Hugging Face MCP Server vs Paper Search MCP
Both are research MCP servers, and we ran both through the same test (paper lookup) in each app. Hugging Face MCP Server passed 3 of 3 apps we tested it in; Paper Search MCP passed 0 of 3.
Test results side by side
| Hugging Face MCP Server | Paper Search MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Passed 2026-10-22 | Failed 2026-10-15 |
| Cursor | Passed 2026-10-22 | Failed 2026-10-15 |
| Claude Desktop | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| ChatGPT (Codex) | Passed 2026-10-22 | Failed 2026-10-22 |
| Tools exposed (protocol check) | 4 tools | — |
| GitHub stars | 308 | 2,838 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-02 |
Results from our own harness runs, dated per cell. Stars and last push from GitHub at our last data refresh. We don’t pick a winner here: which one fits depends on your app and setup.
What each does
Hugging Face MCP Server: Hugging Face's official server for searching models, datasets, papers and Spaces on the Hub and calling Gradio apps as tools. Also offered as a hosted connector.
Paper Search MCP: Searches and downloads academic papers from arXiv, PubMed, bioRxiv and other sources.
