# Close API + MCP vs Copper API

> Close API + MCP has a score of 66.9 (B) against Copper API's 46.9 (D). Both do crm records. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 58 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-copper
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-copper.md (~1,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-copper.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-copper.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: 2026-10-05

Close API + MCP has a score of 66.9 (B) against Copper API's 46.9 (D). Both do crm records. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 58 points.

- Close API + MCP: grade B, 66.9/100, rank #152 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/close.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/close.json
- Copper API: grade D, 46.9/100, rank #392 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/copper.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/copper.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Close API + MCP for schema & documentation (+34), agent ergonomics (+16), security & auth (+39), maintenance & community (+58).

Pick Copper API for transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Close API + MCP | Copper API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 81 | 79 | Close API + MCP +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 82 | 48 | Close API + MCP +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 40 | Close API + MCP +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 66 | 27 | Close API + MCP +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 21 | Close API + MCP +58 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 74 | Copper API +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.9 · B** | **46.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Close API + MCP | Copper API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Close | Copper |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.close.com/api/v1` | `https://api.copper.com/developer_api/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 121 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.close/close-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2026-07-02 |
| Popularity | 70 stars, 14k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 1.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Close API + MCP.** Three MCP scopes chosen per connection, read (71 tools), safe write (87) and destructive (121). 121 MCP tools, and even the read scope loads 71.

**Copper API.** Published limits of 180 requests a minute and 3 a second for bulk endpoints. No official MCP server, OpenAPI spec or llms.txt.

## Before you call either

### Close API + MCP

1. Connect with `Close-Scope: mcp.read` unless the job needs writes, and `mcp.write_safe` if it only creates
2. Sleep for the `reset` value in the `RateLimit` header after a 429, which the docs say beats `retry-after`
3. Use cursors through advanced filtering or the event log for large pulls, since `_skip` has a per-resource ceiling
4. Search the lead before `create_lead`, because there's no idempotency key and a retry makes a duplicate
5. Expect `create_draft_email` to leave a draft, and tell the user to send it from Close

### Copper API

1. Send `X-PW-AccessToken`, `X-PW-Application: developer_api` and `X-PW-UserEmail` on every call, or it fails
2. Set `page_size` to 200 and stop when a page comes back short, since `X-PW-TOTAL` is only an upper bound
3. Back off on 429 on your own clock, since no Retry-After is documented
4. Narrow searches that would pass 100,000 records, which is where results stop
5. Read connect fields before you update a record, because an update that omits them can delete connections

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