# Agentcard vs Agent Vault by Self

> Agentcard scores 56.5 (C) to Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D) for card payments. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-self-agent-vault
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-self-agent-vault.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-self-agent-vault.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: 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)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Agentcard scores 56.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Agent Vault by Self leads on reliability and security & auth. Both do card payments.

- Agentcard: grade C, 56.5/100, rank #700 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentcard.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentcard.json
- Agent Vault by Self: grade D, 52.4/100, rank #823 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/self-agent-vault.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/self-agent-vault.json
- Best agent wallets and spending controls: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-wallets/index.md
- All 38 wallets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-wallets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Agentcard (C)

Good for: A company building a shopping or purchasing agent that needs users to pay with their own cards under passkey approval, or needs capped virtual Visa cards per task.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 42 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 48

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Agent Vault by Self loses 4 points for them

Watch for: No status page or incident history was found on the site or in the docs. An SLA is listed for Enterprise plans only, with no published text

### Agent Vault by Self (D)

Good for: A person or developer who wants an agent to buy and sign in on ordinary websites with the holder's own card and logins, without the agent seeing them.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 40 against 29
- Security & auth, 76 against 68

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

Watch for: The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave. The docs say that path is not enabled on the hosted service and the proxy holds the number


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agentcard | Agent Vault by Self | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 29 | 40 | Agent Vault by Self +11 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 76 | Agentcard +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 66 | Agent Vault by Self +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 76 | Agent Vault by Self +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 42 | 30 | Agentcard +12 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 48 | Agentcard +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 47 | Agent Vault by Self +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **56.5 · C** | **52.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agentcard | Agent Vault by Self |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Agentcard Corporation | SocialConnect Labs, Inc. (Self Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.agentcard.sh` | `https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for card payments | not published | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Agentcard's terms of use. The `agent-cards` CLI on npm declares no licence, `@agent-cards/checkout` is marked as having none, and the repository they name is private | Proprietary hosted service. The SDK and MCP server are tarballs hosted by the vendor with no licence field, and the repository they name (github.com/selfxyz/agent-vault) is not public. The checkout recipe registry, selfxyz/agent-checkout-skill, is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 30 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-10 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 33k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Agentcard.** Purchases need the user's passkey approval by default, cards carry spending rules, and card creation takes an idempotency key. No status page, published rate limits beyond the token endpoint, or privacy policy of Agentcard's own was found, and the Trust Centre could not be read. Issuing costs $5,000 a month.

**Agent Vault by Self.** Scoped, revocable keys, OAuth on the hosted MCP server, spending caps, approvals and a documented threat model are designed to keep real card numbers and passwords out of the agent's context. The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave, while the docs say that path is off on the hosted service.

## Before you call either

### Agentcard

1. Mint a platform token with `POST /api/v2/oauth/token` and cache it for its one hour. The endpoint allows 30 requests per 5 minutes per IP
2. Send the same `Idempotency-Key` on every retry of `POST /api/v2/cards`, and the same `idempotency_key` on every retry of `buy_checkout`
3. Pass `source: "issued"` to the MCP `create_card` tool for a card number. Without it the tool may start Vault setup and return a link
4. Call `get_card_details` only at the payment form and never log the result. Each read notifies the member and may return `approval_required`
5. Treat `transaction.authorized` and `order.*` webhooks as the record of a payment, and deduplicate deliveries on the event `id`

### Agent Vault by Self

1. Pass the `session` handle from each hosted MCP result on every later call. Without it a page tool is refused or a new signed-out browser opens
2. On a `pending` answer, call `get_pending_result` with its `wait` id in the same turn. Repeating the original call starts a second one
3. Tell the user when `waiting_on_owner` is true. A first fill on a new site waits up to 15 minutes for the holder's approval
4. Before retrying a fill after an unknown outcome, check the merchant's order state or `get_run_report`. Some failures keep a recorded spend
5. Ask the holder to add an agent card to every card the agent may use. A card marked No limits accepts any amount on authorised sites

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agentcard or Agent Vault by Self?

Agentcard scores 56.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Agent Vault by Self leads on reliability and security & auth.

### Do Agentcard and Agent Vault by Self need an API key?

Agentcard uses an OAuth sign-in. Agent Vault by Self takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Agentcard and Agent Vault by Self without installing anything?

Yes. Agentcard has a hosted endpoint at https://api.agentcard.sh and Agent Vault by Self at https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Agentcard or Agent Vault by Self

- [Agentcard vs Crossmint API + Docs MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-crossmint.md)
- [Agentcard vs Kite Agent Passport](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-kite-agent-passport.md)
- [Agentcard vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Agentcard vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-stripe-mcp.md)
- [Agentcard vs Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-circle-wallets.md)
- [Agentcard vs Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-coinbase-cdp-agentkit.md)
- [Agentcard vs Openfort](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-openfort.md)
- [Agentcard vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-privy.md)
- [Agentcard vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)
- [Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circle-wallets-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-cdp-agentkit-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Openfort vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openfort-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)

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