# Best Buy Developer API vs MealMe API (slim)

> Best Buy Developer and MealMe score within a point of each other for product search for shoppers, 39.2 and 38.4 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/best-buy-vs-mealme.md (~3,650 tokens) · this version ~1,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/best-buy-vs-mealme.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/best-buy-vs-mealme
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-04
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Best Buy Developer API and MealMe API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 39.2 (E) and 38.4 (E). MealMe API leads on schema & documentation. Both do product search for shoppers.

- Best Buy Developer API: E 39.2, rank #1220 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/best-buy.min.md
- MealMe API: E 38.4, rank #1229 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mealme.min.md
- Best Buy Developer API, good for Product, price and store-availability search for US electronics, for agents that compare and then hand the purchase to the person. Ahead on Reliability, 31 against 19; Security & auth, 32 against 26; Payments & pricing, 30 against 20. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- MealMe API, good for Agents that must place a real restaurant or grocery order in the US or Canada, or compare live prices across stores, and can hold a card on the account. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 72 against 45.

| Category | Best Buy Developer API | MealMe API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 31 | 19 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 45 | 72 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 72 | 69 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 32 | 26 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 5 | 6 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 48 | 47 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Best Buy Developer API | MealMe API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | BestBuy.com, LLC (Best Buy Co., Inc.) | MealMe, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.bestbuy.com/v1/` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Best Buy Developer API terms. The SDKs in the BestBuyAPIs GitHub organisation are open source | Proprietary service under the MealMe API and SDK Terms of Use |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2025-05-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2021-02-23 | 2025-04-04 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-04-04 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 489 npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, MealMe API +27: Best Buy Developer API 45 (No OpenAPI or similar contract. A Postman collection is linked from the docs (8 of 25). No llms.txt or Markdown docs for agents were found (0 of 10). The reference explains each API's purpose and attributes, with little on when not to use them (12 of 20). Query terms go in the path in a custom syntax, and attributes are listed with types but no enums or constraints (8 of 15). Examples in curl and JavaScript throughout, and an error table for 400, 403, 404, 405, 500, 501 and 503 (12 of 15). URLs carry v1 and beta, but there is no public changelog and the documentation source was last changed on 26 April 2021 (5 of 15). Total 45.); MealMe API 72 (The reference pages are generated from an API description with operation ids (get_search_store_v3), named response schemas (Product_Search_Output) and typed parameters, but no spec file URL was found on the docs, llms.txt or the site (15 of 25). llms.txt at mealmeapi.readme.io and mealme.ai, and every page as Markdown (10). Each operation states its purpose and coverage; several descriptions are truncated in the index and none says when not to use it (12 of 20). Enums on sort, store_type, user_country and search_focus, required flags on latitude and longitude, conditional requirements written in prose (11 of 15). Request and response examples per endpoint, a Create Order errors page with 17 entries, and 400, 401 and 429 schemas on each operation (12 of 15). Versioned paths (v2 to v4) and dated release notes that call out breaking changes, the newest of 6 May 2025 (12 of 15). Total 72.)
- Reliability, Best Buy Developer API +12: Best Buy Developer API 31 (No status page was found for the API or the developer site (0 of 20), and so no incident history (5 of 30). The terms publish 5 calls a second and 50,000 a day (15 of 15). Over-limit calls return 403, the same code as a bad key, with an email to the key holder and no Retry-After. The docs suggest the in operator to avoid per-second errors, which is the only guidance (3 of 15). No SLA (0 of 10). Products, Stores, Categories and Recommendations are generally available, and Buying Options is marked beta (8 of 10). Total 31.); MealMe API 19 (Read with the hosted lines. No status page found on mealme.ai, the docs or llms.txt, and status.mealme.ai does not resolve (0). No readable incident history (5). No rate limit figures; each endpoint documents a 429 whose example message is 10 per 1 second(s)!, which the reference itself calls an example (0 of 15). The 429 is documented without Retry-After or backoff guidance, and Create Order has no idempotency key, only an order_id to update an existing order and a caller's customer_order_id to look up (4 of 15). No SLA found (0). The API is in production with versioned endpoints (10). Total 19.)
- Payments & pricing, Best Buy Developer API +10: Best Buy Developer API 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0 of 40). The public APIs have no stated price, and the limits are published, but no page says the API is free (10 of 20). A key needs only an email address and no card (20 of 20). A person signs up and activates the key from an email, and Commerce access needs an invitation (0 of 20). Total 30.); MealMe API 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). $0.10 per successful call and $250 a month published without login (20). No free tier or trial; a card must be added before the key is created (0). Signup is a browser form with email, password and card (0). Total 20.)
- Security & auth, Best Buy Developer API +6: Best Buy Developer API 32 (One API key per developer with no scopes, passed as the apiKey query parameter, which is the documented and only option (20 less 10 for a secret in the URL, 10 of 30). The public APIs are read-only, and ordering sits behind a separate invite-only key (15 of 20). Responses include product names and descriptions written by Best Buy and its suppliers, and no guidance on treating them as data was found (5 of 15). No call log for the key holder was found. Best Buy emails the holder when a limit is exceeded (2 of 15). security.txt returned 404 on both hosts, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found (0 of 20). Total 32.); MealMe API 26 (One API key per account in a custom Id-Token header, with no scopes, expiry, rotation or revocation documented (10 of 30). place_order defaults to false and charge_user can be turned off, so an agent can quote without buying, but there is no read-only key (8 of 20). Store descriptions, menus and support-chat messages are untrusted content with no guidance (3 of 15). Get Orders and a tracking webhook give order history; no per-call log for the operator is documented (5 of 15). No security.txt (400), disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found; the Enterprise plan names a security review (0 of 20). Total 26.)