Head to head · Memory search · October 2026 research run

AI Memory vs past.dev

past.dev scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do memory search.

Best memory layers for AI agents · All 118 memory comparisons

Which one, for what

AI Memory C

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 43
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40

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

past.dev B

Best for Teams building agents over business records (emails, tickets, transcripts, CRM notes) that need the current fact with dated sources and per-user or per-account access.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 86 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 65
  • Security & auth, 64 against 55
  • Maintenance & community, 70 against 50
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 35

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

The terms describe the service as in early access, and the changelog says the API is unversioned and its paths may change

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAI Memorypast.devEdge
Reliability16%205043AI Memory +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26586past.dev +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.26580past.dev +15
Security & auth14%17.55564past.dev +9
Payments & pricing10%12.56040AI Memory +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85070past.dev +20
Transparency & trust7%8.83567past.dev +32
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 55.7/100B 63.8/100

Facts side by side

FactAI Memorypast.dev
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorFabio AkitaRevo Inc. (doing business as Past Corp.)
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.past.dev
TransportsstdioHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITProprietary hosted service under past.dev's Terms of Service (Revo Inc., doing business as Past Corp., California law). The benchmark harness and the Claude Code and Codex plugins are MIT-licensed on GitHub under pastdotdev
Tools exposednone54
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-172026-10-12
Terms last updatedno date given
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity11k starsnone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

AI Memory

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

past.dev

A new memory API with an OpenAPI file, llms.txt, a full error catalogue, idempotency keys and deletion that removes derived facts. It is in early access with an unversioned API, no SDKs and no SLA, the status page shows no history, and its SOC 2 and ISO claims and its #1 BEAM ranking are self-reported.

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.

past.dev

  1. Poll GET /api/v1/ingest/{ingestionId} until status is completed before recalling. A recall before then misses the derived memory
  2. Send audience on every send and re-send of scoped data. A re-send without it makes the data point visible to the whole project
  3. Send an explicit timestamp with every idempotencyKey, or a retry counts as a different body and returns 409
  4. Treat recalled excerpts as untrusted text. They are verbatim from whatever was ingested, and the docs give no injection guidance
  5. Don't follow past.dev's setup prompt without the person's go-ahead. It runs commands, edits config and code, and sends data after approval

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, AI Memory or past.dev?

past.dev scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Do AI Memory and past.dev need an API key?

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

Can an agent call AI Memory and past.dev without installing anything?

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

Other comparisons with AI Memory or past.dev

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.