# Lago vs Skyfire API + MCP

> Lago scores 65.7 (B) to Skyfire's 40.3 (E) for card payments. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-skyfire
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-skyfire.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-skyfire.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-skyfire.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

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do card payments.

- 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
- Skyfire API + MCP: grade E, 40.3/100, rank #911 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyfire.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyfire.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 19
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 61
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 91 against 31
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 53

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

### Skyfire API + MCP (E)

Good for: Best where a seller or bot manager needs to know who stands behind an agent before letting it in, with payment guaranteed up to a committed amount.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Lago loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No x402 or MPP; both buyer and seller must be on Skyfire


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Lago | Skyfire API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 86 | 19 | Lago +67 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 59 | Lago +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 61 | Lago +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 41 | Skyfire API + MCP +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 20 | Lago +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 91 | 31 | Lago +60 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 53 | Lago +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.7 · B** | **40.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lago | Skyfire API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Get Lago Corp. | Skyfire |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.skyfire.xyz` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-08-04 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-06-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-06-25 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 11k stars, 48k npm/wk | 16 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (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.

**Skyfire API + MCP.** Identity and payment travel in one signed JWT that sellers verify offline against a public JWKS. No x402 or MPP; both buyer and seller must be on Skyfire.

## 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

### Skyfire API + MCP

1. Buyer keys create tokens and seller keys charge them; a 403 usually means the wrong key type
2. Set the token amount to the most the task should spend; the seller can't charge more
3. Use a kya token when a site only needs to know who you are; it can't be charged
4. Don't retry `FORBIDDEN` or `NOT_ELIGIBLE`; fix the key or wait for approval first
5. Rehearse against mcp-sandbox.skyfire.xyz before using mcp.skyfire.xyz

## Questions

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

Lago scores 65.7 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

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

Both need an API key.

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

No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago. Skyfire API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.skyfire.xyz.

### Are Lago and Skyfire 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 Skyfire API + MCP.


## For agents

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

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