# Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) vs Agent Vault by Self

> Privy Wallets scores 69.9 (B) to Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D) for wallet spend limits. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault.md (~2,750 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault.min.md (~880 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-self-agent-vault.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-17

Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) scores 69.9 (B) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do wallet spend limits.

- Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine): grade B, 69.9/100, rank #179 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/privy.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/privy.json
- Agent Vault by Self: grade D, 52.4/100, rank #823 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/self-agent-vault.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/self-agent-vault.json
- Best agent wallets and spending controls: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-wallets/index.md
- All 38 wallets comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-wallets/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) (B)

Good for: Builders who need fine-grained, enclave-enforced spending rules on programmatic wallets, or who want an agent to sign for a person's wallet with a revocable scoped signer.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 48 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 83 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66
- Security & auth, 85 against 76
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 48
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 47

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where Agent Vault by Self loses 4 points for them

Watch for: Database problems took API endpoints down for 71 minutes on 18 September 2026, one of 13 incidents since July

### Agent Vault by Self (D)

Good for: A person or developer who wants an agent to buy and sign in on ordinary websites with the holder's own card and logins, without the agent seeing them.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave. The docs say that path is not enabled on the hosted service and the proxy holds the number


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) | Agent Vault by Self | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 48 | 40 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 76 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 66 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 85 | 76 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 30 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 48 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 47 | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **69.9 · B** | **52.4 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) | Agent Vault by Self |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Privy (Stripe) | SocialConnect Labs, Inc. (Self Labs) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.privy.io/v1` | `https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | payer tooling only | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary hosted service. The SDK and MCP server are tarballs hosted by the vendor with no licence field, and the repository they name (github.com/selfxyz/agent-vault) is not public. The checkout recipe registry, selfxyz/agent-checkout-skill, is MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 30 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-12-16 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 296k npm/wk, 13k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine).** Default-deny policies with DENY precedence on recipients, values, contracts, calldata, typed data and time windows, enforced in AWS Nitro Enclaves. Database problems took API endpoints down for 71 minutes on 18 September 2026, one of 13 incidents since July.

**Agent Vault by Self.** Scoped, revocable keys, OAuth on the hosted MCP server, spending caps, approvals and a documented threat model are designed to keep real card numbers and passwords out of the agent's context. The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave, while the docs say that path is off on the hosted service.

## Before you call either

### Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)

1. Add a rule for every RPC method the agent needs; a wallet with a policy denies anything unlisted
2. Pair a rolling cap with a lower per-transaction cap, since aggregations update only after signing
3. Send an idempotency key on `/rpc`, `/transfer` and `/wallets` calls; reusing one with a changed body returns 400
4. Set `maxValue` on the x402 or MPP client for every request
5. Retry a `transaction_broadcast_failure`; don't retry a `policy_violation`

### Agent Vault by Self

1. Pass the `session` handle from each hosted MCP result on every later call. Without it a page tool is refused or a new signed-out browser opens
2. On a `pending` answer, call `get_pending_result` with its `wait` id in the same turn. Repeating the original call starts a second one
3. Tell the user when `waiting_on_owner` is true. A first fill on a new site waits up to 15 minutes for the holder's approval
4. Before retrying a fill after an unknown outcome, check the merchant's order state or `get_run_report`. Some failures keep a recorded spend
5. Ask the holder to add an agent card to every card the agent may use. A card marked No limits accepts any amount on authorised sites

## Tutorials

- [Find an agent wallet by external ID with Privy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tutorials/privy/), for Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) or Agent Vault by Self?

Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) scores 69.9 (B) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in every scored category.

### Do Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) and Agent Vault by Self need an API key?

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

### Can an agent call Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) and Agent Vault by Self without installing anything?

Yes. Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) has a hosted endpoint at https://api.privy.io/v1 and Agent Vault by Self at https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) or Agent Vault by Self

- [Agentcard vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets) vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circle-wallets-vs-privy.md)
- [Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP) vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-cdp-agentkit-vs-privy.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-privy.md)
- [Openfort vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openfort-vs-privy.md)
- [Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine) vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/privy-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)
- [Agentcard vs Privy Wallets (server wallets, agent wallets, policy engine)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcard-vs-privy.md)
- [Circle Wallets (Agent Wallets, Programmable Wallets) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/circle-wallets-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Coinbase Developer Platform (Agentic Wallet, AgentKit, CDP MCP) vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coinbase-cdp-agentkit-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Kite Agent Passport vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kite-agent-passport-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Openfort vs Agent Vault by Self](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openfort-vs-self-agent-vault.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Sponge Wallet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-sponge-wallet.md)
- [Agent Vault by Self vs Turnkey Agentic Wallets](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/self-agent-vault-vs-turnkey-agentic-wallets.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp