# Finch (slim)

> Finch is a unified API for reading an employer's existing HR and payroll system, run by Profound Platform Inc. in San Francisco. Applications read directory, employment and pay data from 250+ systems and write payroll deductions.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/finch.md (~8,650 tokens) · this version ~2,180 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/finch.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/finch
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

**BB · 71.6/100 · rank #104 of 722 · #1 in Payroll infrastructure · agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Graded on the REST API. An employer grants each connection named product permissions, and limits, error codes and a 99.9 per cent uptime SLA are published. Finch reads payroll and writes deductions but cannot run a payroll. Access tokens never expire, no idempotency keys were found, and writes and most providers need a sales-led plan.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: Profound Platform Inc. (dba Finch) · category: Payroll infrastructure · legal entity: Profound Platform Inc. (dba Finch) · provenance 82/100
- Endpoint: `https://api.tryfinch.com` (HTTP, stdio)
- Auth: OAuth · pricing: Paid · x402: no · licence: Proprietary service under Finch's Master Service Agreement. The SDKs and the MCP server on GitHub are Apache-2.0
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Surface graded: The REST API at https://api.tryfinch.com, which is generally available. The beta MCP server is a second route to the same API. Finch reaches an employer's existing payroll or HR system and does not run payroll itself
- Products: Organisation (company, directory, individual, employment), Payroll (payment, pay statement, pay statement items and rules, pay groups, ledger items), Deductions (read and write), Benefits and Documents (both labelled beta in the reference), Recordkeeper (Connect only)
- Credentials: Application `client_id` and `client_secret` per environment. An employer authorises through Finch Connect, and the authorisation code is exchanged at POST /auth/token for a bearer access token tied to one connection and its approved products. Tokens do not expire. POST /disconnect revokes one
- Integration types: Automated (OAuth, API token or credentials at the provider, 24-hour sync, deduction writes near real time) and assisted (third-party admin credentials, 7-day sync, writes within 2 business days, Pro and Premier only)
- Environments: Finch Sandbox (mock data, 100 connections, all plans), Provider Sandbox (5 connections to provider demo accounts, all plans), Development (Pro and Premier on request) and Production. Each has its own credentials
- Rate limits: Per application and endpoint on a rolling 60 seconds. 20 a minute for company, directory, documents, individual, employment and pay-statement-item. 12 a minute for payment, pay-groups and pay-statement. 1,000 requests in 5 minutes per IP, with a 60-minute penalty
- Batching and pagination: POST /employer/individual and /employer/employment take up to 10,000 IDs, and /employer/pay-statement up to 10 payment IDs. `limit` and `offset` on directory (maximum 10,000), pay-statement (5,000 per payment), documents, plans and jobs
- Errors: JSON with `code`, `name`, `finch_code` and `message`, a published table of 26 error types, and `Finch-Request-Id` on every response. 202 means data is still syncing. Server timeout is 6 minutes
- Versioning: Dated versions through the required `Finch-API-Version` header. The current and only listed version is 2020-09-17. Additive changes ship without a new version
- Webhooks: Account update, job completion and data change events, signed with HMAC-SHA256 in the `Finch-Signature` header, which can carry several signatures during a secret rotation
- MCP server: @tryfinch/finch-api-mcp 10.8.2 on npm, Apache-2.0, generated by Stainless, labelled beta. stdio by default, with a self-run Streamable HTTP mode. Two tools. Flags limit the code tool to GET operations or to allowed and blocked methods
- SDKs: Node @tryfinch/finch-api 10.8.2 (24 August 2026), Python finch-api 2.8.3 (5 October 2026), Java, Kotlin, Go and Ruby, all generated by Stainless under Apache-2.0. Finch Connect SDKs for JavaScript and React
- Plans: Starter $65 a month per connection (24 providers, 15 connections, organisation and payroll data, read-only, month to month). Pro and Premier by sales with volume discounts from 25 connections, all 250+ providers and deduction writes. Uptime SLA on Premier
- Certifications: SOC 2 Type II (2025 report on request), HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA and Data Privacy Framework self-certification per the trust centre. Federacy penetration test, 2025
- Status: status.tryfinch.com with components for the API, Connect, the Dashboard and 26 provider integrations
- Sub-processors: Amazon Web Services (us-west-2, Oregon), Bright Data, Browserless, Datadog, Sentry and Sigma Computing per the trust centre. The DPA promises 10 days' notice before a new one is added
- Prices: Starter, one employer connection $65 per connected account per month

- Scores: Reliability 84, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 87, Agent ergonomics 71, Security & auth 66, Payments & pricing 30, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 84, Transparency & trust 74 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Read with the hosted lines and scored on the REST API. · Schema & documentation, One OpenAPI 3.1 file at developer.tryfinch.com/openapi.json with 55 operations and 144 schemas (25). · Agent ergonomics, `limit` and `offset` size directory, pay statement, documents and plans responses, and batch endpoints take many IDs in one call. · Security & auth, An employer authorises each connection through Finch Connect, and the resulting bearer token is tied to that connection and to named product… · Payments & pricing, Read with the hosted rubric. · Maintenance & community, The changelog's latest entry is 30 September 2026, and the Python SDK 2.8.3 was published on 5 October 2026 (30). · Transparency & trust, Closed service.
- Sources: 34, open questions: 8, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: payroll.employees, payroll.contractors, hr.employees, hr.org, hr.documents
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/finch.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/finch.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/finch from a page on tryfinch.com or one of its subdomains, or the README of github.com/Finch-API/finch-api-node, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Send `Finch-API-Version: 2020-09-17` and `Authorization: Bearer <access_token>` on every request. A request without the version header fails with 400
2. Call GET /introspect first to see the connection's products, status and whether it is automated or assisted before choosing endpoints
3. Treat a 202 response as data not ready, not as data. Retry with backoff, and expect up to 14 days for an assisted connection's first sync
4. Stay under 20 requests a minute on organisation endpoints and 12 on pay endpoints across all tokens. Batch IDs, and on 429 wait 60 seconds
5. After a deduction write, poll the job by `job_id` until it completes before enrolling individuals. Enrolment overwrites an existing enrolment
6. Start the MCP server with `--code-allow-http-gets` or a token without the benefits product when only reads are intended

## Connect

```bash
pip install finch-api
```

```bash
curl https://api.tryfinch.com/employer/directory \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <access_token>' \
  -H 'Finch-API-Version: 2020-09-17'
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/finch

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Paychex | E | 44.8 | payroll.employees, hr.employees, hr.documents, hr.org | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paychex.min.md |
| Deel | B | 69.1 | hr.employees, hr.org, hr.documents | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deel.min.md |
| Factorial | B | 66.3 | hr.employees, hr.org, hr.documents | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/factorial.min.md |
| BambooHR | C | 61.7 | hr.employees, hr.org, hr.documents | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bamboohr.min.md |
| Rippling | C | 60.8 | hr.employees, hr.org, hr.documents | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rippling.min.md |


## Panel reviews (0, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)