{
  "id": 391182,
  "title": "The median MCP server costs 3,150 tokens before your agent calls anything",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/09/the-median-mcp-server-costs-3-150-tokens-before-your-agent-calls",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-09T16:13:27.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/onlyoneaman/the-median-mcp-server-costs-3150-tokens-before-your-agent-calls-anything-4np3"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The cost of accessing a Median Contextual Processor (MCP) server is significantly higher than initially anticipated. When you connect to an MCP server, it sends its complete tool list to the model before the model performs any actions, and you are charged for this list on every turn of the conversation, regardless of whether any tools are utilized or not. This finding came after measuring the tool lists on 33 out of 60 servers that responded to a discovery call, with results showing a wide range of costs. The median cost for a tool list was 11,150 tokens, with the highest cost reaching 19,923 tokens. Surprisingly, the number of tools available on a server does not correlate directly with its cost, as servers with more tools can sometimes incur even higher costs due to verbose schema definitions. The study also highlights the importance of filtering and loading tool definitions only when needed, rather than upfront, to minimize costs.",
  "summary": "Every MCP server you connect sends its full tool list to the model before the model does anything. You pay for that list on every single turn, whether the agent uses one of those tools or none of them. I had a rough sense this was expensive. I did not have a number. So I went and measured it. The method The MCP directory I maintain has about 10,500 servers with a remote HTTP endpoint. I took a…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}