.tex")
payload, _ := json.Marshal(map[string]string{
	"latex": string(latex), "engine": "pdflatex",
})

body := bytes.NewReader(payload)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, body)
req.Header.Set("X-API-Key", key)
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
pdf, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
os.WriteFile("invoice.pdf", pdf, 0o644)

Response200 OK

Content-Type: application/pdf
X-Compile-Duration-Ms: 316
X-Job-Id: aa7341dd-f6cc-4f69-acfa-6b4d438b739b

The invoice page the response contains: three line items and a total. — invoice.pdf · 42.6 KB

Async

POST /api/v1/compile/async 202 { "jobId": "5251b736-…", "status": "pending" }

pdflatexxelatexlualatexlatexmk

Verified code, and a recorded response to it.

Also in the editor.

Multi-file projectschapters, figures, .bib

Citation lookupa DOI or title, BibTeX back

Snippetsyour own reusable blocks

Symbol palettewithout memorising commands

Outline paneljump by section

Export.zip or PDF, any time

Start writing free Try it without an account

\section{Engines}

Four LaTeX engines.

Pick the right tool for each document.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}

\title{Fourier Analysis}
\author{A. Mercier}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section{Transform Definition}
The Fourier transform of $f(t)$ is:
\[
  \hat{f}(\xi) = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}
    f(t)\, e^{-2\pi i \xi t}\, dt
\]

\section{Parseval's Theorem}
For square-integrable functions:
\[ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} |f(t)|^2\, dt
   = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} |\hat{f}(\xi)|^2\, d\xi \]

\end{document}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}

\setmainlanguage{english}
\setotherlanguage{arabic}
\setmainfont{Noto Serif}
\newfontfamily\arabicfont[Script=Arabic]{Noto Naskh Arabic}

\begin{document}

\section{Multilingual Typesetting}
XeLaTeX handles Unicode natively, enabling seamless
mixing of scripts and writing systems. The line
below is Arabic, set right to left.

\begin{Arabic}
مرحباً بالعالم
\end{Arabic}

Custom OpenType features and any system font are
available via the \texttt{fontspec} package.

\end{document}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{luacode, booktabs}

\begin{document}

\section{Dynamic Table via Lua}

\begin{luacode}
  local rows = {
    {"Product", "Q1",  "Q2",  "Q3" },
    {"Alpha",   "120", "145", "162"},
    {"Beta",    "98",  "110", "134"},
    {"Gamma",   "55",  "72",  "89" },
  }
  tex.print("\\begin{tabular}{lrrr}")
  tex.print("\\toprule")
  for i, row in ipairs(rows) do
    tex.print(table.concat(row, " & ") .. " \\\\")
    if i == 1 then tex.print("\\midrule") end
  end
  tex.print("\\bottomrule")
  tex.print("\\end{tabular}")
\end{luacode}

\end{document}

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[backend=biber, style=apa]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}
The work by~\cite{knuth1984} established the principles
of typographic quality that \LaTeX{} implements.
Later, \cite{lamport1994} formalized the macro layer
now universal in academic publishing.

\section{Results}
\label{sec:results}
Cross-references like \autoref{sec:results} resolve
correctly — latexmk reruns as many times as needed,
handling BibTeX, indices, and \texttt{hyperref} links.

\printbibliography

\end{document}

pdfLaTeX

The workhorse. Fast, reliable, and battle-tested with the widest package support.

Standard documentsMathType1 fonts

The page pdfLaTeX produces: a title, two numbered sections and two displayed equations. — What it produces

One pass. No extra packages -- a plain preamble is the whole setup.

\section{Templates}

Start from a page that already looks right.

More than sixty of them, kept current. Theses, conference manuscripts, lecture notes, problem sets, CVs.

Course Lecture Noteslatexmk

Open this template Browse all the templates

\section{For developers}

There is an API under all of this.

The same compiler runs behind a REST endpoint, four engines, SDKs and an MCP server, so your scripts and agents can produce PDFs too.

Read the API docs

REST
A REST endpoint.
Send LaTeX, get a PDF back. Synchronously, or as an async job you poll.
API reference
POST https://api.formatex.io/api/v1/compile
SDK
SDKs for Node.js and Python.
A client for each, so a compile is one call from your own code.
Node.js Python
$ npm install formatex-sdk
$ pip install formatex
MCP
An MCP server.
13 tools for Claude, Cursor, Codex and n8n, hosted over HTTP or run as a local binary.
Set it up
https://mcp.formatex.io/mcp

\section{Pricing}

What it costs.

Start free. Move up when the documents get bigger.

MonthlyAnnual-17%

Free

Try it out

API compilations/mo

AI requests/mo

Unlimited editor compilations
5 projects
5 files per project
30 second compile timeout
pdflatex and xelatex
1 MB files
Community support
Co-authors

Start writing free

Pro

For a paper or a thesis

$4.99/mo

500

API compilations/mo

150

AI requests/mo

Unlimited editor compilations
50 projects
30 files per project
Up to 3 co-authors
2 minute compile timeout
All four engines
10 MB files
3 private templates

Start writing free

MaxRecommended

For long documents and groups

$14.99/mo

2,000

API compilations/mo

1,000

AI requests/mo

Unlimited editor compilations
200 projects
100 files per project
Up to 6 co-authors
5 minute compile timeout
All four engines
25 MB files
25 private templates

Start writing free

Enterprise

For departments and labs

$49.99/mo

15,000

API compilations/mo

5,000

AI requests/mo

Unlimited editor compilations
Unlimited projects
300 files per project
Up to 15 co-authors
5 minute compile timeout
All four engines
99.9% uptime commitment
Dedicated support

Talk to sales

No credit card required
Cancel anytime
Import Overleaf zips, up to your plan's file limit

See full pricing details

\section{FAQ}

Common questions.

What people ask before their first document.

Still stuck?

Talk to us

No. A full TeX Live runs on our side, so you open a browser and compile. Nothing to install, configure or reinstall when you change machine.

\end{document}

Your first PDF. In your browser.

Start from a template or paste what you already have. Your first PDF is about a minute away.

Start writing free Try it without an account

No credit card requiredUnlimited editor compilationsCancel anytime

LaTeX without the guesswork.

From blank page to finished PDF.

The parts that waste your afternoon.

From a blank page to a finished paper.

1Start from a template, or bring your project.

2Write, and watch the page take shape.

3Bring in your co-authors.

1Start from a template, or bring your project.

2Write, and watch the page take shape.

3Bring in your co-authors.

Who is writing in it.

Thesis and dissertation writers

Papers going out to journals

Course material and problem sets

The editor, and the API under it.

Errors explained, with the fix.

Comments on the line they are about.

See who changed what.

Mathematics, set the way it should be.

Your AI agent, LaTeX-native.

Compile from your own code.

Also in the editor.

Four LaTeX engines.

Start from a page that already looks right.

There is an API under all of this.

A REST endpoint.

SDKs for Node.js and Python.

An MCP server.

What it costs.

Common questions.

Do I need to install LaTeX?

Can I try it without making an account?

Can I bring a project over from Overleaf?

Which LaTeX packages can I use?

What is in the free plan, and what happens when I reach it?

Is my writing stored on your servers?

Your first PDF. In your browser.

Start from a template, or bring your project.

Write, and watch the page take shape.

Bring in your co-authors.