# AI Memory vs Zep

> Zep scores 73.9 (BB) to AI Memory's 55.7 (C) for memory search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-19

Zep scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on payments & pricing. Both do memory search.

- 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
- Zep: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #81 of 1171. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zep.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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Existing deployments may still lack authentication

### Zep (BB)

Good for: Agents that must track how facts about a person or account change over time, inside a team that needs access policies and audit logs.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 65
- Security & auth, 84 against 55
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 3.5 out of 5

Watch for: The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AI Memory | Zep | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 70 | Zep +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 93 | Zep +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 87 | Zep +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 84 | Zep +29 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | AI Memory +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 80 | Zep +30 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 35 | 59 | Zep +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.7 · C** | **73.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AI Memory | Zep |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Fabio Akita | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.getzep.com/api/v4` |
| Transports | stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 (examples repo). The service is closed-source |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-17 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2024-01-27 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | 4.9k stars, 130k npm/wk, 87k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

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

**Zep.** Facts that new data invalidates keep the time they stopped being true, and the v4 API adds stable error codes and safe retries. The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data.

## 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.

### Zep

1. Use the 4.0 SDKs and store the UUID each create call returns. v4 calls take Zep UUIDs, not your own user or thread IDs
2. Set `return_context` when adding messages to skip a second round trip
3. Keep episodes short. Every 350 bytes past the first costs another credit
4. Branch on `error.code`. On a 429, wait for Retry-After with jitter. Free accounts over quota drop to 5 requests a minute
5. Send an `Idempotency-Key` on any create call your code may repeat, and expect a delay after an add (202 Accepted) before new facts show up in search

## Questions

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

Zep scores 73.9 (BB) on agent readiness against AI Memory's 55.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. AI Memory leads on payments & pricing.

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

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

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

AI Memory runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Zep has a hosted endpoint at https://api.getzep.com/api/v4.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with AI Memory or Zep

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

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