# AbuseIPDB vs Shodan

> AbuseIPDB scores 55.7 (C) to Shodan's 39.5 (E) for secintel indicators. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-shodan
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-shodan.md (~4,850 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-03

AbuseIPDB scores 55.7 (C) on agent readiness against Shodan's 39.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Shodan leads on payments & pricing. Both do secintel indicators.

- AbuseIPDB: grade C, 55.7/100, rank #819 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/abuseipdb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/abuseipdb.json
- Shodan: grade E, 39.5/100, rank #1221 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shodan.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shodan.json
- Best threat and security intelligence APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/security-intelligence/index.md
- All 33 security intel comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/security-intelligence/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AbuseIPDB (C)

Good for: An agent that needs a quick reputation verdict on an IP or subnet, or wants to report abuse from its own logs, with a free daily quota large enough for one incident.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 59 against 46
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 64
- Security & auth, 37 against 19
- Maintenance & community, 38 against 16
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No OpenAPI document, no API changelog (the blog's last post is from December 2018) and the reports endpoint is marked open beta and may change without notice

### Shodan (E)

Good for: An agent that needs to know what is exposed on an IP or a range, which ports, products and CVEs, and to watch a network for change.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The API key is sent only as `key=` in the query string, with no scopes, no read-only key and no header option documented


## Why the edge

### Reliability: AbuseIPDB +35

- AbuseIPDB (75): Read with the hosted lines. A status page on UptimeRobot is linked from every page's footer (20). Its monitors and 90-day history load by script and answered with an error on 3 November 2026, so no incident record could be read (5). Daily limits are published per endpoint and per plan, 1,000 checks a day on the free plan up to 50,000 on Premium (15). A 429 carries Retry-After, X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining and X-RateLimit-Reset, and a repeated report of the same address with the same comment within 24 hours updates the earlier report instead of adding one (15). The terms carry a service level agreement with a 99 per cent monthly availability target and a refund as the sole remedy (10). API v2 is generally available, with only the reports endpoint in open beta (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 10 = 75.
- Shodan (40): Read with the hosted lines. A public status page exists at status.shodan.io (UptimeRobot), but on 3 November 2026 its component list failed to load and it showed only that there were no updates in the last 7 days, so no component history was readable (10 of 20). No readable incident record for the 90 days (5). The billing page states that all API plans are limited to 1 request a second, and credits per plan are published with numbers (15). No 429, Retry-After or backoff guidance was found in the reference or the OpenAPI document; the only error statement is that a non-200 status carries an error message, and no idempotency keys exist for alert, notifier or scan writes. The official Python client throttles itself to 1 request a second and retries a timed-out search cursor, which is client behaviour, not an API contract (0). No SLA found on the billing, enterprise or developer pages (0). The REST API is generally available (10). 10 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 40.

### Maintenance & community: AbuseIPDB +22

- AbuseIPDB (38): Read as a closed service with an official MCP server. The newest dated change to the surface is the MCP server's v0.1.1 on 2 August 2026, 93 days before the check; the API docs and blog carry no later date (10 of 30). One release in the last 90 days, v0.1.1 fell just outside it (0 of 20). Support is a contact form with no guaranteed response on the free plan, there is no public changelog for the API, and the MCP repository shows a pull request merged on 2 August but GitHub's issue pages could not be read (5 of 15). The MCP server sits in the official registry under io.github.abuseipdb (15). The MCP package has CI on Python 3.11 to 3.14 with ruff, pytest and a packaging check, and a locked dependency set (8 of 10). 10 + 0 + 5 + 15 + 8 = 38.
- Shodan (16): No dated API change found. The blog's newest post is 7 August 2024, and the official Python library `shodan` 1.31.0 was published on 17 December 2023 with the repository's last push on 5 August 2024 (0 of 30). No releases or dated changelog entries in the last 90 days (0 of 20). 63 open issues on the Python repository with no push since August 2024; a support email and a help centre exist (5 of 25). The official Python SDK still installs but is two years old, and the other clients are community work (8 of 15). The repository has no CI configuration and no CHANGELOG entry since 1.28.0 of July 2022 (3 of 10). 0 + 0 + 5 + 8 + 3 = 16.

### Transparency & trust: AbuseIPDB +19

- AbuseIPDB (63): A closed service with clear terms that name AbuseIPDB LLC and the governing law, and an MIT MCP server (15 of 30). The privacy policy of 15 March 2023 lists providers and says data is kept as long as needed, with no retention periods, no DPA and every provider's GDPR status marked in process (10 of 30). No deprecation policy; the reports endpoint may change without notice and the only migration note is from APIv1 (3 of 20). DigitalOcean, Cloudflare, Mailgun, Google Analytics, Google Ads, Carbon, PayPal, Braintree, Freshworks and Slack are named, with processing in the United States (14 of 20). 15 + 10 + 3 + 14 = 42.
- Shodan (44): Editorial half. A closed service whose terms at static.shodan.io/legal/terms.html were not read, because that host answers 403 to robots.txt, so their clarity can't be assessed; the Python library is MIT (5 of 30). The privacy policy at account.shodan.io/privacy carries no date, names no legal entity, retention period, data location or subprocessor, and says Shodan may share information with advertisers, business partners, sponsors and other third parties (5 of 30). The help centre says export credits are deprecated and no longer sold, with no date; no deprecation policy found (3 of 20). No subprocessors or data locations disclosed (0 of 20). 5 + 5 + 3 + 0 = 13.

