# Amazon Textract vs LlamaParse API + MCP

> Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against LlamaParse API + MCP's 59.2 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. LlamaParse API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against LlamaParse API + MCP's 59.2 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. LlamaParse API + MCP leads on payments & pricing 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
- LlamaParse API + MCP: grade C, 59.2/100, rank #503 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/llamaparse.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/llamaparse.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 55
- Security & auth, 74 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 66

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where LlamaParse API + MCP loses 3 points for them

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

### LlamaParse API + MCP (C)

Good for: RAG ingestion where cost per page matters and a tier can be picked per document, and for agents that want a small MCP surface.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 58

Watch for: Breaking SDK changes shipped as minor releases (files.get renamed, classify v1 removed)


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Textract | LlamaParse API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 55 | Amazon Textract +41 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 82 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 72 | LlamaParse API + MCP +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 48 | Amazon Textract +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | LlamaParse API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 80 | LlamaParse API + MCP +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 66 | Amazon Textract +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **59.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Textract | LlamaParse API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | LlamaIndex |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.cloud.llamaindex.ai/api/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for docs parse | not published | $1.25 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 | 26 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | 2024-06-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-08-24 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 1.9M npm/wk, 208k PyPI/wk | 4.3k stars, 125k npm/wk, 767k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (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.

**LlamaParse API + MCP.** Free plan with 10,000 credits a month, no card. Breaking SDK changes shipped as minor releases (files.get renamed, classify v1 removed).

## 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

### LlamaParse API + MCP

1. Connect to a product endpoint such as `https://mcp.llamaindex.ai/parse/mcp` instead of the unified one to load 3 tools plus helpers
2. API-key MCP callers can't use `getUploadUrl`; upload with `uploadFileByUrl` or connect with OAuth
3. Pin `version` on every parse so tier behaviour stays reproducible
4. Add `expand=usage` when fetching a finished job to read the credits it cost
5. Treat a 402 as out of credits, not a transient error

## Questions

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

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against LlamaParse API + MCP's 59.2 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. LlamaParse API + MCP leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

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

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

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

Yes. Amazon Textract has a hosted endpoint at https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and LlamaParse API + MCP at https://api.cloud.llamaindex.ai/api/v2.


## For agents

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

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