# Codex vs CoinDesk Data API (slim)

> Codex scores 75.4 (BB) to CoinDesk Data's 19 (F) for crypto market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coindesk-data-api.md (~4,650 tokens) · this version ~2,880 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coindesk-data-api.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coindesk-data-api
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Codex scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against CoinDesk Data API's 19 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do crypto market data.

- Codex: BB 75.4, rank #64 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/codex-graphql.min.md
- CoinDesk Data API: F 19, rank #1458 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/coindesk-data-api.min.md
- Codex, good for On-chain token prices, charts, holders, wallet PnL, launchpad streams and Polymarket and Kalshi data for trading agents and crypto apps. Ahead on Reliability, 85 against 15; Schema & documentation, 91 against 0; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 15; Payments & pricing, 80 against 0; Maintenance & community, 80 against 13; Transparency & trust, 59 against 52. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.
- CoinDesk Data API, good for Institutional crypto work that needs derivatives, order books, regulated reference rates or deep history, with a human buying the plan.

| Category | Codex | CoinDesk Data API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 85 | 15 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 91 | 0 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 79 | 15 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 49 | 45 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 80 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 80 | 13 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 59 | 52 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Codex | CoinDesk Data API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Codex Data Inc. | CoinDesk Data (formerly CCData / CryptoCompare) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://graph.codex.io/graphql` | `https://data-api.coindesk.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Codex Data Inc.'s terms of service. The TypeScript SDK is MIT | proprietary |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-29 | 2025-11-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | no date given |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 75k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Codex +91: Codex 91 (The full GraphQL schema, 18,159 lines, is in the MIT SDK repository at src/resources/schema.graphql, updated on 5 November 2026, and introspection is free (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Reference pages give a one-line purpose per operation, and the API reference intro, the queries-versus-subscriptions page and llms.txt say which operation to use for which job and to batch rather than loop (13 of 20). GraphQL types with enums, input objects and non-null markers, and documented maxima per argument (14 of 15). Examples on every recipe and reference page, and an error table with code, HTTP status, meaning and retry advice (14 of 15). Weekly dated changelog from 26 August 2024 to 2 November 2026 with RSS and dated deprecations (15). 25+10+13+14+14+15 = 91.); CoinDesk Data API 0 (The OpenAPI 3.0.3 file at data-api.coindesk.com/info/v1/openapi sits on the product's own API host, and the docs portal at developers.coindesk.com, which would link it, is drawn by script (the introduction page and llms.txt both returned the same 7,680-byte app shell on 5 November). A file no readable page links isn't a published contract, so the 1 October readings taken from it are struck. Contract 0. llms.txt is an app shell (0). Descriptions, typed inputs and documented errors had no other readable source (0, 0, 0). The versioned paths came from the same file, and the blog's monthly product updates stopped after July 2025, so no versioning or changelog we could read (0). 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.)
- Payments & pricing, Codex +80: Codex 80 (MPP (Machine Payments Protocol) on every query endpoint, paid in USDC on Tempo; subscriptions and webhooks are not covered, and it is not x402 (35 of 40). $0.001 a query through MPP, compute-unit costs per operation, and Growth at $120 per million compute units, all public (20). The Almost free plan's 10,000 compute units need a one-time $1 activation fee by card or 1 USDC, which the terms say confirms a payment method (5 of 20). An agent can pay per query with no account or key (20). 35+20+5+20 = 80.); CoinDesk Data API 0 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Pricing at developers.coindesk.com renders only by script, and data.coindesk.com asks new customers to book a call for a trial, so no published per-unit or plan prices we could read (0 of 20). The free tier was retired on 21 May 2026, announced on 17 April, and nothing replaced it (0). A person signs up and generates a key in the dashboard, per the 13 May connector post (0). The 2 October keyless request to the API is struck as a request to the product's own endpoint, and no score rested on it alone. 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0.)
