# Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Lago

> Crossmint API + Docs MCP scores 67.1 (B) to Lago's 65.7 (B) for card payments. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-lago
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-lago.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-lago.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-lago.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: 2026-10-09

Crossmint API + Docs MCP scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability, schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do card payments.

- Crossmint API + Docs MCP: grade B, 67.1/100, rank #260 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crossmint.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crossmint.json
- Lago: grade B, 65.7/100, rank #311 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lago.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lago.json
- Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/payment-platforms/index.md
- All 76 platforms comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payment-platforms/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Crossmint API + Docs MCP (B)

Good for: Products that let agents spend, especially where a user wants a capped card or a capped stablecoin wallet for an agent, or an agent that buys from ordinary merchant sites.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 73 against 37
- Transparency & trust, 80 against 59

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Lago loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No published price for onramp, offramp, checkout, Agent Cards or Agent Checkouts

### Lago (B)

Good for: A team that wants usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing under its own control and can run PostgreSQL and Redis.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 86 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 71
- Maintenance & community, 91 against 85

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The free edition has one organisation API key with full access. Creating more keys needs a Premium licence and per-resource permissions need an enterprise add-on


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Crossmint API + Docs MCP | Lago | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 86 | Lago +33 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 87 | Lago +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 71 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 37 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP +36 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 50 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 91 | Lago +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 59 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **67.1 · B** | **65.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crossmint API + Docs MCP | Lago |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Crossmint | Get Lago Corp. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://www.crossmint.com/api` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial |
| Tools exposed | 1 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-01 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-21 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 52 stars, 40k npm/wk | 11k stars, 48k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Crossmint API + Docs MCP.** Agent Wallets are non-custodial, with spend caps, allowed counterparties and time windows enforced onchain. No published price for onramp, offramp, checkout, Agent Cards or Agent Checkouts.

**Lago.** Lago's open-source edition runs usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing on the owner's servers at no charge, with an OpenAPI 3.1 file of 217 operations and releases about every two weeks. The free edition has one unscoped API key and no audit logs, and Lago's llms.txt understates what its MCP server can change.

## Before you call either

### Crossmint API + Docs MCP

1. Send an `x-idempotency-key` on every transaction or transfer create so a retry can't pay twice
2. Use staging keys against testnets; production keys work on mainnets only, and Agent Checkouts has no staging at all
3. On 429, wait and retry. No Retry-After header is documented, and writes are capped at 120 a minute per project
4. Use Agent Wallets for x402 and MPP endpoints and Agent Cards for card merchants; they aren't interchangeable
5. Append `.md` to any docs URL for a Markdown copy

### Lago

1. Call `<your Lago API origin>/api/v1` with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. On Lago Cloud the hosts are `api.getlago.com` and `api.eu.getlago.com`
2. Send every usage event with a deterministic `transaction_id` and an explicit `timestamp`, and resend the same payload on retry. On the ClickHouse event store a changed timestamp is billed again
3. Expect 422 `value_already_exist` for a repeated event on the Postgres event store. Treat it as success for a retry
4. Page with `page` and `per_page` and read `meta.next_page` and `meta.total_count`. The default page size is 100 in most cases
5. Treat the free edition's API key as full access. It can void invoices and terminate subscriptions, so keep it out of prompts and ask a person before financial changes
6. Before giving an assistant the MCP server, note that it includes `delete_invoice`, `void_invoice`, `delete_plan` and `create_payment` and sets no read-only annotations

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Crossmint API + Docs MCP or Lago?

Crossmint API + Docs MCP scores 67.1 (B) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability, schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Do Crossmint API + Docs MCP and Lago need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call Crossmint API + Docs MCP and Lago without installing anything?

Crossmint API + Docs MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://www.crossmint.com/api. No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago.

### Are Crossmint API + Docs MCP and Lago open source?

No open-source release is listed for Crossmint API + Docs MCP. Lago is open source (AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial).


## For agents

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

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