# Clairic vs Mistral OCR API

> Clairic scores 66.3 (B) to Mistral OCR's 58.8 (C) for document extraction. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mistral-ocr
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mistral-ocr.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mistral-ocr.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mistral-ocr.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 Mistral OCR API's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on agent ergonomics. 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
- Mistral OCR API: grade C, 58.8/100, rank #640 of 1184. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-ocr.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-ocr.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:
- Reliability, 51 against 45
- Security & auth, 72 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 57 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 74

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`

### Mistral OCR API (C)

Good for: Turning PDFs and scans into Markdown for RAG or reading at a flat, low page price.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 78

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.5 against 3.3 out of 5

Watch for: OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Clairic | Mistral OCR API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 51 | 45 | Clairic +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 89 | Mistral OCR API +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 83 | Mistral OCR API +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 72 | 35 | Clairic +37 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 57 | 48 | Clairic +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 74 | Clairic +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **58.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Clairic | Mistral OCR API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Cloudflare | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clairic` | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-19 | 2026-08-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-12 | 2026-09-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-03 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 769 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | 4.5/5 (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.

**Mistral OCR API.** Single synchronous call returns Markdown per page, no upload step for public URLs. OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September.

## 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

### Mistral OCR API

1. Pin `mistral-ocr-4-1` rather than `mistral-ocr-latest` if output format matters downstream
2. Set `table_format` to `html` for tables with merged cells
3. Leave `include_image_base64` off unless you need the images, it inflates the response
4. Pass `pages` to OCR only the pages you need, since billing is per page
5. Upload private files through `/v1/files` and pass the signed URL

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Clairic or Mistral OCR API?

Clairic scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 58.8 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on agent ergonomics.

### Do Clairic and Mistral OCR API need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Clairic and Mistral OCR API 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 Mistral OCR API at https://api.mistral.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

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- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
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