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Head to head · Checkout · October 2026 research run

Paid vs Skyfire API + MCP

Paid scores 55.1 (C) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do checkout.

Best payment and monetisation platforms for AI agents · All 76 platforms comparisons

PaidAgent Paid Limited · HTTP API C55.1/100#669 of 950 Skyfire API + MCPSkyfire · HTTP API E40.3/100#911 of 950

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

  • Reliability, 35 against 19
  • Schema & documentation, 64 against 59
  • Agent ergonomics, 70 against 61
  • Security & auth, 65 against 41
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 77 against 31

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

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPaidSkyfire API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%203519Paid +16
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26459Paid +5
Agent ergonomics13%16.27061Paid +9
Security & auth14%17.56541Paid +24
Payments & pricing10%12.53020Paid +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87731Paid +46
Transparency & trust7%8.85153Skyfire API + MCP +2
Negative events≤1500
Total55.1 · C40.3 · E

Facts side by side

FactPaidSkyfire API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAgent Paid LimitedSkyfire
Hosted endpointhttps://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2https://api.skyfire.xyz
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under Paid's Master Subscription Agreement. The Node and Python SDKs on GitHub are MITnone
Tools exposednone4
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-152026-08-04
Terms last updatedno date given2025-06-25
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2025-06-25
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity24k npm/wk16 npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (2)

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.

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

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

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, Paid or Skyfire API + MCP?

Paid scores 55.1 (C) on agent readiness against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.3 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Paid and Skyfire API + MCP need an API key?

Paid takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Skyfire API + MCP needs an API key.

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

Yes. Paid has a hosted endpoint at https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2 and Skyfire API + MCP at https://api.skyfire.xyz.

Other comparisons with Paid or Skyfire API + MCP

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