Is EdgarTools the same thing as edgar.tools?

No, and confusing them will cost you money. EdgarTools is the free MIT-licensed Python library on GitHub and PyPI. edgar.tools is a separate hosted commercial platform from the same author, with its own REST API, a hosted OAuth MCP endpoint and paid tiers published on its own pages. Everything in the comparison on this page is about the library. Check which one a price or an endpoint refers to before you rely on it.

Yes. It is MIT-licensed and its own comparison table states “Free, MIT” with “no keys, no subscriptions”. The corporate sponsorship tiers of $250 to $1,500 per month listed on its README buy support commitments, roadmap input and logo placement — they are not a licence to use the library, which is free either way.

Does EdgarTools cover non-US companies?

Through their SEC filings, yes. It ships 20-F, 40-F and 6-K form types, a guide to parsing Form 6-K, and a filer_type / is_foreign API for classifying foreign private issuers — although its own verification page lists 20-F and 6-K among untested form types. What it does not do is read filings from non-US regulators directly, because its universe is SEC EDGAR.

Why does EvidInvest have statements from 1985 when EDGAR only starts in 1994?

Because the pre-EDGAR portion of the series does not come from EDGAR. From fiscal 2009 onward, where the SEC’s structured XBRL data begins, every US row is taken from the company’s own filing and carries its accession number and sec.gov URL. Rows before that are standardized statements without a filing link, and the API returns null in the citation fields rather than inventing one. Any tool whose only source is EDGAR is bounded by 1994.

Can I use both EdgarTools and EvidInvest?

Yes, and for a lot of workloads that is the sensible answer. EdgarTools is the better instrument for raw filing types EvidInvest does not expose at all — insider Forms 3/4/5, 13D/G, N-PORT, proxy compensation tables — while EvidInvest handles the long standardized series, the cited statement rows and the assistant-facing MCP surface. They are not the same product doing the same job at different prices.

Which one should I give an AI assistant?

Both ship an MCP server, but they are different deployments. EdgarTools bundles one you run locally with uvx, which keeps everything on your machine and costs nothing. EvidInvest runs a remote Streamable HTTP server at mcp.evidinvest.com/mcp with OAuth 2.1, so Claude or ChatGPT connect through a browser sign-in with no key to paste and nothing to install. Choose on whether you want local control or zero setup.

Comparison · every row sourced and dated

EdgarTools vs EvidInvest: a Python library for EDGAR, or a hosted API with cited statements

EdgarTools is a free, MIT-licensed Python library that reads SEC EDGAR filings as structured data inside your own process — its README describes it as a way to “parse financial statements, insider trades, fund holdings, proxy statements, and 20+ other filing types with a consistent Python API”. EvidInvest is the other shape of the same job: a hosted REST API and MCP server over already-standardized statements, where you write no parsing code and the vendor owns the pipeline.

Every claim about EdgarTools below was read off its own public pages, each row links to the page it came from, and anything those pages do not state is written “not stated” rather than guessed. Where EvidInvest is the weaker choice, that section is on this page too.

Checked 9 September 2026 against github.com/dgunning/edgartools. EvidInvest is independent of and unaffiliated with EdgarTools; all trademarks belong to their owners.

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What is EdgarTools, and who is it for?

EdgarTools suits Python developers, quants and data engineers who want SEC primitives in their own stack and are happy to own the pipeline. There is no key, no quota and no vendor to depend on — you install a package, run it against EDGAR, and everything downstream is yours. Its own README says it “runs in production at hedge funds, fintechs, and research desks”, and its breadth of raw form types (Form 3/4/5, 13D/G, N-PORT, Form D, DEF 14A, EX-21) is wider than any standardized-financials product, because a normalized API deliberately throws most of that away.

