# Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Memory (MCP reference server)

> Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) to Memory's 54.2 (C) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-08

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Memory (MCP reference server)'s 54.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Memory (MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent memory.

- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory: grade A, 79.4/100, rank #12 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentcore-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentcore-memory.json
- Memory (MCP reference server): grade C, 54.2/100, rank #690 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/memory-reference-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/memory-reference-server.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 55 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md
- Best database, file and memory tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data/index.md
- All 43 databases comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory (A)

Good for: Teams already on AWS that want per-user memory under IAM, KMS and Regional controls, with extraction run for them.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 88 against 52
- Schema & documentation, 92 against 60
- Agent ergonomics, 86 against 67
- Security & auth, 87 against 32
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 43

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Long-term extraction is asynchronous. The docs say records appear within seconds to minutes after a write

### Memory (MCP reference server) (C)

Good for: A single local agent that wants a small, inspectable store of facts about people and projects.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No pagination or limits. `read_graph` returns everything and `search_nodes` every match


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory | Memory (MCP reference server) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 88 | 52 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +36 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 60 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +32 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 67 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 87 | 32 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +55 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Memory (MCP reference server) +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 43 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 72 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **79.4 · A** | **54.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory | Memory (MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | MCP project (reference servers) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms. The `bedrock-agentcore` Python SDK and the `@aws/agentcore` CLI are Apache-2.0 | MIT and Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 21 | 9 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-08-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2023-03-15 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 776 stars, 1.1M npm/wk | 90k stars, 136k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory.** Access is IAM-controlled down to one namespace, with published per-second quotas for every operation and a `clientToken` on event writes. Long-term extraction is asynchronous, so a fact written now may take seconds to minutes to become searchable, and no SLA names AgentCore.

**Memory (MCP reference server).** Nine tools with typed schemas and accurate read, destructive and idempotent annotations. No pagination or limits. `read_graph` returns everything and `search_nodes` every match.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory

1. Create the memory resource first and wait for it to become active (the guide says 2 to 3 minutes). Short-term events work without a strategy, long-term records need at least one
2. Don't search for a fact straight after `CreateEvent`. Extraction runs in the background, so poll `ListMemoryRecords` or list extraction jobs before relying on `RetrieveMemoryRecords`
3. Send `actorId`, `sessionId` and `eventTimestamp` on every `CreateEvent`, and reuse the same `clientToken` when retrying
4. Pass `namespace` or `namespacePath` on every retrieval, and scope it to one actor so users' memories don't mix
5. Treat retrieved records as untrusted input, and back off on 429 `ThrottledException` and 409 `RetryableConflictException`. A quota breach returns 402 `ServiceQuotaExceededException`

### Memory (MCP reference server)

1. Set `MEMORY_FILE_PATH` to an absolute path. The default sits inside the npx cache
2. Use `search_nodes` or `open_nodes` instead of `read_graph` once the graph has more than a few hundred entities
3. Make memory writes one at a time. Parallel calls in one turn can overwrite each other in 2026.8.31
4. Create both entities before `create_relations`. A missing endpoint fails the whole batch
5. Keep observations short and factual. They come back verbatim in every later read

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory or Memory (MCP reference server)?

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Memory (MCP reference server)'s 54.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Memory (MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing.

### Do Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory and Memory (MCP reference server) need an API key?

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Memory (MCP reference server) needs no key.

### Can an agent call Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory and Memory (MCP reference server) without installing anything?

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory has a hosted endpoint at https://bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com. Memory (MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory and Memory (MCP reference server) open source?

No open-source release is listed for Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory. Memory (MCP reference server) is open source (MIT and Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory or Memory (MCP reference server)

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Cognee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-cognee.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Graphiti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-graphiti.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Hindsight](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-hindsight.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Honcho](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-honcho.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs LangMem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-langmem.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-localghost.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Mem0 Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-mem0.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-supermemory.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [Cognee vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cognee-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Graphiti vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphiti-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Hindsight vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hindsight-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Honcho vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/honcho-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [LangMem vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langmem-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [LocalGhost vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localghost-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Mem0 Platform + MCP vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mem0-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Memory (MCP reference server) vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/memory-reference-server-vs-supermemory.md)
- [Memory (MCP reference server) vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/memory-reference-server-vs-zep.md)

## Disclosure

- MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing.