# Gate vs KuCoin

> Gate scores 56.4 (C) to KuCoin's 53.9 (D) for exchange market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-kucoin
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-kucoin.md (~3,750 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-04

Gate scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against KuCoin's 53.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. KuCoin leads on transparency & trust. Both do exchange market data.

- Gate: grade C, 56.4/100, rank #740 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gate-io.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gate-io.json
- KuCoin: grade D, 53.9/100, rank #824 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kucoin.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kucoin.json
- Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/crypto-exchanges/index.md
- All 210 exchanges comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crypto-exchanges/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Gate (C)

Good for: An agent trading spot, futures and earn products in a person's Gate account outside the 35 restricted locations, with a keyless MCP for research and an OAuth MCP or scoped key for trading.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 60
- Security & auth, 60 against 55

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No status page, incident history or SLA; the terms give no uptime guarantee and cap liability at three months of fees

### KuCoin (D)

Good for: An agent trading spot, margin and futures in a person's KuCoin account outside the restricted list, with no sandbox and no MCP server, so through the SDK or raw REST.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 54 against 49

Watch for: No official MCP server; the registry's `kucoin` entry is a third party's keyless market-data package


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Gate +10

- Gate (70): No public OpenAPI file was found, though the SDKs are generated and the MCP tools carry typed parameters per the tool reference; the hosted tools' JSON Schema could not be read without a session (12 of 25). The whole REST and WebSocket documentation is downloadable as Markdown and the agent guide is a plain page (10). The tool reference gives one line and the main parameters per tool, the API reference a description per endpoint, no when-not-to-use guidance (12 of 20). Required flags, enums for side, type and time_in_force (11 of 15). Examples per endpoint and a labelled error body with a fixed label list the docs tell you to branch on instead of messages (13 of 15). A versioned changelog, v4.106.177 on 2 November 2026 (12 of 15, since entries are terse). 70.
- KuCoin (60): No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found; the docs link a Postman workspace and the universal SDK is generated from an internal spec (8 of 25). No llms.txt; the skills hub ships Markdown SKILL.md files with endpoint tables for seven product areas, read-only (6 of 10). One docs page per endpoint with a description, permission and weight, but no when-to-use guidance (12 of 20). Typed parameter tables with enums for type and side and required flags (11 of 15). Request and response examples per endpoint and a unified six-digit error code scheme introduced with V2 (10 of 15). Dated changelog with V1 to V2 versioning (13 of 15). 60.

### Security & auth: Gate +5

- Gate (60): Gate OAuth 2 for the hosted trading MCP with eight scopes per the protected-resource metadata and revocation on the API management page, and API keys with disabled, read-only or read-write per product group, a separate withdrawal group and an IP allow-list of 20 addresses (30). A read-only key and a GATE_READONLY switch exist, and the guide says fund-moving actions need the person's confirmation in the client, with no server-side cap documented (15 of 20). The news and info servers return third-party content with no guidance on treating it as untrusted (5 of 15). Key changes and OAuth grants are visible on the API management page; no per-call log found (5 of 15). No security.txt, no disclosure policy or bounty on a page we read, a proof-of-reserves repository (5 of 20). 60.
- KuCoin (55): API key with a user-set passphrase, HMAC-SHA256 signing, nine permission groups, IP allow-lists required for Withdrawal and FlexTransfers, trading keys without an IP disabled after 30 days of inactivity, revocation on the management page; no OAuth and no expiry on General keys (24 of 30). A General-only key is a true read-only mode and withdrawals are a separate permission; no confirmation step for writes beyond the key scope (12 of 20). Tools return the exchange's own data (10). The API key info endpoint shows permissions and IP lists; no per-call audit log was found (5 of 15). No security.txt, no disclosure policy or bounty on a page we could read, a whistleblower notice on the legal page (4 of 20). 55.

### Transparency & trust: KuCoin +5

- Gate (49): The editorial half. A closed hosted service with a clear user agreement that names no company; the MCP packages are MIT (12 of 30). The privacy policy names a DPO address and categories of recipients, with no retention numbers and no named subprocessors (12 of 30). The changelog records breaking changes such as the amend endpoint path move of 16 October 2026 with no notice period or policy (8 of 20). Transfers outside the user's jurisdiction are disclosed with no locations or provider names (5 of 20). 37.
- KuCoin (54): The editorial half. A closed hosted service with terms that are clear on use, liability and law but name no company (12 of 30). The privacy policy gives retention periods by purpose and provider (2 years after closure, 14 months for Firebase, 3 years for Jumio, 5 years for Sumsub) and names 41 services, with no data centre locations (22 of 30). Endpoints are removed and fields deprecated in dated changelog entries with no notice period or policy (8 of 20). Third parties named by service, locations not stated beyond transfers around the globe (10 of 20). 52.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gate | KuCoin | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 42 | 45 | KuCoin +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 60 | Gate +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 62 | Gate +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 55 | Gate +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 35 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 73 | Gate +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 54 | KuCoin +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.4 · C** | **53.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gate | KuCoin |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Gate | KuCoin |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 58 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.gateio-dev/gate-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-22 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 44 stars | 55 stars |

