# Amazon Textract vs Extend API + MCP

> Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Extend API + MCP's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Extend API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Extend API + MCP's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Extend API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do docs parse.

- Amazon Textract: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #85 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-textract.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json
- Extend API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #374 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/extend.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/extend.json

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Textract (BB)

Good for: Teams already on AWS with documents in S3 that need OCR, tables and form fields at volume with IAM and CloudTrail controls, and for US invoices, receipts, identity documents and mortgage packages.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 96 against 67
- Security & auth, 74 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 67

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: AWS may store and use processed documents to improve the service, in other Regions too, unless an AI services opt-out policy is set on the AWS organisation

### Extend API + MCP (B)

Good for: Teams building production extraction with evaluation sets and versioned processors, and for agents that need to build or tune extractors as well as run them.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 82
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 58

Watch for: Parse is billed on top of Extract, Split and Classify, so Performance Extract costs 5 credits a page


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Textract | Extend API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 67 | Amazon Textract +29 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 87 | Extend API + MCP +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 68 | Amazon Textract +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 43 | Amazon Textract +31 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 30 | Amazon Textract +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 82 | Extend API + MCP +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 67 | Amazon Textract +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Textract | Extend API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Extend |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.extend.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Price for docs parse | not published | $6.25 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement. The AWS SDKs and the Textractor helper library are Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 86 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.extend/extend` |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | 2026-09-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-09-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.9M npm/wk, 208k PyPI/wk | 124k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Textract.** IAM policies limit a credential to single operations, CloudTrail logs every call, and page prices start at $1.50 per 1,000 in US East. Multipage files need S3 and an asynchronous job. Text detection covers six languages. Under the AWS Service Terms AWS may store and use documents to improve the service unless an AI services opt-out policy is set.

**Extend API + MCP.** Hosted MCP with OAuth scoped to workspaces and to test or production, and a tools filter with nine groups. Parse is billed on top of Extract, Split and Classify, so Performance Extract costs 5 credits a page.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Textract

1. Sign with SigV4 for service `textract` at `textract.<region>.amazonaws.com`, or call `aws textract detect-document-text`. The AWS CLI can't send image bytes, so reference an S3 object
2. Use `StartDocumentTextDetection` or `StartDocumentAnalysis` for any PDF or TIFF of more than one page, pass a `ClientRequestToken`, then page `Get` calls with `NextToken` (1,000 blocks at most each)
3. Fetch results within 7 days of starting a job, or set `OutputConfig` to write them to your own S3 bucket
4. Request only the `FeatureTypes` you need. Forms cost $50 per 1,000 pages against $15 for tables or queries in US East
5. Back off on `ProvisionedThroughputExceededException` (HTTP 400) and `ThrottlingException` (HTTP 500). Neither carries Retry-After, and default quotas are 1 call a second in most Regions
6. Set the AI services opt-out policy on the AWS organisation before sending customer documents

### Extend API + MCP

1. Connect with `https://mcp.extend.ai/mcp?tools=parse,extract,files` to keep the schema small
2. Every MCP call names a workspace and TEST or PRODUCTION; start in TEST
3. Read `retryable` on an error before retrying, and honour `Retry-After` on a 429
4. Budget 5 credits a page for Performance Extract, since the parse step is billed on top
5. Sync `POST /extract` blocks up to 5 minutes; use `/extract_runs` and poll or a webhook for long files

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Textract or Extend API + MCP?

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Extend API + MCP's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Extend API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Do Amazon Textract and Extend API + MCP need an API key?

Amazon Textract needs an API key. Extend API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Textract and Extend API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Textract has a hosted endpoint at https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and Extend API + MCP at https://api.extend.ai.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-extend.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-extend.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-textract", "b": "extend"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-textract extend`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-textract.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/extend.json

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