# AI Memory vs claude-mem

> claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) to AI Memory's 56.1 (C) for memory search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Updated: 2026-10-30

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 56.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do memory search.

- AI Memory: grade C, 56.1/100, rank #760 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ai-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ai-memory.json
- claude-mem: grade C, 58.6/100, rank #677 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-mem.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-mem.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 188 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AI Memory (C)

Good for: AI Memory keeps shared project memory and task handoffs across coding agents.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 55 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where claude-mem loses 6 points for them

Watch for: Existing deployments may still lack authentication

### claude-mem (C)

Good for: Session memory for one developer's coding agents, recalled by staged MCP search, with optional hosted sync across machines.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 65
- Maintenance & community, 76 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 46 against 40

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: Telemetry is on by default and secret redaction is off by default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AI Memory | claude-mem | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 85 | claude-mem +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 84 | claude-mem +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 74 | claude-mem +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 50 | AI Memory +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | AI Memory +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 76 | claude-mem +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 46 | claude-mem +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **56.1 · C** | **58.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AI Memory | claude-mem |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | Fabio Akita | Alex Newman |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | stdio, HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud terms |
| Tools exposed | none | 19 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-29 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 11k stars | 106k stars, 30k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |

## Verdicts

**AI Memory.** Cross-agent task handoffs and shared search. Existing deployments may still lack authentication.

**claude-mem.** Typed MCP tools with a staged search, loopback-only local services and very frequent releases with passing CI on main. Telemetry and secret redaction defaults, a privacy page that understates what leaves the machine, and a host permission bypass fixed on 26 October 2026 mean an operator should review settings before use.

## Before you call either

### AI Memory

1. Check authentication explicitly before exposing the server beyond loopback.
2. Exclude secrets and sensitive repositories from memory capture.
3. Back up memory and follow the version 3 migration guide.

### claude-mem

1. Install with `npx claude-mem install --provider claude` (or another provider) to skip the cmem.ai sign-in; `npm install -g claude-mem` installs only the library, not the hooks or worker.
2. Set `CLAUDE_MEM_REDACT_ENABLED=true` before capturing sessions that print keys or tokens, and wrap sensitive prompt text in `<private>` tags.
3. Run `npx claude-mem telemetry disable` or set `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` if analytics shouldn't leave the machine.
4. Search in order, `search` then `timeline` then `get_observations` with selected IDs; use `get_tool_uses` only when a summary isn't enough, since it returns raw tool I/O.
5. Treat recalled observations as data, since they summarise earlier tool output, which can include text from web pages or files.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AI Memory or claude-mem?

claude-mem scores 58.6 (C) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 56.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do AI Memory and claude-mem need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call AI Memory and claude-mem without installing anything?

AI Memory runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. claude-mem runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are AI Memory and claude-mem open source?

No open-source release is listed for AI Memory. claude-mem is open source (Apache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud terms).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with AI Memory or claude-mem

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs claude-mem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-claude-mem.md)
- [claude-mem vs Cognee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-cognee.md)
- [claude-mem vs Graphicle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-graphicle.md)
- [claude-mem vs Graphiti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-graphiti.md)
- [claude-mem vs Hindsight](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-hindsight.md)
- [claude-mem vs Honcho](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-honcho.md)
- [claude-mem vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [claude-mem vs LangMem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-langmem.md)
- [claude-mem vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-localghost.md)
- [claude-mem vs Mem0 Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-mem0.md)
- [claude-mem vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [claude-mem vs MemPalace](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-mempalace.md)
- [claude-mem vs past.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-past-dev.md)
- [claude-mem vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-supermemory.md)
- [claude-mem vs TencentDB Agent Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-tencentdb-agent-memory.md)
- [claude-mem vs Tokenrip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-tokenrip.md)
- [claude-mem vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-zep.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs AI Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-ai-memory.md)
- [AI Memory vs Cognee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-cognee.md)
- [AI Memory vs Context Mode Engine](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-context-mode.md)
- [AI Memory vs Graphicle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-graphicle.md)
- [AI Memory vs Graphiti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-graphiti.md)
- [AI Memory vs Hindsight](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-hindsight.md)
- [AI Memory vs Honcho](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-honcho.md)
- [AI Memory vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [AI Memory vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-khoj.md)
- [AI Memory vs LangMem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-langmem.md)
- [AI Memory vs Mem0 Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-mem0.md)
- [AI Memory vs MemPalace](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-mempalace.md)
- [AI Memory vs past.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-past-dev.md)
- [AI Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-supermemory.md)
- [AI Memory vs TencentDB Agent Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-tencentdb-agent-memory.md)
- [AI Memory vs Tokenrip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-tokenrip.md)
- [AI Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [claude-mem vs Context Mode Engine](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-context-mode.md)
- [AI Memory vs Egoist AI Passport](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-egoist-ai-passport.md)

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