# Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Zep

> Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Zep's 69.3 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do memory store. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- 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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Zep's 69.3 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do memory store.

- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory: grade A, 79.4/100, rank #12 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentcore-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentcore-memory.json
- Zep: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #181 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zep.json

## 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 65
- Agent ergonomics, 86 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 57

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine

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

### Zep (B)

Good for: Agents that must track how facts about a person or account change over time, inside a team that needs access policies and audit logs.

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

Watch for: The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory | Zep | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 88 | 65 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 89 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 70 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 87 | 84 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 80 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 57 | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory +19 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **79.4 · A** | **69.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory | Zep |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com` | `https://api.getzep.com/api/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 (examples repo). The service is closed-source |
| Tools exposed | 21 | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | 2024-01-27 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 776 stars, 1.1M npm/wk | 4.9k stars, 130k npm/wk, 87k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (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.

**Zep.** Facts that new data invalidates keep the time they stopped being true. The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data.

## 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`

### Zep

1. Create the user and a thread before adding messages, as the quickstart does
2. Set `return_context` when adding messages to skip a second round trip
3. Keep episodes short. Every 350 bytes past the first costs another credit
4. Read Retry-After on a 429 and back off with jitter. Free accounts over quota drop to 5 requests a minute
5. Expect a delay after a graph add (202 Accepted) before new facts show up in search

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory or Zep?

Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory scores 79.4 (A) on agent readiness against Zep's 69.3 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory and Zep need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory and Zep without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory has a hosted endpoint at https://bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com and Zep at https://api.getzep.com/api/v2.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory or Zep

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