agentmail vs World-Check: agentmail gives AI agents real-time OFAC sanctions screening with a free tier. World-Check is a legacy PEP and sanctions database owned by LSEG, priced for enterprise compliance departments.
Start freeBy · Reviewed July 2026 · · Based on public pricing pages and feature lists as of Q3 2026
| Capability | agentmail | World-Check (Refinitiv/LSEG) |
|---|---|---|
| Built for AI agents (MCP + HTTP + CLI) | Yes | No |
| Free tier (5 checks/day) | Yes | No |
| Developer pricing from $19/mo | Yes | No |
| Open-source self-host | Yes | No |
| Per-call x402 / USDC payments | Yes | No |
| Real-time crypto wallet screening | Yes | No |
| PEP and adverse media screening | No | Yes |
| Enterprise compliance workflow | No | Yes |
Pick agentmail for real-time, agent-native sanctions screening with a free tier and developer API. Pick World-Check if you are an enterprise compliance department that needs PEP screening and already has a Refinitiv contract.
Refinitiv World-Check (now owned by LSEG, the London Stock Exchange Group) is an enterprise subscription product. Pricing is not public, but industry estimates put it at $50,000 to $250,000 per year depending on organization size and data feeds. Access requires a sales conversation, contract negotiation, and onboarding. There is no free tier, no developer sandbox, and no self-serve signup.
agentmail takes the opposite approach: free tier with 5 checks per day, no signup, no API key. Developer pricing starts at $19/month. Self-host the open-source version if you want full control. This makes agentmail viable for AI agent builders, solo developers, and early-stage fintechs who cannot justify a five-figure annual compliance contract.
World-Check aggregates PEP (Politically Exposed Persons), sanctions lists, regulatory enforcement lists, and adverse media from thousands of sources. It is a broad-spectrum compliance database designed for KYC and due diligence workflows at banks and large financial institutions. Coverage includes over 4 million profiles across 240 countries.
agentmail focuses specifically on OFAC SDN data: 19,218 names, 947 crypto wallet addresses, and 16 embargoed jurisdictions. This is narrower by design. If you are screening an AI agent's crypto payment before it executes, you do not need PEP data. You need to know if the wallet is sanctioned. That check runs in under 100ms on agentmail, compared to batch API calls on World-Check.
World-Check integrates through the Refinitiv API or bulk data feeds. Integration typically takes weeks and requires dedicated compliance engineers. The API uses SOAP or REST with complex authentication, rate limiting tied to the contract, and response structures built for batch processing, not real-time pre-payment screening.
agentmail integrates with a single HTTP call, an MCP tool for AI agent frameworks, or a CLI for scripts. A developer can add OFAC screening to an AI agent in under 5 minutes. The response includes a clean boolean: true means proceed, false means halt. That is the entire integration surface.
Use World-Check when: You are a bank, exchange, or regulated financial institution that needs full KYC including PEP screening, adverse media, and regulatory enforcement data. You have a compliance team and budget for enterprise tooling. You need SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified infrastructure.
Use agentmail when: You are building an AI agent that sends payments and needs pre-transaction OFAC screening. You are a developer or small team. You want a free tier to test with. You need crypto wallet screening, not PEP data. You want to integrate in minutes, not weeks.
Refinitiv World-Check One is the screening interface for the World-Check database. It provides batch screening, case management, and audit trails for compliance officers. agentmail provides none of that. It is a screening API, not a compliance workflow tool. If your compliance team needs case management, audit trails, and escalation workflows, World-Check One is the right tool. If your AI agent needs to check a wallet address before sending USDC, agentmail is faster, cheaper, and easier to integrate.