Polling hits an endpoint on a timer and wastes requests when nothing changed; streaming pushes an event the moment it happens and keeps one connection open.
Streaming vs Polling
Push on change vs pull on interval.
Polling hits an endpoint on a timer and wastes requests when nothing changed; streaming pushes an event the moment it happens and keeps one connection open.
Polling is simple to implement and tolerant of flaky networks, but it is inefficient. Ninety percent of polls return nothing new. The shorter the interval, the worse the ratio.
Streaming — Server-Sent Events over HTTP/1.1, WebSocket for bidirectional traffic — keeps a single connection open and pushes updates on change. AGNT's MCP server at /mcp/sse uses SSE so tool responses stream the instant the agent produces them, and webhooks push booking events the instant state transitions.
| Axis | Streaming (SSE) | Polling |
|---|---|---|
| Latency | Sub-second | Up to the interval |
| Requests per change | 1 | N (most are empty) |
| Connection model | Long-lived | Short-lived |
| Client complexity | EventSource / WebSocket | setTimeout |
| Firewall friendliness | High (HTTP/1.1 SSE) | High |
Use streaming when
- Latency matters.
- You care about minimising wasted requests.
- You are consuming an MCP server.
Use polling when
- You are doing a batch sync on a schedule.
- The source does not support push.
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FAQ
Streaming (SSE) vs Polling FAQ.
Common questions about choosing between Streaming (SSE) and Polling.
Polling hits an endpoint on a timer and wastes requests when nothing changed; streaming pushes an event the moment it happens and keeps one connection open.
People also ask.
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