# Aidbox vs Terra API

> Terra scores 65.9 (B) to Aidbox's 64.2 (B) for fhir servers. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aidbox-vs-terra
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aidbox-vs-terra.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aidbox-vs-terra.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aidbox-vs-terra.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
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Terra API scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Aidbox's 64.2 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Aidbox leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do fhir servers.

- Aidbox: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #385 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aidbox.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aidbox.json
- Terra API: grade B, 65.9/100, rank #327 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/terra.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/terra.json
- Best health record and wellness data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/health-data/index.md
- All 63 health comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/health-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Aidbox (B)

Good for: An organisation building its own clinical data repository, EHR or payer platform on FHIR, where an agent works against that store.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 74 against 65
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 75

Watch for: No built-in rate limiting or brute-force protection, by the vendor's hardening page

### Terra API (B)

Good for: A fitness, wellness, insurance or research product whose users connect consumer wearables and apps, and an agent that needs to read one user's sleep, activity or body data through MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 67 against 59
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 77
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 45

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: No free tier. Sign-up asks for a plan and billing details, and Quick Start starts at $499 a month with a 30-day money-back guarantee


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aidbox | Terra API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 59 | 67 | Terra API +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 89 | Terra API +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 78 | Aidbox +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 65 | Aidbox +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 20 | Aidbox +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 75 | Aidbox +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 56 | Terra API +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.2 · B** | **65.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aidbox | Terra API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Health Samurai, Inc. | Terra Enabling Developers Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://access.tryterra.co/api/v2/mcp/<user_id>` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. Aidbox runs from Health Samurai's Docker images under a free development licence (no PHI) or a paid production licence. Examples and the Python SDK on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under Terra's terms of service. The OpenAPI specs repository is Apache 2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 9 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-13 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2021-06-10 | 2023-04-20 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | none | 13k npm/wk, 11k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Aidbox.** Graded on the FHIR REST API of an Aidbox instance the owner runs. Monthly releases, two-year LTS lines, SMART on FHIR, AccessPolicy rules and AuditEvent logging are documented, and a free development licence needs no sales call. Aidbox has no rate limiting of its own, its MCP module is alpha, and no terms of service were found on the website.

**Terra API.** Graded on the Unified API and the Terra AI MCP server. A public OpenAPI 3.1 spec, llms.txt, per-user rate limits with Retry-After, and scoped admin tokens with approvals. Access starts at $499 a month with billing details at sign-up, the data API key has no scopes, and API key requests failed for 2 hours 38 minutes on 7 August 2026.

## Before you call either

### Aidbox

1. Ask the operator for a Client with an AccessPolicy limited to the task. Don't rely on the public MCP policy, which the docs mark unsafe
2. Use `If-None-Exist` on creates and conditional update on identifiers so retries don't duplicate records
3. Use `_elements` and `_count` to keep responses small, and follow the Bundle's paging links
4. Throttle yourself. Aidbox applies no rate limit, so a burst lands on the customer's database
5. Don't load real patient data into an instance on a development licence

### Terra API

1. Send dev-id and x-api-key headers on every Unified API and Terra AI call. A missing header returns 401 problem+json
2. Keep each request window to 1,825 days or less and under 6,000 requested days per user an hour. On 429 with rule r2, wait Retry-After seconds
3. Pass either fields or select to Terra AI tools, never both and never neither, or the call fails with a validation error
4. Expect data by webhook after a user connects through the widget session. REST reads are for backfills and on-demand queries
5. Use the Read only access level for the admin MCP server unless a change is needed. The MCP level can read API keys

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Aidbox or Terra API?

Terra API scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Aidbox's 64.2 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Aidbox leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Do Aidbox and Terra API need an API key?

Aidbox uses an OAuth sign-in. Terra API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Aidbox and Terra API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Aidbox. Terra API has a hosted endpoint at https://access.tryterra.co/api/v2/mcp/<user_id>.


## For agents

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

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