# Orb vs Tempo

> Tempo scores 76.6 (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/orb-vs-tempo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-tempo.md (~2,250 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-tempo.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orb-vs-tempo.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

Tempo scores 76.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Orb's 66.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Orb leads on reliability and agent ergonomics. Both do usage billing.

- 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
- Tempo: grade BB, 76.6/100, rank #27 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tempo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tempo.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 71
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 78

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

### Tempo (BB)

Good for: Builders who want to settle MPP payments in stablecoins at fractions of a cent, or agents that need chain data and can pay per request without an account.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 70 against 55
- Payments & pricing, 80 against 5
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 82

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

Watch for: The API versioning page says endpoints are not yet stable and may change without notice


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Orb | Tempo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 71 | Orb +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 88 | 88 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 78 | Orb +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 55 | 70 | Tempo +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 80 | Tempo +75 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 88 | Tempo +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 63 | Orb +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.5 · B** | **76.6 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Orb | Tempo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Orb, Inc. | Tempo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.withorb.com/v1` | `https://api.tempo.xyz/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Orb's Platform Terms and Conditions. The SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 | MIT OR Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-09-24 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-11-13 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-05-07 | 2026-07-31 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 5 stars, 185k npm/wk | 1k stars, 209k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.1/5 (8) |

## 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.

**Tempo.** api.tempo.xyz accepts MPP on its anonymous endpoints, so an agent can pay per request without an account. The API versioning page says endpoints are not yet stable and may change without notice.

## 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

### Tempo

1. Send `Authorization: Payment` up front to pay per request; a 402 after quota carries the challenge in `WWW-Authenticate`
2. Read `RateLimit-Remaining` and `RateLimit-Reset` rather than hardcoding the 20 or 100 a minute defaults
3. Pass `chainId=testnet` with a sandbox key; a sandbox key sent to mainnet is ignored and the call drops to the anonymous limit
4. Use `tempo request --dry-run` before paying an MPP endpoint to see the cost
5. Branch on `error.code`, never on `error.message`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Orb or Tempo?

Tempo scores 76.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Orb's 66.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Orb leads on reliability and agent ergonomics.

### Do Orb and Tempo need an API key?

Orb needs an API key. Tempo takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Orb and Tempo without installing anything?

Yes. Orb has a hosted endpoint at https://api.withorb.com/v1 and Tempo at https://api.tempo.xyz/v1.

### Are Orb and Tempo open source?

No open-source release is listed for Orb. Tempo is open source (MIT OR Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Orb or Tempo

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