Coal — Payments for AI agents vs Tollbooth X402

In-depth architectural comparison of the Coal — Payments for AI agents and Tollbooth X402 MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.

Which MCP Server Should You Choose?

Choose Coal — Payments for AI agents when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Finance & Fintech domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).

Explore Coal — Payments for AI agents Details

Choose Tollbooth X402 when:

• You need dedicated capabilities in the Finance & Fintech domain.
• You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
• Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
• Primary tools included: tollbooth_catalog, tollbooth_preview, tollbooth_verify_hash.

Explore Tollbooth X402 Details

Feature & Specification Comparison

Specification	Coal — Payments for AI agents Finance & Fintech	Tollbooth X402 Finance & Fintech
Summary	Payment rails for AI agents. Pay merchants in USDC on Base. Dual-protocol: x402 + OKX APP.	Discover, preview & self-verify 56 x402 pay-per-call finance/tax calculators for AI agents.
Category & Scope	Finance & Fintech	Finance & Fintech

Tools & Capabilities Breakdown

Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations

Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "coal-payments-for-ai-agents": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "prisma"
      ]
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tollbooth-x402": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "tollbooth-x402"
      ]
    }
  }
}

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