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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)

PlanPrice
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

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MCP 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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