# claude-mem vs Zep

> Zep scores 74 (BB) to claude-mem's 58.6 (C) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-zep
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-zep.md (~2,800 tokens)
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- 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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

Zep scores 74 (BB) on agent readiness against claude-mem's 58.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. claude-mem leads on reliability. Both do agent memory.

- claude-mem: grade C, 58.6/100, rank #677 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-mem.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-mem.json
- Zep: grade BB, 74/100, rank #83 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zep.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 188 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md

## Which one, for what

### claude-mem (C)

Good for: Session memory for one developer's coding agents, recalled by staged MCP search, with optional hosted sync across machines.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 70

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: Telemetry is on by default and secret redaction is off by default

### Zep (BB)

Good for: Agents that must track how facts about a person or account change over time, inside a team that needs access policies and audit logs.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 84
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 74
- Security & auth, 84 against 50
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 46

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where claude-mem loses 6 points for them

Watch for: The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | claude-mem | Zep | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 70 | claude-mem +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 93 | Zep +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 87 | Zep +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 50 | 84 | Zep +34 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Zep +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 80 | Zep +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 61 | Zep +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.6 · C** | **74 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | claude-mem | Zep |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Alex Newman | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.getzep.com/api/v4` |
| Transports | stdio, HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud terms | Apache-2.0 (examples repo). The service is closed-source |
| Tools exposed | 19 | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2024-01-27 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 106k stars, 30k npm/wk | 4.9k stars, 130k npm/wk, 87k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**claude-mem.** Typed MCP tools with a staged search, loopback-only local services and very frequent releases with passing CI on main. Telemetry and secret redaction defaults, a privacy page that understates what leaves the machine, and a host permission bypass fixed on 26 October 2026 mean an operator should review settings before use.

**Zep.** Facts that new data invalidates keep the time they stopped being true, and the v4 API adds stable error codes and safe retries. The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data.

## Before you call either

### claude-mem

1. Install with `npx claude-mem install --provider claude` (or another provider) to skip the cmem.ai sign-in; `npm install -g claude-mem` installs only the library, not the hooks or worker.
2. Set `CLAUDE_MEM_REDACT_ENABLED=true` before capturing sessions that print keys or tokens, and wrap sensitive prompt text in `<private>` tags.
3. Run `npx claude-mem telemetry disable` or set `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` if analytics shouldn't leave the machine.
4. Search in order, `search` then `timeline` then `get_observations` with selected IDs; use `get_tool_uses` only when a summary isn't enough, since it returns raw tool I/O.
5. Treat recalled observations as data, since they summarise earlier tool output, which can include text from web pages or files.

### Zep

1. Use the 4.0 SDKs and store the UUID each create call returns. v4 calls take Zep UUIDs, not your own user or thread IDs
2. Set `return_context` when adding messages to skip a second round trip
3. Keep episodes short. Every 350 bytes past the first costs another credit
4. Branch on `error.code`. On a 429, wait for Retry-After with jitter. Free accounts over quota drop to 5 requests a minute
5. Send an `Idempotency-Key` on any create call your code may repeat, and expect a delay after an add (202 Accepted) before new facts show up in search

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, claude-mem or Zep?

Zep scores 74 (BB) on agent readiness against claude-mem's 58.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. claude-mem leads on reliability.

### Do claude-mem and Zep need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call claude-mem and Zep without installing anything?

claude-mem runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Zep has a hosted endpoint at https://api.getzep.com/api/v4.

### Are claude-mem and Zep open source?

claude-mem is open source (Apache-2.0 for the engine, CLI, worker, MCP tools, adapters and docs. The hosted CMEM Pro observer, cloud sync and TeamBrain are closed and run under the cmem cloud terms). No open-source release is listed for Zep.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with claude-mem or Zep

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs claude-mem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-claude-mem.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [claude-mem vs Cognee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-cognee.md)
- [claude-mem vs Graphicle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-graphicle.md)
- [claude-mem vs Graphiti](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-graphiti.md)
- [claude-mem vs Hindsight](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-hindsight.md)
- [claude-mem vs Honcho](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-honcho.md)
- [claude-mem vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [claude-mem vs LangMem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-langmem.md)
- [claude-mem vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-localghost.md)
- [claude-mem vs Mem0 Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-mem0.md)
- [claude-mem vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [claude-mem vs MemPalace](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-mempalace.md)
- [claude-mem vs past.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-past-dev.md)
- [claude-mem vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-supermemory.md)
- [claude-mem vs TencentDB Agent Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-tencentdb-agent-memory.md)
- [claude-mem vs Tokenrip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-tokenrip.md)
- [Cognee vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cognee-vs-zep.md)
- [Graphiti vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphiti-vs-zep.md)
- [Hindsight vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hindsight-vs-zep.md)
- [Honcho vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/honcho-vs-zep.md)
- [Hy Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [LangMem vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langmem-vs-zep.md)
- [LocalGhost vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localghost-vs-zep.md)
- [Mem0 Platform + MCP vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mem0-vs-zep.md)
- [Memory (MCP reference server) vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/memory-reference-server-vs-zep.md)
- [MemPalace vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mempalace-vs-zep.md)
- [past.dev vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/past-dev-vs-zep.md)
- [Supermemory API + MCP vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/supermemory-vs-zep.md)
- [TencentDB Agent Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tencentdb-agent-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [Tokenrip vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tokenrip-vs-zep.md)
- [AI Memory vs claude-mem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-claude-mem.md)
- [AI Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ai-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [claude-mem vs Context Mode Engine](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-mem-vs-context-mode.md)
- [Context Mode Engine vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/context-mode-vs-zep.md)
- [Graphicle vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphicle-vs-zep.md)

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