# ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) vs Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) (slim)

> Machine Payments Protocol scores 81.1 (A) to ACK-Pay's 53.6 (D) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp.md (~2,000 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ack-pay-vs-mpp
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) scores 81.1 (A) on agent readiness against ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit)'s 53.6 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent payment protocols.

- ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit): D 53.6, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ack-pay.min.md
- Machine Payments Protocol (MPP): A 81.1, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mpp.min.md
- ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit), good for Teams that want receipts a server can verify offline and a single request format across card and stablecoin rails, and that will run their own payment and receipt services. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 60 against 45.
- Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), good for Sellers who want stablecoins and cards behind one 402, or Stripe settlement into a fiat balance, and for agents making many small calls through sessions. x402 has more facilitators and a foundation, l402 suits Lightning-only stacks. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 38; Schema & documentation, 89 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 91 against 47; Security & auth, 79 against 58; Payments & pricing, 94 against 77; Maintenance & community, 95 against 53. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.

| Category | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) | Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 38 | 85 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 47 | 91 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 79 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 77 | 94 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 53 | 95 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 45 |

| Fact (where they differ) | ACK-Pay (Agent Commerce Kit) | Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Catena Labs, Inc. | Tempo and Stripe |
| Licence | MIT (docs and SDK) | CC0-1.0 (spec) |
| Last release | 2026-08-04 | 2026-09-29 |
| Popularity | 159 stars, 54 npm/wk | 93 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |