Mindee API vs Mistral OCR API

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.

Mistral OCR API

Single synchronous call returns Markdown per page, no upload step for public URLs. OCR API at 99.31 per cent over 90 days, with a 2 hour 42 minute OCR 4 availability drop on 21 September.

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

Mistral OCR API

1. Pin mistral-ocr-4-1 rather than mistral-ocr-latest if output format matters downstream
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