Head to head · Shipping rates · October 2026 research run
EasyPost vs Karrio
EasyPost scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability, schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do shipping rates.
Which one, for what
EasyPost C
Good for An agent that quotes rates across carriers, buys a label, verifies an address, follows tracking by webhook and requests a refund from one merchant account, mainly on US carriers.
Ahead on
- Agent ergonomics, 63 against 57
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 29
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 56
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Karrio loses 7 points for them
Watch for
No OpenAPI spec was found in the docs or in the EasyPost GitHub organisation. The reference is prose and tables, with a Postman workspace
Karrio D
Good for A team that wants to host its own multi-carrier API with its own carrier contracts and can maintain a Django and PostgreSQL stack.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 76 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 68 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 22
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
No release since 2026.1.32 on 23 June 2026, 107 days before this check, and fix pull requests opened in September 2026 were still open
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | EasyPost | Karrio | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 53 | 76 | Karrio +23 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 55 | 68 | Karrio +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 63 | 57 | EasyPost +6 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 47 | 44 | EasyPost +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 22 | 40 | Karrio +18 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 85 | 29 | EasyPost +56 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 70 | 56 | EasyPost +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -7 | |
| Total | 54.3 · C | 48.7 · D |
Facts side by side
| Fact | EasyPost | Karrio |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Simpler Postage, Inc. (d/b/a EasyPost) | Karrio, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.easypost.com/v2 | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the EasyPost Master Customer Agreement. The official client libraries on GitHub are MIT, with the Go library under ISC | LGPL-3.0 for the server, SDK and modules. Code under ee/ is under the Karrio Enterprise licence and needs a subscription for production use. The MCP package in packages/mcp is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-06-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-25 | 2025-04-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-25 | 2025-04-08 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 149 stars, 100k npm/wk, 42k PyPI/wk | 799 stars, 338 PyPI/wk |
Verdicts
EasyPost
Docs written for agents (llms.txt, a Markdown copy of each page, a JSON page index), seven official SDKs and free test keys make the REST API easy to start on. No OpenAPI spec or idempotency keys were found, every key has full account access, and the status page shows a connectivity outage on 23 July 2026 that affected all operations.
Karrio
A current OpenAPI 3.0.3 contract with 65 paths, a free LGPL-3.0 server and 30 carrier connectors suit a team that hosts it. The last release was 23 June 2026, the @karrio/mcp package the docs install is absent from npm, and api.karrio.io didn't resolve on 8 October 2026.
Before you call either
EasyPost
- Use a test API key while building. It buys no postage and contacts no carrier, and test tracking codes simulate each tracking status
- Don't blind-retry
POST /shipments/:id/buyafter a timeout. Retrieve the shipment first and check forpostage_label, since no idempotency key exists - Send the API key as the HTTP Basic username with an empty password on the REST API, and as a Bearer token on the MCP server
- Handle
errorsas either an array of objects or an array of strings. The docs say both shapes occur - Pass a scoped
carrier_accountslist when rating. Only the first 60 accounts are rated and the call doesn't fail when more are enabled
Karrio
- Run your own instance with Docker Compose and call it at
http://localhost:5002. Don't rely onapi.karrio.io, which didn't resolve on 8 October 2026 - Don't run
npx karrio-mcpornpx -y @karrio/mcp. Neither name is published on npm, so build the server frompackages/mcpin the repository - Change the default
admin@example.comanddemologin before the instance is reachable, and upgrade to 2026.1.32 or later so passwords aren't stored as MD5 - Don't blind-retry
POST /v1/shipmentswith aserviceset orPOST /v1/shipments/{id}/purchase. Fetch the shipment and check its status first, since no idempotency key exists - Use a test-mode API key while building. Send it as the HTTP Basic username or as
Authorization: Token key_...
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, EasyPost or Karrio?
EasyPost scores 54.3 (C) on agent readiness against Karrio's 48.7 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Karrio leads on reliability, schema & documentation and payments & pricing.
Do EasyPost and Karrio need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call EasyPost and Karrio without installing anything?
EasyPost has a hosted endpoint at https://api.easypost.com/v2. No hosted endpoint is listed for Karrio.
Are EasyPost and Karrio open source?
No open-source release is listed for EasyPost. Karrio is open source (LGPL-3.0 for the server, SDK and modules. Code under `ee/` is under the Karrio Enterprise licence and needs a subscription for production use. The MCP package in `packages/mcp` is Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with EasyPost or Karrio
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/easypost-vs-karrio.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/easypost.json·/api/v1/tools/karrio.json - From a terminal
anchor compare easypost karrio(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "easypost", "b": "karrio"}at/mcp, no key