# Hiatus vs YNAB

> YNAB scores 65.1 (B) to Hiatus's 14.3 (F) for budgets. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-ynab
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-ynab.md (~1,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-ynab.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-ynab.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: 2026-10-14

YNAB scores 65.1 (B) on agent readiness against Hiatus's 14.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do budgets.

- Hiatus: grade F, 14.3/100, rank #1054 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hiatus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hiatus.json
- YNAB: grade B, 65.1/100, rank #351 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ynab.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ynab.json
- Best subscription, bill and budgeting tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-finance/index.md
- All 43 personal finance comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-finance/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Hiatus (F)

Good for: People who want subscriptions found and bills negotiated for them.

Watch for: No public API or MCP server an outside agent can call.

### YNAB (B)

Good for: An agent helping one person with their own YNAB plan, reading spending and editing categories, transactions and targets.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 0
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 0
- Security & auth, 51 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 62 against 54
- Transparency & trust, 75 against 47

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Each access token is limited to 200 requests an hour in a rolling window, and 429 responses carry no Retry-After


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hiatus | YNAB | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 15 | 82 | YNAB +67 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 77 | YNAB +77 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 0 | 71 | YNAB +71 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 0 | 51 | YNAB +51 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | YNAB +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 62 | YNAB +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 75 | YNAB +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **14.3 · F** | **65.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hiatus | YNAB |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Hiatus Inc. | YNAB |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.ynab.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under the Hiatus Terms of Use (Hiatus Inc., a Delaware corporation). | Proprietary service; SDKs Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-09-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-02-27 | 2026-04-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-02-27 | 2026-04-09 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | none | 240 stars, 9.6k npm/wk, 2.3k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Hiatus.** Hiatus covers subscription tracking, cancellation and bill negotiation for people, with dated terms and iOS releases every few weeks. There is no public API or MCP server an outside agent can call today, no developer or partner page, and the terms forbid automated access. Premium prices appear only as App Store in-app purchases.

**YNAB.** A public OpenAPI 3.1.1 file, a dated changelog and an OAuth read-only scope let an agent read and edit a person's own budget. Each token is limited to 200 requests an hour with no Retry-After, personal access tokens never expire and have no read-only option, and access always starts with a person signing up in a browser.

## Before you call either

### Hiatus

1. Don't plan to call Hiatus from another agent. There is no public API, so hand subscription and bill tasks to the person in the Hiatus app.
2. Tell the person bill negotiation and cancellation need Hiatus Premium, bought in the app.

### YNAB

1. Use last-used in place of plan_id until you have listed plans with GET /v1/plans
2. Store server_knowledge and send it back as last_knowledge_of_server to stay inside 200 requests an hour
3. Read and write amounts in milliunits, or read the _currency fields added in v1.82.0
4. Set import_id on transactions you create so a retried POST is matched instead of duplicated
5. Request scope=read-only on OAuth when the task only reads the budget

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hiatus or YNAB?

YNAB scores 65.1 (B) on agent readiness against Hiatus's 14.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Can an agent call Hiatus and YNAB without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Hiatus. YNAB has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ynab.com/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hiatus or YNAB

- [Emma vs Hiatus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emma-vs-hiatus.md)
- [Hiatus vs PocketGuard](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-pocketguard.md)
- [Hiatus vs Quicken Simplifi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-quicken-simplifi.md)
- [Hiatus vs Rocket Money](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-rocket-money.md)
- [Hiatus vs ScribeUp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-scribeup.md)
- [Hiatus vs Snoop](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-snoop.md)
- [Copilot Money vs Hiatus](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/copilot-money-vs-hiatus.md)
- [Copilot Money vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/copilot-money-vs-ynab.md)
- [Emma vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emma-vs-ynab.md)
- [PocketGuard vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pocketguard-vs-ynab.md)
- [Quicken Simplifi vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/quicken-simplifi-vs-ynab.md)
- [Rocket Money vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rocket-money-vs-ynab.md)
- [Snoop vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/snoop-vs-ynab.md)
- [Hiatus vs Plum](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hiatus-vs-plum.md)
- [Plum vs YNAB](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plum-vs-ynab.md)