# Clairic vs Extend API + MCP

> Clairic scores 66.3 (B) to Extend's 62.9 (B) for document extraction. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-extend
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-extend.md (~2,800 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-extend.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-extend.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-21

Clairic scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Extend API + MCP's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Extend API + MCP leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do document extraction.

- Clairic: grade B, 66.3/100, rank #330 of 1184. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cloudflare-clairic.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cloudflare-clairic.json
- Extend API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #470 of 1184. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/extend.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/extend.json
- Best document parsing, OCR and extraction APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/document-extraction/index.md
- All 142 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Clairic (B)

Good for: Typed fields, estimates and next-step forecasts from emails, invoices, receipts and other text or images inside Cloudflare, each with a null probability and confidence.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 68
- Security & auth, 72 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 67

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Preview only. Cloudflare calls the endpoint an early checkpoint and expects to replace it under the unversioned ID `@cf/cloudflare/clairic`

### Extend API + MCP (B)

Good for: Teams building production extraction with evaluation sets and versioned processors, and for agents that need to build or tune extractors as well as run them.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 51
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 57

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.3 out of 5

Watch for: Parse is billed on top of Extract, Split and Classify, so Performance Extract costs 5 credits a page


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Clairic | Extend API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 51 | 67 | Extend API + MCP +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 87 | Extend API + MCP +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 68 | Clairic +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 72 | 43 | Clairic +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Clairic +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 82 | Extend API + MCP +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 67 | Clairic +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Clairic | Extend API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare | Extend |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clairic` | `https://api.extend.ai` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for document extraction | not published | $62.50 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted preview under Cloudflare's Self-Serve Subscription Agreement and the model page's own terms. Cloudflare says open weights will follow soon, with no date or licence named | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 86 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `ai.extend/extend` |
| Last release | 2026-10-19 | 2026-09-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | 2026-09-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | 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 | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 124k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Clairic.** Clairic's price is public at $0.10 per million input tokens with no output charge, and its docs publish JSON Schemas, limitations and when to use a decision model instead. It is a preview that Cloudflare calls an early checkpoint, served under an unversioned ID with no SLA, and its promised open weights have no date or licence.

**Extend API + MCP.** Hosted MCP with OAuth scoped to workspaces and to test or production, and a tools filter with nine groups. Parse is billed on top of Extract, Split and Classify, so Performance Extract costs 5 credits a page.

## Before you call either

### Clairic

1. Send `model` as `clairic` in the body as well as in the URL. The input schema requires `model` and `fields`
2. Set `reference_date`, or add a line giving today's date to the state, for any field that depends on the current date
3. Treat a null `value` as not found, and read `p_null`, `confidence` or the 80% interval before acting. Typed output is well formed, not necessarily correct
4. Extract the inputs and do multi-step sums and table totals in code. Cloudflare says long arithmetic chains aren't reliable yet
5. Embed images as data URLs or base64 objects, at most four, 4 MiB each and 8 MiB in all. Remote image URLs are refused
6. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later

### Extend API + MCP

1. Connect with `https://mcp.extend.ai/mcp?tools=parse,extract,files` to keep the schema small
2. Every MCP call names a workspace and TEST or PRODUCTION; start in TEST
3. Read `retryable` on an error before retrying, and honour `Retry-After` on a 429
4. Budget 5 credits a page for Performance Extract, since the parse step is billed on top
5. Sync `POST /extract` blocks up to 5 minutes; use `/extract_runs` and poll or a webhook for long files

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Clairic or Extend API + MCP?

Clairic scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Extend API + MCP's 62.9 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Extend API + MCP leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

### Do Clairic and Extend API + MCP need an API key?

Clairic needs an API key. Extend API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Clairic and Extend API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Clairic has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clairic and Extend API + MCP at https://api.extend.ai.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Clairic or Extend API + MCP

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- [Clairic vs Mindee API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mindee.md)
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- [Clairic vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-nanonets.md)
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- [Clairic vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-unstructured.md)
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