# Brex vs Pleo API + MCP

> Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Brex's 60.7 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Brex leads on 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/brex-vs-pleo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-pleo.md (~2,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-pleo.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-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 Brex's 60.7 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Brex leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do spend transactions.

- Brex: grade C, 60.7/100, rank #345 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/brex.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/brex.json
- Pleo API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #293 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pleo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pleo.json

## Which one, for what

### Brex (C)

Good for: A finance team already on Brex that wants an agent to read expenses and transactions, issue and lock cards, set spend limits, upload receipts and pay vendors.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 15

Watch for: The Expenses API update endpoint accepts only `memo`, so an outside agent can't set a category or custom field on an expense through it

### 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:
- Reliability, 71 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 67

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Brex loses 3 points for them

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 | Brex | Pleo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 71 | Pleo API + MCP +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 82 | Pleo API + MCP +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 55 | Brex +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 72 | 71 | Brex +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 15 | Brex +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 64 | Brex +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 75 | Pleo API + MCP +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.7 · C** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Brex | Pleo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Brex LLC | Pleo Technologies A/S |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.brex.com` | `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 Brex Platform Agreement and the Brex Access Agreement | Proprietary service under Pleo's Master Service Agreement, API Terms of Service and AI Access Terms |
| Tools exposed | 43 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given |  |
| 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 | yes | 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 | yes | not found in the text |

## Verdicts

**Brex.** User tokens carry per-resource scopes with read-only variants, every POST and PUT accepts an `Idempotency-Key`, and ten OpenAPI specs are public. The Expenses API changes only an expense's memo, there is no customer sandbox or official SDK, and the status page logs API errors lasting over four hours on 4 August 2026.

**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

### Brex

1. Ask an account admin or card admin for a user token with only the scopes the task needs, and prefer the `.readonly` variants. A token unused for 90 days expires.
2. Send a stored `Idempotency-Key` on every POST and PUT. Create transfer and Create card reject requests without one.
3. Only settled transactions are returned. Poll card and cash transactions with `posted_at_start` and a lookback of at least one day.
4. Keep under 1,000 requests in 60 seconds per client and account, and back off exponentially with jitter on 429.
5. Send only ASCII in free-text fields, and quote the `X-Brex-Trace-Id` response header when reporting an error.

### 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, Brex or Pleo API + MCP?

Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Brex's 60.7 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Brex leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

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

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

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

Yes. Brex has a hosted endpoint at https://api.brex.com and Pleo API + MCP at https://external.pleo.io.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Brex or Pleo API + MCP

- [Brex vs Expensify](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-expensify.md)
- [Brex vs Ramp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-ramp.md)
- [Brex vs Spendesk API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-spendesk.md)
- [Expensify vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expensify-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)