# Datalab vs Mistral OCR API

> Datalab scores 65.6 (B) to Mistral OCR's 61.5 (C) for document parsing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-mistral-ocr
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-mistral-ocr.md (~4,650 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: 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)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Datalab scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 61.5 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do document parsing.

- Datalab: grade B, 65.6/100, rank #413 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datalab.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datalab.json
- Mistral OCR API: grade C, 61.5/100, rank #605 of 1486. 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 182 documents comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/document-extraction/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Datalab (B)

Good for: Hosted PDF and Office conversion and schema extraction with citations, from the team behind Marker.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 58 against 53
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Mistral OCR API loses 6 points for them

Watch for: API keys carry no scopes; spend caps per key are the only limit

### 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 73
- Security & auth, 70 against 56
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 68

Watch for: OCR 4.0 was retired on 30 September 2026, one day after its deprecation notice


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Datalab +21

- Datalab (79): Closed hosted service. Python SDK 0.9.1 on 6 November 2026 and a changelog entry on 4 November (30). Over twenty dated changelog entries since 8 August (20). Support by email, a Discord and public GitHub repositories for the open-source models; replies not sampled (12 of 15). An official Python SDK, current, no other languages (12 of 15). Package health not checked beyond release dates (5 of 10). 30+20+12+12+5 = 79.
- Mistral OCR API (58): Model reading, on the lines mistral-api uses. OCR 4.0 was retired on 30 September 2026 and the last OCR release, OCR 4.1's GA, was on 31 August, both within 90 days of 4 November. The changelog has no OCR entry since 29 September (20). The lifecycle page promises 6 months' notice for GA models and 1 month for Public Preview. OCR 4.0 (`mistral-ocr-4-0`, released 23 June 2026) was deprecated on 29 September and retired on 30 September, one day, per its model card and the changelog. Earlier OCR retirements gave 29 days (`mistral-ocr-2503`) and 93 days (`mistral-ocr-2505`) (0 of 12). One OCR shutdown date in the 90 days to 4 November, and it didn't keep the published notice (0 of 8). Dated release notes several times a month, read as mistral-api reads the same changelog (10 of 15). SDK repository replies not sampled (5 of 10). `mistralai` 3.7.0 and `@mistralai/mistralai` 3.5.0 on 1 November per each repository's RELEASES.md (15). Both SDKs are generated from the OpenAPI document and run custom-code tests and example scripts in CI (8 of 10). 20+0+0+10+5+15+8 = 58.

### Security & auth: Mistral OCR API +14

- Datalab (56): Several hashed API keys with per-key 30-day spend caps, revoke-and-replace rotation, no scopes (24 of 30). Spend caps limit damage; results and files can be deleted by the key holder, and there's no read-only key (10 of 20). Returns document text with no prompt-injection guidance (2 of 15). cost_breakdown per request and usage tracking in the dashboard (8 of 15). A Secureframe trust centre and a SOC 2 report on the Team plan, TOTP enforcement for teams; no disclosure policy or security.txt found (12 of 20). 24+10+2+8+12 = 56.
- Mistral OCR API (70): Model reading, as mistral-api and mistral-voxtral-transcribe read the same pages. Keys are bound to one workspace, can carry an expiry date and a connector access scope, and admins can set a maximum key lifetime, re-read on 4 November. A key can't be limited to OCR or to read-only use (26 of 30). The commercial terms say Mistral won't train on customer data unless the customer opted in, or didn't opt out where a product defaults to opt-in, without naming the API's default, and free-tier data may train models (10 of 20). Inputs and outputs are kept 30 days for abuse monitoring. The zero data retention page lists `/v1/ocr` for paid plans, granted per request after review, and excludes `/v1/files`, the route the OCR guide gives for private uploads (12 of 15). Audit logs cover API key actions on Enterprise plans only, per the 2 October check on mistral-api (10 of 15). security.txt re-read on 4 November (expires 5 May 2027, HackerOne policy link), and the docs publish three dated security advisories for 2026. No certification or bounty confirmed (12 of 20). 26+10+12+10+12 = 70.

