# Hy Memory vs Zep

> Zep scores 69.3 (B) to Hy Memory's 57.7 (C) for agent memory. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-16

Zep scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Hy Memory's 57.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hy Memory leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do agent memory.

- Hy Memory: grade C, 57.7/100, rank #639 of 1099. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hy-memory.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hy-memory.json
- Zep: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #201 of 1099. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zep.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zep.json
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 77 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Hy Memory (C)

Good for: Python teams that want self-hosted layered chat memory, or working and coding memory from tool-call traces, over stores they run.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 57

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: `delete()` leaves the source conversation, the deleted text in `history.db` and extraction prompts in `cache.db`, and can reactivate a superseded fact

### Zep (B)

Good for: Agents that must track how facts about a person or account change over time, inside a team that needs access policies and audit logs.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 60
- Security & auth, 84 against 37

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 4.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Hy Memory | Zep | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 65 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 55 | 89 | Zep +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 70 | Zep +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 84 | Zep +47 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Hy Memory +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 80 | Zep +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 57 | Hy Memory +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **57.7 · C** | **69.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Hy Memory | Zep |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Tencent Hunyuan | Zep |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.getzep.com/api/v2` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (PyPI metadata for the 1.x releases and 2.0.1 says MIT; 2.0.2 carries Apache-2.0) | Apache-2.0 (examples repo). The service is closed-source |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2024-01-27 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 27 stars, 147 PyPI/wk | 4.9k stars, 130k npm/wk, 87k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 4/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Hy Memory.** An Apache-2.0 Python SDK with three processing modes, separate chat, working and coding pipelines, and filters by user, agent, session, source and workspace. Deletion does not stick everywhere. `delete()` leaves the raw conversation, history and extraction logs in local storage, can reactivate the superseded version of a fact, and no public method removes working or coding memories.

**Zep.** Facts that new data invalidates keep the time they stopped being true. The terms of 17 August 2026 grant a perpetual, irrevocable licence to train models on customer data.

## Before you call either

### Hy Memory

1. Pass `user_id` on every `add()` and `user_ids` on every `search()`. Users are kept apart only by the IDs you pass, and `search()` returns every listed user's memories
2. Choose the mode before writing. `lite` makes no LLM calls and stores raw text. `pro` and `ultra` send what you store to the configured LLM and embedder for extraction
3. Don't rely on `delete()` to erase a fact. The raw conversation, `history.db` and `cache.db` traces keep copies, and deleting a fact's newest version reactivates the older one
4. Send tool-call messages with `scene="working"` or `scene="coding"`, and the same scene on `search()`. Without tool messages a write falls back to chat memory
5. Keep `python -m hy_memory.server` on 127.0.0.1. It has no authentication and allows any web origin

### Zep

1. Create the user and a thread before adding messages, as the quickstart does
2. Set `return_context` when adding messages to skip a second round trip
3. Keep episodes short. Every 350 bytes past the first costs another credit
4. Read Retry-After on a 429 and back off with jitter. Free accounts over quota drop to 5 requests a minute
5. Expect a delay after a graph add (202 Accepted) before new facts show up in search

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Hy Memory or Zep?

Zep scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against Hy Memory's 57.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hy Memory leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call Hy Memory and Zep without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Hy Memory. Zep has a hosted endpoint at https://api.getzep.com/api/v2.

### Are Hy Memory and Zep open source?

Hy Memory is open source (Apache-2.0 (PyPI metadata for the 1.x releases and 2.0.1 says MIT; 2.0.2 carries Apache-2.0)). No open-source release is listed for Zep.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Hy Memory or Zep

- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Memory vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-memory-vs-zep.md)
- [Cognee vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cognee-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Cognee vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cognee-vs-zep.md)
- [Graphiti vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphiti-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Graphiti vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphiti-vs-zep.md)
- [Hindsight vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hindsight-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Hindsight vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hindsight-vs-zep.md)
- [Honcho vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/honcho-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Honcho vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/honcho-vs-zep.md)
- [Hy Memory vs LangMem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-langmem.md)
- [Hy Memory vs LocalGhost](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-localghost.md)
- [Hy Memory vs Mem0 Platform + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-mem0.md)
- [Hy Memory vs Memory (MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-memory-reference-server.md)
- [Hy Memory vs Supermemory API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hy-memory-vs-supermemory.md)
- [LangMem vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langmem-vs-zep.md)
- [LocalGhost vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localghost-vs-zep.md)
- [Mem0 Platform + MCP vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mem0-vs-zep.md)
- [Memory (MCP reference server) vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/memory-reference-server-vs-zep.md)
- [Supermemory API + MCP vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/supermemory-vs-zep.md)
- [Graphicle vs Hy Memory](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphicle-vs-hy-memory.md)
- [Graphicle vs Zep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/graphicle-vs-zep.md)

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