# Abyssale vs Placid API + MCP

> Abyssale scores 65.6 (B) to Placid's 43 (E) for design rendering. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-placid
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-placid.md (~4,600 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: 2026-11-07

Abyssale scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Placid API + MCP's 43 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Placid API + MCP leads on reliability. Both do design rendering.

- Abyssale: grade B, 65.6/100, rank #411 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/abyssale.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/abyssale.json
- Placid API + MCP: grade E, 43/100, rank #1244 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/placid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/placid.json
- Best programmatic image and design asset APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/design-assets/index.md
- All 153 assets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/design-assets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Abyssale (B)

Good for: Multi-format ad creative, video, HTML5 banners and print PDFs from one design, for marketing teams and agencies with an agent in the loop.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 98 against 34
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 40
- Security & auth, 55 against 34
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 7
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: API and MCP need the Pro plan at $45 a seat a month

### Placid API + MCP (E)

Good for: Small teams and no-code builders who want template renders to image, PDF and video at a low monthly price, and agents that should be fenced to a few templates.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 41

Watch for: No OpenAPI, no llms.txt, and the MCP tool list isn't published


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Abyssale +78

- Abyssale (85): API version v2026-10-29, eight days before this check (30). Fifteen dated API versions between 21 August and 29 October, MCP server releases 1.0.0 (1 September) to 1.2.0 (7 October), and SDK releases in October (20). Closed service with a changelog and RSS feed, help@abyssale.com and in-app chat, which we didn't test (12 of 15). com.abyssale/mcp is in the official MCP registry under a domain-verified namespace, and the Node.js (1.9.0) and Python (1.7.0) SDKs were both released on 21 October 2026 (15). Both SDKs are current; their repositories weren't read (8 of 10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 8 = 85.
- Placid API + MCP (7): We found no dated release or API change. The Headway changelog has no dates, its entries mention Integromat and a v2.0 launch, and /changelog on placid.app returns 404 (0). No dated entries in the last 90 days (0). Support by email named in the error docs, public changelog stale (4). Official PHP and Laravel libraries were last tagged v1.0.1 on 2022-07-20 and still call placid.app/api/rest (3). No CI on either library (0).

### Schema & documentation: Abyssale +64

- Abyssale (98): A 424 KB OpenAPI file at developers.abyssale.com/api.yaml with 34 operations, from which the reference pages are generated (25). A detailed llms.txt that states the base URL, auth, rate limits, error envelope and webhook signing up front (10). Pages say what each endpoint is for and when to use another, such as synchronous versus asynchronous generation and designs versus workspace templates, and the MCP permissions page says what each tool can break (19 of 20). Typed parameters with enums, ranges and required fields across layers and formats (14 of 15). One error envelope everywhere, an error catalogue with machine-readable ids and what to do for each, and worked examples (15). Date-based versions named in every response and a dated changelog in Keep a Changelog form with a Breaking section first; the MCP server has its own semver changelog (15). 25 + 10 + 19 + 14 + 15 + 15 = 98.
- Placid API + MCP (34): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract, and the MCP tool definitions aren't published (0). /llms.txt returns 404 (0). Endpoint pages state purpose and warn that create_now may fail under high load (12). template_uuid is the one required field and status is an enum, but `layers` and `modifications` are open objects keyed by layer name (8). Request and response examples per endpoint, and an error page with six codes but no body format (9). Docs are versioned 2.0, but the changelog on Headway carries no dates and its newest entries predate the MCP server (5).

### Agent ergonomics: Abyssale +45

- Abyssale (85): 20 MCP tools (15 for 11 to 30), plus 5 because OAuth scopes per tool group let a client be approved for reads only (20 of 25). Design listings search by words in any order, filter by project, orientation, size, format and dates, sort and order, and say honestly when a page is past the end; listing tools refuse unsupported options rather than ignore them, per MCP 1.2.0 (19 of 20). One envelope with an `id` to branch on, and error docs that say which errors a retry never fixes (19 of 20). The permissions page marks each tool read-only, mutating or destructive, but MCP annotations couldn't be confirmed on the closed server, and generation has no idempotency key (12 of 20). Official Node.js and Python SDKs with retry behaviour and polling helpers (15). 20 + 19 + 19 + 12 + 15 = 85.
- Placid API + MCP (40): Image, PDF and video objects are small and the MCP can be limited to chosen templates and creative types (15). We found no pagination or filter parameters on the pages we read (5). Six status codes documented without an error body format (10). No idempotency key, no MCP tool annotations we could see, and DELETE removes an image for good. Polling the polling_url is safe (3). Only template_uuid is required, but the official libraries are PHP and Laravel only, both last tagged v1.0.1 on 2022-07-20 (7).

