MCP server
Last verified
An MCP server exposes a set of tools to an MCP client, typically as a local process communicating over stdio.
Cost characteristics worth knowing: the server itself is usually free to run, but its tool definitions occupy context on every request and its results enter the conversation permanently. A server returning a 200-token summary is worth more than one returning 20,000 tokens for the model to filter.
Prefer few servers, few well-described tools, and summarised results.