cheap.doc/mcp

Return how many credits are left on the account and what the current period has used: the balance, split into this month's free credits (100 every month, drawn first) and the paid credits, the credits spent, and the scan counters broken down by status (recognized, unreadable, no document found, unsupported document, rejected). Takes no arguments and calls GET /v1/usage; under the public sandbox key it answers without calling anything. One recognised document draws one credit, at $0.01; scans that recognised nothing are counted and never charged. Needs a real API key – under the public sandbox key there is no account behind the call, and the answer says so instead of reporting zeros that read like a balance. Use it before working through a batch of documents, or when a scan is refused for lack of credit.

Recognise a passport, national ID card or driver's licence from a photo or scan and return what is printed on it as structured JSON. Inputs: the image as image_base64 (always available), image_path (a local file, and only inside the directory DOC_CHEAP_IMAGE_ROOT names) or image_url (https, on a public address); plus the optional expect_country, return_portrait, retain_hours, reference and idempotency_key. Output: a Scan object – meta (id, status, billed, confidence, timing), document (kind, issuing country, number, series, date of issue, date of expiry, whether it has expired and how many days are left), holder (given names, surname, date of birth, sex, nationality), fields (every field read off the printed page, each with its own confidence), mrz (whether the machine-readable zone checks out, why not when it does not, and its lines exactly as read), images, quality and authenticity – plus a one-line summary of the same result. Calls POST /v1/scans. Cost: it bills one credit ($0.01) only when a document is recognised; an unreadable image, an empty frame or an unsupported type costs nothing, and meta.billed says which happened. Without a key, the public sandbox key is used. It gives 10 free recognised documents per address in all, and at most 10 requests per address an hour, whatever their answer. Registering gives 100 free documents every month. Use it whenever someone hands over an identity document and wants it read, transcribed, or checked against what they claim – a name, a document number, a date of birth or an expiry date.

Full-text search over the doc.cheap API documentation – endpoints, request options, every response field, the error codes and what to do about each, MRZ rules, retention and pricing. Takes a query and an optional limit (1 to 20, default 5), and answers with the matching sections: title, a snippet, and a link to the page. It reads a copy of the documentation shipped beside this server, so it makes no network call and works offline. Use it before guessing at a field name, an error code or a scan option – what it returns is the published contract rather than a recollection of it.