# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/box-api-vs-google-drive-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/box-api-vs-google-drive-api.md (~1,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/box-api-vs-google-drive-api.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/box-api-vs-google-drive-api.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: 2026-10-05

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 + MCP: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #109 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/box-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/box-api.json
- Google Drive API + MCP: grade A, 78.6/100, rank #12 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-drive-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/google-drive-api.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Box API + MCP | Google Drive API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 90 | Google Drive API + MCP +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 91 | 83 | Box API + MCP +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 85 | Google Drive API + MCP +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 86 | Google Drive API + MCP +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 35 | Google Drive API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 85 | Google Drive API + MCP +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 74 | Box API + MCP +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.6 · B** | **78.6 · A** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Box API + MCP | Google Drive API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Box | Google |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.box.com/2.0` | `https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Your plan | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 57 | 8 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 199 stars, 216k npm/wk, 276k PyPI/wk | 12k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 29.8M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (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

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