# Payman Genie MCP vs Skyfire API + MCP

> Payman Genie MCP has a score of 53 (D) against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.6 (E). Both do payments card. The largest gap is security & auth, 39 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payman-vs-skyfire
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payman-vs-skyfire.md (~1,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payman-vs-skyfire.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payman-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: 2026-10-04

Payman Genie MCP has a score of 53 (D) against Skyfire API + MCP's 40.6 (E). Both do payments card. The largest gap is security & auth, 39 points.

- Payman Genie MCP: grade D, 53/100, rank #337 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/payman.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/payman.json
- Skyfire API + MCP: grade E, 40.6/100, rank #422 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyfire.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyfire.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Payman Genie MCP for reliability (+6), agent ergonomics (+7), security & auth (+39), payments & pricing (+15), maintenance & community (+29).

Pick Skyfire API + MCP for transparency & trust (+8).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Payman Genie MCP | Skyfire API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 25 | 19 | Payman Genie MCP +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 59 | Skyfire API + MCP +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 61 | Payman Genie MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 41 | Payman Genie MCP +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 20 | Payman Genie MCP +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 31 | Payman Genie MCP +29 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 56 | Skyfire API + MCP +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53 · D** | **40.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Payman Genie MCP | Skyfire API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Payman AI | Skyfire |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://genie.paymanai.com/mcp` | `https://api.skyfire.xyz` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | MIT | none |
| Tools exposed | 5 | 4 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-04 |
| Popularity | 0 stars, 33 npm/wk | 16 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Payman Genie MCP.** OAuth 2.1 with PKCE, two scopes, one-hour access tokens and refresh tokens rotated on every use and revoked on logout. No published pricing, status page, rate limits or changelog.

**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

### Payman Genie MCP

1. Pass the person's request to `ask_genie` in their own words; don't pick accounts or fill payment fields
2. On `needs_approval`, stop and tell the person; approval happens in their Genie account
3. Retry only after `NOTHING_RAN` or `BUSY`, never after `OUTCOME_UNKNOWN`
4. Treat `done` as acted, not settled; check the activity history before confirming a payment
5. Sign-ins from bridge 0.3.x lack `genie:self`; log out and sign in again to use the self-service tools

### 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

## Other comparisons with Payman Genie MCP or Skyfire API + MCP

- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Skyfire API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-skyfire.md)
- [Skyfire API + MCP vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/skyfire-vs-stripe-mcp.md)
- [Skyfire API + MCP vs Tempo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/skyfire-vs-tempo.md)
- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Payman Genie MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-payman.md)
- [Crossmint API + Docs MCP vs Skyfire API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crossmint-vs-skyfire.md)
- [Nevermined API + MCP vs Payman Genie MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nevermined-vs-payman.md)
- [Payman Genie MCP vs Stripe API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payman-vs-stripe-mcp.md)