# Arcade.dev vs Microsoft Entra Agent ID

> Microsoft Entra Agent ID scores 74.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Arcade.dev leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do auth oauth. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.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

Microsoft Entra Agent ID scores 74.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Arcade.dev leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing. Both do auth oauth.

- Arcade.dev: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #221 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arcade.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/arcade.json
- Microsoft Entra Agent ID: grade BB, 74.4/100, rank #63 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-entra-agent-id.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-entra-agent-id.json

## Which one, for what

### Arcade.dev (B)

Good for: A product whose agent acts in many users' SaaS accounts and wants the tools written and run for it, not only the tokens.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 71
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The terms of 15 July 2025 call the service an early version provided as is, with no uptime commitment below Enterprise

### Microsoft Entra Agent ID (BB)

Good for: Organisations already on Microsoft Entra that want each agent to be a governed directory identity with tokens for Microsoft Graph, Azure and their own APIs.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 63
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 82
- Security & auth, 83 against 71
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 74

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Conditional Access, ID Protection and governance for agents need Microsoft Agent 365, listed at $15 a user a month on yearly billing


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Arcade.dev | Microsoft Entra Agent ID | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 63 | 91 | Microsoft Entra Agent ID +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 87 | Microsoft Entra Agent ID +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 71 | Arcade.dev +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 83 | Microsoft Entra Agent ID +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | Arcade.dev +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 74 | 80 | Microsoft Entra Agent ID +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 74 | Microsoft Entra Agent ID +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.9 · B** | **74.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Arcade.dev | Microsoft Entra Agent ID |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Arcade.dev | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.arcade.dev` | `https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentity` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (arcade-mcp framework and SDKs), platform closed | Proprietary service under Microsoft's terms. Microsoft.Identity.Web and the Auth SDK sidecar source are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-07-15 | 2025-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-01 |
| 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1k stars, 125k npm/wk, 70k PyPI/wk | 787 stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Arcade.dev.** Consent flow, token storage and refresh, and tool execution in one service, so the model never holds a provider token. The terms of 15 July 2025 call the service an early version provided as is, with no uptime commitment below Enterprise.

**Microsoft Entra Agent ID.** Agent identities hold no credentials of their own, and Entra refuses high-privilege roles and Graph permissions for them. The token flow is a two-step exchange that Microsoft's own docs call complex and error-prone to implement by hand, and Conditional Access, risk detection and governance for agents need a paid Agent 365 licence.

## Before you call either

### Arcade.dev

1. Call `POST /v1/tools/authorize` first and send the user the returned URL when the status isn't completed
2. Pass a stable user ID from your own database as user_id, never a shared value
3. Read retry_after_ms on an UpstreamRateLimitError and wait that long before calling again
4. Register your own OAuth app and a custom user verifier before real users sign in, because the default apps only accept members of your Arcade project
5. Revoke a user's access with `DELETE /v1/admin/user_connections/{id}`

### Microsoft Entra Agent ID

1. Request tokens in two steps. The blueprint gets an exchange token with fmi_path set to the agent identity's client ID, then the agent identity trades it for a resource token
2. Retry with exponential backoff when a create returns `400 Object with id not found` straight after creating its parent object
3. Send displayName, agentIdentityBlueprintId and a sponsor reference when creating an agent identity. All three are required
4. Don't use the interactive `/authorize` flow. Agent identities are confidential clients and can't sign in to a page
5. Keep the sidecar off any public network. Its `/AuthorizationHeader` endpoint hands out tokens to whoever can reach it

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Arcade.dev or Microsoft Entra Agent ID?

Microsoft Entra Agent ID scores 74.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Arcade.dev's 66.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Arcade.dev leads on agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.

### Do Arcade.dev and Microsoft Entra Agent ID need an API key?

Arcade.dev takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Microsoft Entra Agent ID uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Arcade.dev and Microsoft Entra Agent ID without installing anything?

Yes. Arcade.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://api.arcade.dev and Microsoft Entra Agent ID at https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentity.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Arcade.dev or Microsoft Entra Agent ID

- [Aembit vs Arcade.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aembit-vs-arcade.md)
- [Aembit vs Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aembit-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Auth0 for AI Agents (Token Vault)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-auth0-ai-agents.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Descope Agentic Identity Hub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-descope-agentic-identity.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Keycard](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-keycard.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Nango](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-nango.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Scalekit AgentKit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-scalekit-agentkit.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs Stytch Connected Apps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-stytch-connected-apps.md)
- [Arcade.dev vs WorkOS Pipes and Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcade-vs-workos-pipes.md)
- [Auth0 for AI Agents (Token Vault) vs Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auth0-ai-agents-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.md)
- [Descope Agentic Identity Hub vs Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/descope-agentic-identity-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.md)
- [Keycard vs Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/keycard-vs-microsoft-entra-agent-id.md)
- [Microsoft Entra Agent ID vs Nango](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-entra-agent-id-vs-nango.md)
- [Microsoft Entra Agent ID vs Scalekit AgentKit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-entra-agent-id-vs-scalekit-agentkit.md)
- [Microsoft Entra Agent ID vs Stytch Connected Apps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-entra-agent-id-vs-stytch-connected-apps.md)
- [Microsoft Entra Agent ID vs WorkOS Pipes and Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-entra-agent-id-vs-workos-pipes.md)