# Orb vs Skyfire API + MCP

> Orb scores 66.5 (B) to Skyfire's 40.3 (E) for card payments. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-skyfire
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-skyfire.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-skyfire.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-skyfire.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

Orb scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Skyfire API + MCP leads on payments & pricing. Both do card payments.

- 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
- Skyfire API + MCP: grade E, 40.3/100, rank #911 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyfire.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyfire.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

### 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 19
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 59
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 61
- Security & auth, 55 against 41
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 31
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 53

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

### Skyfire API + MCP (E)

Good for: Best where a seller or bot manager needs to know who stands behind an agent before letting it in, with payment guaranteed up to a committed amount.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 20 against 5

Watch for: No x402 or MPP; both buyer and seller must be on Skyfire


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Orb | Skyfire API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 19 | Orb +58 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 59 | Orb +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 61 | Orb +23 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 41 | Orb +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 20 | Skyfire API + MCP +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 31 | Orb +51 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 53 | Orb +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.5 · B** | **40.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Orb | Skyfire API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Orb, Inc. | Skyfire |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.withorb.com/v1` | `https://api.skyfire.xyz` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Orb's Platform Terms and Conditions. The SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-08-04 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-11-13 | 2025-06-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-05-07 | 2025-06-25 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | 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 | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 5 stars, 185k npm/wk | 16 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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

## Questions

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

Orb scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Skyfire API + MCP leads on payments & pricing.

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

Both need an API key.

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

Yes. Orb has a hosted endpoint at https://api.withorb.com/v1 and Skyfire API + MCP at https://api.skyfire.xyz.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Orb or Skyfire API + MCP

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