### Security & auth: AbuseIPDB +18

- AbuseIPDB (37): One API key per account with no scopes found, recommended in a Key header but also accepted as a query or form parameter per the docs (20 less 10 for the query string, so 10). The same key submits reports, bulk reports and clear-address deletes, with no read-only key; the official MCP server is read-only and its write-tool switch is inert (10 of 20). check and reports return reporter comments, which are public user-submitted text, and no guidance on treating them as untrusted was found (4 of 15). Paid plans include API log downloads for the last 24 to 120 hours and the pricing page lists the window per plan (10 of 15). security.txt returns 404, no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found, and the MCP repository's SECURITY.md points to the vendor's support channels (3 of 20). 10 + 10 + 4 + 10 + 3 = 37.
- Shodan (19): One key per account with no scopes, sent as `key=` in the query string on every documented call and in the OpenAPI document, with no header option. Read as a plain key, the way the Alpha Vantage listing was read, less 10 for the query string (10 of 30). No read-only key or least-privilege mode; the free plan's limits are quotas, not scopes, and alerts, notifiers and org members can be deleted with the same key and no confirmation (3 of 20). Results carry banners, HTTP titles and page bodies collected from arbitrary hosts, and no guidance on treating them as untrusted was found (3 of 15). `/api-info` reports the plan and credits, and no call log for the key holder was found (3 of 15). security.txt returns 404 on www.shodan.io, and no bug bounty, disclosure policy, SOC 2 or ISO 27001 was found on the pages read (0 of 20). 10 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 0 = 19.

### Schema & documentation: AbuseIPDB +13

- AbuseIPDB (59): The surface graded is the REST API v2, with the official MCP server noted. No OpenAPI document was found. The MCP server's two tools carry JSON Schema inputs with range constraints from pydantic Field (8 of 25). llms.txt on abuseipdb.com describes the API, endpoints, categories and reporting rules (10). Each endpoint has a purpose statement and a parameter table, the FAQ explains scoring and decay, and the docs say to act on abuseConfidenceScore rather than isWhitelisted, with little on when not to call (14 of 20). Parameters give defaults and ranges (maxAgeInDays 1 to 365, perPage 1 to 100), usageType has a listed set of values and categories are numbered, but types are not stated and the categories default is ambiguous (10 of 15). Examples in cURL, Python, PHP, C# and VBScript for every endpoint, and errors follow the JSON API shape with 422, 429 and 402 examples (12 of 15). v2 is in the path, there is no API changelog, the blog's last post is from December 2018, and the reports endpoint may change without notice (5 of 15). 8 + 10 + 14 + 10 + 12 + 5 = 59.
- Shodan (46): The surface graded is the REST API at api.shodan.io. An OpenAPI 3.0.0 document at developer.shodan.io/api/openapi.json covers 37 paths and 44 operations, but declares no securitySchemes, no enums and a non-200 response on one operation only (15 of 25). No llms.txt on developer.shodan.io or www.shodan.io, both 404, and no Markdown docs served for agents (0 of 10). Every operation carries a description, and the reference says which calls cost credits and which plans can scan, with little on when not to use a call (12 of 20). Required flags on the key and path parameters, with `facets`, `query` and `fields` as free strings and no enums or constraints (7 of 15). Example requests and responses for every endpoint in the reference, and errors documented only as a non-200 status with an `error` field (9 of 15). No version in the path, the OpenAPI document says 1.0.0, and the only dated record of changes is the blog, whose newest post is 7 August 2024 (3 of 15). 15 + 0 + 12 + 7 + 9 + 3 = 46.