### Agent ergonomics: Mistral OCR API +10

- Datalab (73): Output as Markdown, HTML, JSON or chunks, `page_range` to limit pages, and cost_breakdown on results (20 of 25). File listing and pipeline endpoints, little else to paginate (14 of 20). Typed errors with retry guidance an agent can follow (18 of 20). No idempotency key; the docs say to poll a known request ID instead of resubmitting, and webhooks may be retried (12 of 20). Official Python SDK and CLI, one language (9 of 15). 20+14+18+12+9 = 73.
- Mistral OCR API (83): Model reading adapted to OCR. Responses can be cut to selected pages, images are left out unless include_image_base64 is set, and blocks and confidence scores are opt-in (22 of 25). pages, include_blocks, extract_header and extract_footer and the confidence granularity are the output controls (16 of 20). Error glossary with a fix per status (15 of 20). A synchronous, stateless call that's safe to retry. The error glossary now gives a retry strategy and the SDKs retry with backoff, and no idempotency key exists or is needed, read as the transcription listing (15 of 20). Two required fields, model and document, and official SDKs in Python and TypeScript (15). 22+16+15+15+15 = 83.

### Transparency & trust: Mistral OCR API +8

- Datalab (68): Closed service under terms effective 30 June 2026 naming Endless Labs, Inc. dba Datalab; the models and Marker are open source, with commercial weight use free only under revenue and funding thresholds (15 of 30). Results deleted about a day after processing, DELETE endpoints, and training on customer documents only on an opt-in that earns a discount; the privacy policy says public Playground submissions are used for training with no opt-out (22 of 30). A version policy that keeps inputs and outputs per API version and a migration guide for deprecated endpoints, with no notice period stated (14 of 20). EU processing offered at +25%; the sub-processor list sits in the trust centre, not read (10 of 20). 15+22+14+10 = 61.
- Mistral OCR API (76): Closed models under commercial terms with a French legal entity, SDKs Apache-2.0 (15). The terms, the DPA, the zero data retention page and the 30-day abuse window agree with each other, but the terms leave the paid API's training default unnamed, read as mistral-api (18 of 30). The lifecycle page gives notice periods per stage and a 404 after retirement, but OCR 4.0 was retired one day after its deprecation notice, short of every period the page promises (12 of 20). EU hosting by default with opt-in regional endpoints and a published subprocessor list, per the moderation listing's check (15 of 20). 15+18+12+15 = 60.

### Reliability: Datalab +5

- Datalab (58): Hosted lines. Status page at status.datalab.to (incident.io) with Website and Datalab API components; the history page is drawn by script, so components are confirmed and history isn't (15 of 20, 5 for history). Rate limits per plan with numbers, plus page and size limits (15). 429 is retryable with sample backoff, and 500 and 529 say to check a known request ID before resubmitting; webhooks deduplicate by request_id (13 of 15). Custom SLAs only for Enterprise (0). Generally available (10). 15+5+15+13+0+10 = 58.
- Mistral OCR API (53): Hosted reading. status.mistral.ai on Rootly has an OCR API component with 90-day uptime bars, per the 1 October check (20), the reading the other Mistral listings keep. The page has answered every request with a Cloudflare bot check since 8 October, robots.txt included on 4 November, so the host is treated as blocked and the 90 days from 6 August were not re-read. The 1 October reading of August and September OCR incidents is not credited either way (5, unread and not a finding against the vendor), as mistral-voxtral-transcribe reads the same page. The usage and limits page says OCR limits can include pages per minute, with the numbers shown only in the Admin Panel (3 of 15, as the other Mistral listings). The error glossary tells callers to back off exponentially on 429, 500, 502, 503 and 504 and to check the `Retry-After` header, and the official SDKs retry with backoff. OCR is a stateless call with no write, read as the transcription listing's (15). No SLA found (0). OCR 4.1 is GA per its model card (10). 20+5+3+15+0+10 = 53.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Datalab | Mistral OCR API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 53 | Datalab +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 89 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 83 | Mistral OCR API +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 70 | Mistral OCR API +14 |
| 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) | 79 | 58 | Datalab +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 76 | Mistral OCR API +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **65.6 · B** | **61.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Datalab | Mistral OCR API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | Endless Labs, Inc. (Datalab) | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://www.datalab.to/api/v1` | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted service under Datalab's terms; the Marker and Surya code is open source and model weights are free under revenue and funding thresholds | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-08-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-30 | 2026-09-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-30 | 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 | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 769 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Datalab

