# Notion MCP vs Outline

> Outline scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Notion MCP's 58.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Notion MCP leads on reliability. Both do docs and wikis. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline.md (~1,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline.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: 2026-10-08

Outline scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Notion MCP's 58.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Notion MCP leads on reliability. Both do docs and wikis.

- Notion MCP: grade C, 58.9/100, rank #442 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/notion-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/notion-mcp.json
- Outline: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #408 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/outline.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/outline.json

## Which one, for what

### Notion MCP (C)

Good for: Agents that read and write a team's Notion pages and databases, or hand work to Notion's Custom Agents.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 72 against 67

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: 36 tools with no toolsets, read-only mode or granular OAuth scopes

### Outline (C)

Good for: Teams that keep their wiki in Outline and want an agent to search, read, write and comment on Markdown documents, on the hosted service or a self-hosted copy with the same API.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 71
- Agent ergonomics, 62 against 51
- Security & auth, 71 against 60

Watch for: No rate limit numbers in the API documentation. The limits we found are in the source code, not stated for the hosted service


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Notion MCP | Outline | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 72 | 67 | Notion MCP +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 76 | Outline +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 62 | Outline +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 71 | Outline +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 83 | Outline +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 69 | Notion MCP +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **58.9 · C** | **60.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Notion MCP | Outline |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Notion | General Outline, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.notion.com/mcp` | `https://app.getoutline.com/api` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Source available under BSL 1.1, which bars running it as a document service for third parties and converts each release to Apache 2.0 on its change date (2030-09-09 for 1.10.1). The OpenAPI description is BSD-3-Clause. The hosted service is under the vendor's terms |
| Tools exposed | 36 | 19 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `com.notion/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-09 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-29 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 4.6k stars, 193k npm/wk | 41k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Notion MCP.** Hosted OAuth server with access tokens that expire after about 8 hours. 36 tools with no toolsets, read-only mode or granular OAuth scopes.

**Outline.** API keys and OAuth tokens can be limited to single endpoints, all 154 operations document a 429 response with Retry-After, and the workspace MCP server registers tools by granted scope. Two scope-bypass flaws were published and fixed in May and June 2026, rate limits carry no published numbers, and there are no official client libraries.

## Before you call either

### Notion MCP

1. Use `notion-ai-search` for meaning and `notion-search` for exact keywords, they diverged on 2 September 2026
2. Call `notion-get-tool-access` first to see which tools the workspace's plan allows
3. Keep search and data-source queries under 20 calls per 10 seconds and read the wait time from the response body
4. Check the truncation metadata from `notion-fetch` before assuming you have the whole page
5. Switch `notion-query-database-view` calls to `notion-query-data-sources`, deprecated on 29 September 2026

### Outline

1. Send every call as POST with a JSON body to `https://app.getoutline.com/api/<method>`, for example `documents.search`, with a Bearer key in the header
2. Ask for a key scoped to the methods the task needs, such as `documents.info documents.search`. An unscoped key has all of its owner's access
3. Pass `lastRevision` on `documents.update` so a stale write is rejected with 409, and use `editMode` `patch` with `findText` to change one passage
4. Wait for the seconds in `Retry-After` on a 429. Write methods have tighter limits than reads
5. Leave `permanent` unset on `documents.delete`. The default moves the document to the trash, where it can be restored for 30 days

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Notion MCP or Outline?

Outline scores 60.3 (C) on agent readiness against Notion MCP's 58.9 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Notion MCP leads on reliability.

### Do Notion MCP and Outline need an API key?

Notion MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. Outline takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Notion MCP and Outline without installing anything?

Yes. Notion MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.notion.com/mcp and Outline at https://app.getoutline.com/api.

### Are Notion MCP and Outline open source?

Notion MCP is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Outline.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/notion-mcp-vs-outline.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "notion-mcp", "b": "outline"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare notion-mcp outline`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/notion-mcp.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/outline.json

## Other comparisons with Notion MCP or Outline

- [Atlassian Rovo MCP Server vs Notion MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlassian-rovo-mcp-vs-notion-mcp.md)
- [Atlassian Rovo MCP Server vs Outline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlassian-rovo-mcp-vs-outline.md)