# BILL vs Pleo API + MCP

> Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against BILL's 60.9 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. BILL leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do spend transactions. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-pleo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-pleo.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-pleo.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-pleo.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
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against BILL's 60.9 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. BILL leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do spend transactions.

- BILL: grade C, 60.9/100, rank #380 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bill.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bill.json
- Pleo API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #325 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pleo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pleo.json

## Which one, for what

### BILL (C)

Good for: A US company already on BILL that wants an agent to create and read bills, run approvals, schedule vendor payments, raise invoices and manage budgets, vendor cards, card transactions and reimbursements.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 81 against 71
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 15

Watch for: `POST /v3/login` takes a user's username and password with a developer key, and the session carries that user's role with no scopes

### Pleo API + MCP (B)

Good for: An agent that completes, codes, reviews and queues expenses for a Pleo customer on the Optimise plan, or for a bookkeeping integration that exports accounting entries and syncs tags, tax codes, accounts and vendors.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 71 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 64 against 32
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 66

Watch for: The pricing page lists MCP on the Optimise plan only (£18 per user per month, three users minimum, sold through a demo)


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | BILL | Pleo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 81 | 71 | BILL +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 82 | BILL +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 55 | BILL +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 71 | Pleo API + MCP +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 15 | BILL +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 32 | 64 | Pleo API + MCP +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 75 | Pleo API + MCP +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.9 · C** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | BILL | Pleo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | BILL Holdings, Inc. | Pleo Technologies A/S |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://gateway.prod.bill.com/connect` | `https://external.pleo.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the BILL Developer Terms and the BILL General Terms of Service | Proprietary service under Pleo's Master Service Agreement, API Terms of Service and AI Access Terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-05-21 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-03-03 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-30 |  |
| 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 | not found in the text | not found in the text |

## Verdicts

**BILL.** A public OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec covers 326 operations, a self-serve sandbox moves no money, and payments need a session trusted by multi-factor authentication. The AP and AR API signs in with a user's password and has no scopes, no idempotency key protects payment calls, and no official SDK was found.

**Pleo API + MCP.** The hosted MCP server acts with the connecting user's own Pleo permissions, is off until an admin enables it per entity, and can't move money, change cards or alter limits. It is listed only on the Optimise plan, its tool definitions aren't published, API keys need enabling by Pleo support, and no official SDK or SLA was found.

## Before you call either

### BILL

1. Sign in with `POST /v3/login` and send `sessionId` and `devKey` as headers on every AP and AR call. The session expires after 35 minutes idle
2. Send the `apiToken` header alone on `/v3/spend/` paths. Spend & Expense calls need no login and are limited to 60 a minute per token
3. Complete the MFA challenge before `POST /v3/payments`. An untrusted session fails with `BDC_1361`
4. Read back payments before retrying a failed `POST /v3/payments`. No idempotency key is accepted, so a blind retry can pay twice
5. Keep to three concurrent requests per developer key per organisation and 20,000 an hour. After `BDC_1144`, wait for the next hour

### Pleo API + MCP

1. Ask a company admin to enable Pleo MCP access under Settings, General, Pleo AI for each entity before connecting. It is off by default
2. Name the entity in every request when working outside the default one. Each MCP request targets one entity and the choice doesn't persist
3. Set the AI client to require approval for Pleo write tools. Pleo leaves confirmation to the client and doesn't enforce it server-side
4. Send API keys as the Basic auth username with an empty password to external.pleo.io. Legacy tokens for openapi.pleo.io don't work there
5. Budget every endpoint against one bucket of 600 requests a minute per credential, and on 429 wait for Retry-After or back off from one second
6. Swap mcp.staging.pleo.io for mcp.pleo.io in the Claude Code command when moving from staging to production. Each needs its own OAuth sign-in

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, BILL or Pleo API + MCP?

Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against BILL's 60.9 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. BILL leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do BILL and Pleo API + MCP need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call BILL and Pleo API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. BILL has a hosted endpoint at https://gateway.prod.bill.com/connect and Pleo API + MCP at https://external.pleo.io.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with BILL or Pleo API + MCP

- [Airwallex Spend and Issuing vs BILL](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airwallex-vs-bill.md)
- [Airwallex Spend and Issuing vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airwallex-vs-pleo.md)
- [BILL vs Brex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-brex.md)
- [BILL vs Expensify](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-expensify.md)
- [BILL vs Mercury API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-mercury.md)
- [BILL vs Ramp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-ramp.md)
- [BILL vs Spendesk API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bill-vs-spendesk.md)
- [Brex vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-pleo.md)
- [Expensify vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expensify-vs-pleo.md)
- [Mercury API vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mercury-vs-pleo.md)
- [Pleo API + MCP vs Ramp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-ramp.md)
- [Pleo API + MCP vs Spendesk API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-spendesk.md)