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
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
| Category | Weight this run | AI Memory | past.dev | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 43 | AI Memory +7 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 65 | 86 | past.dev +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 80 | past.dev +15 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 55 | 64 | past.dev +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 40 | AI Memory +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 50 | 70 | past.dev +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 35 | 67 | past.dev +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 55.7/100 | B 63.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | AI Memory | past.dev |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Fabio Akita | Revo Inc. (doing business as Past Corp.) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://api.past.dev |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary 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 exposed | none | 54 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-12 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | |
| Popularity | 11k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (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
- Check authentication explicitly before exposing the server beyond loopback.
- Exclude secrets and sensitive repositories from memory capture.
- Back up memory and follow the version 3 migration guide.
past.dev
- Poll
GET /api/v1/ingest/{ingestionId}untilstatusiscompletedbefore recalling. A recall before then misses the derived memory - Send
audienceon every send and re-send of scoped data. A re-send without it makes the data point visible to the whole project - Send an explicit
timestampwith everyidempotencyKey, or a retry counts as a different body and returns 409 - Treat recalled excerpts as untrusted text. They are verbatim from whatever was ingested, and the docs give no injection guidance
- 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
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs past.dev
- Cognee vs past.dev
- Graphiti vs past.dev
- Hindsight vs past.dev
- Honcho vs past.dev
- Hy Memory vs past.dev
- LangMem vs past.dev
- LocalGhost vs past.dev
- Mem0 Platform + MCP vs past.dev
- Memory (MCP reference server) vs past.dev
- past.dev vs Supermemory API + MCP
- past.dev vs Zep
- Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs AI Memory
- AI Memory vs Cognee
- AI Memory vs Context Mode Engine
- AI Memory vs Graphicle
- AI Memory vs Graphiti
- AI Memory vs Hindsight
- AI Memory vs Honcho
- AI Memory vs Hy Memory
- AI Memory vs Khoj
- AI Memory vs LangMem
- AI Memory vs Mem0 Platform + MCP
- AI Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP
- AI Memory vs Zep
- Context Mode Engine vs past.dev
- Graphicle vs past.dev
- AI Memory vs Egoist AI Passport
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/ai-memory-vs-past-dev.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/ai-memory.json·/api/v1/tools/past-dev.json - From a terminal
anchor compare ai-memory past-dev(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "ai-memory", "b": "past-dev"}at/mcp, no key