- Reliability, Codex +70: Codex 85 (Hosted lines. Status page at status.codex.io (incident.io) with API, Dashboard and 25 network components and a history page (20). The history from 8 August to 6 November lists an elevated-latency incident on 11 August (balances queries, 42 minutes, labelled degraded performance), a 5xx spike the same day, degraded filterTokens on 12 August, and network delays on Robinhood, BNB, Cronos, Fogo and Solana pricing in late August and September, with none in October or November. All read as partial or degraded, so minor only (20). Per-plan rate limits (5 a second free, 300 on Growth with a 500 burst) and per-request maxima are published (15). 429 TOO_MANY_REQUESTS carries `retryAfterSeconds` and `Retry-After`, OVER_CAPACITY says to wait 30 seconds, and the errors page says which codes to retry; writes are limited to webhook and token mutations (15). The pricing page shows '99.9% Uptime SLA' as a headline figure and custom SLAs on Enterprise, with no SLA document found (5 of 10). The API is generally available (10). 20+20+15+15+5+10 = 85.); CoinDesk Data API 15 (Graded as a hosted API. status.coindesk.com, linked as System Status from data.coindesk.com, is drawn by script, and on 5 November its robots.txt answered with the same HTML app page, so the host is unread and no component history was ever shown (0, as a script-drawn status page scores elsewhere). No incident history we could read (5). The 1 October rate-limit (5) and 429 (8) awards came from the OpenAPI file served by the API host itself, which no readable page links, so they are struck (0 and 0). The API licence agreement of 22 April 2026 names no SLA, and the pricing page where a plan SLA would sit renders only by script (0). Generally available, sold for more than ten years per CoinDesk's 25 August post (10). 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 15.)
- Maintenance & community, Codex +67: Codex 80 (Closed service. Newest changelog entry 2 November 2026 (30). Weekly entries from 3 August to 2 November, and SDK releases 2.5.10 to 2.5.20 between 28 October and 5 November (20). Public changelog, a Discord, a support address and a status page with a report link; GitHub issue replies were not sampled (10 of 15). Current official TypeScript SDK, no other languages (12 of 15). The SDK repository runs lint and test on pull requests and a release workflow (8 of 10). 30+20+10+12+8 = 80.); CoinDesk Data API 13 (No public changelog. The newest dated product post is the Gemini Enterprise for Financial Services post of 25 August 2026, which says the existing hosted MCP server is now available in that client with a CoinDesk API key. It lists the server in another client and records no change to the API or the server, so it doesn't set recency, read the same way as Streak's 4 August Claude connector post. The last published API change is the free-tier retirement of 21 May 2026, after which accounts without a subscription stopped receiving data, 168 days before this check (10, to 0 after 17 November). No dated API change since 7 August (0). A contact page and account managers, and no public channel where questions get answers (3 of 15, held). No official SDK found (0). No package to judge (0). 10 + 0 + 3 + 0 + 0 = 13.)
- Agent ergonomics, Codex +64: Codex 79 (GraphQL field selection, so a response holds only the fields asked for, and `usageData` reports the cost of a request (23 of 25). `limit` on filter queries up to 200, rankings and 100+ filter signals on filterTokens; some list arguments drop extra inputs silently rather than failing (18 of 20). Coded errors an agent can branch on, but most arrive as HTTP 200 in an `errors` array, and an inline input type mismatch returns only a message (16 of 20). Queries are reads and identical requests cost the same; errors are not billed except NOT_FOUND. No idempotency key on the webhook and token mutations (14 of 20). Few required arguments beyond `networkId`. One official SDK, TypeScript (8 of 15). 23+18+16+14+8 = 79.); CoinDesk Data API 15 (Field groups, limits and paging were read on 1 October from a third-party reconstruction of the spec on GitHub, which isn't a first-hand source, and error objects from the struck OpenAPI file and third-party probes, so those lines are struck (0, 0, 0). The licence agreement and product pages describe a service that returns licensed data and nothing in them writes, so safe retries hold on read-only access (15 of 20, held). No official SDK found, and the defaults credit came from the struck file (0). 0 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 15.)
- Transparency & trust, Codex +7: Codex 59 (Closed service under terms that name Codex Data Inc., last updated 29 October 2026; the SDK is MIT (15 of 30). The privacy policy (effective 29 September 2026) is general, keeps data 'only for as long as is necessary' with no periods, transfers data to the United States, and links no DPA or subprocessor list (10 of 30). The changelog dates deprecations, such as NFT endpoints removed on 31 March 2026 and the transactions fields deprecated on 2 November, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (12 of 20). The terms name Mixpanel, Rollbar and Sentry and the privacy policy says data is processed in the United States; no fuller subprocessor list found (8 of 20). 15+10+12+8 = 45.); CoinDesk Data API 52 (The editorial half. Closed service under the API Licence Agreement dated 22 April 2026, licensor CC Data Limited, trading as CoinDesk Data, England and Wales company 10966788 (15). The licence's clause 6 commits both parties to data-protection law and defers to the privacy policy at www.coindesk.com/privacy, which we can no longer read because that host's robots.txt disallows our crawler. The 1 October reading of that notice is struck, and the licence names no retention period or subprocessor (0 of 30). The free-tier retirement is a dated notice, posted 17 April for 21 May 2026 (34 days), and the licence says changes take effect after a notice period of typically 30 days. Dated notices with no deprecation period score 15 by the settled reading (15 of 20). Subprocessors and data locations came only from the struck privacy notice (0). 15 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 30.)