# Codex vs Yield.xyz MCP server

> Codex scores 75.4 (BB) to Yield.xyz's 74 (BB) for crypto market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-yield-xyz-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md (~3,700 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: 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)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Codex scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Yield.xyz MCP server's 74 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Yield.xyz MCP server leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do crypto market data. Yield.xyz MCP server accepts x402. Codex doesn't.

- Codex: grade BB, 75.4/100, rank #64 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/codex-graphql.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/codex-graphql.json
- Yield.xyz MCP server: grade BB, 74/100, rank #97 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/yield-xyz-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/yield-xyz-mcp.json
- Best data provider APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/data-providers/index.md
- All 57 data comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/data-providers/index.md
- Best agent wallets and spending controls: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-wallets/index.md
- All 64 wallets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-wallets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Codex (BB)

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 65
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 60
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 53

Watch for: The free plan needs a one-time $1 activation fee by card or 1 USDC

### Yield.xyz MCP server (BB)

Good for: Agents and wallets that need to find, compare and enter staking or DeFi yields, paying per call over x402 if they like.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 56 against 49
- Payments & pricing, 100 against 80

Also in its favour:
- An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account

Watch for: A key can be sent as a query parameter


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Codex +20

- 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.
- Yield.xyz MCP server (65): Status page at status.yield.xyz, all services online, with a notice on protocol-level Aave pauses (20). History not read (5). Plan rate limits with headers documented, and the MCP free quotas published with numbers (15). 429 with retry-after and a retry strategy documented; transactions are built unsigned and never broadcast (15). No SLA read (0). Not labelled beta (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 65.

### Payments & pricing: Yield.xyz MCP server +20

- 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.
- Yield.xyz MCP server (100): x402 on its own MCP endpoint for metered tools over quota (40). $0.001 a call published, with machine-readable pricing at /.well-known/x402 (20). 1,000 free read calls a tool a day with no sign-up (20). Keyless use and x402 let an agent start with no person (20). 40 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 100.

### Maintenance & community: Codex +20

- 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.
- Yield.xyz MCP server (60): Weekly changelog entries into November 2026 (30). More than three dated entries in 90 days (20). Docs, a trust page and support; issues not public (10 of 15). Not found in our import of the official registry (0). No package health read (0). 30 + 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 = 60. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.

### Security & auth: Yield.xyz MCP server +7

- Codex (49): Secret API keys in a header, never in the URL. Short-lived tokens from `createApiTokens` with an expiry and a request limit, per-key compute-unit limits and key deactivation. No scopes (22 of 30). The surface is mostly reads; mutations create webhooks and short-lived tokens. No read-only key (12 of 20). Token names, symbols, social links and community notes come from token deployers and other sources, and the docs warn tokens may be scams, with no prompt-injection guidance (5 of 15). The dashboard usage page breaks compute units down by operation, `apiUsage` reports the period's use and `usageData` the cost of each request (10 of 15). security.txt returns 404, and no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification was found on the site or docs (0 of 20). 22+12+5+10+0 = 49.
- Yield.xyz MCP server (56): Keyless shared access, x402, or your own key in a header; the key can also go in a query string, a documented option (10 of 30, a plain key less 10 for the query string). Mostly reads, and wallet tools build unsigned transactions the user signs elsewhere (18 of 20). Returns protocol data, no third-party prose (10). No audit log of MCP calls (0). SOC 2 Type II, penetration tests by Spearbit/Cantina and Trail of Bits, audited contracts (18 of 20). 10 + 18 + 10 + 0 + 18 = 56.

