Head to head · Exchange market data · October 2026 research run

Gate vs OKX API

OKX API scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Gate's 56.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Gate leads on payments & pricing. Both do exchange market data.

Best crypto exchange APIs and MCP servers for AI agents · All 210 exchanges comparisons

Which one, for what

Gate C

Best 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

  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

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

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 42
  • Agent ergonomics, 77 against 66
  • Security & auth, 68 against 60
  • Transparency & trust, 62 against 49

Also in its favour

  • 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 +23

Gate 42

Graded with the hosted lines on the API v4 at api.gateio.ws with the hosted MCP beside it. No status page found (status.gate.com does not resolve, the docs link none), so 0 for the page and 5 for no readable history. Rate limits are published per endpoint group with numbers and fill-ratio rules (15). Every response carries X-Gate-RateLimit-Limit, X-Gate-RateLimit-Requests-Remain and X-Gate-RateLimit-Reset-Timestamp, 429 answers with the label TOO_FAST, and spot orders take a user text identifier, but no retry or idempotency guidance is written down (12 of 15). No SLA (0). API v4 and the MCP endpoints are production surfaces (10). 42.

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.

Payments & pricing Gate +15

Gate 35

No machine payment protocol (0). The fee page's table loads after login; help centre and learn articles give the VIP 0 spot rates (15 of 20). Market data over REST and the public MCP needs no account and no card (20). A person registers, verifies identity and mints the key or approves the grant in a browser (0). 35.

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.

Transparency & trust OKX API +13

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.

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.

Agent ergonomics OKX API +11

Gate 66

Read for the API with the hosted MCP beside it. The MCP is split by endpoint (58 public tools on /mcp, 400 or more on /mcp/exchange, smaller info and news servers) and the local package filters by module and read-only flag, which stands in for toolsets (5 of 25 for the trading server, 10 added back). Pagination by page and limit, from and to timestamps, status filters (15 of 20). Error labels such as INVALID_SIGNATURE, REQUEST_EXPIRED, IP_FORBIDDEN and READ_ONLY name the recovery (15 of 20). The text order identifier makes retries safe; the local server's source sets no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint and the hosted annotations are unread (8 of 20). Three required fields on a spot order, SDKs in seven languages and a CLI (13 of 15). 66.

OKX API 77

limit parameters on books, candles and history, and in the kit --modules and --read-only narrow 170 tools to the three default modules; no field selection (17 of 25). after, before and limit cursors on history endpoints (18 of 20). Numeric codes with messages, such as 51020 for an invalid quantity, and the kit returns a structured error block with code, message and endpoint (17 of 20). clOrdId on orders, batch endpoints and a cap of 3 amendments in flight; the kit sets readOnlyHint on query tools but destructiveHint false on order tools and has no idempotency key (13 of 20). python-okx, the CLI and a demo profile, with passphrase and HMAC signing on every private call (12 of 15). 17 + 18 + 17 + 13 + 12 = 77.

Security & auth OKX API +8

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.

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.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runGateOKX APIEdge
Reliability16%204265OKX API +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27073OKX API +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.26677OKX API +11
Security & auth14%17.56068OKX API +8
Payments & pricing10%12.53520Gate +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87781OKX API +4
Transparency & trust7%8.84962OKX API +13
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 56.4/100B 64.3/100

Facts side by side

FactGateOKX API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorGateOKX
Hosted endpointhttps://api.gatemcp.ai/mcpno (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP, stdiostdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePay per use
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary 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 exposed58170
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtnoyes
MCP registryio.github.gateio-dev/gate-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-11-022026-10-28
Terms last updated2026-07-222026-10-29
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity44 stars499 stars, 1.8k npm/wk

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.

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

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

OKX API

  1. Start okx-trade-mcp with --profile demo first, then --read-only on a live key; load only the modules the task needs
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. Send a clOrdId on every order and use the structured error block (code, message, endpoint) to diagnose with read-only tools before retrying
  5. 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, Gate or OKX API?

OKX API scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against Gate's 56.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Gate leads on payments & pricing.

Do Gate and OKX API need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Gate and OKX API without installing anything?

Gate has a hosted endpoint at https://api.gatemcp.ai/mcp. OKX API runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Other comparisons with Gate or OKX API

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