# Instinct vs ZeroClaw (slim)

> ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) to Instinct's 11.4 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.md (~2,650 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-zeroclaw
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-12

ZeroClaw scores 70.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

- Instinct: F 11.4, rank #984 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instinct.min.md
- ZeroClaw: BB 70.2, rank #161 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zeroclaw.min.md
- Instinct, good for A consumer assistant for one adult who wants errands done by text or phone call, such as bill disputes, gifts, groceries, appointments and travel, and who accepts that it acts and spends as their agent. Also No incidents deducted, where ZeroClaw loses 3 points for them.
- ZeroClaw, good for One person who wants an assistant on their own hardware that answers on Telegram, Discord, Matrix or email, asks before it writes or runs commands, and works with a local model. Ahead on Reliability, 74 against 5; Schema & documentation, 82 against 3; Agent ergonomics, 72 against 5; Security & auth, 76 against 25; Payments & pricing, 60 against 0; Maintenance & community, 80 against 3; Transparency & trust, 64 against 51. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.

| Category | Instinct | ZeroClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 5 | 74 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 3 | 82 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 5 | 72 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 25 | 76 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 3 | 80 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 51 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Instinct | ZeroClaw |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Spear Street Technology, Inc. | ZeroClaw Labs |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Instinct's Terms of Service, which grant personal use only | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-26 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| 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 | none | 33k stars |