# Best secrets managers and credential vaults for AI agents (slim)

> Infisical (A), AWS Secrets Manager (BB) and Google Cloud Secret Manager (BB) lead the 13 ranked secrets managers and credential vaults. Picks by need, strengths, weaknesses and prices from the Anchor benchmark.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/secrets/index.md (~6,200 tokens) · this version ~1,580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/secrets/index.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/secrets/
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

The 10 highest-scoring of 13 secrets managers and credential vaults on the Anchor benchmark, with a pick for each need and where each one falls short. Scores come from public evidence, re-checked as vendors change.

- Ranked: 13 · agent-ready (BB or better): 7 · accept x402: 0 · hosted endpoints: 9
- Full ranked table: https://www.anchorterminal.com/categories/secrets.md
- Head-to-head comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/secrets/index.md (71)
- Methodology: https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/index.md

## The shortlist

| # | Tool | Grade | Score | Best for | Price | Where |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | [Infisical](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/infisical.md) | A | 83.7 | Teams that want an open-source secrets manager they can self-host, and for coding agents run under Agent Vault so they call APIs without ever holding a token. | Freemium | hosted and local |
| 2 | [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-secrets-manager.md) | BB | 77.7 | Agents running on AWS compute that should read credentials through a role with no key at all, and for RDS-family databases that need managed rotation. | $0.40 / mo | hosted |
| 3 | [Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-secret-manager.md) | BB | 76.5 | Agents on GKE, Cloud Run or GCE that should read secrets through workload identity with per-secret, time-bound grants. | $0.06 / mo | hosted |
| 4 | [Azure Key Vault](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-key-vault.md) | BB | 74.7 | Agents and runtimes already on Azure, where a managed identity reads a secret with no stored credential. | $0.003 / 1k calls | hosted |
| 5 | [Akeyless (SecretlessAI and MCP server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akeyless.md) | BB | 73.6 | Enterprises that want agents to use credentials without holding them, through a Gateway they run, and who will sign a quoted contract. | Freemium | hosted and local |
| 6 | [Doppler](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/doppler.md) | BB | 71.4 | Teams that want a hosted store and a one-line \`doppler run\` wrapper for agents, with config-scoped read-only tokens. | $21 / seat-mo | hosted and local |
| 7 | [Pulumi ESC](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pulumi-esc.md) | BB | 71.1 | Teams already on Pulumi, or anyone who wants one place that composes static secrets, other vaults and short-lived cloud credentials, and agents that need to start with no signup. | $0.01 / 1k req | hosted |
| 8 | [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/1password.md) | B | 69.7 | Teams whose people already use 1Password and want agents reading from the same vaults with read-only, vault-scoped tokens, and for developers who want an MCP server that never leaks a value. | $8.99 / seat-mo | local |
| 9 | [Keeper Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/keeper-secrets-manager.md) | B | 69.4 | Companies already on Keeper's business vault that want per-device machine identities with client-side decryption and an official MCP server. | Paid | local |
| 10 | [Phase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/phase.md) | B | 68 | Small teams that want an open-source secrets manager hosted in the EU or self-hosted, with coding agents kept away from values through the CLI. | $10 / seat-mo | hosted |

## Picks by need

- Highest score overall: [Infisical](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/infisical.md), A, 83.7/100 on the benchmark. Also [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-secrets-manager.md), BB, 77.7/100.
- Schema & documentation: [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-secrets-manager.md), 96/100 on schema & documentation, against 87 for the overall leader.
- Security & auth: [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/1password.md), 94/100 on security & auth, against 91 for the overall leader.
- Maintenance & community: [Keeper Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/keeper-secrets-manager.md), 92/100 on maintenance & community, against 90 for the overall leader.
- Transparency & trust: [1Password service accounts, SDKs and Environments MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/1password.md), 87/100 on transparency & trust, against 83 for the overall leader.
- Lowest paid price per 1,000 calls: [Google Cloud Secret Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/google-secret-manager.md), $0.003 per 1,000 calls, the lowest of the 3 listings here with a paid price in this unit (free allowances aside). Also [Azure Key Vault](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-key-vault.md), $0.003 per 1,000 calls.
- The review panel's favourite: [AWS Secrets Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aws-secrets-manager.md), 3.9/5 from 8 panel reviews.

## How to choose

- Machine identity and scoping: Check how the runtime authenticates and whether each identity can read only its agent's keys, since a shared login exposes every key the agent could reach.
- Rotation during a live run: Check whether a rotated key reaches a running agent without a restart and how long the old value works, since a long overlap widens the risk from a leak.
- Audit events and read latency: Check what each read logs and how much delay a read adds, since an agent that reads a key on every call pays that cost repeatedly.
- Self-hosting and data residency: Check whether you can self-host or pick a region and what the vendor can read, since a key store is only as trusted as its host.

- How the benchmark tests this category: An agent runtime reads a key at call time with a scoped machine identity, the key is rotated mid-run and access is then revoked. We check the scoping, how rotation lands, what the audit log records and how long each read takes.

Each listing's verdict, strengths and weaknesses: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/secrets/index.md