Locus product guide · Updated November 10, 2026

Locus Pro vs Monid: features, catalog and setup compared

Locus Pro and Monid both sell paid API calls to AI agents from one prepaid balance over a hosted MCP server, with no provider accounts, so the choice comes down to catalog and how you want to pay. Monid is the better pick for Ahrefs SEO data, deep Chinese social data, agent phone calls and SMS, a free $1 start, and optional x402 pay-per-run from a crypto wallet. Locus Pro fits agents that also need OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini models, Perplexity or Brave search, or customer billing without building a proxy.

How do Locus Pro and Monid compare?

Both let an agent search a catalog, read the price and run the call from one balance. The table compares the self-serve Locus Pro plans with Monid, as each vendor's own pages described them on November 10, 2026.

How do Locus Pro and Monid compare?
Question	Monid	Locus Pro
How you sign in	OAuth sign-in from MCP clients. The CLI, skill and REST API use Monid API keys with scopes and an optional expiry.	Browser OAuth from your MCP client, with separate read and paid-call scopes. Secret keys and 30-day agent keys cover code that can't open a browser.
How you pay	A prepaid balance topped up by card through Stripe Checkout. Or pay each run with x402 in USDC on Base or Monad, with an API key still needed to search the catalog.	Prepaid credits bought by card through Stripe Checkout, with optional auto-reload. Each call is charged in credits, and the optional Plus plan adds credits every month.
Free start	$1 of free credit, with no card required.	A Free plan at $0 a month, but no free credit. New accounts start at a zero balance.
Plans and call limits	No subscription and no monthly minimum.	Free allows 5 tool calls a minute. Plus costs $20 a month, includes $20 of credits and allows 15. Enterprise starts at $200 a month.
Spend limits	Workspace budgets that cap spend per time window, run caps on what one run can cost, and funds held while a run is in flight. Its CLI can dispute a charged run with unusable results, where disputes are turned on.	A max charge on each call, a monthly hard limit that stops new calls, spend and low-balance email alerts, and agent keys with per-call and per-run credit limits.
MCP setup	Hosted server at mcp.monid.ai/v1 over Streamable HTTP with OAuth, plus a skill, a CLI and a REST API.	Hosted server at api.paywithlocus.com/api/credits/mcp with browser sign-in, plus a plugin for Claude Code, Codex and Grok Build, and a CLI.
Bring your own key	Not offered. Its skill tells agents to use a key or tool you already have, outside Monid, instead of running the call through Monid.	Enterprise only, through Custom APIs that call your own service with your own credential.
Team roles	Workspaces with scoped API keys. Its docs describe no member roles.	Free and Plus are personal workspaces. Team access comes with Enterprise.
Billing your own customers	No built-in customer balances. Call Monid from your server, run your own proxy with your own billing, or let users sign in to their own Monid accounts with OAuth.	Enterprise, through Locus Pro for Platforms: per-customer balances, your own customer prices, a billing widget or hosted checkout, and per-customer reconciliation.

What does each catalog cover?

Monid's home page says it has 2,800+ tools across 90+ providers. It is strongest on social, SEO and people data, and it does not route language-model calls. Coverage checked November 10, 2026, with Monid's public provider list and the Locus catalog search.

What does each catalog cover?
Category	Monid	Locus Pro
Web search and answers	Exa, Parallel, Tavily, TinyFish and others. No Perplexity or Brave.	Perplexity, Brave, Parallel and Tavily, plus Exa through its own seller listing
Scraping and browser automation	Firecrawl, Apify and Browserbase	Firecrawl and Browser Use
People and company data	Apollo, Hunter, People Data Labs, ContactOut and Crunchbase	Apollo, Hunter and BuiltWith, plus People Data Labs and ContactOut through seller listings Locus has not reviewed
SEO data	Ahrefs, DataForSEO and SerpApi	DataForSEO, plus SerpApi through a seller listing Locus has not reviewed. No Ahrefs.
Social data	Western networks, plus Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo and other Chinese platforms through TikHub	Endpoints for TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Douyin and Xiaohongshu, plus seller listings. No Weibo.
Finance, real estate and maps	Equities, prediction markets, DeFi, Zillow and LoopNet listings, and Google Maps reviews	Alpha Vantage, CoinGecko, SEC EDGAR, RentCast, Mapbox and OpenWeather
Voice, phone and email	ElevenLabs, agent phone calls and SMS through Saperly and AgentLine, and AgentMail inboxes	ElevenLabs and Grok speech, Deepgram transcription, and AgentMail
Image, video, music and 3D generation	MiniMax, Kling and OpenAI image models, ElevenLabs music, and photo-to-3D	Images from OpenAI, Stability AI, Grok and fal.ai, and Suno music
LLM chat models	Not offered. Monid says it does not route LLM inference.	OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq and OpenRouter, billed by tokens

Choose Monid if…

Monid is the better choice in these cases.

You want to start free. Monid gives $1 of credit with no card, and Locus Pro starts at a zero balance.
You need Ahrefs SEO data, or deep Chinese social data through TikHub.
Your agent needs to place phone calls or send SMS.
Your agent holds a crypto wallet and you want to pay per run with x402 instead of keeping a balance.
You want to ask for a refund review when a paid run returns unusable data. Monid's CLI files disputes where the feature is turned on.

Choose Locus Pro if…

Locus Pro is the better choice in these cases.

Your agent needs OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini models on the same balance as its data tools.
You need Perplexity or Brave Search, which were not in Monid's provider list on November 10.
You want saved Workflows that run under a hard credit ceiling, with a receipt for every call.
You use Claude Code, Codex or Grok Build and want one plugin that adds the MCP connection and three skills.
You may bill your own customers per call later. Locus Pro for Platforms, on Enterprise, adds per-customer balances, your own prices and a billing widget, so you don't build a proxy.
You want your own internal APIs in the same catalog as paid tools, through Enterprise Custom APIs.

Can one agent use Monid and Locus Pro together?

Yes. Both are hosted MCP servers with OAuth, so one client can hold both connections. Tell the agent which to use for which job, for example Monid for Ahrefs and TikHub social data, and Locus Pro for model calls and Perplexity search.

The two balances and their spend controls stay separate, so set a limit on each.

Frequently asked questions

How do Monid and Locus Pro charge for calls?

Both charge per call from a prepaid balance topped up by card, and both show the price before a call runs. Monid can also take an x402 payment for each run. Locus Pro has a Free plan, and a Plus plan at $20 a month that includes $20 of credits.

Does Locus Pro have free credit like Monid?

No. Monid starts every account with $1 of free credit and no card. The Locus Pro Free plan costs $0 a month but starts at a zero balance, so you add credits by card before your agent makes paid calls.

Can I pay Monid or Locus Pro with x402?

Monid accepts x402 for each run, in USDC on Base or Monad, and still needs an API key to search and inspect endpoints. Locus Pro bills prepaid credits bought by card. Its catalog does include x402 and MPP sellers, which Locus pays for you and charges to your credits.

Does Monid route LLM calls?

No. Monid's llms.txt says it does not route LLM inference and points to OpenRouter for that layer. Locus Pro lists OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini chat endpoints, and OpenRouter, on the same credit balance as its data tools.

Can I use my own API keys with Monid or Locus Pro?

Monid's docs offer no way to run its calls on your own provider key; its skill tells agents to use a key you already have outside Monid instead. Locus Pro supports your own credential on Enterprise, through Custom APIs.

Implementation references

Use these first-party references for current request contracts and account requirements. Tool availability, prices, and negotiated terms can change.

Sources

Third-party details were checked on November 10, 2026. Vendors change pricing and features often, so confirm on their site before you decide.