PDF Reader MCP vs Receipt Extraction
A side-by-side look at the PDF Reader MCP and Receipt Extraction MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose PDF Reader MCP for search & data extraction work; choose Receipt Extraction for developer tools over a hosted endpoint. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose PDF Reader MCP when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Search & Data Extraction domain.
- Its auth model fits you: No auth required.
- You want tools like
inspect, outline, read.
Choose Receipt Extraction when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Developer Tools domain.
- You prefer a remote HTTP/SSE transport.
- You want tools like
extract_receipt.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search & Data Extraction | Developer Tools |
| Quality signal | 61/100 · Good | 53/100 · Good |
| Install command | Not confirmed yet | Confirmed |
| Transport | — | Remote HTTP/SSE |
| Auth | No auth required | Not declared |
| Pricing | Free | Not declared |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 1,051 | 2 |
| Directory activity | 9 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 4 | 1 |
| Full listing | View PDF Reader MCP | View Receipt Extraction |
Tools & capabilities
PDF Reader MCP tools 4
inspectDocument and media evidence when Markdown is not enough. video_timeline (bounded scene/cue timeline) and render_frame (actual decoded frames), and cite_check (quote/location support, not semantic truth), are anymd Pro; PDF operations: inspect (page facts, metadata), render_page (PNG images), extract_regions (crop bounding boxes), ocr_pages / analyze_regions (configured OCR or vision provider), structure (JSON with document map, elements, geometry; profile quality|research adds trust and accessibility reports), compare (page-level diff of sources[0] vs sources[1]).outlineReturn a document heading tree with stable node ids, title paths, page/slide/chapter ranges and Markdown byte ranges. PDF bookmarks or detected headings, Word headings, PowerPoint slides, EPUB chapters and headings, HTML and Markdown. format json (default) or tree. Pass a node id to read to fetch that section.readRead any document as clean Markdown: PDF, Word (DOCX), PowerPoint (PPTX), Excel (XLSX/XLS/ODS), CSV, EPUB, HTML or a web URL, Markdown/text, images (metadata + OCR), audio/video (metadata, chapters, subtitles). Pages/slides/sheets carry <!-- page N --> style markers for citation. Long documents stop at max_tokens (default 20000) and end with a cursor to continue; choose pages with pages: "1-5,8". A directory returns its readable files.searchSearch documents for text: one file, many files, whole directories (recursive, .gitignore aware), or URLs, across every format read supports. Returns each hit as file + page/slide/sheet + a snippet with the match in bold. mode auto (default) finds the exact phrase and falls back to BM25-ranked passages when there is none; literal or ranked force one. Narrow directories with glob, e.g. "*.pdf".
Receipt Extraction tools 1
extract_receiptExtracts a structured Receipt (vendor, ABN-checked, GST-aware line items and totals) from a base64-encoded receipt or invoice image/PDF.
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
PDF Reader MCP
No confirmed install command for PDF Reader MCP yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.
Receipt Extraction
{
"mcpServers": {
"receipt-extraction": {
"url": "https://receipt-extraction.acjlabs.com/mcp"
}
}
}
Frequently asked questions
PDF Reader MCP is categorized under Search & Data Extraction and uses an install path we have not confirmed yet. Receipt Extraction belongs to Developer Tools and uses a remote HTTP/SSE transport. Pick PDF Reader MCP for search & data extraction work and Receipt Extraction for developer tools.
Copy the mcpServers block from the config section on this page into your client's config (for example claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json), then fully restart the client. PDF Reader MCP has no confirmed install command yet — follow its own setup instructions.
PDF Reader MCP is listed as free. Auth: no auth required. Receipt Extraction has no declared pricing — check the project's own site. If a server needs environment variables such as API keys, define them under the env key in your client's MCP config.
Yes. MCP clients support multiple servers: add pdf-reader-mcp and receipt-extraction as separate keys in the same mcpServers object, and your assistant will call tools from either one.
On AllMCPs, PDF Reader MCP has a quality signal of 61/100 (Good) with 9 views, 0 installs and 1,051 GitHub stars. Receipt Extraction has 53/100 (Good) with 1 views, 0 installs and 2 GitHub stars.