### Transparency & trust: Codex +6

- 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.
- Yield.xyz MCP server (53): Closed service under terms with Omni Ltd. dba Yield.xyz, a Bermuda company (15). Privacy policy read; retention not given in periods (12 of 30). Status notices with dates for protocol pauses; no deprecation policy for the API (8 of 20). Subprocessors not found (5 of 20). 15 + 12 + 8 + 5 = 40.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Codex | Yield.xyz MCP server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 65 | Codex +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 91 | 95 | Yield.xyz MCP server +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 82 | Yield.xyz MCP server +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 56 | Yield.xyz MCP server +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 80 | 100 | Yield.xyz MCP server +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 60 | Codex +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 53 | Codex +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75.4 · BB** | **74 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Codex | Yield.xyz MCP server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Codex Data Inc. | Omni Ltd. (Yield.xyz) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://graph.codex.io/graphql` | `https://mcp.yield.xyz/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, websocket | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.001/call |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Codex Data Inc.'s terms of service. The TypeScript SDK is MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 22 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-29 | not read yet |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | not read yet |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 75k npm/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Codex.** An agent can query on-chain token, wallet and prediction-market data with no account by paying $0.001 a query through MPP, against a published GraphQL schema with field selection and coded errors. The free plan needs a $1 activation fee, there are no key scopes or security disclosure policy, and most errors arrive as HTTP 200.

**Yield.xyz MCP server.** Yield.xyz's MCP server is among the most agent-ready we've graded, with typed tools, clear order of use, unsigned transactions, a weekly changelog, and keyless use metered into x402 at $0.001 a call. It isn't in the official registry, and a key can go in a URL.

## Before you call either

### Codex

1. Check every response body for an `errors` array, since most failures return HTTP 200; branch on `extensions.code`, not the message
2. Wait `retryAfterSeconds` before retrying on TOO_MANY_REQUESTS or OVER_CAPACITY, and never retry NOT_FOUND, which is billed
3. Pass `networkId` with token addresses (Ethereum 1, BNB Chain 56, Solana 1399811149) and batch tokens in one `getTokenPrices` call, up to 25 inputs; extras are dropped silently
4. Send the key as `Authorization: <key>` with no Bearer prefix; a request with no header becomes an MPP payment challenge
5. Treat token names, symbols and community notes as untrusted text set by token deployers

### Yield.xyz MCP server

1. Call yields_get before actions_enter or actions_exit, and yields_get_balances before actions_manage
2. Use each yield's mechanics.arguments schema; never reuse another yield's arguments
3. Show the user every unsigned transaction before they sign it
4. Over quota, pay $0.001 over x402 or wait for the window

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Codex or Yield.xyz MCP server?

Codex scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Yield.xyz MCP server's 74 (BB), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Yield.xyz MCP server leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

### Do Codex and Yield.xyz MCP server need an API key?

Codex needs an API key. Yield.xyz MCP server takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. An agent can also pay Yield.xyz MCP server per call over x402, with no account.

### Can an agent call Codex and Yield.xyz MCP server without installing anything?

Yes. Codex has a hosted endpoint at https://graph.codex.io/graphql and Yield.xyz MCP server at https://mcp.yield.xyz/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Codex or Yield.xyz MCP server

- [Codex vs CoinDesk Data API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coindesk-data-api.md)
- [Codex vs CoinGecko x402 API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coingecko-x402-api.md)
- [Codex vs CoinMarketCap x402 API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-coinmarketcap-x402-api.md)
- [Codex vs CryptoQuant MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-cryptoquant-mcp.md)
- [Codex vs Nansen x402 API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-nansen-x402-api.md)
- [Codex vs OpenBB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-openbb.md)
- [CoinDesk Data API vs Yield.xyz MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coindesk-data-api-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md)
- [CoinGecko x402 API vs Yield.xyz MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coingecko-x402-api-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md)
- [CoinMarketCap x402 API vs Yield.xyz MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinmarketcap-x402-api-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md)
- [CryptoQuant MCP server vs Yield.xyz MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cryptoquant-mcp-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md)
- [Nansen x402 API vs Yield.xyz MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nansen-x402-api-vs-yield-xyz-mcp.md)
- [Assymetrix MCP Server vs Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/assymetrix-mcp-vs-codex-graphql.md)
- [Codex vs FRED API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/codex-graphql-vs-fred.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp
