# Paddock Best-Value API Rankings

> Paddock Best-Value API Rankings is a paid API for AI agents from paddock.finance, paid per call via x402, $0.02/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns a ranked list of best-value API providers for a given category, scored by transaction volume, pricing, liveness, and success rate

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://paddock.finance/api/paddock/mcp/best-value
- Price: $0.02/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/paddock-best-value-api-rankings-bc36f6f0
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_pTJLds5kCfMAbGoFqLUwY

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability paddock-best-value-api-rankings-bc36f6f0
```

Example prompt: What are the best-value LLM providers for AI agents right now — show me the Paddock rankings with scores and pricing for the 'llm' category.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when an AI agent needs to programmatically compare and select the best-value API provider within a specific functional category (LLM, search, payments, etc.), especially when optimizing for cost-efficiency, reliability, or market adoption. Prefer over general web searches when you need structured, citable, real-time market data on AI agent API spending.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid or unrecognized category ID returns an error — only 'llm', 'data', 'search', 'infra', 'content', 'markets', 'payments', 'comms' are valid
- Payment failure (x402) if 0.02 USDC is not supplied or wallet balance is insufficient
- Empty provider list if no transactions have been recorded for the category recently
- Stale data if the market intelligence pipeline has not updated recently

## How this service works

Paddock best-value provider ranking — one-time query

## Output

Returns a dated snapshot of ranked API providers in the requested category, each with rank, domain, transaction count, USDC price, unique buyer count, liveness score, composite value score, and 7-day success rate, along with the scoring formula and category label used.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET",
      "HEAD",
      "DELETE"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "category"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "category": {
       "type": "string"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "tool": "get_best_value_provider",
  "category": "infra",
  "providers": [
   {
    "rank": 1,
    "domain": "example.com",
    "composite_score": 0.91
   }
  ]
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/paddock-best-value-api-rankings-bc36f6f0/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from paddock.finance](https://www.zero.xyz/host/paddock.finance/llms.txt)