Head to head · Exchange derivatives · October 2026 research run
Deribit vs OKX API
OKX API scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Deribit's 59 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deribit leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do exchange derivatives.
Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents · All 210 exchanges comparisons
Which one, for what
Deribit C
Best for An agent trading crypto options, dated futures and perpetuals for an institutional or retail Deribit account, and anyone migrated from Coinbase International Exchange.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 73
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 20
Watch for
No official MCP server, and the GitHub organisation has no public repositories, so no official SDK in any language
OKX API B
Best for An agent trading spot, perpetuals, futures or options on a person's OKX account from a local machine, with demo trading to test first and grid or DCA bots through the kit.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 65 against 45
- Security & auth, 68 against 62
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 65
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 46
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
The fee table loads by script and the fee FAQ defers to the logged-in view, so maker and taker rates were not read
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Reliability OKX API +20
Deribit 45
Read with the hosted lines on the JSON-RPC API. status.deribit.com did not resolve for our reader on 3 November 2026 and Coinbase's status page showed no Deribit component, so no status page is scored, with the unchecked line below (0). No readable history (5). Rate limits are documented with numbers, 50,000 credits per sub-account refilled at 10,000 a second, and matching-engine tiers of 5 to 30 requests a second by 7-day volume (15). Error 10028 ends the session and the errors page says to back off exponentially; 10040 means retry; the 6 May 2026 release added a nonce for idempotent orders (15). No SLA found (0). The API is generally available; only Starbase is limited to selected clients (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 45.
OKX API 65
Read with the hosted lines on the V5 REST API. okx.com/status is OKX's own page with issue descriptions, maintenance notices and deposit and withdrawal status, but no component history or feed (10 of 20). It lists no incident between 5 August and 3 November 2026; its newest entry is from March 2024, and whether every incident reaches the page cannot be told, so read as clean with a doubt (20 of 30). Rate limits per endpoint, per User ID and per sub-account with numbers, and WebSocket limits (15). Error 50011 on a limit, a clOrdId on orders and a cap of 3 amendments in flight, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (10 of 15). No SLA (0). Generally available (10). 10 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 65.
Maintenance & community OKX API +16
Deribit 65
Read as a closed service. The JSON-RPC changelog's latest production entry is 13 October 2026 and an entry dated 5 November 2026 describes the next release; Deribit's posts of 14 October and 2 November 2026 change fees (30). Entries of 18 August, 15 September and 13 October 2026, three in 90 days (20). A public changelog and a support site; whether support answers wasn't tested and the support site refused our reader (10 of 15). No official SDK and no MCP registry entry (0). The OpenAPI and AsyncAPI files are maintained with the docs (5 of 10). Total 65.
OKX API 81
Read as a closed service with an open-source kit. Changelog entry of 27 October 2026 and kit v1.5.0 on 28 October (30). Changelog entries on 3, 6, 11, 18, 20 and 26 August, 15, 29 and 30 September and 27 October, and kit releases on 20 and 21 August, 1, 7, 14 and 23 September, 19 and 28 October (20). A public changelog, a Telegram community for the kit and GitHub issues whose replies were not read (10 of 15). python-okx is named as the official SDK and the kit is current; the MCP server is not in the official registry (12 of 15). The kit runs CI on push and pull request across Node 18, 20 and 26 with unit tests and coverage (9 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 12 + 9 = 81.
Transparency & trust OKX API +16
Deribit 46
The editorial half. A closed service whose terms (Deribit FZE membership terms and DRB Panama Inc. terms) sit on a support site that answered 403, with the entity confirmed on VARA's register (12 of 30). The privacy policy was not read, and nothing in the docs states retention (0 of 30). The changelog marks deprecations and the upcoming docs branch previews the next release, but removals such as public/get_index on 25 November 2025 carry no notice period (10 of 20). No subprocessor or data-location statement found (0 of 20). Total 22.
OKX API 62
The editorial half. A closed service with terms that name the contracting entities by region and an API Agreement for agents; the kit is MIT (17 of 30). The privacy policy was not read (5 of 30). The changelog dates sunsets and labels breaking changes, such as port 8443 on 31 October and 16 November 2026 (16 of 20). No subprocessor or data-location statement read; the MCP server is local and its npm package runs a postinstall script whose purpose we did not trace (0 of 20). 17 + 5 + 16 + 0 = 38.
Schema & documentation Deribit +15
Deribit 88
OpenAPI 3.0.0 for the whole JSON-RPC surface (Deribit API 2.1.1, about 1.4 million characters) plus AsyncAPI files for the WebSocket side (25). llms.txt with production and upcoming indexes, and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Each operation has a description such as "Places a buy order for an instrument." with parameter notes, and the articles say when to use WebSocket subscriptions over polling, but the reference seldom says when not to use a method (13 of 20). Parameters are typed with enums (order type has eight values, time_in_force four) and required flags, with amount or contracts as a documented either-or (13 of 15). Every reference page carries an example request and response, and the errors page lists about 159 codes with retry guidance, though most operations document only a 200 response and the smaller error tables disagree with the full one on two codes (12 of 15). A versioned path (/api/v2), a production and an upcoming docs branch, and a dated changelog of 64 entries since 21 January 2020 (15). Total 88.
OKX API 73
No OpenAPI file was found in the V5 docs; the kit's tool definitions are typed TypeScript with annotations, and the organisation has an undescribed ai-builder-openapi-md repository we did not read (12 of 25). okx.com/llms.txt exists and links the API and Agent Trade Kit pages, though the V5 docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Each endpoint states its rate limit, rule, parameters and notes (15 of 20). Enums for ordType, tdMode and instType with required flags (12 of 15). Request and response examples per endpoint and an error code list with messages (14 of 15). A dated changelog with an upcoming-changes section that labels breaking changes and dates sunsets (15). 12 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 14 + 15 = 73.
