MCP Inspector: Pricing, Features & Alternatives
MCP Inspector is the reference testing tool maintained by the Model Context Protocol project. Run `npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector` against any server and you get a local web UI that lists its tools, resources and prompts, lets you call each one with your own arguments, and shows every protocol message. The same binary also ships a scriptable CLI for CI and a terminal UI. It is free and open source (MIT, moving to Apache-2.0), with around 11,000 GitHub stars as of October 2026. It tests the protocol, not the model: there is no LLM chat or eval suite.
Category
MCP Testing & Hosting
Pricing
Free tier available
Free tier
Yes
Best for
MCP Testing & Hosting — mcp, testing
MCP Inspector Pricing Plans (2026)
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Open SourcePopular | $0 |
Pricing summary: Free. Always confirm current pricing on the official site.
Key MCP Inspector Features
- Web UI, CLI and TUI
- STDIO, SSE and Streamable HTTP
- Raw JSON-RPC message log
Pros
- +Official reference tool, always current with the spec
- +Free and open source
- +CLI mode scripts into CI
Cons
- −No LLM playground or evals
- −Local only, nothing shared with a team
- −Bare-bones UI
Best MCP Inspector Alternatives
Compare allMCP Inspector Compared
MCP Inspector FAQ
What is MCP Inspector used for?⌄
MCP Inspector is a mcp testing & hosting tool. The official open-source debugger for MCP servers: list tools, call them by hand and read the raw JSON-RPC traffic.
Is MCP Inspector free?⌄
Yes — MCP Inspector has a free tier you can start with, and paid plans for more usage and features.
How much does MCP Inspector cost?⌄
MCP Inspector is free to use.
What are the best MCP Inspector alternatives?⌄
Popular MCP Inspector alternatives include MCP Playground Online, Smithery. Compare pricing and features on our MCP Inspector alternatives page.
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