# Mindee API vs Mistral OCR API

> Mindee API has a score of 61.5 (C) against Mistral OCR API's 59 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 37 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-mistral-ocr
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-mistral-ocr.md (~1,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-mistral-ocr.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mindee-vs-mistral-ocr.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

Mindee API has a score of 61.5 (C) against Mistral OCR API's 59 (C). Both do docs ocr. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 37 points.

- 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
- Mistral OCR API: grade C, 59/100, rank #271 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mistral-ocr.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mistral-ocr.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Mindee API for reliability (+20), security & auth (+5), maintenance & community (+37).

Pick Mistral OCR API for agent ergonomics (+15), payments & pricing (+15), transparency & trust (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Mindee API | Mistral OCR API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 45 | Mindee API +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 89 | Mistral OCR API +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 83 | Mistral OCR API +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Mindee API +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 40 | Mistral OCR API +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 48 | Mindee API +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 77 | Mistral OCR API +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.5 · C** | **59 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Mindee API | Mistral OCR API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model API |
| Vendor | Mindee | Mistral AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api-v2.mindee.net/v2` | `https://api.mistral.ai/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Tools exposed | none | 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 | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-08-31 |
| Popularity | 42 stars, 33k npm/wk, 5.5k PyPI/wk | 769 stars |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 4.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

## Before you call either

### 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

## Other comparisons with Mindee API or Mistral OCR API

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