How does SanctionsAI compare to Chainalysis?

SanctionsAI and Chainalysis solve different problems: one screens a payment, the other analyzes a blockchain.

TL;DR

TL;DR: SanctionsAI is a screening API for developers and agents that returns a clean or flagged decision before a payment. Chainalysis is an enterprise blockchain analytics and investigations platform. They are different tools for different use cases and price points.

What SanctionsAI does

SanctionsAI is an OFAC screening API built for AI agents and payment flows. It checks a counterparty in one HTTP call under 100 ms and returns clean equals ALLOW or flagged equals BLOCK. Pricing runs from a free tier of 5 checks per day to Dev at $19 per month and Pro at $99 per month, with $0.05 per check via x402, and it is MIT-licensed and self-hostable.

What Chainalysis does

Chainalysis is an enterprise blockchain analytics and investigations platform. It is used by larger compliance and investigations teams for chain tracing, case work, and broader analytics, rather than as a per-transaction decision call inside a payment step.

Which one to choose

If you need an in-transaction allow or block decision for an agent or a payment, use a screening API like SanctionsAI. If you need full-chain tracing and case management, use an analytics platform. They serve different jobs, so the right choice depends on what you are building.