## Verdicts

**Gate.** Gate runs official hosted MCP servers with keyless market data and OAuth-scoped trading, a local stdio server with a read-only switch, per-endpoint rate limits with headers and a futures testnet. There is no status page, SLA or OpenAPI file, the fee table needs a login, the MCP host is a separate domain, and the terms name no company.

**KuCoin.** KuCoin publishes pooled rate limits with remaining and reset headers, scoped keys where withdrawals and transfers need an IP allow-list, an official SDK in five languages and read-only agent skills. It runs no MCP server, has no sandbox, status page or OpenAPI file, and its terms name no legal entity.

## Before you call either

### Gate

1. Start on https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp for prices and order books with no credential; switch to /mcp/exchange only when the person has approved the OAuth grant with the narrowest scopes
2. For a key-based route, create a key on a dedicated sub-account with read-only on every group but the one the task needs, withdrawal disabled and an IP allow-list; changes take up to 5 minutes
3. Put a unique `text` value starting with t- on every spot order and reuse it on the retry; read the order back before placing again
4. Read X-Gate-RateLimit-Requests-Remain and stop at zero; spot order placement is capped at 10 a second and withdrawals at 1 per 3 seconds
5. Rehearse futures logic on api-testnet.gateapi.io with TestNet keys; there is no spot testnet

### KuCoin

1. Mint a key with General only for research; add Spot or Futures only with an IP allow-list, since unbound trading keys are disabled after 30 days of inactivity
2. Send a UUID clientOid on every order and keep it for the retry, and read the order back by clientOid before placing again
3. Budget requests by weight against gw-ratelimit-remaining and sleep for gw-ratelimit-reset milliseconds on 429000; sub-accounts share the pool
4. There is no sandbox, so rehearse with the smallest order size on a dedicated sub-account
5. Use the UTA V2 endpoints and hosts; the Classic API loses endpoints without notice, as the margin credit endpoints did on 21 October 2026

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Gate or KuCoin?

Gate scores 56.4 (C) on agent readiness against KuCoin's 53.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. KuCoin leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Gate and KuCoin need an API key?

Gate takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. KuCoin needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Gate and KuCoin without installing anything?

Gate has a hosted endpoint at https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp. No hosted endpoint is listed for KuCoin.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Gate or KuCoin

- [Bitfinex API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitfinex-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bitfinex API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitfinex-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bitget vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitget-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bitget vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitget-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bithumb Open API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bithumb-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bitstamp API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitstamp-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bitstamp API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bitstamp-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Bybit vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Bybit vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bybit-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Crypto.com Exchange API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crypto-com-exchange-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Crypto.com Exchange API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crypto-com-exchange-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Gate vs Gemini Exchange API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-gemini-exchange.md)
- [Gate vs HTX trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-htx.md)
- [Gate vs Hyperliquid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-hyperliquid.md)
- [Gate vs Kraken API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-kraken.md)
- [Gate vs MEXC API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-mexc.md)
- [Gate vs OKX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-okx.md)
- [Gate vs Uniswap Trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-uniswap.md)
- [Gate vs Upbit Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gate-io-vs-upbit.md)
- [Gemini Exchange API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-exchange-vs-kucoin.md)
- [HTX trading API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/htx-vs-kucoin.md)
- [KuCoin vs MEXC API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-mexc.md)
- [KuCoin vs OKX API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-okx.md)
- [KuCoin vs Uniswap Trading API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-uniswap.md)
- [KuCoin vs Upbit Open API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-upbit.md)
- [Binance API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/binance-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Binance API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/binance-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Coinbase Advanced Trade API vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-advanced-trade-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Coinbase Advanced Trade API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-advanced-trade-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-mcp-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Coinbase MCP server (Coinbase for Agents) vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-mcp-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Kraken API vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kraken-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Deribit vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deribit-vs-gate-io.md)
- [Deribit vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deribit-vs-kucoin.md)
- [dYdX vs Gate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dydx-vs-gate-io.md)
- [dYdX vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dydx-vs-kucoin.md)
- [Hyperliquid vs KuCoin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hyperliquid-vs-kucoin.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp