# LlamaParse API + MCP vs Unstructured API + MCP

> LlamaParse API + MCP has a score of 59.6 (C) against Unstructured API + MCP's 47 (D). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 31 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-unstructured
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-unstructured.md (~1,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-unstructured.min.md (~380 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-unstructured.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

LlamaParse API + MCP has a score of 59.6 (C) against Unstructured API + MCP's 47 (D). Both do docs parse. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 31 points.

- LlamaParse API + MCP: grade C, 59.6/100, rank #262 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/llamaparse.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/llamaparse.json
- Unstructured API + MCP: grade D, 47/100, rank #390 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/unstructured.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/unstructured.json

## Which one, for what

Pick LlamaParse API + MCP for reliability (+28), schema & documentation (+31), agent ergonomics (+14), security & auth (+6), transparency & trust (+18).

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

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LlamaParse API + MCP | Unstructured API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 27 | LlamaParse API + MCP +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 51 | LlamaParse API + MCP +31 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 58 | LlamaParse API + MCP +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 48 | 42 | LlamaParse API + MCP +6 |
| 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) | 80 | 80 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 52 | LlamaParse API + MCP +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.6 · C** | **47 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LlamaParse API + MCP | Unstructured API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LlamaIndex | Unstructured |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloud.llamaindex.ai/api/v2` | `https://transform.unstructured.io/api/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 26 | 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 | not listed | `io.unstructured/transform` |
| Last release | 2026-09-08 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 4.3k stars, 125k npm/wk, 767k PyPI/wk | 16k stars, 385 npm/wk, 612k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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).

**Unstructured API + MCP.** Apache-2.0 library partitions 45+ file types locally at no cost, tagged 11 times since 3 July. No status page, no published rate limits and no SLA.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Unstructured API + MCP

1. For local ingestion, `pip install "unstructured[all-docs]"` and call `partition()`; no key needed, and set `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` to stop telemetry
2. Transform returns 202 with a Location header for long parses; poll it, then pass the parse `id` as `parse_id` to Extract
3. Uploaded files expire after 24 hours; keep the original and re-upload on a 404
4. Treat 409 `parse_expired` and 410 `result_expired` as a signal to rerun the parse, not to retry
5. Check for an existing job ID before resubmitting, since there's no idempotency key

## Other comparisons with LlamaParse API + MCP or Unstructured API + MCP

- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs LlamaParse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-llamaparse.md)
- [Adobe PDF Services / PDF Extract API vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-pdf-extract-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Extend API + MCP vs LlamaParse API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/extend-vs-llamaparse.md)
- [Extend API + MCP vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/extend-vs-unstructured.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Mistral OCR API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-mistral-ocr.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Nanonets API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-nanonets.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Reducto API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-reducto.md)
- [Mistral OCR API vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-ocr-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Nanonets API + MCP vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanonets-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Reducto API + MCP vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/reducto-vs-unstructured.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Mindee API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-mindee.md)
- [LlamaParse API + MCP vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaparse-vs-veryfi.md)
- [Mindee API vs Unstructured API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-unstructured.md)
- [Unstructured API + MCP vs Veryfi API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/unstructured-vs-veryfi.md)