# Lago vs Tempo

> Tempo scores 76.6 (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-tempo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-tempo.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-tempo.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-tempo.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

Tempo scores 76.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability. 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
- Tempo: grade BB, 76.6/100, rank #27 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tempo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tempo.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 71

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

### Tempo (BB)

Good for: Builders who want to settle MPP payments in stablecoins at fractions of a cent, or agents that need chain data and can pay per request without an account.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 71
- Security & auth, 70 against 37
- Payments & pricing, 80 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 API versioning page says endpoints are not yet stable and may change without notice


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Lago | Tempo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 86 | 71 | Lago +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 88 | Tempo +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 78 | Tempo +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 70 | Tempo +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 80 | Tempo +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 91 | 88 | Lago +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 63 | Tempo +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.7 · B** | **76.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lago | Tempo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Get Lago Corp. | Tempo |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.tempo.xyz/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-31 |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 11k stars, 48k npm/wk | 1k stars, 209k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.1/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Tempo.** api.tempo.xyz accepts MPP on its anonymous endpoints, so an agent can pay per request without an account. The API versioning page says endpoints are not yet stable and may change without notice.

## 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

### Tempo

1. Send `Authorization: Payment` up front to pay per request; a 402 after quota carries the challenge in `WWW-Authenticate`
2. Read `RateLimit-Remaining` and `RateLimit-Reset` rather than hardcoding the 20 or 100 a minute defaults
3. Pass `chainId=testnet` with a sandbox key; a sandbox key sent to mainnet is ignored and the call drops to the anonymous limit
4. Use `tempo request --dry-run` before paying an MPP endpoint to see the cost
5. Branch on `error.code`, never on `error.message`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Lago or Tempo?

Tempo scores 76.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Lago's 65.7 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lago leads on reliability.

### Do Lago and Tempo need an API key?

Lago needs an API key. Tempo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Lago and Tempo without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Lago. Tempo has a hosted endpoint at https://api.tempo.xyz/v1.

### Are Lago and Tempo open source?

Yes. Lago is open source (AGPL-3.0 (platform). The MCP server and agent SDKs are MIT. Premium capabilities and Lago Cloud are commercial). Tempo is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Lago or Tempo

- [ATXP vs Lago](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atxp-vs-lago.md)
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