# Basiq vs Plaid

> Plaid scores 69.8 (B) to Basiq's 60.4 (C) for bank account data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basiq-vs-plaid
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basiq-vs-plaid.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basiq-vs-plaid.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basiq-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: 2026-10-09

Plaid scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Basiq's 60.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Basiq leads on payments & pricing. Both do bank account data.

- Basiq: grade C, 60.4/100, rank #515 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/basiq.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/basiq.json
- Plaid: grade B, 69.8/100, rank #169 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plaid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plaid.json
- Best open banking and bank data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/banking-data/index.md
- All 105 bank data comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/banking-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Basiq (C)

Good for: Consented bank data for Australia and New Zealand, with income and affordability reports for lenders.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 15

Watch for: Live data needs a plan with a 12-month minimum and a platform access fee whose amount is not published

### Plaid (B)

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

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 84
- Agent ergonomics, 82 against 62
- Security & auth, 67 against 55
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 79 against 72

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 | Basiq | Plaid | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 68 | Basiq +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 93 | Plaid +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 82 | Plaid +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 67 | Plaid +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 15 | Basiq +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 83 | Plaid +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 79 | Plaid +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.4 · C** | **69.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Basiq | Plaid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Basiq Pty Ltd (Cuscal Limited) | Plaid |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://au-api.basiq.io` | `https://production.plaid.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Basiq Terms of Service. The public docs repository carries no licence file, and the OpenAPI files state the licence as Commercial | MIT (SDKs and MCP server) |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 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 | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | 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

**Basiq.** Ten public OpenAPI files, an llms.txt index with Markdown twins and a free self-serve sandbox let an agent start on test data. Live access needs a 12-month plan with an unpublished platform access fee, no SLA or security.txt was found, and the privacy policy says collected content may be kept indefinitely.

**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

### Basiq

1. Send the API key verbatim after `Basic` in the `Authorization` header of `POST /token`. Base64-encoding it returns a 400.
2. Send `basiq-version: 3.0` on the token request, cache the bearer token for its 60 minutes, and stay under 1,500 token requests per 5 minutes.
3. Send the account holder through the hosted Consent UI in a browser with a `CLIENT_ACCESS` token bound to their `userId`. The API alone cannot create a first connection on version 3.0.
4. Poll `GET /jobs/{jobId}` until `verify-credentials`, `retrieve-accounts` and `retrieve-transactions` all read `success` before reading accounts or transactions.
5. Follow `links.next` on `GET /users/{userId}/transactions`. A page holds at most 500 items, and pending transactions get new ids on each refresh.

### 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, Basiq or Plaid?

Plaid scores 69.8 (B) on agent readiness against Basiq's 60.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Basiq leads on payments & pricing.

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

Basiq needs an API key. Plaid takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. Basiq has a hosted endpoint at https://au-api.basiq.io and Plaid at https://production.plaid.com.

### Are Basiq and Plaid open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Basiq or Plaid

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- [Basiq vs TrueLayer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/basiq-vs-truelayer.md)
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- [Belvo vs Plaid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/belvo-vs-plaid.md)
- [Enable Banking vs Plaid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enable-banking-vs-plaid.md)
- [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 Powens](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-powens.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)
- [Plaid vs Yodlee Core API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plaid-vs-yodlee-financial-data.md)