What EdgarTools does better than EvidInvest

It is free and MIT-licensed, and it runs in your process. Its own comparison table puts this as “no keys, no subscriptions” against paid SEC APIs — there is no per-request meter, no rate limit imposed by a vendor, and you can read, fork and pin the source. EvidInvest cannot match any of that; it is a hosted service you pay for.
Far more raw filing types. Insider Forms 3/4/5, Schedule 13D/G, N-PORT/N-MFP/N-CSR, Form D, Form C, Form 144, DEF 14A executive compensation and EX-21 subsidiary lists are all typed objects. EvidInvest exposes none of those as tools.
Typed Python objects and pandas DataFrames rather than JSON you re-parse — if your work already lives in a notebook or a pandas pipeline, that is a shorter path than any HTTP API.
RAG plumbing built in: HTML converted to clean text and markdown, section extraction for Risk Factors and MD&A, and a bundled MCP server plus Claude skills you run yourself, at no cost.
Operational maturity for a free package: configurable rate limiting, caching, enterprise and academic mirrors, and an actively released project (v5.57.0 on 2026-09-08).

What EvidInvest does differently

EvidInvest is hosted. There is nothing to install, no EDGAR parsing to maintain, no rate-limit etiquette to implement, and no re-run when a filing format changes — the failure mode moves from your pipeline to our uptime.
The statement series runs back to fiscal 1985, before EDGAR itself. EdgarTools’ own docs put the EDGAR universe at “complete history since 1994”, because that is when electronic filing began; a library that reads EDGAR cannot go back further than EDGAR does.
Every US statement row from fiscal 2009 carries the form, period, filing date, accession number and sec.gov URL of the filing where that fiscal year first appeared, so restatements do not silently overwrite history.
Access is language-agnostic: a REST API and a hosted MCP server that Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor connect to over OAuth, rather than a Python import. If your consumer is an assistant or a non-Python service, that is the difference.
Valuation is part of the product — DCF, reverse DCF, earnings power, Graham, EV/EBITDA, EV/FCF and P/E versus sector, each solved for what today’s price implies, with the inputs shown.

EdgarTools vs EvidInvest, capability by capability

Scroll sideways on a narrow screen. The last column is the EdgarTools page each row was read from — open it and check. Rows marked “not stated” mean their pages are silent on the point, which is not the same as the feature being absent.

