# Paid vs Skyfire API + MCP

> Paid scores 55.1 (C) to Skyfire's 40.3 (E) for checkout. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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

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.

- 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
- 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

### 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.

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Paid | Skyfire API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 19 | Paid +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 59 | Paid +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 61 | Paid +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 41 | Paid +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 20 | Paid +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 31 | Paid +46 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 53 | Skyfire API + MCP +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **55.1 · C** | **40.3 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Paid | Skyfire API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Agent Paid Limited | Skyfire |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.agentpaid.io/api/v2` | `https://api.skyfire.xyz` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Paid's Master Subscription Agreement. The Node and Python SDKs on GitHub are MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 4 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-08-04 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-06-25 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 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 | yes | 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 | 24k npm/wk | 16 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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