# KuCoin vs OKX API (slim)

> OKX scores 64.3 (B) to KuCoin's 53.9 (D) for exchange market data. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-okx.md (~4,650 tokens) · this version ~2,530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-okx.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kucoin-vs-okx
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-04
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

OKX API scores 64.3 (B) on agent readiness against KuCoin's 53.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. KuCoin leads on payments & pricing. Both do exchange market data.

- KuCoin: D 53.9, rank #824 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kucoin.min.md
- OKX API: B 64.3, rank #432 of 1349 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/okx.min.md
- KuCoin, 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 Payments & pricing, 35 against 20.
- OKX API, good 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 45; Schema & documentation, 73 against 60; Agent ergonomics, 77 against 62; Security & auth, 68 against 55; Maintenance & community, 81 against 73; Transparency & trust, 62 against 54. Also Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card.

| Category | KuCoin | OKX API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 45 | 65 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 60 | 73 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 62 | 77 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 55 | 68 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 73 | 81 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 54 | 62 |

| Fact (where they differ) | KuCoin | OKX API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | KuCoin | OKX |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Licence | none | Proprietary 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 exposed | none | 170 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-10-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 55 stars | 499 stars, 1.8k npm/wk |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, OKX API +20: KuCoin 45 (Graded with the hosted lines on the API at api.kucoin.com. No status page found (status.kucoin.com does not resolve, the docs link none), so 0 for the page and 5 for no readable history. Rate limits are published per VIP level with per-endpoint weights and IP limits for public endpoints (15). Every response carries gw-ratelimit-limit, gw-ratelimit-remaining and gw-ratelimit-reset, 429000 is documented with a wait rule, and orders take a clientOid the docs recommend as a UUID (15). No SLA (0). The UTA V2 API is the production surface (10). 45.); 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.)
- Agent ergonomics, OKX API +15: KuCoin 62 (Read for the API alone, since there is no MCP server. Responses take limit and cursor parameters on list endpoints and the order book depth is a parameter (14 of 25). Pagination and symbol filters on orders, fills and ledgers (15 of 20). Codes and messages per response, with the V2 scheme claimed to be clearer; the rate-limit page's own examples contradict its table, which costs an agent a turn (12 of 20). clientOid on orders makes retries safe; no MCP annotations to read (10 of 20). Three required fields on a spot order, official SDKs in five languages (11 of 15). 62.); 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.)
- Payments & pricing, KuCoin +15: KuCoin 35 (No machine payment protocol (0). The spot base fee is stated in support articles without login, the futures base rate and the full tier table sit in images or behind script (15 of 20). Market data needs no key, no card is asked for at sign-up (20). A person registers, verifies identity and mints the key 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.)
- Schema & documentation, OKX API +13: 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.); OKX API 73 (No OpenAPI file was found in the V5 docs; the kit's tool definitions are typed TypeScript with annotations, and the organisation has an undescribed ai-builder-openapi-md repository we did not read (12 of 25). okx.com/llms.txt exists and links the API and Agent Trade Kit pages, though the V5 docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Each endpoint states its rate limit, rule, parameters and notes (15 of 20). Enums for ordType, tdMode and instType with required flags (12 of 15). Request and response examples per endpoint and an error code list with messages (14 of 15). A dated changelog with an upcoming-changes section that labels breaking changes and dates sunsets (15). 12 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 14 + 15 = 73.)
- Security & auth, OKX API +13: 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.); 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.)
- Maintenance & community, OKX API +8: KuCoin 73 (Read as a closed hosted service. The changelog's newest past entry is 2 November 2026 and the universal SDK was pushed 15 September (30). Nine dated changelog entries since 5 August 2026 (20). A Telegram API group (t.me/KuCoin_API) and api@kucoin.com for limit requests, no public issue tracker for the API; the SDK repository's issues were not checked (10 of 25). Official SDKs current in five languages, no MCP registry presence (13 of 15). No package health signal checked (0 of 10). 73.); OKX API 81 (Read as a closed service with an open-source kit. Changelog entry of 27 October 2026 and kit v1.5.0 on 28 October (30). Changelog entries on 3, 6, 11, 18, 20 and 26 August, 15, 29 and 30 September and 27 October, and kit releases on 20 and 21 August, 1, 7, 14 and 23 September, 19 and 28 October (20). A public changelog, a Telegram community for the kit and GitHub issues whose replies were not read (10 of 15). python-okx is named as the official SDK and the kit is current; the MCP server is not in the official registry (12 of 15). The kit runs CI on push and pull request across Node 18, 20 and 26 with unit tests and coverage (9 of 10). 30 + 20 + 10 + 12 + 9 = 81.)