# L402 vs Mastercard Agent Pay (slim)

> L402 scores 60.5 (C) to Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E) for agent payment protocols. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.md (~2,150 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/l402-vs-mastercard-agent-pay
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-16
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

L402 scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mastercard Agent Pay's 42.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Mastercard Agent Pay leads on security & auth. Both do agent payment protocols.

- L402: C 60.5, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/l402.min.md
- Mastercard Agent Pay: E 42.5, rank graded, not ranked against tools · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mastercard-agent-pay.min.md
- L402, good for Bitcoin-native sellers and agents that already hold Lightning liquidity and want stateless, account-free API access. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 40; Schema & documentation, 65 against 47; Agent ergonomics, 61 against 38; Payments & pricing, 97 against 25; Transparency & trust, 50 against 36. Also No key needed to call it; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5.
- Mastercard Agent Pay, good for Agent platforms that can partner with Mastercard and need card purchases issuers recognise as agentic, with tokens instead of card numbers. Ahead on Security & auth, 71 against 58.

| Category | L402 | Mastercard Agent Pay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 40 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 65 | 47 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 61 | 38 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 71 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 97 | 25 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 27 | 23 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 50 | 36 |

| Fact (where they differ) | L402 | Mastercard Agent Pay |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Lightning Labs | Mastercard |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Licence | MIT (per l402.tech) | Agent Pay is a closed Mastercard network programme. Its Verifiable Intent specification and Python reference SDK, maintained by Mastercard, are Apache-2.0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-03-25 | 2026-06-10 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Popularity | 89 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2/5 (4) |