No score change since it was listed.

### Mistral OCR API

- +2.7 on 4 November 2026: correction, negative event
- no change on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Datalab.** Datalab's hosted API from the Marker and Surya team converts and extracts documents with published per-1,000-page rates, a monthly free allowance with no card, typed retryable error codes, a written version policy and an active dated changelog. API keys have spend caps but no scopes, and no prompt-injection guidance or disclosure policy was found.

**Mistral OCR API.** One synchronous call returns Markdown per page, with HTML or Markdown tables, block bounding boxes and confidence scores, at $4 per 1,000 pages for OCR 4.1. Mistral retired OCR 4.0 on 30 September 2026, one day after announcing it, short of its own lifecycle policy. The status page has refused our reader since 8 October.

## Before you call either

### Datalab

1. Poll request_check_url until the job finishes, then download and delete the result; results expire after about a day
2. Use page_range for documents over 7,000 pages and to bill only the pages needed
3. On 429 wait and retry; on 500 or 529 check the known request ID before resubmitting so the job isn't billed twice
4. Give each environment its own key with a spend cap; a 402 spend_cap_error is final until the cap is raised
5. Treat converted text as untrusted input, never as instructions

### Mistral OCR API

1. Pin `mistral-ocr-4-1` rather than `mistral-ocr-latest` if output format matters downstream, and handle a 404 on a retired model id
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, knowing `/v1/files` is outside zero data retention

## Questions

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

Datalab scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Mistral OCR API's 61.5 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Mistral OCR API leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth and transparency & trust.

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

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Datalab and Mistral OCR API without installing anything?

Yes. Datalab has a hosted endpoint at https://www.datalab.to/api/v1 and Mistral OCR API at https://api.mistral.ai/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Datalab or Mistral OCR API

- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Datalab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-datalab.md)
- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Datalab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-datalab.md)
- [Amazon Textract vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-textract-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Azure Document Intelligence vs Datalab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-datalab.md)
- [Azure Document Intelligence vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-document-intelligence-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Datalab vs Docling](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-docling.md)
- [Datalab vs Extend API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-extend.md)
- [Datalab vs Google Cloud Document AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-google-cloud-document-ai.md)
- [Datalab vs LandingAI Agentic Document Extraction](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-landingai-agentic-document-extraction.md)
- [Datalab vs LlamaParse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-llamaparse.md)
- [Datalab vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-nanonets.md)
- [Datalab vs OpenDocRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-opendocrouter.md)
- [Datalab vs Reducto API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-reducto.md)
- [Datalab vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Docling vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docling-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Extend API + MCP vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/extend-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Google Cloud Document AI vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-document-ai-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [LandingAI Agentic Document Extraction vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/landingai-agentic-document-extraction-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-nanonets.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs OpenDocRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-opendocrouter.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs Reducto API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-reducto.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Clairic vs Datalab](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-datalab.md)
- [Clairic vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clairic-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Datalab vs Invofox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-invofox.md)
- [Invofox vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/invofox-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Datalab vs Mindee API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-mindee.md)
- [Datalab vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datalab-vs-veryfi.md)
- [Mindee API vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-veryfi.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp