# Paid vs PayPal MCP server

> PayPal scores 56.3 (C) to Paid's 55.1 (C) for checkout. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-paypal-mcp-server
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-paypal-mcp-server.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-paypal-mcp-server.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-paypal-mcp-server.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

PayPal MCP server scores 56.3 (C) on agent readiness against Paid's 55.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Paid leads on security & auth and maintenance & community. Both do checkout.

- 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
- PayPal MCP server: grade C, 56.3/100, rank #635 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paypal-mcp-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paypal-mcp-server.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

### 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.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 65 against 48
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 64

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

### PayPal MCP server (C)

Good for: A merchant already on PayPal who wants an assistant to draft and send invoices, look up orders and transactions, and manage subscriptions and disputes.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 52 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: The quickstart gives `/http` for streamable HTTP. On 8 October 2026 it returned 404 on both hosts, and `/mcp` returned the OAuth challenge


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Paid | PayPal MCP server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 52 | PayPal MCP server +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 70 | PayPal MCP server +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 66 | Paid +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 48 | Paid +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | PayPal MCP server +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 64 | Paid +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 78 | PayPal MCP server +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **55.1 · C** | **56.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Paid | PayPal MCP server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Agent Paid Limited | PayPal |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2` | `https://mcp.paypal.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | stdio, SSE (legacy), Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Price for checkout | not published | $0.49 per transaction |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Paid's Master Subscription Agreement. The Node and Python SDKs on GitHub are MIT | Apache-2.0 for the local server and the agent toolkit. The hosted server is a closed service under the PayPal Developer Agreement |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.paypal/paypal-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-01 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2024-11-18 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-28 |
| 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 | yes | 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 24k npm/wk | 995 npm/wk, 107 PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**PayPal MCP server.** The hosted server uses OAuth with PKCE and dynamic client registration, and the local package defaults to the sandbox. No tool carries a read-only or destructive annotation, no confirmation step for refunds or captures was found, and the documented `/http` streamable HTTP path returned 404 on 8 October 2026 while `/mcp` answered.

## Before you call either

### 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

### PayPal MCP server

1. Connect a remote client to `https://mcp.paypal.com/mcp` or `/sse`. The documented `/http` path returned 404 on 8 October 2026
2. Set `PAYPAL_ENVIRONMENT=PRODUCTION` for live calls. Any other value, including the registry's `LIVE`, runs against the sandbox
3. Refresh `PAYPAL_ACCESS_TOKEN` before it expires. The README gives `expires_in` 32400 seconds, and the local server takes no client ID or secret
4. Pass `--tools=` with only the keys the task needs, such as `invoices.list,orders.get`. `--tools=all` loads 28 keys including refunds and captures
5. Ask the user before `create_refund`, `pay_order`, `cancel_subscription` or `accept_dispute_claim`. The server applies them without a confirmation step

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Paid or PayPal MCP server?

PayPal MCP server scores 56.3 (C) on agent readiness against Paid's 55.1 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Paid leads on security & auth and maintenance & community.

### Do Paid and PayPal MCP server need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Paid and PayPal MCP server without installing anything?

Yes. Paid has a hosted endpoint at https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2 and PayPal MCP server at https://mcp.paypal.com/mcp.

### Are Paid and PayPal MCP server open source?

No open-source release is listed for Paid. PayPal MCP server is open source (Apache-2.0 for the local server and the agent toolkit. The hosted server is a closed service under the PayPal Developer Agreement).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Paid or PayPal MCP server

- [ATXP vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atxp-vs-paid.md)
- [Lago vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lago-vs-paid.md)
- [Metronome vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/metronome-vs-paid.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)
- [Paid vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-stripe-mcp.md)
- [Paid vs Tempo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-tempo.md)
- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-paid.md)
- [Paid vs Payman Genie MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-payman.md)
- [Adyen MCP server vs Paid](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-paid.md)
- [Adyen MCP server vs PayPal MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adyen-mcp-server-vs-paypal-mcp-server.md)
- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs PayPal MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-paypal-mcp-server.md)
- [Nevermined API + MCP vs PayPal MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-paypal-mcp-server.md)
- [Paid vs Skyfire API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paid-vs-skyfire.md)
- [PayPal MCP server vs Skyfire API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paypal-mcp-server-vs-skyfire.md)
- [PayPal MCP server vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paypal-mcp-server-vs-stripe-mcp.md)
- [Metronome vs PayPal MCP server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/metronome-vs-paypal-mcp-server.md)