Head to head · Reading contacts · October 2026 research run
ContactsPlus vs Google People API
Google People API scores 65.2 (B) on agent readiness against ContactsPlus's 42.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do reading contacts.
Which one, for what
Best for Agents serving one person or a small team whose contacts are spread across Google, iCloud and Outlook.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
No rate limits, error responses or changelog in the API reference
Best for Agents that read or maintain a Google user's address book or look people up in a Workspace directory.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 38
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 42
- Security & auth, 86 against 71
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 25
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 62
Watch for
No status page covers Contacts or the People API
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ContactsPlus | Google People API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 28 | 30 | Google People API +2 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 38 | 79 | Google People API +41 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 42 | 83 | Google People API +41 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 71 | 86 | Google People API +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 35 | Google People API +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 25 | 83 | Google People API +58 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 62 | 71 | Google People API +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 42.4/100 | B 65.2/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ContactsPlus | Google People API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Contacts Plus LLC | |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.contactsplus.com/api/v1 | https://people.googleapis.com/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the ContactsPlus Terms of Use (version 2.0, 26 June 2026). The old Node and Clojure API clients are archived | Proprietary service under the Google APIs Terms of Service. Client libraries are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 7 | 3 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-26 | 2021-11-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-26 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 |
| Popularity | 13 npm/wk | 177k npm/wk |
Verdicts
ContactsPlus
An address book that already merges Google, iCloud and Outlook contacts, reachable through OAuth scopes split by read and write and an MCP server that cannot delete or export and holds edits for the owner's approval. The REST reference has no rate limits, error codes or changelog, and its client libraries were archived in 2023.
Google People API
Covers saved contacts, contact groups, "Other contacts" and the Workspace directory under 12 OAuth scopes, with seven-day sync tokens and a read-only MCP server that warns against prompt injection. No status page covers it, quota numbers are only in the Cloud console, and searches need a warmup call first.
Before you call either
ContactsPlus
- Pass the contact's current etag on update and delete, or the call will be refused
- Use contacts.scroll with includeDeletedContacts to keep a copy in step, or subscribe to webhooks
- Tell the user that MCP edits land in Suggestions and need their approval
- Ask only for contacts.read and tags.read when the task is lookup
- Search with field criteria such as company:Acme AND title:CTO to keep results small
Google People API
- Send an empty searchContacts query first, wait a few seconds, then search
- Always pass personFields, such as names,emailAddresses,phoneNumbers, or the call fails
- Store nextSyncToken and do a full sync when you get EXPIRED_SYNC_TOKEN
- Send writes for one user one at a time and include the etag on updates
- Ask for contacts.readonly unless the task must create or change contacts
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, ContactsPlus or Google People API?
Google People API scores 65.2 (B) on agent readiness against ContactsPlus's 42.4 (E), and leads in every scored category.
Do ContactsPlus and Google People API need an API key?
Both use an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call ContactsPlus and Google People API without installing anything?
Yes. ContactsPlus has a hosted endpoint at https://api.contactsplus.com/api/v1 and Google People API at https://people.googleapis.com/v1.
Other comparisons with ContactsPlus or Google People API
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/contactsplus-vs-google-people-api.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/contactsplus.json·/api/v1/tools/google-people-api.json - From a terminal
anchor compare contactsplus google-people-api(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "contactsplus", "b": "google-people-api"}at/mcp, no key