# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-tempo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-tempo.md (~1,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-tempo.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-tempo.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

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 MCP: grade B, 67.4/100, rank #140 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crossmint.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crossmint.json
- Tempo: grade BB, 76.6/100, rank #27 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tempo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tempo.json

## 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 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP | Tempo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 71 | Tempo +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 88 | Tempo +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 78 | Tempo +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 73 | 70 | Crossmint API + Docs MCP +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 80 | Tempo +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 88 | Tempo +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 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

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

### Tempo

1. Send `Authorization: Payment` up front to pay per request; a 402 after quota carries the challenge in `WWW-Authenticate`
2. Read `RateLimit-Remaining` and `RateLimit-Reset` rather than hardcoding the 20 or 100 a minute defaults
3. Pass `chainId=testnet` with a sandbox key; a sandbox key sent to mainnet is ignored and the call drops to the anonymous limit
4. Use `tempo request --dry-run` before paying an MPP endpoint to see the cost
5. Branch on `error.code`, never on `error.message`

## Other comparisons with Crossmint API + Docs MCP or Tempo

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