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MCP Protocol Pricing

open sourceopen source · MITlast verified September 6, 2026official site ↗

At a glance

100% free and open standard under the MIT license ($0 protocol/software cost). Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides universal, standardized connectivity between LLM clients and external tools, prompts, and data sources with zero licensing fees or subscription tiers.

Self-hosting cost

MCP Protocol is open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

Free & cheaper MCP Servers

same category, free plan or open-source license

MCP Inspectoropen sourceFree and 100% open source under the MIT license ($0 software cost). mcp-inspector is the official Model Context Protocol developer testing suite, running entirely locally via npx/Node.js with no subscription tiers, cloud fees, or telemetry.MCP-Scanopen source100% free and open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) security auditing and vulnerability scanner developed by Invariant Labs (Apache-2.0 License). Analyzes MCP client configurations, tool schemas, and server definitions to detect prompt injection vectors, malicious tool poisoning, cross-server shadowing, and unintended permission escalation at zero software cost.GitHub MCP Serveropen sourceFree and 100% open source under the MIT license. GitHub MCP Server has no licensing fees or subscription tiers; API operations run locally or via remote endpoints against standard GitHub account API rate limits.MCP Registryopen sourceMCP Registry is completely free and open-source under the MIT license. Developers can freely search, inspect, and publish server metadata across the Model Context Protocol ecosystem.
MCP Protocol overview →alternatives →

FAQ

How much does MCP Protocol cost?

100% free and open standard under the MIT license ($0 protocol/software cost). Model Context Protocol (MCP) provides universal, standardized connectivity between LLM clients and external tools, prompts, and data sources with zero licensing fees or subscription tiers.

Does MCP Protocol have a free plan?

Yes — MCP Protocol is open source and free to use.

Can you self-host MCP Protocol for free?

MCP Protocol is open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting does not add a software license fee, but you still pay for infrastructure, operations, and any external model or API usage.

What are free or cheaper MCP Protocol alternatives?

MCP Inspector, MCP-Scan, GitHub MCP Server are in the same category with a free plan or open-source license.

pricing is editorial catalog data (last verified September 6, 2026) — vendors change plans; confirm on the official site before you buy. Reuse this data under CC-BY 4.0 via /data.