EdgarTools compared with EvidInvest on data coverage, citations, API and MCP access, pricing and licensing. Every row cites the EdgarTools page it was read from. Checked 9 September 2026.
Capability	EdgarTools	EvidInvest	Source · checked
What you are actually getting	A Python package you install and run yourself: “EdgarTools is a Python library for accessing SEC EDGAR filings as structured data… Free and open source.”	A hosted service: a REST API, an MCP server and a website over an already-built pipeline. Nothing to install or operate.	github.com/dgunning/edgartoolschecked 9 September 2026
Data source and how far back it goes	SEC EDGAR only. Their docs state “complete history since 1994” and “SEC EDGAR has every filing back to 1994”, across 20+ typed form types.	Standardized annual statements from fiscal 1985 — 30+ annual periods on file for 5,000+ US-listed companies — sourced from the company’s own XBRL filings from fiscal 2009 on.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/checked 9 September 2026
Non-US and foreign private issuers	Supported through SEC filings: 20-F, 40-F and 6-K form types, a Form 6-K parsing guide, and a filer_type / is_foreign API. Their own verification page lists 20-F and 6-K among untested form types.	Over 40,000 listings on 60+ exchanges, standardized by EvidInvest with end-of-day prices — and no SEC filing behind them, so no filing link and no 1985-deep history on those rows.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/FormType-Quick-Reference/checked 9 September 2026
Standardized statements across companies	Yes, stated: “Income, balance sheet, cash flow — XBRL-standardized for cross-company comparison”, with a documented “Customizing Standardization” page.	Yes — one normalized schema for income statement, balance sheet and cash flow, annual and quarterly, over both the US and the non-US universe.	github.com/dgunning/edgartoolschecked 9 September 2026
Citations on each statement row	Not stated as a feature. Filing objects are tied to real EDGAR accessions, but no per-row citation or permalink field is advertised on the README, the PyPI page or the docs home.	Yes, on every US statement row from fiscal 2009, over REST and MCP alike: filing_date, accession and a sec.gov source_url for the filing where that fiscal year first appeared. Pre-2009 rows carry null there rather than a fabricated link.	pypi.org/project/edgartools/checked 9 September 2026
Earnings-call transcripts	Not stated. A full-text check of their documentation search index, README and PyPI page returned no occurrence of “transcript”.	Yes — earnings-call transcript search is one of the tools, on both REST and MCP.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/checked 9 September 2026
13F institutional holdings	Yes: “13F institutional holdings & hedge fund portfolios”, with holdings returned as a DataFrame; 13F-HR is listed among their well-tested forms.	On the website only, at evidinvest.com/holders/{SYMBOL}. It is not one of the MCP tools, so an agent cannot query 13F positions from EvidInvest today.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/guides/thirteenf-data-object-guide/checked 9 September 2026
Valuation models (DCF, reverse DCF, fair value)	Not stated. A full-corpus search of their documentation index returned no discounted-cash-flow or valuation-model feature; the “fair value” hits are BDC portfolio fields parsed out of filings, not a model.	Seven methods — DCF, reverse DCF, P/E growth, earnings power, Graham, EV/EBITDA, EV/FCF and P/E versus sector — each solved for what today’s price implies, with every input shown and adjustable. No buy or sell verdict is produced.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/checked 9 September 2026
MCP server	Yes, free and self-run: “EdgarTools includes an MCP server and AI skills for Claude Desktop and Claude Code”, launched locally with uvx. No hosted endpoint — it runs on your machine.	Hosted and remote: Streamable HTTP at mcp.evidinvest.com/mcp, 59 tools, OAuth 2.1 in the browser so Claude and ChatGPT need no key pasted, or an API key as a bearer token.	github.com/dgunning/edgartoolschecked 9 September 2026
REST API	The library itself is not an HTTP API. Their docs point at a separate hosted product for that: “Also includes a REST API (20+ endpoints), hosted MCP server, and data exports.”	Yes — POST JSON to mcp.evidinvest.com/v1/tools/{tool_name} with a bearer key, against an OpenAPI 3.1 specification covering 54 of the tools.	edgartools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/checked 9 September 2026
Price	Free. Their comparison table states “Free, MIT” with “no keys, no subscriptions”. Optional corporate sponsorship tiers of $250 to $1,500 per month buy SLAs, roadmap input and logo placement — not access.	The website is free with no account. AI analyses and API/MCP usage draw on prepaid credits: Starter $10 for 360 credits, Plus $20 for 720, Pro $59 for 2,000. Credits never expire and there is no subscription.	github.com/dgunning/edgartoolschecked 9 September 2026
Licence and self-hosting	MIT, confirmed by the README footer, the PyPI classifier and the GitHub licence record. Self-hosted by nature — it runs in your process.	Proprietary hosted service. The npm package @evidinvest/mcp-server is a client for the hosted server, not a copy of the data. There is nothing to run inside your own network.	pypi.org/project/edgartools/checked 9 September 2026

Which one should you pick?

Pick EdgarTools if…

you write Python, you want the raw filings — insider forms, 13D/G, N-PORT, proxy compensation tables, subsidiary lists — and you would rather own the pipeline than rent one. It is free, it is MIT, and nothing about it can be taken away or repriced. If your requirement is that filings and queries never leave your own machine, this is the answer and a hosted API is not.

Pick EvidInvest if…

you want standardized statements without building or maintaining an EDGAR pipeline, you need history that starts before EDGAR did (fiscal 1985 rather than 1994), you want each US row from fiscal 2009 to carry the accession number and sec.gov URL behind it, or your consumer is an AI assistant or a non-Python service that speaks HTTP and MCP rather than pip.

Where EvidInvest is the weaker choice

A comparison page that only lists its author's strengths is an advertisement. These are real constraints, not softened ones.

