Plate Recognizer
Plate Recognizer offers Automatic License Plate Recognition (ALPR) solutions for processing images and videos to detect and decode vehicle license plates.
Verdict
Common use cases
- Check monthly plate recognition budget mid-project
- Audit API usage after bulk camera uploads
- Compare recognition accuracy across regions
- Verify remaining credits before large job
Integration
- Vendor
- Plate Recognizer
- Category
- other
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Tools
- 1
- Composio slug
platerecognizer
Tools
- Snapshot Get Statistics
Tool to retrieve usage statistics for the current month's snapshot api recognition calls. use after making snapshot api calls to monitor monthly usage.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, navigate to Settings > Integrations and select Plate Recognizer from the MCP directory. 2. You'll be prompted to enter your Plate Recognizer API token, which you generate by logging into your Plate Recognizer dashboard at app.platerecognizer.com, clicking your profile icon, and selecting API Tokens. 3. Copy the token and paste it into Switchy's connection dialog, then click Connect. 4. Switchy will verify the token by making a test call to the statistics endpoint. 5. Once connected, open any Space and type '@Plate Recognizer show me this month's usage' to confirm the integration works. 6. The response will display your current recognition call count, remaining credits, and accuracy breakdown by region.
What teammates see: by default, memories from Plate Recognizer are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Monthly Usage Summary
@Plate Recognizer retrieve this month's snapshot statistics including total calls made and credits remainingOpen in a Space →
Accuracy Breakdown
@Plate Recognizer get the current month's statistics and break down accuracy rates by geographic regionOpen in a Space →
Pre-Job Budget Check
@Plate Recognizer check how many snapshot API calls I have left this month before I upload 500 new imagesOpen in a Space →
Weekly Usage Trend
@Plate Recognizer show this month's snapshot call count and tell me if we're trending higher than our usual weekly averageOpen in a Space →
Post-Batch Verification
@Plate Recognizer pull the latest snapshot statistics to confirm my batch job from this morning processed all 200 platesOpen in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@PlateRecognizer how many license plate recognitions have I used this month and how many do I have left?
Based on your current usage statistics: you've processed 847 snapshot API calls this month out of your 2,500 monthly allocation, leaving 1,653 recognitions remaining. Your usage resets on the 1st of next month. Peak usage occurred on the 12th with 203 calls in a single day.
This example shows the MCP's single tool — monthly usage tracking for the Snapshot API. Useful after batch processing vehicle images to avoid hitting your plan limit mid-workflow. Requires a valid API key with statistics access; does not perform actual plate recognition, only reports consumption metrics.
@PlateRecognizer I just ran 150 plate scans for the parking lot audit — did that put me over my monthly limit?
Your account now shows 1,203 snapshot calls used out of 2,500 for this billing period. The recent batch of 150 calls brought your total to 48% of your monthly quota, so you're still well within limits with 1,297 recognitions remaining until reset.
Demonstrates checking usage after a known batch operation. The MCP retrieves current totals but cannot attribute specific calls to your audit — it reports aggregate monthly statistics. If you're running multiple workflows, you'll need to track which batches correspond to which usage spikes outside this tool.
@PlateRecognizer compare my usage from last week to this week and tell me if I'm on track to stay under my 2,500 limit.
The statistics endpoint only provides current-month cumulative totals, not week-over-week breakdowns. As of now, you've used 1,089 calls this month. If usage continues at the current daily average of ~70 calls, you'll finish the month around 2,100 recognitions — comfortably under your 2,500 cap with a 16% buffer.
This example highlights a limitation: the MCP fetches month-to-date totals but doesn't store historical daily data for trend analysis. The AI can extrapolate a projection from the current average, but granular time-series data isn't available through this tool. For detailed usage patterns, you'd need to log API calls separately.
Use-case deep-dives
When one MCP tool is enough for monthly usage checks
A 3-person property management team runs a small parking facility with automated license plate cameras. They use Plate Recognizer's main API for vehicle entry/exit logging, but that integration lives outside Switchy. The MCP's single tool—snapshot statistics—gives them a quick way to check monthly API usage during their Friday ops review without opening the vendor dashboard. If your team makes fewer than 500 recognition calls per month, this MCP is a lightweight add for budget monitoring. Above that threshold, you'll want a full analytics dashboard, not a single-stat tool. Add this MCP if you already use Plate Recognizer and need a fast usage check in your shared workspace.
Limited value for teams needing actual plate data
A 6-person security operations team at a corporate campus needs to pull vehicle recognition logs for quarterly compliance audits. The Plate Recognizer MCP only exposes usage statistics—it doesn't surface actual plate reads, timestamps, or image metadata. That makes it a poor fit for audit workflows where you need to answer "which vehicles entered on these dates" or "how many unique plates did we see last quarter." If your compliance process requires recognition data, not just API call counts, this MCP won't close the loop. Use it only if your audit scope is limited to proving you stayed within contracted API limits, and you're pulling actual plate data from another system.
When monthly usage stats match your billing cycle
A 2-person finance team at a logistics startup reconciles vendor invoices on the first Monday of each month. Plate Recognizer bills by API call volume, and the MCP's statistics tool returns current-month totals. That timing works if your billing cycle aligns—pull the stat on the last day of the month, compare it to the invoice line item, flag discrepancies. The single-tool scope is narrow, but it's exactly what you need for a 5-minute reconciliation task. If your contract includes multiple Plate Recognizer products (snapshot, stream, SDK), verify the MCP stat covers all of them, or you'll under-report usage. Add this MCP if monthly cost checks are your only Plate Recognizer workflow in Switchy.
Frequently asked
What does the Plate Recognizer MCP do in Switchy?
It lets your team analyze license plate images through Plate Recognizer's API directly from Switchy. The MCP includes one tool that retrieves usage statistics for your monthly snapshot API calls. You'd typically use this after running plate recognition requests to track how many calls you've consumed against your plan limits.
Do I need admin access to connect Plate Recognizer?
No, you just need a valid API key from your Plate Recognizer account. Anyone on your team with an API key can connect it to Switchy. The key determines which Plate Recognizer account gets billed for recognition calls, so coordinate with whoever manages your subscription before connecting.
Can the MCP actually recognize plates or just check usage?
The current MCP only retrieves usage statistics — it shows how many snapshot API calls you've made this month. To actually recognize plates from images, you'd still call Plate Recognizer's snapshot API directly or through another integration. This MCP is for monitoring consumption after you've processed images elsewhere.
Why use this instead of checking usage in Plate Recognizer's dashboard?
You'd use this if you're building workflows in Switchy that process plate images and need to programmatically check usage mid-workflow. For example, halting a batch job before hitting your monthly limit. If you just want to see stats occasionally, logging into Plate Recognizer's dashboard is simpler.
Does using this MCP count against my Plate Recognizer plan?
Retrieving usage statistics through this MCP doesn't consume your plate recognition quota. However, any actual plate recognition you do via Plate Recognizer's API counts against your plan's monthly snapshot limit. The MCP just reports those numbers; it doesn't add to them.