Head to head · Payments stablecoin · October 2026 research run
Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Tempo
Tempo has a score of 76.6 (BB) against Crossmint API + Docs MCP's 67.4 (B). Both do payments stablecoin. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 30 points.
Crossmint API + Docs MCPCrossmint · HTTP API
B67.4/100#140 of 452
TempoTempo · HTTP API
BB76.6/100#27 of 452
Which one, for what
Pick Crossmint API + Docs MCP for
- transparency & trust (+20)
Pick Tempo for
- reliability (+18)
- schema & documentation (+17)
- agent ergonomics (+7)
- payments & pricing (+30)
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Crossmint API + Docs MCP | Tempo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 53 | 71 | Tempo +18 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 71 | 88 | Tempo +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 71 | 78 | Tempo +7 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 73 | 70 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 80 | Tempo +30 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 85 | 88 | Tempo +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 83 | 63 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 67.4 · B | 76.6 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Crossmint API + Docs MCP | Tempo |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Crossmint | Tempo |
| Hosted endpoint | https://www.crossmint.com/api | https://api.tempo.xyz/v1 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 1 | 4 |
| 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 | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-24 |
| Popularity | 52 stars, 40k npm/wk | 1k stars, 209k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.1/5 (8) |
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.
Tempo
api.tempo.xyz accepts MPP on its anonymous endpoints, so an agent can pay per request without an account. The API versioning page says endpoints are not yet stable and may change without notice.
Before you call either
Crossmint API + Docs MCP
- Send an
x-idempotency-keyon every transaction or transfer create so a retry can't pay twice - Use staging keys against testnets; production keys work on mainnets only, and Agent Checkouts has no staging at all
- On 429, wait and retry. No Retry-After header is documented, and writes are capped at 120 a minute per project
- Use Agent Wallets for x402 and MPP endpoints and Agent Cards for card merchants; they aren't interchangeable
- Append
.mdto any docs URL for a Markdown copy
Tempo
- Send
Authorization: Paymentup front to pay per request; a 402 after quota carries the challenge inWWW-Authenticate - Read
RateLimit-RemainingandRateLimit-Resetrather than hardcoding the 20 or 100 a minute defaults - Pass
chainId=testnetwith a sandbox key; a sandbox key sent to mainnet is ignored and the call drops to the anonymous limit - Use
tempo request --dry-runbefore paying an MPP endpoint to see the cost - Branch on
error.code, never onerror.message
Other comparisons with Crossmint API + Docs MCP or Tempo
Machine-readable
/api/v1/tools/crossmint.json·/api/v1/tools/tempo.json- This page as Markdown,
/compare/crossmint-vs-tempo.md