How to Add Receipt Scanning to Claude Desktop in 2 Minutes

Claude Desktop supports MCP servers — small local processes that give Claude new tools it can call natively. With the receiptconverter-mcp server, Claude can parse any receipt or invoice into structured JSON without you writing a single line of code.

Here's the full setup in 2 minutes.

What you'll be able to do

After this setup, you can ask Claude things like:

• "Parse this receipt: https://example.com/starbucks.jpg"
• "Scan /Users/me/Downloads/expense.pdf and give me the total and all line items"
• "Extract the vendor name, date, and amount from this receipt URL"
• "How many receipt conversions do I have left this month?"

Claude calls the tool automatically — you don't need to tell it to use the MCP server. It figures that out from your prompt.

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop (download at claude.ai/download)
• Node.js 18 or later — check with node --version
• ReceiptConverter API key — get one at receiptconverter.com/dashboard

Step 1 — Find your config file

Claude Desktop stores its MCP config here:

You can also open it from inside Claude Desktop: go to Settings → Developer → Edit Config.

Step 2 — Add the MCP server

Open the config file and add the receiptconverter block. Replace sk_live_your_key_here with your actual API key:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "receiptconverter": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["receiptconverter-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "RECEIPTCONVERTER_API_KEY": "sk_live_your_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you already have other MCP servers configured, just add receiptconverter as another entry inside the existing mcpServers object.

Step 3 — Restart Claude Desktop

Fully quit and relaunch Claude Desktop. On macOS, use Quit Claude from the menu bar — don't just close the window.

Step 4 — Verify it's working

Click the hammer icon (🔨) at the bottom of the chat input. You should see convert_receipt and check_usage listed under ReceiptConverter. If you see them, you're live.

Try it

Drop a receipt URL into Claude:

You: Parse this receipt for me: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Camponotus_flavomarginatus_ant.jpg/640px-Camponotus_flavomarginatus_ant.jpg

(use a real receipt URL — this is just an example URL)

Claude will call convert_receipt, get back the JSON, and present the results in a readable format.

What comes back

The convert_receipt tool returns a structured JSON object with every field from the receipt:

{
  "vendor": "Whole Foods Market",
  "date": "2024-03-20",
  "total": 47.83,
  "subtotal": 43.50,
  "tip": null,
  "currency": "USD",
  "payment_method": "Visa ending in 4242",
  "category": "Groceries",
  "taxes": [
    { "label": "NY Sales Tax", "rate": 4.0, "amount": 1.74 },
    { "label": "NYC Tax",      "rate": 4.5, "amount": 1.96 }
  ],
  "items": [
    { "name": "Organic Whole Milk",  "quantity": 1, "unit_price": 5.99,  "total_price": 5.99 },
    { "name": "Sourdough Bread",     "quantity": 1, "unit_price": 7.49,  "total_price": 7.49 },
    { "name": "Rotisserie Chicken",  "quantity": 1, "unit_price": 12.99, "total_price": 12.99 }
  ]
}

Troubleshooting

Tool doesn't appear after restart Check your JSON config for syntax errors (missing comma, extra bracket). Paste it into jsonlint.com to validate.

"npx not found" Node.js isn't installed or isn't in Claude's PATH. Install from nodejs.org, restart your computer, then reopen Claude Desktop.

"RECEIPTCONVERTER_API_KEY is not set" The env block is missing or the key name has a typo. Copy the config block above exactly and replace only the key value.

More issues? See the full troubleshooting guide.

Formats supported

JPG, PNG, WEBP, HEIC, TIFF, BMP, and text-based PDFs. For scanned PDFs (images saved as PDF), export as JPG first.

Full setup docs: receiptconverter.com/docs/mcp/claude-desktop

npm package: npmjs.com/package/receiptconverter-mcp