Get an audit

Head to head · Payments stablecoin · October 2026 research run

Nevermined API + MCP vs Skyfire API + MCP

Nevermined API + MCP has a score of 71.1 (BB) against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.6 (E). Both do payments stablecoin. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 58 points.

Nevermined API + MCPNevermined · HTTP API BB71.1/100#89 of 452 Skyfire API + MCPSkyfire · HTTP API E40.6/100#422 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Nevermined API + MCP for

  • reliability (+53)
  • schema & documentation (+21)
  • agent ergonomics (+13)
  • security & auth (+22)
  • payments & pricing (+45)
  • maintenance & community (+58)

Pick Skyfire API + MCP for

No category where it leads by five points or more.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runNevermined API + MCPSkyfire API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%207219Nevermined API + MCP +53
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28059Nevermined API + MCP +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.27461Nevermined API + MCP +13
Security & auth14%17.56341Nevermined API + MCP +22
Payments & pricing10%12.56520Nevermined API + MCP +45
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88931Nevermined API + MCP +58
Transparency & trust7%8.85456Skyfire API + MCP +2
Negative events≤1500
Total71.1 · BB40.6 · E

Facts side by side

FactNevermined API + MCPSkyfire API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorNeverminedSkyfire
Hosted endpointhttps://api.live.nevermined.apphttps://api.skyfire.xyz
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402payer tooling onlyno
LicenceApache-2.0none
Tools exposed124
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.nevermined-io/catalognot listed
Last release2026-09-292026-08-04
Popularity17 stars, 468 npm/wk, 4.4k PyPI/wk16 npm/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)2/5 (2)

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.

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

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

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

Other comparisons with Nevermined API + MCP or Skyfire API + MCP

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report