Azure Document Intelligence vs Veryfi API + MCP

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.

Veryfi API + MCP

Typed fields and line items for receipts, invoices, cheques, bank statements and tax forms. API outage on 29 September and degraded, incomplete extraction on 1 October.

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

Veryfi API + MCP

1. Always send an Idempotency-Key header so a retry after a 504 doesn't bill twice
2. Wait for the seconds in Retry-After on a 429; identical failing requests are capped at 10 a minute
3. Set the CLIENT-ID header on every call
4. Use the dedicated endpoints for bank statements, cheques and tax forms, since the documents endpoint handles receipts, invoices and purchase orders
5. Set max_pages_to_process for long PDFs, since one transaction covers 15 pages