Toolradar Research
MCP servers statistics 2026
First-party cut: 346 published Toolradar tools mention MCP in the name, slug, or tagline. 101 are free, 184 freemium, 61 paid. Meili returns 471 hits for the query MCP; 125 of those are adjacent agents, not MCP products.
Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
A Toolradar search for "MCP" returns 471 published hits. 346 of those 471 have "mcp" in the name, slug, or tagline. Those 346 are the set this page uses. (Source: Toolradar search index, September 21, 2026.)
- 02
Of the 346 name-matches: 101 free, 184 freemium, 61 paid. 285 (82%) offer a free path. 61 (18%) are strictly paid. (Source: Toolradar search index, September 21, 2026.)
- 03
125 of the 471 raw hits mention MCP only in the body of a ranking or are adjacent agent/connector tools. They are out of the 346. (Source: Toolradar search index, September 21, 2026.)
- 04
The catalog-wide free-tier share is 55% (5,824 of 10,656). A name-matched MCP listing is far more likely to have a free path than the average tool. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 21, 2026.)
- 05
This is not a category dump. Toolradar does not currently file MCP as its own category. The count is a string match, not a curated taxonomy. (Source: Toolradar search index, September 21, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 21, 2026. Refresh due Dec 21, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
How we counted
- Query the published search index for
MCP, paginate all 471 hits. - Keep a hit only if the string
mcpappears inname,slug, ortagline(case-insensitive). - Deduplicate on slug. Result: 346 unique tools.
- Split on the listing's pricing label: free, freemium, or paid.
We did not read every README. We did not verify that each row implements the Model Context Protocol. A tool named "Ahrefs MCP" is in. A tool named "Neurobird AI Agent Search" that merely ranked near MCP queries is out. If you need a protocol-compliance audit, this page is the wrong artifact.
Pricing mix of name-matched MCP tools
This is a free-path market on the label.
n = 346 tools with mcp in name, slug, or tagline, September 21, 2026Pricing labels on MCP name-matches
184 freemium + 101 free = 285 tools (82%) you can start without a card, at least on the label. 61 (18%) are paid. Compare that with AI Agents at 57% free-path, or the whole catalog at 55%. MCP listings look like developer infrastructure: ship a server, put a free row on it, charge when a company wants support or a hosted control plane.
Examples in the matched set, not a ranking:
| Tool | Pricing label | What the name claims |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub MCP Server | Free | Official-style GitHub MCP |
| Playwright MCP | Free | Browser automation over MCP |
| Grafana MCP | Free | Grafana via MCP |
| Supabase MCP | Freemium | Supabase via MCP |
| Ahrefs MCP | Paid | Ahrefs data in an MCP server |
| Toolradar MCP | Free | This directory, over MCP |
Source: Toolradar search index, September 21, 2026. Labels are listing prices, not a fresh vendor fetch.
What the 471 vs 346 gap is
Meili is a relevance index. "MCP" as a query also surfaces agent platforms, iPaaS connectors, and directories that mention the protocol in a tagline-adjacent field we did not score. 125 hits failed the name/slug/tagline test. Including them would inflate the count and scramble the pricing mix (those extras were not priced as MCP servers). We would rather publish 346 with a method than 471 with a shrug.
If a later dump adds an MCP category, this page should switch to that dump and retire the string match. Until then, treat 346 as "listings that advertise MCP on the label."
How this sits next to AI Agents
AI Agents is a real category: 913 tools, 8.6% of the catalog (AI agents software statistics). MCP is a protocol some of those tools speak. Overlap exists (an agent that ships an MCP server is in both cuts if it is also tagged AI Agents). The numbers are not additive. Do not write "913 + 346 MCP agents."
Free-tier behavior is the useful contrast. Name-matched MCP is 82% free-path. AI Agents is 57%. Developer Tools as a category is 81% free-path (1,418 of 1,751, September 21 dump). MCP listings behave like developer tools, not like analytics or CRM.
Methodology and sources
Search: GET /api/search?q=MCP, paginated, September 21, 2026. Filter: mcp in name, slug, or tagline. Pricing: the pricing field on each hit (free, freemium, paid). Catalog-wide and category figures: Toolradar directory the same day, published status only. This article is a dated snapshot. The search index moves when listings are edited.
Cite this report
Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
More research
Software pricing changes we will not print yet
As of September 21, 2026 the Toolradar pricing tracker holds 536 proposed diffs and zero applied changes. 52 of those proposals share one copied before-state. This page does not quote a new list price from that queue.
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Coding assistants that uploaded the workspace
A dated incident log. In September 2026 Z.ai's ZCode was reported to package a local workspace, including git history, and upload it while the user was logged in. The 313 MB and 564-attempt figures are one developer's machine, not an industry total.