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Head to head · Docs parse · October 2026 research run

Extend API + MCP vs LlamaParse API + MCP

Extend API + MCP has a score of 62.9 (B) against LlamaParse API + MCP's 59.6 (C). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is reliability, 12 points.

Extend API + MCPExtend · HTTP API B62.9/100#211 of 452 LlamaParse API + MCPLlamaIndex · HTTP API C59.6/100#262 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Extend API + MCP for

  • reliability (+12)
  • schema & documentation (+5)

Pick LlamaParse API + MCP for

  • security & auth (+5)
  • payments & pricing (+10)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runExtend API + MCPLlamaParse API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206755Extend API + MCP +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28782Extend API + MCP +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.26872LlamaParse API + MCP +4
Security & auth14%17.54348LlamaParse API + MCP +5
Payments & pricing10%12.53040LlamaParse API + MCP +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88280Extend API + MCP +2
Transparency & trust7%8.86770LlamaParse API + MCP +3
Negative events≤150-3
Total62.9 · B59.6 · C

Facts side by side

FactExtend API + MCPLlamaParse API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorExtendLlamaIndex
Hosted endpointhttps://api.extend.aihttps://api.cloud.llamaindex.ai/api/v2
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402nono
Licencenonenone
Tools exposed8626
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryai.extend/extendnot listed
Last release2026-09-252026-09-08
Popularity124k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk4.3k stars, 125k npm/wk, 767k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews4/5 (2)3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

LlamaParse API + MCP

Free plan with 10,000 credits a month, no card. Breaking SDK changes shipped as minor releases (files.get renamed, classify v1 removed).

Before you call either

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

LlamaParse API + MCP

  1. Connect to a product endpoint such as https://mcp.llamaindex.ai/parse/mcp instead of the unified one to load 3 tools plus helpers
  2. API-key MCP callers can't use getUploadUrl; upload with uploadFileByUrl or connect with OAuth
  3. Pin version on every parse so tier behaviour stays reproducible
  4. Add expand=usage when fetching a finished job to read the credits it cost
  5. Treat a 402 as out of credits, not a transient error

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