# Akoya vs Plaid

> Plaid scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Akoya's 48.3 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do bank accounts. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akoya-vs-plaid
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akoya-vs-plaid.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akoya-vs-plaid.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akoya-vs-plaid.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: 2026-10-08

Plaid scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Akoya's 48.3 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do bank accounts.

- Akoya: grade D, 48.3/100, rank #623 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/akoya.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/akoya.json
- Plaid: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #147 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plaid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plaid.json

## Which one, for what

### Akoya (D)

Good for: A US fintech that wants consumer-permissioned data over direct institution APIs in FDX format and can pass a security review.

Watch for: No price is published. Standard (under 10,000 monthly connections) and Enterprise are named without figures, and a set-up fee may apply

### Plaid (B)

Good for: US and Canadian account, transaction, identity and income data, with Transfer for payments.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 68 against 28
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 70
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 67
- Payments & pricing, 15 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 33
- Transparency & trust, 79 against 58

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: No prices before a Production application, and Transactions, Liabilities and Investments bill per Item each month until removed


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Akoya | Plaid | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 28 | 68 | Plaid +40 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 93 | Plaid +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 82 | Plaid +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 67 | Plaid +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 15 | Plaid +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 33 | 83 | Plaid +50 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 79 | Plaid +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **48.3 · D** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Akoya | Plaid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Akoya LLC | Plaid |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://products.ddp.akoya.com` | `https://production.plaid.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Akoya Terms of Use and a signed data access agreement | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-08-05 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-12-20 | 2025-12-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-12-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 586 stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 657k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Akoya.** Six OpenAPI 3.1 specifications, a free self-service sandbox and read-only data endpoints behind per-consumer OAuth tokens make the API straightforward to test. Production needs a security review and a signed agreement, no price is published, and no public status page, SLA, SDK or `llms.txt` was found.

**Plaid.** Public OpenAPI file, llms.txt with about 250 entries and a Markdown twin of every docs page. No prices before a Production application, and Transactions, Liabilities and Investments bill per Item each month until removed.

## Before you call either

### Akoya

1. Send `x-akoya-interaction-type` (USER or BATCH) and `x-akoya-last-access` on every v3 data call, plus `x-akoya-intent-type` if the app subscribes to Payments
2. Use the `id_token` as the bearer token. The `/token` response has no `access_token` field, so generic OAuth libraries need adjusting
3. Treat ID tokens as valid for 15 minutes, refresh on error 602, and store the new refresh token returned by every refresh
4. Page transactions by following `links.next.href` unchanged. Set `limit`, `startTime` and `endTime` on the first call only
5. On 429 with code 1207 slow the request rate. On 5xx retry up to three times with exponential backoff

### Plaid

1. Point calls at https://sandbox.plaid.com until you hold a Production secret; request shapes are the same
2. Create a sandbox Item with /sandbox/public_token/create and ins_109508, then /item/public_token/exchange, no Link UI needed
3. Use /transactions/sync with its cursor and back off on 429 RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED yourself, since no Retry-After comes back
4. Call /item/remove when the user is done, or subscription products keep billing
5. Send an idempotency_key on `/transfer/authorization/create` so a retried request can't authorise twice

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Akoya or Plaid?

Plaid scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Akoya's 48.3 (D), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Akoya and Plaid need an API key?

Akoya uses an OAuth sign-in. Plaid takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Akoya and Plaid without installing anything?

Yes. Akoya has a hosted endpoint at https://products.ddp.akoya.com and Plaid at https://production.plaid.com.

### Are Akoya and Plaid open source?

No open-source release is listed for Akoya. Plaid is open source (MIT (SDKs and MCP server)).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Akoya or Plaid

- [Akoya vs Belvo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/akoya-vs-belvo.md)
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- [Flinks vs Plaid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/flinks-vs-plaid.md)
- [GoCardless Bank Account Data vs Plaid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gocardless-bank-account-data-vs-plaid.md)
- [MX Platform API vs Plaid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mx-vs-plaid.md)
- [Plaid vs Salt Edge Account Information](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-salt-edge.md)
- [Plaid vs Teller](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-teller.md)
- [Plaid vs Tink](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-tink.md)
- [Plaid vs TrueLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-truelayer.md)
- [Plaid vs Yapily](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-yapily.md)