Prices, published
What an MCP server costs
An internal MCP server with up to 8 tools costs $2,000 to build and $250/moto maintain. A remote, OAuth-secured server for your product’s public API with up to 15 tools is$4,500 plus $700/mo. Multi-system, SSO or compliance builds start at$8,000 plus $1,000/mo. Every monthly figure includes migrating your server when the spec revises, which since 2026-07-28 is real work. Nobody else in this category publishes a number, and hiding it is the tell this buyer is trained to read.
Internal Connect
$2,000+ $250/mo
One internal system, your team working in Claude
- Up to 8 tools
- API-key auth
- Read replica, least-privilege role
- Two-week build
Not included
- Multi-tenant OAuth
- A second system mid-build
Product MCP
$4,500+ $700/mo
Your SaaS product, inside your customers’ AI clients
- Up to 15 curated tools
- OAuth 2.1 + PKCE
- Multi-tenant
- Registry listing under your brand
- Three-week build
Not included
- SSO / compliance scope
- Writing your API itself
Custom
from $8,000+ $1,000/mo
Multiple systems, SSO or a compliance boundary
- Multiple systems
- SSO
- Scoped to your review
Not included
- SOC 2 attestation today
What drives the price
| Adder | Why it costs more | Rough add |
|---|---|---|
| Each write tool | Needs a scope, a dry-run, and an audit path | $350 |
| Each read tool beyond the base set | Design, naming, error semantics | $180 |
| OAuth 2.1 + multi-tenant | Token handling, audience validation, per-tenant isolation | $900 |
| Deploy to your infrastructure | Environment setup we do not control | $600 |
Figures are illustrative adders, current as of 2026-08-05. Your signed manifest fixes the final number.
What the retainer includes, and what it does not
| Included every month | Not included |
|---|---|
| Hosting with TLS, monitoring and alerting | A brand-new system |
| Spec-revision migrations | Penetration testing |
| Upstream-API-drift fixes and CVE patching | Writing or fixing your own API |
| Up to two tool changes, and a monthly report | A full compliance audit |
Terms, in plain language
Fifty percent to start and fifty percent on acceptance, where acceptance is the ten-prompt script rather than our opinion. The retainer is billed monthly in advance, there is a 30-day defect window after handover, and the retainer takes 30 days’ notice to cancel with no lock-in. A change to scope is a change order with its own fixed number, quoted before any work.
Fastest way to sanity-check a number for your case: WhatsApp · fastest reply, 09:00–20:00 IST (UTC+5:30). Everything that matters, scope and acceptance and invoices, is confirmed in writing by email.
Why we publish this
Because hiding the number is the misalignment. A category where every vendor says “contact us for a quote” trains a buyer to assume the price is whatever they think you will pay, and this buyer’s entire filter is whether you are being straight with him. Published prices cost us the occasional high anchor and buy us the trust that closes the security page. That trade is not close.
What the alternatives cost
| Option | Up front | Monthly | Owns the migration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portkeel Product MCP | $4,500 | $700 | Yes |
| Contractor at $80/hr | ~$6,400 | $0 until it breaks | No |
| Staff augmentation | $0 | ~$2,400 | While engaged |
| Hosted platform | $0 | $5–$229 | Generic, not yours |
Pricing questions
- How much does a custom MCP server cost?
- An internal MCP server exposing one system with up to eight tools costs $2,000 to build and $250 per month to maintain. A remote, OAuth-secured server for a product’s public API with up to fifteen tools costs $4,500 to build and $700 per month. Builds involving multiple systems, SSO or compliance requirements start at $8,000 plus $1,000 per month.
- What does the monthly retainer include?
- Hosting with TLS, uptime monitoring and alerting, MCP specification revision migrations, fixes when your upstream API changes, security patching, up to two tool additions or changes per month, and a monthly usage report. It excludes new systems, penetration testing, and writing your API.
- Why do you charge a retainer at all?
- Because a server nobody maintains is worse than no server: it fails silently inside a tool your customers trust. The 2026-07-28 revision is the proof. Every server built before 28 July 2026 now runs a superseded revision, and someone has to migrate it before the twelve-month window closes.
- What drives the price up?
- Write tools cost more than read tools because each one needs a scope, a dry-run and an audit path. OAuth 2.1 with multi-tenant support costs more than an API key. Deploying into your infrastructure rather than ours adds setup. The adders table above lists each one.
- Do you bill hourly?
- No. Hourly billing is a misalignment: it rewards the vendor for taking longer, and it punishes the buyer for asking questions. We quote a fixed price against a signed manifest, and a change to scope is a change order with its own fixed number.
- What are the payment terms?
- 50% to start and 50% on acceptance, where acceptance is defined by the ten-prompt script, not by our opinion. The retainer is billed monthly in advance. There is a 30-day defect window after handover, and 30 days’ notice to cancel the retainer. Your code and data are yours.
- What if we just hire a contractor instead?
- That can be the right call, and we say so on the build-vs-buy page. A contractor at $80 per hour is cheaper for a one-off internal tool you will never change. It is more expensive the first time the spec revises and nobody owns the migration, which since 28 July 2026 is not hypothetical.