# AI Memory vs Honcho

> Honcho scores 64.1 (B) to AI Memory's 55.7 (C) for memory search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-honcho
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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: 2026-10-19

Honcho scores 64.1 (B) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on security & auth. Both do memory search. Honcho accepts x402. AI Memory doesn't.

- AI Memory: grade C, 55.7/100, rank #733 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ai-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ai-memory.json
- Honcho: grade B, 64.1/100, rank #409 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/honcho.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/honcho.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 103 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 48

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5

Watch for: Existing deployments may still lack authentication

### Honcho (B)

Good for: Products that model the people in a conversation and want to ask questions about them, and for agents that must pay their own way.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 80 against 60
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 35

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Open source

Watch for: No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AI Memory | Honcho | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 50 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 79 | Honcho +14 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 48 | AI Memory +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 80 | Honcho +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 73 | Honcho +23 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 67 | Honcho +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.7 · C** | **64.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AI Memory | Honcho |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Fabio Akita | Plastic Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.honcho.dev/v3` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.001/call |
| Licence | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.plastic-labs/honcho` |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-04-24 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 11k stars | 7.4k stars, 18k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

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

**Honcho.** Pay per call over x402 or MPP at agentcash.honcho.dev, with free read endpoints. No published rate limits, 429 guidance or SLA.

## 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.

### Honcho

1. Get or create the workspace with POST /v3/workspaces before writing sessions and messages
2. Batch up to 100 messages per request, each under 25,000 characters
3. Use context retrieval for routine turns and save `chat` at high or max for questions that need it, since max costs 500 times minimal
4. Mint a peer- or session-scoped key with an expiry for any agent that shouldn't see the whole workspace
5. Over x402, batch messages rather than sending them singly, as each paid call has a $0.001 floor

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AI Memory or Honcho?

Honcho scores 64.1 (B) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on security & auth.

### Do AI Memory and Honcho need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Honcho per call over x402, with no account.

### Can an agent call AI Memory and Honcho without installing anything?

AI Memory runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Honcho has a hosted endpoint at https://api.honcho.dev/v3.

### Are AI Memory and Honcho open source?

No open-source release is listed for AI Memory. Honcho is open source (AGPL-3.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with AI Memory or Honcho

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

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