# Pleo API + MCP vs Ramp

> Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Ramp's 57.3 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Ramp leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do spend transactions. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-ramp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-ramp.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-ramp.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-ramp.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

Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Ramp's 57.3 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Ramp leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do spend transactions.

- Pleo API + MCP: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #293 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pleo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pleo.json
- Ramp: grade C, 57.3/100, rank #423 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ramp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ramp.json

## Which one, for what

### Pleo API + MCP (B)

Good for: An agent that completes, codes, reviews and queues expenses for a Pleo customer on the Optimise plan, or for a bookkeeping integration that exports accounting entries and syncs tags, tax codes, accounts and vendors.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 71 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 70

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Ramp loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The pricing page lists MCP on the Optimise plan only (£18 per user per month, three users minimum, sold through a demo)

### Ramp (C)

Good for: A finance team already on Ramp that wants an agent to read transactions, upload receipts, code and split expenses, issue funds with limits, create bills and work with purchase orders and procurement requests.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 66 against 55
- Security & auth, 79 against 71
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 64

Watch for: No public status page was found. status.ramp.com doesn't resolve, and no status link appears in the docs, help centre or trust centre pages read


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Pleo API + MCP | Ramp | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 30 | Pleo API + MCP +41 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 86 | Ramp +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 66 | Ramp +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 79 | Ramp +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 25 | Ramp +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 74 | Ramp +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 70 | Pleo API + MCP +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **57.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Pleo API + MCP | Ramp |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Pleo Technologies A/S | Ramp Business Corporation |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://external.pleo.io` | `https://api.ramp.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Pleo's Master Service Agreement, API Terms of Service and AI Access Terms | Proprietary service under the Ramp Platform Agreement and the API Agreement. The ramp-cli repository is MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 53 stars |

## Verdicts

**Pleo API + MCP.** The hosted MCP server acts with the connecting user's own Pleo permissions, is off until an admin enables it per entity, and can't move money, change cards or alter limits. It is listed only on the Optimise plan, its tool definitions aren't published, API keys need enabling by Pleo support, and no official SDK or SLA was found.

**Ramp.** OAuth 2.0 scopes split read from write across about 40 resources, a 260-operation OpenAPI spec is public, and an audit log endpoint records actions by user and agent. No public status page was found, 89 operations are marked beta, the API Agreement allows changes without notice, and idempotency keys cover only eight write operations.

## Before you call either

### Pleo API + MCP

1. Ask a company admin to enable Pleo MCP access under Settings, General, Pleo AI for each entity before connecting. It is off by default
2. Name the entity in every request when working outside the default one. Each MCP request targets one entity and the choice doesn't persist
3. Set the AI client to require approval for Pleo write tools. Pleo leaves confirmation to the client and doesn't enforce it server-side
4. Send API keys as the Basic auth username with an empty password to external.pleo.io. Legacy tokens for openapi.pleo.io don't work there
5. Budget every endpoint against one bucket of 600 requests a minute per credential, and on 429 wait for Retry-After or back off from one second
6. Swap mcp.staging.pleo.io for mcp.pleo.io in the Claude Code command when moving from staging to production. Each needs its own OAuth sign-in

### Ramp

1. Send `scope` on the client credentials token request. Without it Ramp issues a token with no scopes and every resource call fails with 403
2. Follow the full URL in `next` to page. `page_size` defaults to 20 and stops at 100, and the cursor is opaque
3. Stay under 200 requests in any 10 seconds per source IP and back off 1, 2 then 4 seconds on 429. No Retry-After header is documented
4. Don't use `synced_after` or `from_created_at` to find changed records. Bills and transactions have no updated-at filter, so subscribe to webhooks
5. Send `X-Idempotency-Key` when creating funds or procurement requests. Elsewhere a retried POST can create a duplicate, so read back before retrying

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Pleo API + MCP or Ramp?

Pleo API + MCP scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Ramp's 57.3 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Ramp leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Do Pleo API + MCP and Ramp need an API key?

Pleo API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Ramp uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Pleo API + MCP and Ramp without installing anything?

Yes. Pleo API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://external.pleo.io and Ramp at https://api.ramp.com.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Pleo API + MCP or Ramp

- [Brex vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-pleo.md)
- [Brex vs Ramp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brex-vs-ramp.md)
- [Expensify vs Pleo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expensify-vs-pleo.md)
- [Expensify vs Ramp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/expensify-vs-ramp.md)
- [Pleo API + MCP vs Spendesk API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pleo-vs-spendesk.md)
- [Ramp vs Spendesk API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ramp-vs-spendesk.md)