# Amazon Textract vs Mistral OCR API

> Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do docs parse. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. 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
- Mistral OCR API: grade C, 58.8/100, rank #513 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-ocr.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-ocr.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 45
- Security & auth, 74 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 58 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 82 against 74

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

### Mistral OCR API (C)

Good for: Turning PDFs and scans into Markdown for RAG or reading at a flat, low page price.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 82
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Watch for: OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Textract | Mistral OCR API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 45 | Amazon Textract +51 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 89 | Mistral OCR API +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 83 | Mistral OCR API +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 35 | Amazon Textract +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Mistral OCR API +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 48 | Amazon Textract +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 74 | Amazon Textract +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **58.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Textract | Mistral OCR API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement. The AWS SDKs and the Textractor helper library are Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-08-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | 2026-09-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2026-09-03 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.9M npm/wk, 208k PyPI/wk | 769 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (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.

**Mistral OCR API.** Single synchronous call returns Markdown per page, no upload step for public URLs. OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September.

## 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

### Mistral OCR API

1. Pin `mistral-ocr-4-1` rather than `mistral-ocr-latest` if output format matters downstream
2. Set `table_format` to `html` for tables with merged cells
3. Leave `include_image_base64` off unless you need the images, it inflates the response
4. Pass `pages` to OCR only the pages you need, since billing is per page
5. Upload private files through `/v1/files` and pass the signed URL

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Textract or Mistral OCR API?

Amazon Textract scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Amazon Textract and Mistral OCR API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Amazon Textract and Mistral OCR API without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Textract has a hosted endpoint at https://textract.us-east-1.amazonaws.com and Mistral OCR API at https://api.mistral.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

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