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the online shops and platforms monitored on behalf of your company.
PREISmonitoring API & MCP
Two ways to access your market data
PREISmonitoring provides market and competitive data in two ways: the REST API for traditional system integrations and PREISmonitoring MCP for AI-native environments. Both access the same dataset, and both are read-only.
This otherwise creates a clear gap for pricing, category management and e-commerce teams: the issues at stake are business-critical, but the relevant market data often lies outside the systems and AI environments in which teams actually work. PREISmonitoring bridges this gap for our customers — via the access method that best suits each application.
A Comparison of REST API and MCP
Both methods are based on the same dataset and are read-only – they do not alter any monitoring configuration or platform state.
The REST API is the traditional integration method. MCP is the AI-native access method — to the same source.
Use both at the same time: your existing BI system can remain connected via the REST API, whilst, at the same time, an AI assistant accesses the same information via MCP — using the same account, without one replacing or restricting the other.
Access via both methods is available to existing PREISmonitoring customers and authorised partners whose accounts already have data access.
| REST API | MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of application | Established software integrations, data pipelines, BI/ERP integration | AI models, assistants, agent-based applications |
| In day-to-day use | Fixed, scheduled queries — Your BI system pulls the latest price data into your dashboard on a regular basis | Spontaneous queries – you ask your AI assistant and receive the answer directly from the PREISmonitoring data |
The MCP client (e.g. an AI assistant) sends a request via the MCP protocol to the PREISmonitoring MCP server, which responds with the monitored market data.
What is a REST API — and what is MCP?
The REST API — often simply referred to as the ‘API’ — acts as the interface between your systems and PREISmonitoring’s market data: defined endpoints provide structured responses that can be integrated into your existing systems, dashboards or data pipelines. Using the PREISmonitoring REST API, you can retrieve specific price data, availability information and monitoring requests — on a scheduled, recurring basis, at your own pace.
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that enables AI models (LLMs) to access external tools and data sources in a structured manner. An MCP server provides defined functions; an MCP client – such as an AI assistant or an in-house application – calls these functions via a standardised protocol, rather than having to guess, scrape or reconstruct data from outdated exports.
PREISmonitoring offers access to both methods. You do not need to set up your own integration project to use them – connections to common BI systems and MCP-enabled AI environments are already in place.
What REST-API & MCP actually offer
PREISmonitoring MCP provides access to the following functional areas for AI-powered applications:
Products
Can be identified using the internal item ID, EAN, PZN or ASIN, including the marketplace locale.
Monitoring contracts
including import/export history.
Observation results
Price and availability data, including changes since a specified date. An NDJSON stream is available for larger exports; you can check in advance exactly which queries your account is authorised to run.
Market price position
the positioning of a product relative to the competitors being monitored.
In addition, PREISmonitoring MCP provides four pre-configured workflows that map typical analysis tasks directly as executable functions: checking price and availability, classifying individual observations, analysing market price positioning, and reviewing observed shops.
AI applications can call up these workflows directly, rather than having to replicate the underlying logic themselves.
Common questions about your market data
Pricing and market teams do not need generic AI answers. They need answers that are rooted in their actual competitive situation.
PREISmonitoring MCP helps to integrate actionable market data into questions such as these:
- Which competitors have changed their prices since the last review?
- Which products are showing unusual price movements?
- Where are we losing our price position in the market?
- Which shops, marketplaces or items require attention today?
- Which changes are significant enough to warrant review by pricing or category teams?
- What has changed in our monitored market since a defined point in time?
The value lies in the fact that productive, authorised market data becomes available closer to the point at which teams analyse, compare and make decisions.
Access control and security
Business systems and business AI both require trustworthy data sources, clear authorisations and reliable access to tools.
The REST API authenticates via a bearer token, which you request using your login credentials. PREISmonitoring MCP operates via OAuth 2.1 with authorisation code flow and PKCE, and is restricted to the ‘mcp’ scope.
In both cases, the following applies: every function provided is explicitly designated as read-only – no function extends the permissions of the respective customer account, and every action performed remains traceable.
For developers and technical teams
The full technical specification for the REST API and MCP – including the OpenAPI contract, endpoint reference and a dedicated llms.txt file for AI clients – can be found in the PREISmonitoring API documentation.
PREISmonitoring MCP in action
See how PREISmonitoring MCP feeds your market data directly into your AI systems — and exactly how your team benefits from this in their day-to-day work.
