# Mercury API vs Payhawk API + MCP (slim)

> Mercury API scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Payhawk API + MCP's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Payhawk API + MCP leads on transparency & trust. Both do spend transactions. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mercury-vs-payhawk.md (~2,200 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mercury-vs-payhawk.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mercury-vs-payhawk
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Mercury API scores 63.8 (B) on agent readiness against Payhawk API + MCP's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Payhawk API + MCP leads on transparency & trust. Both do spend transactions.

- Mercury API: B 63.8, rank #337 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mercury.min.md
- Payhawk API + MCP: C 57.1, rank #561 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payhawk.min.md
- Mercury API, good for A company that banks with Mercury and wants an agent to read balances and transactions, set notes and categories, upload receipts, issue virtual cards with spend limits and queue payments for human approval. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 68 against 52; Security & auth, 82 against 71; Payments & pricing, 30 against 13; Maintenance & community, 64 against 53.
- Payhawk API + MCP, good for A finance team already on Payhawk that wants an ERP or accounting sync, master data kept in step, purchase orders raised from another system, or an assistant that answers spend questions and prepares approvals. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 78 against 63.

| Category | Mercury API | Payhawk API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 59 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 72 | 71 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 68 | 52 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 82 | 71 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 13 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 64 | 53 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 78 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Mercury API | Payhawk API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Mercury Technologies, Inc. | Payhawk Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.mercury.com/api/v1` | `https://api.payhawk.com` |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Mercury's Terms of Use. The Mercury CLI on GitHub is Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Payhawk's general terms and conditions |
| Tools exposed | 35 | 82 |
| Last release | 2026-08-12 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-12-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-06-29 |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |