# Nevermined API + MCP vs Paid

> Nevermined scores 70.8 (BB) to Paid's 55.1 (C) for usage billing. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paid
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paid.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paid.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paid.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 Paid's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. 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
- Paid: grade C, 55.1/100, rank #669 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paid.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:
- Reliability, 72 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 65 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 89 against 77

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

### Paid (C)

Good for: A team selling an AI agent that needs usage metering, credit balances, cost and margin tracking and invoicing in one service, with Stripe as the payment rail.

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The docs index advertises an OpenAPI 3.1 file at two addresses, and both returned 404 on 9 October 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Nevermined API + MCP | Paid | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 72 | 35 | Nevermined API + MCP +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 64 | Nevermined API + MCP +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 70 | Nevermined API + MCP +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 65 | Paid +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 65 | 30 | Nevermined API + MCP +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 77 | Nevermined API + MCP +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 51 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.8 · BB** | **55.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Nevermined API + MCP | Paid |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Nevermined | Agent Paid Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.live.nevermined.app` | `https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under Paid's Master Subscription Agreement. The Node and Python SDKs on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.nevermined-io/catalog` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-15 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| 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 | yes |
| 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 | 24k 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.

**Paid.** Paid suits a builder who wants usage metering, credits and invoicing behind one API, with restricted and customer-bound keys, OAuth on the MCP server and a free plan that needs no card. No status page, SLA figure, API changelog or rate-limit numbers were found, both advertised OpenAPI links returned 404, and card payments need the builder's own Stripe account.

## 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

### Paid

1. Call `https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2` with `Authorization: Bearer <key>`. A person creates the first key at app.paid.ai. No programmatic signup was found
2. Give every signal a stable `idempotencyKey` and resend the same key on retry. Signals without one are not deduplicated
3. Send at most 500 signals a request. A 429 rejects the whole batch, so wait for `Retry-After` and resend it all
4. Read the `code` field on a 429. `CONCURRENCY_LIMIT_EXCEEDED` carries no `Retry-After` and clears when an analytics query finishes
5. Install the Python SDK as `paid-python`, the name in its README and `pyproject.toml`. The quickstart's `pip install paid` names a package we could not check

## Questions

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

Nevermined API + MCP scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Paid's 55.1 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

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

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. Nevermined API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.live.nevermined.app and Paid at https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2.


## For agents

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

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- [Lago vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-nevermined.md)
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- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Nevermined API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-nevermined.md)
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