How Pinpoint reads your resume
Pinpoint's help centre is short on numbers. It does not publish a file size limit or name a parser. What it does publish is the shortest format list in this guide, PDF and DOCX, and the fact that the summary a recruiter reads at the top of your profile is generated from your CV by software.
Pinpoint is a trademark of its owner. ATSPrep isn't affiliated with it.
Will Pinpoint read your file?
Pinpoint publishes no size limit for the application upload, so there is no number to check 1.5 MB against.
- Made by
- Pinpoint
- Parser
- Not published
- Accepts
- PDF, DOCX
- ATSPrep exports
- PDF accepted, DOCX accepted
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, upload a CV to an existing application
What Pinpoint pulls out, and what gets lost.
Your file goes in, Pinpoint fills the fields it recognises, and the line underneath types what its own documentation says goes missing on the way.
What Pinpoint accepts, with sources.
Every line below links to the page it came from. Where Pinpoint does not publish a detail, this guide leaves it out rather than guessing.
Accepted file types
Size limits
Pinpoint does not publish a size limit for resume uploads.
Form autofill
When a recruiter adds a candidate, Pinpoint can auto-fill the form from the resume, or create applications from up to 20 resumes at once and populate them with the data pulled from each one.
If a resume cannot be parsed or read, the recruiter who uploaded it gets an email listing the candidates that failed and why. Pinpoint does not document an applicant-side review of the parse.
What ATSPrep exports, and whether Pinpoint takes it
This is computed at build time by comparing our export formats to Pinpoint's published list. It is not written by hand, so it cannot drift out of date.
- PDFATSPrep exportAccepted by Pinpoint
- DOCXATSPrep exportAccepted by Pinpoint
Pinpoint takes both, so the choice is yours. PDF or DOCX: a simple rule for picking
What trips people up on Pinpoint
PDF or DOCX, nothing else
Pinpoint's help centre says the formats accepted for a CV are .pdf and .docx. There is no DOC, RTF, ODT or plain text on the list, so an old Word file needs saving as DOCX first.
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, upload a CV to an existing application · checked Oct 19, 2026Software writes the first thing a recruiter reads
The candidate profile shows a summary that Pinpoint auto-generates. Its software reads the CV when the candidate uploads it and writes a short summary of their experience and qualifications. Pinpoint says the summary is factual, with no opinions included.
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, how the candidate summary is generated · checked Oct 19, 2026A failed parse is reported to the recruiter
When a recruiter creates candidates from resumes and one cannot be parsed or read for any reason, Pinpoint emails the uploader to say which candidates failed and why. The failure is visible on their side, not yours.
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, manually add a candidate to a job · checked Oct 19, 2026No published size limit or parser
Pinpoint does not state a maximum file size for a CV or name the engine that reads it, anywhere we could find. That is recorded here as unknown, not as permission to send a heavy file.
The apply link gives it away
Pinpoint documents each employer's public job listings at company.pinpointhq.com. If the job page you are applying on sits on that domain, the employer uses Pinpoint.
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, list Pinpoint jobs on any website · checked Oct 19, 2026A custom domain can hide it
Employers can move their career site off Pinpoint's subdomain onto their own address, such as jobs.company.com, by pointing a CNAME record at custom-domain.pinpointhq.com. A company address does not rule Pinpoint out.
Source: Pinpoint Help Center, custom domain for a career site · checked Oct 19, 2026
Formatting for Pinpoint
Go through your file before you apply and tick each one off. Your ticks stay in this browser, so the list is still here for the next Pinpoint job.
They are the only two accepted formats. If your file is DOC, RTF or Pages, export it to one of them first.
The summary recruiters see first is generated from your CV. Plain job titles, employers, dates and qualifications give it something accurate to say.
Export the PDF from your editor. With no published size limit or parser to check against, a light text-based file is the safe default.
All three checked. Good luck with this one.
Once it's sent, add the job to your tracker. You'll know which version went where, and when a follow-up is fair.
Read your resume back before Pinpoint does.
Guidance is worth less than evidence. Export a PDF from the Studio and the X-Ray re-opens that exact file and shows you the text a parser recovers from it, in reading order, with anything it dropped marked.
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Pinpoint and your resume
- What is Pinpoint?
- Pinpoint is an applicant tracking system that employers use to run career sites, collect applications and manage hiring. If a job page sits on a pinpointhq.com address, the employer uses Pinpoint.
- Does Pinpoint read PDF resumes?
- Yes. PDF is one of the two CV formats Pinpoint accepts, with DOCX, and its software reads the CV on upload to generate the candidate summary.
- What file types does Pinpoint accept for a resume?
- PDF and DOCX. Pinpoint's help centre says the formats accepted for a CV are .pdf and .docx.
- What is the Pinpoint resume size limit?
- Pinpoint does not publish one. This guide records that as unknown rather than quoting a number from elsewhere.
- Why did my resume fail to parse in Pinpoint?
- Pinpoint does not publish a list of causes. It says that when a resume cannot be parsed or read for any reason, the recruiter who uploaded it receives an email with the reasons. A file that is not PDF or DOCX is outside the accepted list.
- How is the Pinpoint candidate summary generated?
- Pinpoint's software reads the CV when the candidate uploads it and creates a short, factual summary of their experience and qualifications, with no opinions included.
- How can I tell if an employer uses Pinpoint?
- Look at the job page URL. Pinpoint documents employers' public job listings at company.pinpointhq.com. Some employers move their career site to their own domain, such as jobs.company.com, so a company address does not rule Pinpoint out.
How the rest of them read a resume
- ComeetComeet, now Spark Hire Recruit, takes PDF, DOC and DOCX resumes and parses them in 39 listed languages. Arabic and Korean are not among them, and a file that is not a true PDF may not even open.3 file types
- GreenhouseGreenhouse takes PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF and TXT, and will not parse a resume larger than 2.5 MB. Its own support docs name what makes a parse fail: columns, contact details in a header, abbreviated job titles and more.5 file types
- Oracle TaleoOracle ships Taleo with a 1 MB default attachment limit and no resume parser of its own. Parsing only works if the employer has enabled a third-party partner integration, so behaviour differs from one Taleo site to the next.8 file types · Varies by employer
- SmartRecruitersSmartRecruiters accepts PDF, DOC, DOCX, RTF, JPG and PNG at 2 MB per file, and its CEO named Textkernel as the parsing engine, whose own documentation warns about PDFs more bluntly than any resume blog does.6 file types · Textkernel
Start from an example that Pinpoint can read.
Each one is a single-column document, scored by the same checks the Studio runs.