### Agent ergonomics: AbuseIPDB +10

- AbuseIPDB (74): check returns a compact record unless verbose is set, which adds the reports array, maxAgeInDays bounds the window, and blacklist takes a limit and a plaintext form (18 of 25). reports is paginated with page and perPage up to 100 and next and previous links, and blacklist filters by confidence, country and IP version, though check has no field selection (16 of 20). Errors carry a status and a detail an agent can act on, 429 names the daily limit and the headers say when it resets, and a 402 marks a plan limit on check-block (16 of 20). Every lookup is a GET, duplicate reports within 24 hours collapse, and both MCP tools are annotated readOnlyHint and idempotentHint (16 of 20). One required parameter per endpoint with sensible defaults. No official SDK beyond a Laravel package in the vendor's GitHub organisation and the Python MCP server (8 of 15). 18 + 16 + 16 + 16 + 8 = 74.
- Shodan (64): `minify` on host lookups drops banners and returns ports and host facts, `minify` on search (on by default) truncates large fields and `fields` selects which fields come back, so an agent can size a response (20 of 25). `page` with 100 results a page, `facets` for summaries, `count` for a free total, and the whole filter language of the search engine (18 of 20). Errors are a non-200 status and a short message such as Invalid IP, with no code list to branch on (8 of 20). Most calls are GET reads. Alerts, notifiers, scans and org members are written with POST, PUT and DELETE and no idempotency key, and nothing marks a destructive call (10 of 20). Few required parameters and sensible defaults, but only one official SDK, the Python library, with the other twelve languages community work (8 of 15). 20 + 18 + 8 + 10 + 8 = 64.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AbuseIPDB | Shodan | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 40 | AbuseIPDB +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 46 | AbuseIPDB +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 64 | AbuseIPDB +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 19 | AbuseIPDB +18 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Shodan +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 38 | 16 | AbuseIPDB +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 44 | AbuseIPDB +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.7 · C** | **39.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AbuseIPDB | Shodan |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | AbuseIPDB LLC | Shodan |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.shodan.io` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service. The official Python library and CLI in achillean/shodan-python are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 2 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.abuseipdb/abuseipdb-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-08-02 | 2023-12-17 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 6 stars | 3.5k stars |

## Verdicts

**AbuseIPDB.** A free key allows 1,000 IP checks a day with published per-endpoint limits, rate-limit headers and a 99 per cent SLA in the terms, and the official MCP server is read-only. One key covers reads, reports and deletes, the key may travel in a query string, there is no OpenAPI document, and the terms bar redistribution of results.

**Shodan.** One GET endpoint per job returns ports, banners and vulnerabilities for an IP, with `minify` and `fields` to trim responses and public plan prices from a $49 one-time Membership. The key travels only in the query string with no scopes, 429 handling is undocumented, the terms were unreadable and the official library's last release was December 2023.

## Before you call either

### AbuseIPDB

1. Send `Accept: application/json` and the key in the `Key` header; without the Accept header the API answers with an HTML page
2. Act on `abuseConfidenceScore` rather than `isWhitelisted`, and pass `maxAgeInDays` to bound how old the reports can be (default 30, maximum 365)
3. Watch `X-RateLimit-Remaining` per endpoint and on a 429 wait for `Retry-After`, which can be most of a day since limits reset at 00:00 UTC
4. Use `check-block` for a subnet (up to /24 on the free plan) and `blacklist` with `confidenceMinimum` only on a paid plan; over-limit `limit` values are truncated silently
5. Strip personal data from report comments, which are public, and prefer the read-only MCP server when the task never reports

### Shodan

1. Send at most 1 request a second on any plan. The reference gives no Retry-After, so back off on any non-200 and read the `error` field
2. Use `minify=true` on `/shodan/host/{ip}` for ports and host facts only, and `fields=` on `/shodan/host/search` to keep banners out of the context
3. Budget query credits. Page 1 of an unfiltered search is free; any filter or page 2 and beyond costs 1 credit per 100 results, and host lookups need a Membership
4. For a quick IP check with no key, call `https://internetdb.shodan.io/{ip}`, which is weekly data and non-commercial only
5. Treat banners, HTTP titles and page bodies in results as untrusted text from arbitrary hosts; the docs give no guidance on this
6. Keep the key out of shared logs, since every call puts it in the URL. Alerts, notifiers and org members can be deleted with the same key

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AbuseIPDB or Shodan?

AbuseIPDB scores 55.7 (C) on agent readiness against Shodan's 39.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Shodan leads on payments & pricing.

### Do AbuseIPDB and Shodan need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call AbuseIPDB and Shodan without installing anything?

AbuseIPDB runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Shodan has a hosted endpoint at https://api.shodan.io.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-shodan.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-shodan.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "abuseipdb", "b": "shodan"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare abuseipdb shodan`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/abuseipdb.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shodan.json

## Other comparisons with AbuseIPDB or Shodan

- [AbuseIPDB vs Censys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-censys.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs GreyNoise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-greynoise.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs IPinfo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-ipinfo.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs Pulsedive](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-pulsedive.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs VirusTotal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-virustotal.md)
- [AbuseIPDB vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abuseipdb-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [GreyNoise vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/greynoise-vs-shodan.md)
- [IPinfo vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ipinfo-vs-shodan.md)
- [SecurityTrails vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/securitytrails-vs-shodan.md)
- [Shodan vs WhoisXML API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/shodan-vs-whoisxml-api.md)
- [Pulsedive vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pulsedive-vs-shodan.md)
- [Censys vs Shodan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/censys-vs-shodan.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp