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Head to head · Identity verification · October 2026 research run

Alloy vs Stripe Identity

Stripe Identity scores 77.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do identity verification.

Best identity and business verification APIs for AI agents · All 119 verification comparisons

AlloyFirst Mile Group, Inc. (Alloy) · HTTP API D52.4/100#782 of 1076 Stripe IdentityStripe, LLC · HTTP API BB77.7/100#21 of 1076

Which one, for what

Alloy D

Best for Banks and fintechs that already run onboarding through Alloy and want an agent to submit journey applications, read decisions and work investigations.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No public prices, trial or self-serve sign-up. Access starts with a demo request

Stripe Identity BB

Best for A business already on Stripe that needs document and selfie checks or US SSN validation with published prices.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 94 against 73
  • Agent ergonomics, 93 against 52
  • Security & auth, 86 against 49
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 0
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 72
  • Transparency & trust, 85 against 62

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Document, selfie and US SSN checks only. No sanctions or watchlist screening and no business verification

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAlloyStripe IdentityEdge
Reliability16%205962Stripe Identity +3
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27394Stripe Identity +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.25293Stripe Identity +41
Security & auth14%17.54986Stripe Identity +37
Payments & pricing10%12.5040Stripe Identity +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87285Stripe Identity +13
Transparency & trust7%8.86285Stripe Identity +23
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 52.4/100BB 77.7/100

Facts side by side

FactAlloyStripe Identity
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorFirst Mile Group, Inc. (Alloy)Stripe, LLC
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidPay per use
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Alloy's terms of service. The @alloyidentity/web-sdk capture package is MITProprietary service under the Stripe Services Agreement and Stripe Identity Terms. The OpenAPI spec and official SDKs are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-052026-10-01
Terms last updated2026-03-122026-09-28
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-04-28
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity21k npm/wk24.2M npm/wk, 11.4M PyPI/wk

Verdicts

Alloy

Alloy's public docs cover journeys, evaluations, entities, documents, cases and investigations, with llms.txt, Markdown pages, OpenAPI fragments and rate-limit headers with retry-after. Access is sales-led with no public price or trial, credentials have no scopes, there is no idempotency key or server SDK, and inputs vary by each customer's workflow.

Stripe Identity

Stripe Identity runs on the Stripe API, with a public OpenAPI spec, idempotency keys, restricted keys for sensitive fields and a redact endpoint. The product page lists £1.25 per document and selfie check, and the first 50 are free. It has no watchlist or business screening, and outside GB, JP and the US it is in public beta.

Before you call either

Alloy

  1. Get the account's base URL from the customer. Defaults are api.alloy.co and sandbox.alloy.co, and some accounts have their own hosts
  2. Use unique, prefixed external IDs in sandbox. Sandbox and Production share one data store
  3. Read alloy-ratelimit-remaining, and on 429 or 5xx wait for retry-after with exponential backoff and jitter
  4. Expect running after about 25 seconds on journey applications and wait for the webhook instead of resubmitting
  5. Send the workflow header with account-level keys, since inputs depend on the workflow configured

Stripe Identity

  1. Send an Idempotency-Key based on your user reference when creating a VerificationSession, so a retry doesn't make a second session
  2. Send the end user the session URL or client secret. The person completes the check, the agent can't. Links expire after 48 hours
  3. Use a restricted key for verified_outputs.dob and id_number. Without an IP restriction it reads them only for 48 hours
  4. Wait for identity.verification_session.verified or requires_input webhooks instead of polling
  5. Treat redact as irreversible, and don't put personal data in metadata

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Alloy or Stripe Identity?

Stripe Identity scores 77.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Alloy's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Do Alloy and Stripe Identity need an API key?

Alloy takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Stripe Identity needs an API key.

Can an agent call Alloy and Stripe Identity without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Alloy. No hosted endpoint is listed for Stripe Identity.

Other comparisons with Alloy or Stripe Identity

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