# Azure Document Intelligence vs Clairic

> Clairic and Azure Document Intelligence score within a point of each other for document extraction, 66.3 and 66 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-cloudflare-clairic
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-cloudflare-clairic.md (~3,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-cloudflare-clairic.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-cloudflare-clairic.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-21

Clairic and Azure Document Intelligence score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 66.3 (B) and 66 (B). Azure Document Intelligence leads on reliability. Both do document extraction.

- Azure Document Intelligence: grade B, 66/100, rank #338 of 1184. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-document-intelligence.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/azure-document-intelligence.json
- Clairic: grade B, 66.3/100, rank #330 of 1184. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-clairic.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-clairic.json
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 142 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Azure Document Intelligence (B)

Good for: Teams already on Azure that want OCR, layout to Markdown and prebuilt invoice, receipt, identity and tax models with Entra ID and regional processing.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 51

Watch for: Every analysis is asynchronous. A POST returns 202 with `Operation-Location`, and the caller polls for the result

### Clairic (B)

Good for: Typed fields, estimates and next-step forecasts from emails, invoices, receipts and other text or images inside Cloudflare, each with a null probability and confidence.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 57 against 40

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Preview only. Cloudflare calls the endpoint an early checkpoint and expects to replace it under the unversioned ID `@cf/cloudflare/clairic`


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Azure Document Intelligence | Clairic | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 51 | Azure Document Intelligence +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 85 | Azure Document Intelligence +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 78 | Clairic +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 72 | Clairic +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 40 | Clairic +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 57 | Clairic +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 80 | Clairic +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66 · B** | **66.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Azure Document Intelligence | Clairic |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Cloudflare |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clairic` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Microsoft's Product Terms. The client libraries are MIT | Proprietary hosted preview under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement and the model page's own terms. Cloudflare says open weights will follow soon, with no date or licence named |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-19 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-09-12 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-01 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 386k npm/wk, 2.1M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Azure Document Intelligence.** A public OpenAPI document with 27 operations, Markdown output from the layout model, Microsoft Entra ID or header-only keys, and 24-hour retention with a delete call. Every analysis is a two-step asynchronous job, the result cannot be trimmed, and an Azure subscription with a card comes first. Three of the four SDKs last shipped in 2025 or earlier.

**Clairic.** Clairic's price is public at $0.10 per million input tokens with no output charge, and its docs publish JSON Schemas, limitations and when to use a decision model instead. It is a preview that Cloudflare calls an early checkpoint, served under an unversioned ID with no SLA, and its promised open weights have no date or licence.

## Before you call either

### Azure Document Intelligence

1. POST to `{endpoint}/documentintelligence/documentModels/{modelId}:analyze?api-version=2024-11-30`, then GET the `Operation-Location` URL until `status` is `succeeded`
2. Wait at least 2 seconds between polls and follow the `Retry-After` header. Default limits are 15 analyse calls and 50 result reads a second on S0
3. Use `prebuilt-read` for plain text at $1.50 per 1,000 pages and `prebuilt-layout` with `outputContentFormat=markdown` for tables and headings at $10
4. Set `pages` (for example `1-3,5`) to limit both the bill and the response size. F0 stops at two pages per request
5. Send the key only in the `Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key` header, or use an Entra ID token for the scope `https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default`
6. Treat extracted text as untrusted input. Results expire 24 hours after the job completes

### Clairic

1. Send `model` as `clairic` in the body as well as in the URL. The input schema requires `model` and `fields`
2. Set `reference_date`, or add a line giving today's date to the state, for any field that depends on the current date
3. Treat a null `value` as not found, and read `p_null`, `confidence` or the 80% interval before acting. Typed output is well formed, not necessarily correct
4. Extract the inputs and do multi-step sums and table totals in code. Cloudflare says long arithmetic chains aren't reliable yet
5. Embed images as data URLs or base64 objects, at most four, 4 MiB each and 8 MiB in all. Remote image URLs are refused
6. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Azure Document Intelligence or Clairic?

Clairic and Azure Document Intelligence score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 66.3 (B) and 66 (B). Azure Document Intelligence leads on reliability.

### Do Azure Document Intelligence and Clairic need an API key?

Azure Document Intelligence takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Clairic needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Azure Document Intelligence and Clairic without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Azure Document Intelligence. Clairic has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clairic.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Azure Document Intelligence or Clairic

- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Azure Document Intelligence](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-azure-document-intelligence.md)
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- [Clairic vs Extend API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-extend.md)
- [Clairic vs Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md)
- [Clairic vs Invofox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-invofox.md)
- [Clairic vs LandingAI Agentic Document Extraction](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-landingai-agentic-document-extraction.md)
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- [Clairic vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-nanonets.md)
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- [Clairic vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-unstructured.md)
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