# Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) vs x402 (slim)

> x402 has a score of 79.7 (A) against Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)'s 55.3 (C). Both do agent payment protocols. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 74 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-x402.md (~1,300 tokens) · this version ~380 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-x402.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ap2-vs-x402
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-05

x402 has a score of 79.7 (A) against Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)'s 55.3 (C). Both do agent payment protocols. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 74 points.

- Agent Payments Protocol (AP2): C 55.3, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ap2.min.md
- x402: A 79.7, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/x402.min.md
- Pick Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) for security & auth (+17). Pick x402 for reliability (+56), schema & documentation (+12), agent ergonomics (+33), payments & pricing (+37), maintenance & community (+74), transparency & trust (+9).

| Category | Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) | x402 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 31 | 87 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 74 | 86 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 51 | 84 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 84 | 67 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 97 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 19 | 93 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 56 | 65 |