# Lago vs Nevermined API + MCP

> Nevermined scores 70.8 (BB) to Lago's 65.7 (B) for usage billing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined.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: 2026-10-09

Nevermined API + MCP scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability, schema & documentation and transparency & trust. Both do usage billing.

- Lago: grade B, 65.7/100, rank #311 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lago.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lago.json
- Nevermined API + MCP: grade BB, 70.8/100, rank #142 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nevermined.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nevermined.json
- Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/payment-platforms/index.md
- All 76 platforms comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payment-platforms/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Lago (B)

Good for: A team that wants usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing under its own control and can run PostgreSQL and Redis.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 86 against 72
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 80
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The free edition has one organisation API key with full access. Creating more keys needs a Premium licence and per-resource permissions need an enterprise add-on

### Nevermined API + MCP (BB)

Good for: Builders who want to charge agents per call or by plan, with fiat and stablecoin rails and caps on the buyer side, and for agents that need one budget across x402 and MPP services. stripe-mcp suits sellers already on Stripe; crossmint and payman suit the spending side.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 63 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 65 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Lago loses 3 points for them

Watch for: The x402 paywall settles Nevermined plan tokens, so generic x402 clients need its SDK or API to pay


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Lago | Nevermined API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 86 | 72 | Lago +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 80 | Lago +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 74 | Nevermined API + MCP +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 63 | Nevermined API + MCP +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 65 | Nevermined API + MCP +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 91 | 89 | Lago +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 51 | Lago +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.7 · B** | **70.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lago | Nevermined API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Get Lago Corp. | Nevermined |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.live.nevermined.app` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | payer tooling only |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.nevermined-io/catalog` |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 11k stars, 48k npm/wk | 17 stars, 468 npm/wk, 4.4k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Lago.** Lago's open-source edition runs usage metering, plans, wallets and invoicing on the owner's servers at no charge, with an OpenAPI 3.1 file of 217 operations and releases about every two weeks. The free edition has one unscoped API key and no audit logs, and Lago's llms.txt understates what its MCP server can change.

**Nevermined API + MCP.** Fees published without a login, 1% on stablecoins, 2% on cards and 2% for the Router. The x402 paywall settles Nevermined plan tokens, so generic x402 clients need its SDK or API to pay.

## Before you call either

### Lago

1. Call `<your Lago API origin>/api/v1` with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. On Lago Cloud the hosts are `api.getlago.com` and `api.eu.getlago.com`
2. Send every usage event with a deterministic `transaction_id` and an explicit `timestamp`, and resend the same payload on retry. On the ClickHouse event store a changed timestamp is billed again
3. Expect 422 `value_already_exist` for a repeated event on the Postgres event store. Treat it as success for a retry
4. Page with `page` and `per_page` and read `meta.next_page` and `meta.total_count`. The default page size is 100 in most cases
5. Treat the free edition's API key as full access. It can void invoices and terminate subscriptions, so keep it out of prompts and ask a person before financial changes
6. Before giving an assistant the MCP server, note that it includes `delete_invoice`, `void_invoice`, `delete_plan` and `create_payment` and sets no read-only annotations

### Nevermined API + MCP

1. Call `quote_service` before `pay_service`; quotes cost nothing
2. Ask the person to open the `setup_delegation` URL once; you can't mint the first key or budget yourself
3. Branch on the error `code` and retry only when `retryable` is true
4. Create a small, short delegation per task; cards stop at $10.00 across delegations unless the owner raises it
5. Use `sandbox:` keys and mcp.sandbox.nevermined.app until the flow works

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Lago or Nevermined API + MCP?

Nevermined API + MCP scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability, schema & documentation and transparency & trust.

### Do Lago and Nevermined API + MCP need an API key?

Lago needs an API key. Nevermined API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Lago and Nevermined API + MCP without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago. Nevermined API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.live.nevermined.app.

### Are Lago and Nevermined API + MCP open source?

Lago is open source (AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial). No open-source release is listed for Nevermined API + MCP.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Lago or Nevermined API + MCP

- [ATXP vs Lago](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atxp-vs-lago.md)
- [Lago vs Metronome](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-metronome.md)
- [Lago vs Orb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-orb.md)
- [Lago vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-paid.md)
- [Lago vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-stripe-mcp.md)
- [Lago vs Tempo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-tempo.md)
- [Metronome vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/metronome-vs-nevermined.md)
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- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Tempo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-tempo.md)
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- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Payman Genie MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-payman.md)
- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-stripe-mcp.md)