Security & auth OKX API +6
Deribit 62
Keys carry five scopes at read, read_write or none, ip:ADDR and expires limits, can be disabled, reset and removed by API, and self-generated Ed25519 or RSA keys keep the private half off Deribit. The HTTP client_credentials example passes client_secret in the query string, a documented option, so 10 off (20 of 30). trade:read and wallet:none give read-only and no-withdrawal keys and the 5 August 2025 release stopped account:read keys reading other keys' secrets; no per-order confirmation and the address allow-list article was unreadable (16 of 20). The API returns no untrusted content (10). private/list_api_keys, the transaction log and order history let an operator see what a key did, but no per-key call log was found (8 of 15). A HackerOne bug bounty per the support article title and HackerOne's customer story, neither page read first-hand (insights.deribit.com/bug-bounty answered 403), a VARA licence, and no security.txt on www.deribit.com (8 of 20). Total 62.
OKX API 68
Key, secret and passphrase with Read, Trade and Withdraw permissions, up to 20 bound IPs, revocation in the account, and unbound Trade or Withdraw keys that expire after 14 idle days; no OAuth (28 of 30). Read-only keys, sub-account keys, demo trading, the kit's --read-only flag and its startup check that hides order tools when the key cannot trade, and an API Agreement requiring minimum scope; no confirmation step in the kit (18 of 20). The news and smartmoney modules return third-party text and the docs read give no guidance on treating it as untrusted (5 of 15). An account audit log tool in the kit and usage records for unbound keys in the Security Center, no per-call log (9 of 15). No security.txt; SECURITY.md with security@okx.com and GitHub private advisories; certifications and a bounty not read (8 of 20). 28 + 18 + 5 + 9 + 8 = 68.
Payments & pricing Deribit +5
Deribit 25
No machine payment protocol (0). The fee schedule is on support.deribit.com, which answered 403; Deribit's own posts give VIP4 to VIP7 taker fees and the 0 bps linear options maker fee, so partial prices are public but the lowest tier is unchecked (5 of 20). Public market data needs no key and the test environment is free, with no card anywhere (20). A person signs up in a browser with identity checks before any key exists (0). Total 25.
OKX API 20
No machine payment protocol (0). The fee table loads by script and the fee FAQ defers to the logged-in view, so no rate was read (0 of 20, unchecked). Public market data and demo trading need no funded account or card (20). A person signs up, verifies and mints a key (0). 0 + 0 + 20 + 0 = 20.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Deribit | OKX API | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 65 | OKX API +20 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 88 | 73 | Deribit +15 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 74 | 77 | OKX API +3 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 62 | 68 | OKX API +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 25 | 20 | Deribit +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 65 | 81 | OKX API +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 46 | 62 | OKX API +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 59/100 | B 64.3/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Deribit | OKX API |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Deribit FZE | OKX |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted exchange. The API is documented under the Deribit docs with an OpenAPI 3.0 file; no official client library is published | Proprietary hosted service under OKX's Terms of Service (29 October 2026) and API Agreement (28 July 2026). The Agent Trade Kit (MCP server, CLI and skills) is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 0 | 170 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-13 | 2026-10-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | none | 499 stars, 1.8k npm/wk |
Verdicts
Deribit
Deribit's JSON-RPC API has scoped keys with IP and expiry limits, asymmetric signing, an OpenAPI file, numeric rate limits and a 64-entry changelog. There is no official MCP server or client library, the fee schedule, terms and privacy policy sit on a support site that refused our reader, and the status page did not resolve.
OKX API
OKX publishes per-endpoint rate limits, Read, Trade and Withdraw key permissions with IP binding, demo trading on the production host, and an MIT MCP server with 170 tools, a read-only flag and a permission check at startup. The fee table and privacy policy were not read, no OpenAPI file was found, and the news tools return third-party text.
Before you call either
Deribit
- Create the key with
trade:read_writeandwallet:none, anip:limit and anexpiresvalue; keepaccount:readunless the task edits subaccounts - Authenticate with
client_signatureor an Ed25519 key over WebSocket rather thanclient_credentialsover HTTP, which puts the secret in the URL - Watch the
limitsfield ofprivate/get_account_summaryand back off on error 10028; a session that runs out of credits is closed and must reconnect - Send a
noncewith orders so a retry after a timeout does not place a second order, and treatorder_not_foundon cancel as a possible fill - Develop against https://test.deribit.com/api/v2 first; production and test need separate accounts and keys
OKX API
- Start okx-trade-mcp with --profile demo first, then --read-only on a live key; load only the modules the task needs
- Use a sub-account key with Read and Trade only, bound to the agent's IP; an unbound Trade key expires after 14 idle days
- Stay under 60 place-order requests per 2 seconds per instrument and at most 3 amendments in flight per order; 50011 means the limit was hit
- Send a clOrdId on every order and use the structured error block (code, message, endpoint) to diagnose with read-only tools before retrying
- Call us.okx.com or eea.okx.com for US, Australian and EEA accounts; openapi.okx.com does not serve those regions
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Deribit or OKX API?
OKX API scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Deribit's 59 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Deribit leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.
Do Deribit and OKX API need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Deribit and OKX API without installing anything?
No hosted endpoint is listed for Deribit. OKX API runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/deribit-vs-okx.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/deribit.json·/api/v1/tools/okx.json - From a terminal
anchor compare deribit okx(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "deribit", "b": "okx"}at/mcp, no key