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Head to head · Storage drive · October 2026 research run

Box API + MCP vs Google Drive API + MCP

Google Drive API + MCP has a score of 78.6 (A) against Box API + MCP's 69.6 (B). Both do storage drive. The largest gap is reliability, 25 points.

Box API + MCPBox · HTTP API B69.6/100#109 of 452 Google Drive API + MCPGoogle · HTTP API A78.6/100#12 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Box API + MCP for

  • schema & documentation (+8)
  • transparency & trust (+5)

Pick Google Drive API + MCP for

  • reliability (+25)
  • agent ergonomics (+13)
  • security & auth (+13)
  • payments & pricing (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBox API + MCPGoogle Drive API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206590Google Drive API + MCP +25
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29183Box API + MCP +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27285Google Drive API + MCP +13
Security & auth14%17.57386Google Drive API + MCP +13
Payments & pricing10%12.52535Google Drive API + MCP +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88485Google Drive API + MCP +1
Transparency & trust7%8.87974Box API + MCP +5
Negative events≤1500
Total69.6 · B78.6 · A

Facts side by side

FactBox API + MCPGoogle Drive API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorBoxGoogle
Hosted endpointhttps://api.box.com/2.0https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuthOAuth
PricingYour planFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0
Tools exposed578
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-112026-09-30
Popularity199 stars, 216k npm/wk, 276k PyPI/wk12k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 29.8M PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)3.4/5 (8)

Verdicts

Box API + MCP

Public OpenAPI 3.0 spec with 297 operations, year-based API versions and an llms.txt of Markdown pages. 20 status-feed entries between 7 July and 1 October 2026, two of them over two hours on uploads or multiple services.

Google Drive API + MCP

No charge for API calls within quota, counted in quota units per minute per project and per user. OAuth consent, scope verification and a Cloud project before an agent can list a folder.

Before you call either

Box API + MCP

  1. Call who_am_i first; the tool list depends on the plan, the admin's toggles and the scopes granted
  2. Expect download and upload URL, move and shared-link tools to be missing unless an admin has enabled them
  3. Pass fields= to trim responses and page folder listings with limit and marker
  4. Send a box-version header to pin an API version, and watch responses for a Deprecation header
  5. For a link that expires, set shared_link.unshared_at on a paid account; the free plan can't

Google Drive API + MCP

  1. Ask for drive.file rather than drive; it needs no verification and covers files the app created or the user picked
  2. Use uploadType=resumable for anything over 5 MB and send chunks in multiples of 256 KB
  3. For a link that expires, share to a user or group with expirationTime; a type=anyone permission can't expire, so delete it yourself
  4. Pass fields= on files.list and files.get to cut the response, and page with pageToken
  5. Back off exponentially on 429 rateLimitExceeded and 403 userRateLimitExceeded; 403 storageQuotaExceeded won't clear by retrying

Other comparisons with Box API + MCP or Google Drive API + MCP

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