Extend API + MCP vs OpenDocRouter

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.

OpenDocRouter

One endpoint reaches 11 parsing models, each with a dated recipe version, a published token price and a ParseBench score, and failed pages aren't charged. The service launched on 7 October 2026, so it has no status page, incident history, SLA or changelog yet, and no key scopes were found in the reviewed documentation.

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

OpenDocRouter

1. Call GET /v1/models first, which needs no key, and choose a model by avg_charge_per_page_usd and its ParseBench scores. Send its id as model
2. Send cache: true on any request you might repeat. Without it the markdown exists only in the POST response and a resend is charged as a new request
3. Raise the SDK timeout above its 60-second default for sync parses. Pages can run for 270 seconds and the SDKs retry a timed-out request twice
4. Check every page's status before using its markdown. A 200 can be partial, and failed pages can be resent alone with pages
5. Treat 402 as final until credit is added. The hold is the model's maximum charge per page times the page count, and GET /v1/credits shows available_usd