# Extend API + MCP vs Mindee API

> Extend API + MCP has a score of 62.9 (B) against Mindee API's 61.5 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 5 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Extend API + MCP has a score of 62.9 (B) against Mindee API's 61.5 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 5 points.

- Extend API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #211 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/extend.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/extend.json
- Mindee API: grade C, 61.5/100, rank #227 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mindee.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mindee.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Extend API + MCP for payments & pricing (+5).

Pick Mindee API for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Extend API + MCP | Mindee API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 65 | Extend API + MCP +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 86 | Extend API + MCP +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 68 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 40 | Extend API + MCP +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 25 | Extend API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 85 | Mindee API +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 67 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **61.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Extend API + MCP | Mindee API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Extend | Mindee |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.extend.ai` | `https://api-v2.mindee.net/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 86 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `ai.extend/extend` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 124k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk | 42 stars, 33k npm/wk, 5.5k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | 3/5 (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.

**Mindee API.** Extracted data kept 12 hours by default (1 to 24 configurable), deletable on fetch, source files never stored. Every call needs a model_id created in the web platform first.

## 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

### Mindee API

1. Create the model in the Mindee app and store its `model_id`; the API can't create one for you
2. Enqueue returns 202; poll the job or use a webhook, and keep polling under 1,200 a minute
3. Send `Authorization: $MINDEE_API_KEY` with no Bearer prefix
4. Turn on confidence scores only when needed, since they cost 1.5 credits a page instead of 1
5. Keep schemas to 25 fields or fewer, the documented recommendation

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