# Qdrant API + MCP vs Upstash Vector API + MCP

> Qdrant API + MCP has a score of 75.3 (BB) against Upstash Vector API + MCP's 62.4 (B). Both do db vector. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 39 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Qdrant API + MCP has a score of 75.3 (BB) against Upstash Vector API + MCP's 62.4 (B). Both do db vector. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 39 points.

- Qdrant API + MCP: grade BB, 75.3/100, rank #37 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qdrant.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qdrant.json
- Upstash Vector API + MCP: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #218 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/upstash-vector.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/upstash-vector.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Qdrant API + MCP for reliability (+5), schema & documentation (+38), agent ergonomics (+12), security & auth (+20), maintenance & community (+39).

Pick Upstash Vector API + MCP for payments & pricing (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Qdrant API + MCP | Upstash Vector API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 75 | Qdrant API + MCP +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 49 | Qdrant API + MCP +38 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 75 | Qdrant API + MCP +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 83 | 63 | Qdrant API + MCP +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Upstash Vector API + MCP +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 46 | Qdrant API + MCP +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 82 | Qdrant API + MCP +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **75.3 · BB** | **62.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Qdrant API + MCP | Upstash Vector API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Qdrant | Upstash |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.cloud.qdrant.io` | `https://api.upstash.com/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 2 | 55 |
| 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 | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.upstash/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-08-24 |
| Popularity | 35k stars, 1.1M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk | 70 stars, 187k npm/wk, 34k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.6/5 (8) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Qdrant API + MCP.** Database keys can be read-only, limited to chosen collections and expire after 90 days by default. The MCP server has 2 tools, can't manage collections or run filtered queries, and last released on 10 December 2025.

**Upstash Vector API + MCP.** $0.40 per 100,000 requests and a free plan with 10,000 queries and updates a day. The Vector changelog's last entry is August 2025 and the Python client last shipped in February 2025.

## Before you call either

### Qdrant API + MCP

1. Create payload indexes on the fields you filter on, or filtered search slows on large collections
2. Use `/points/query` with `prefetch` to fuse dense and BM25 results
3. Pass `wait=true` on upserts when the next step reads its own writes
4. On 429, wait for the `Retry-After` seconds before retrying
5. Set `with_vector=false` unless the task needs vectors, since they dominate response size

### Upstash Vector API + MCP

1. Connect to mcp.upstash.com/mcp for Vector tools. `npx @upstash/mcp-server` has none
2. Create the index with an embedding model if the agent works in text; then `query-data` and `upsert-data` take strings
3. Give retrieval-only agents the index's read-only token, not the full one
4. Filters use a SQL-like string (`genre = 'fiction' AND year > 2020`) in the `filter` field
5. Ignore the FAQ line saying hybrid isn't supported. Pass `queryMode` HYBRID, DENSE or SPARSE on hybrid indexes

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