### Reliability: Placid API + MCP +34

- Abyssale (41): Hosted lines, for the REST API and the remote MCP server. No status page was linked from the site or the docs, and status.abyssale.com did not answer (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits published in full, 10 requests a second globally and per-workspace tiers with per-minute and per-hour budgets (15). 429s carry Retry-After and X-RateLimit headers, three 429 ids say which limit was hit, failed generations cost nothing, and webhooks carry a delivery id to deduplicate on. No idempotency key on generation requests (13 of 15). The terms promise best-effort availability and leave SLAs to Enterprise contracts, so none is published (0). Generation and the MCP server are generally available, while Design Import, the JSON authoring route, is labelled alpha (8 of 10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 13 + 0 + 8 = 41.
- Placid API + MCP (75): Hyperping status page at status.placid.app with separate App and API components and 90-day bars (20). No incidents are posted. The page's own figure for the API is 99.963 per cent over 90 days, roughly 48 minutes of recorded downtime with no write-up, so minor rather than clean (20). 60 requests a minute and 10 simultaneous create_now requests, documented (15). X-RateLimit-Limit, -Remaining and -Reset headers and exponential backoff advice on 429, but no idempotency key or safe-retry note for renders, which are writes (10). No SLA found on the pricing page or in the docs (0). REST API 2.0 is GA (10).

### Security & auth: Abyssale +21

- Abyssale (55): The MCP server uses OAuth through Auth0 with scopes per tool group (`read:design`, `write:design`, `delete:design`, `import:design`, `generate:banner`, `read:credits` and others), enforced alongside the user's workspace role, and approval is per client connection. The REST API uses a workspace `x-api-key` with no scopes documented (28 of 30). A client can be approved for reads only, and deleting needs its own scope, but nothing on the server asks for confirmation; the docs leave that to the client per the MCP spec (17 of 20). Tools return the workspace's own designs and fonts; image layers can point at outside URLs (10 of 15). No audit log or per-call record was found (0). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0). 28 + 17 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 55.
- Placid API + MCP (34): One bearer token per project, no scopes, and the docs say nothing on revoking or rotating it (15). The MCP setup guide documents ?api_token= in the server URL for clients that can't set headers, less 10 (5). MCP settings restrict which templates and which output types (image, PDF, video, docs only) the server can use (14). Returns renders from your own templates (10). A dashboard activity log is mentioned in the changelog, nothing per call documented (5). No security.txt (404), no certification in the privacy policy and no disclosure policy found (0).

### Transparency & trust: Abyssale +13

- Abyssale (71): Closed service under terms of service version 3 of 21 July 2026, from a Paris SAS with its register number (15). The privacy policy and terms agree on EU hosting on AWS Ireland, deletion timelines and breach notice within 72 hours, but AI model training on anonymised customer content is on by default with a workspace opt-out, and anonymised data may be kept indefinitely (20 of 30). The changelog has Deprecated and Removed sections and refers to a deprecation policy that covers stable endpoints but not alpha ones; the policy's notice period wasn't found (14 of 20). Subprocessors named with locations, among them AWS Ireland, Auth0, Brevo, Intercom and AI providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Black Forest Labs and Google, some outside the EEA (20). 15 + 20 + 14 + 20 = 69.
- Placid API + MCP (58): Closed service under published terms, per the 30 September check (15). Privacy policy updated 18 November 2024, a DPA on request, and raw request data kept 'for a limited amount of time' with no period stated (12). No deprecation policy or dated notices. The old changelog says v1 remains functional (3). Subprocessor categories only, with 'We don't publish further details of our data processors', and no hosting location (3).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Abyssale | Placid API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 41 | 75 | Placid API + MCP +34 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 98 | 34 | Abyssale +64 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 40 | Abyssale +45 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 34 | Abyssale +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 35 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 7 | Abyssale +78 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 58 | Abyssale +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.6 · B** | **43 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Abyssale | Placid API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Abyssale SAS | Placid |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.abyssale.com` | `https://api.placid.app/api/rest` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under the Abyssale terms of service (version 3, 21 July 2026) | none |
| Tools exposed | 20 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.abyssale/mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | none |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2024-11-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-11-18 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### Abyssale

No score change since it was listed.

### Placid API + MCP

- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Abyssale.** Abyssale publishes a full OpenAPI file, dated versions, tiered rate limits with Retry-After, one error envelope and per-tool OAuth scopes on its MCP server. API access starts at $45 a seat a month after a 14-day trial, and no status page or published SLA was found.

**Placid API + MCP.** Hyperping status page with separate App and API components and 90-day history. No OpenAPI, no llms.txt, and the MCP tool list isn't published.

## Before you call either

### Abyssale

1. Branch on the error `id`, never the message; `request_rate_limited` means wait Retry-After seconds
2. Multiply credits by formats before a batch, since 200 products in 6 formats cost 1,200 credits
3. Ask the MCP user to approve only `read:design` unless the task must generate or change designs
4. Use asynchronous generation for several formats and deduplicate webhooks on `X-Abyssale-Delivery-Id`
5. Check `GET /credits` first; it costs nothing and shows both balances

### Placid API + MCP

1. Send the token in the `Authorization` header, not as ?api_token=, wherever the client allows it
2. Read X-RateLimit-Remaining and wait for X-RateLimit-Reset after a 429
3. Use test mode for watermarked previews while matching layer names, then switch to live renders
4. Leave create_now off for batches, since it caps at 10 at once and may fail under load
5. Poll the returned polling_url or pass webhook_success, since images start as queued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Abyssale or Placid API + MCP?

Abyssale scores 65.6 (B) on agent readiness against Placid API + MCP's 43 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Placid API + MCP leads on reliability.

### Do Abyssale and Placid API + MCP need an API key?

Abyssale takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Placid API + MCP needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Abyssale and Placid API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. Abyssale has a hosted endpoint at https://api.abyssale.com and Placid API + MCP at https://api.placid.app/api/rest.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Abyssale or Placid API + MCP

- [Adobe Photoshop API vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-photoshop-api-vs-placid.md)
- [APITemplate.io vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apitemplate-io-vs-placid.md)
- [Bannerbear API + MCP vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bannerbear-vs-placid.md)
- [Canva REST APIs + MCP vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/canva-vs-placid.md)
- [Contentdrips API and MCP vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/contentdrips-vs-placid.md)
- [Creatomate vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/creatomate-vs-placid.md)
- [DynaPictures vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dynapictures-vs-placid.md)
- [Layerre vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/layerre-vs-placid.md)
- [Photoroom API vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/photoroom-vs-placid.md)
- [Pixelixe vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pixelixe-vs-placid.md)
- [Placid API + MCP vs PostNitro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-postnitro.md)
- [Placid API + MCP vs Robolly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-robolly.md)
- [Placid API + MCP vs Shotstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-shotstack.md)
- [Placid API + MCP vs Templated API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/placid-vs-templated.md)
- [Abyssale vs Adobe Photoshop API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-adobe-photoshop-api.md)
- [Abyssale vs APITemplate.io](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-apitemplate-io.md)
- [Abyssale vs Bannerbear API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-bannerbear.md)
- [Abyssale vs Canva REST APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-canva.md)
- [Abyssale vs Contentdrips API and MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-contentdrips.md)
- [Abyssale vs Creatomate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-creatomate.md)
- [Abyssale vs DynaPictures](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-dynapictures.md)
- [Abyssale vs Layerre](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-layerre.md)
- [Abyssale vs Osmo CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-osmo-cli.md)
- [Abyssale vs Pictify](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-pictify.md)
- [Abyssale vs Pixelixe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-pixelixe.md)
- [Abyssale vs PostNitro](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-postnitro.md)
- [Abyssale vs Robolly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-robolly.md)
- [Abyssale vs Shotstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-shotstack.md)
- [Abyssale vs Templated API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-templated.md)
- [Osmo CLI vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/osmo-cli-vs-placid.md)
- [Pictify vs Placid API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pictify-vs-placid.md)
- [Abyssale vs Photoroom API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/abyssale-vs-photoroom.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