# AI Memory vs past.dev

> past.dev scores 63.8 (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-past-dev
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-past-dev.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-past-dev.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-past-dev.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-19

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.

- AI Memory: grade C, 55.7/100, rank #735 of 1175. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ai-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ai-memory.json
- past.dev: grade B, 63.8/100, rank #416 of 1175. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/past-dev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/past-dev.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 118 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:
- 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)

Good 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 | AI Memory | past.dev | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 43 | AI Memory +7 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 86 | past.dev +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 80 | past.dev +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 64 | past.dev +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | AI Memory +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 70 | past.dev +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 67 | past.dev +32 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.7 · C** | **63.8 · B** | |

## 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

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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with AI Memory or past.dev

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

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp