# Nevermined API + MCP vs Orb

> Nevermined scores 70.8 (BB) to Orb's 66.5 (B) for usage billing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-orb
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-orb.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-orb.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-orb.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 Orb's 66.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Orb leads on reliability, schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do usage billing.

- 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
- Orb: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #289 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orb.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orb.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

### 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 55
- Payments & pricing, 65 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 89 against 82

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

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

### Orb (B)

Good for: A software or AI company that bills on usage and needs event metering, plan versioning, prepaid credits, invoicing and revenue reporting behind one API, with Stripe or Adyen collecting the money.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 77 against 72
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 80
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 74
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 51

Watch for: All three plans (Core, Advanced, Enterprise) show custom pricing only, and the pricing page sends new customers to sales


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Nevermined API + MCP | Orb | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 72 | 77 | Orb +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 88 | Orb +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 84 | Orb +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 55 | Nevermined API + MCP +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 65 | 5 | Nevermined API + MCP +60 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 82 | Nevermined API + MCP +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 65 | Orb +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.8 · BB** | **66.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Nevermined API + MCP | Orb |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nevermined | Orb, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.live.nevermined.app` | `https://api.withorb.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Orb's Platform Terms and Conditions. The SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.nevermined-io/catalog` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2024-11-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-05-07 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 17 stars, 468 npm/wk, 4.4k PyPI/wk | 5 stars, 185k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Orb.** Orb suits a company that bills on usage and wants one API for events, plans, credits and invoices. It publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 file, numeric rate limits, idempotency keys and a dry-run header. Every plan is priced on request and access starts with sales. No scope list for API keys or public sub-processor list was found.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Orb

1. Call `https://api.withorb.com/v1` with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. A person creates the key in the Orb web app under organisation settings, in test mode or live mode
2. Send an `Idempotency-Key` of at most 64 characters on every POST and PATCH. A 409 means the first request is still running or the body changed
3. Add `Dry-Run: True` to check a write first, and confirm `Orb-Dry-Run: true` in the response. Ingest, amend and deprecate event calls ignore it and run for real
4. Do not send `Idempotency-Key` with `Dry-Run`. Orb returns a validation error
5. Page with `limit` (default 20, maximum 100) and pass `next_cursor` back as `cursor` while `has_more` is true
6. Back off exponentially on 429. Test mode allows 5 writes a second and 2,000 ingested events a minute

## Questions

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

Nevermined API + MCP scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Orb's 66.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Orb leads on reliability, schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust.

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

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

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

Yes. Nevermined API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.live.nevermined.app and Orb at https://api.withorb.com/v1.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Nevermined API + MCP or Orb

- [ATXP vs Orb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atxp-vs-orb.md)
- [Lago vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined.md)
- [Lago vs Orb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-orb.md)
- [Metronome vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/metronome-vs-nevermined.md)
- [Metronome vs Orb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/metronome-vs-orb.md)
- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paid.md)
- [Orb vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-paid.md)
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- [Orb vs Tempo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-tempo.md)
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- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-nevermined.md)
- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Orb](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-orb.md)
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