Head to head · Bank account data · October 2026 research run
Basiq vs Powens
Basiq scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Powens's 42.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Powens leads on security & auth. Both do bank account data.
Best open banking and bank data APIs for AI agents · All 105 bank data comparisons
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
- Reliability, 70 against 27
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 48
- Agent ergonomics, 62 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 48 against 33
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 63
Watch for
Live data needs a plan with a 12-month minimum and a platform access fee whose amount is not published
Powens E
Good for A European product, strongest in France, that needs account and transaction data plus wealth, loan and document data under Powens' own licence.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 60 against 55
Watch for
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found. The reference is hand-written tables
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Basiq | Powens | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 27 | Basiq +43 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 84 | 48 | Basiq +36 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 62 | 57 | Basiq +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 55 | 60 | Powens +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 10 | Basiq +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 48 | 33 | Basiq +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 72 | 63 | Basiq +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 60.4 · C | 42.6 · E |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Basiq | Powens |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Basiq Pty Ltd (Cuscal Limited) | Powens SAS |
| Hosted endpoint | https://au-api.basiq.io | https://{domain}.biapi.pro/2.0 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | 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 | Proprietary service under Powens' General Terms and Conditions of Sale. The Powens Connect iOS SDK on GitHub is LGPL-3.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | none |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| 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 |
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.
Powens
Powens documents a REST API with Markdown docs, cursor pagination, date filters and a hard-delete call for connections, under a French payment institution licence. No OpenAPI file, public price, status page, idempotency key or server SDK was found, and live access needs a signed purchase order.
Before you call either
Basiq
- Send the API key verbatim after
Basicin theAuthorizationheader ofPOST /token. Base64-encoding it returns a 400. - Send
basiq-version: 3.0on the token request, cache the bearer token for its 60 minutes, and stay under 1,500 token requests per 5 minutes. - Send the account holder through the hosted Consent UI in a browser with a
CLIENT_ACCESStoken bound to theiruserId. The API alone cannot create a first connection on version 3.0. - Poll
GET /jobs/{jobId}untilverify-credentials,retrieve-accountsandretrieve-transactionsall readsuccessbefore reading accounts or transactions. - Follow
links.nextonGET /users/{userId}/transactions. A page holds at most 500 items, and pending transactions get new ids on each refresh.
Powens
- Ask the owner for the domain name, client ID and client secret from the console. Every call goes to
https://{domain}.biapi.pro/2.0 - Send
limiton every transactions list. It is required, at most 1,000, and the next page comes from_links.next.hrefused as given - Enable an account with
POSTand{"disabled": false}only after the account holder consents. Accounts arrive disabled with no transactions - Store the permanent user token as a secret. It does not expire, and the default webhook sends it in the
Authorizationheader - Stay under 30 calls a minute in the sandbox and use webhooks in place of polling, as the fair usage policy asks
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Basiq or Powens?
Basiq scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against Powens's 42.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Powens leads on security & auth.
Do Basiq and Powens need an API key?
Basiq needs an API key. Powens takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.
Can an agent call Basiq and Powens without installing anything?
Yes. Basiq has a hosted endpoint at https://au-api.basiq.io and Powens at https://{domain}.biapi.pro/2.0.
Other comparisons with Basiq or Powens
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- Basiq vs Yodlee Core API
- Belvo vs Powens
- Enable Banking vs Powens
- Flinks vs Powens
- GoCardless Bank Account Data vs Powens
- MX Platform API vs Powens
- Plaid vs Powens
- Powens vs Salt Edge Account Information
- Powens vs Teller
- Powens vs Tink
- Powens vs TrueLayer
- Powens vs Yapily
- Powens vs Yodlee Core API
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/basiq-vs-powens.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/basiq.json·/api/v1/tools/powens.json - From a terminal
anchor compare basiq powens(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "basiq", "b": "powens"}at/mcp, no key