Filing links start at fiscal 2009. That is where the SEC’s structured XBRL data begins, so US statement rows from fiscal 2009 onward carry the form, period, filing date, accession number and sec.gov URL — and rows older than that carry the standardized figures with a null citation rather than a fabricated link. The series still runs back to fiscal 1985; the link does not.
Institutional ownership from Form 13F is published on the website, at evidinvest.com/holders/{SYMBOL}, and is not one of the MCP tools. If you need 13F positions inside an agent or a script today, EvidInvest is not the way to get them.
Coverage outside the US is standardized statements, not filing links. The 40,000+ non-US listings on 60+ exchanges are normalized by EvidInvest with end-of-day prices; there is no SEC filing behind them, no source document to open, and nothing like the 1985-deep history the US series has.
Prices are Cboe data delayed at least fifteen minutes and labelled as such on every response. There is no real-time feed, no tick data, no full options chain archive and no crypto at any price. Options positioning is previous-session only.
Quarterly statements do not reach as far back as the annual series, so a decades-long quarterly panel is not available.
EvidInvest is a hosted service. There is no open-source distribution and nothing to run inside your own network — if that is a requirement, stop reading here.

Questions about EdgarTools and EvidInvest

Is EdgarTools the same thing as edgar.tools?: No, and confusing them will cost you money. EdgarTools is the free MIT-licensed Python library on GitHub and PyPI. edgar.tools is a separate hosted commercial platform from the same author, with its own REST API, a hosted OAuth MCP endpoint and paid tiers published on its own pages. Everything in the comparison on this page is about the library. Check which one a price or an endpoint refers to before you rely on it.
Is EdgarTools free?: Yes. It is MIT-licensed and its own comparison table states “Free, MIT” with “no keys, no subscriptions”. The corporate sponsorship tiers of $250 to $1,500 per month listed on its README buy support commitments, roadmap input and logo placement — they are not a licence to use the library, which is free either way.
Does EdgarTools cover non-US companies?: Through their SEC filings, yes. It ships 20-F, 40-F and 6-K form types, a guide to parsing Form 6-K, and a filer_type / is_foreign API for classifying foreign private issuers — although its own verification page lists 20-F and 6-K among untested form types. What it does not do is read filings from non-US regulators directly, because its universe is SEC EDGAR.
Why does EvidInvest have statements from 1985 when EDGAR only starts in 1994?: Because the pre-EDGAR portion of the series does not come from EDGAR. From fiscal 2009 onward, where the SEC’s structured XBRL data begins, every US row is taken from the company’s own filing and carries its accession number and sec.gov URL. Rows before that are standardized statements without a filing link, and the API returns null in the citation fields rather than inventing one. Any tool whose only source is EDGAR is bounded by 1994.
Can I use both EdgarTools and EvidInvest?: Yes, and for a lot of workloads that is the sensible answer. EdgarTools is the better instrument for raw filing types EvidInvest does not expose at all — insider Forms 3/4/5, 13D/G, N-PORT, proxy compensation tables — while EvidInvest handles the long standardized series, the cited statement rows and the assistant-facing MCP surface. They are not the same product doing the same job at different prices.
Which one should I give an AI assistant?: Both ship an MCP server, but they are different deployments. EdgarTools bundles one you run locally with uvx, which keeps everything on your machine and costs nothing. EvidInvest runs a remote Streamable HTTP server at mcp.evidinvest.com/mcp with OAuth 2.1, so Claude or ChatGPT connect through a browser sign-in with no key to paste and nothing to install. Choose on whether you want local control or zero setup.

Sources

Pages opened on 9 September 2026. Nothing on this page comes from a third-party roundup or a press release.

Corrections are welcome and acted on. If something attributed to EdgarTools is wrong or has changed, tell us and this page is updated at the next check, or sooner.

See what EvidInvest costs Nine financial data APIs compared

More: the MCP server and its full tool list, the developer documentation, and the other comparisons in this series.

EvidInvest never says buy or sell. It shows what the filings say and how each number was computed. Research, not investment advice.