PUBLISHING AN MCP

WHO PUBLISHES

Anyone running an MCP server can list it on mcpmeter. Your server lives wherever you want it (your own infra, fly.io, Vercel, AWS, anywhere reachable over HTTPS). The proxy authenticates the caller, debits credit, and forwards the JSON-RPC call to your upstream URL.

Common publisher profiles:

• SaaS founders exposing their product to AI agents (CRM, payments, analytics).
• Indie devs wrapping a public API or dataset into a paid MCP.
• OSS maintainers who want a frictionless way to monetise an existing MCP server.

READINESS CHECKLIST

Before submitting:

• HTTPS endpoint. Your MCP server must be reachable at a public HTTPS URL. Self-signed certs are rejected.
• JSON-RPC 2.0 compliance. Implement initialize, tools/list, tools/call. We auto-discover tools via tools/list.
• One of three transports: streamable HTTP (recommended), SSE, or plain HTTP. Set the field accordingly.
• Stable performance. P95 latency under 5 seconds is a soft requirement; hard timeout is 30 seconds.
• Idempotent reads. Tools that get called twice (because of a retry) shouldn't double-charge upstream.

SUBMIT A LISTING

Go to Submit a server. Six required fields:

1. Name — what consumers see on the marketplace card.
2. Slug — the path consumers paste into their config (proxy.mcpmeter.com/<slug>). Permanent — can't be renamed once consumers start integrating.
3. Category — helps consumers find you.
4. Description — minimum 40 chars. Be concrete — list the verbs the agent can take.
5. Upstream URL — where the proxy forwards. Kept private from consumers.
6. Transport — streamable / SSE / HTTP.

Optional but recommended at submit time: per-call price, free tier, rate limits, license, repo URL, homepage URL.

TOOL AUTO-DISCOVERY

On submit, the platform runs initialize → tools/list against your upstream and persists the results in mcp_tools. We rerun discovery whenever you click Re-discover tools on the edit page — useful after you ship a new tool.

If discovery fails:

• Upstream unreachable — we mention it in the create flash message; the listing is created in draft status. Fix the URL and re-discover.
• Upstream responds but exposes no tools — the listing is created but reviewers won't approve until tools surface.

PRICING YOUR MCP

Two knobs that decide what consumers pay:

• Per-call price (USD) — same price for every tool. Empty → free MCP.
• Free tier — first N calls per consumer per calendar month at no cost.

Pricing strategy guidance:

• Most successful listings price between $0.0002 and $0.005 per call. Above $0.01 is rare and usually for compute-heavy tools.
• A non-zero free tier (50–500 calls/month) drives adoption — agents try the listing without committing budget.
• You can change price at any time. Existing top-up balances still buy at the current price — no grandfather.

RATE LIMITS

Per-(MCP, consumer) caps. Defaults are 30/min and 1,000/day — lower them if your upstream is fragile, raise them if your upstream is robust.

Common patterns:

• Read-heavy public data. Defaults are fine.
• Calls a paid third-party API behind the scenes. Lower per-day to bound your own cost.
• Single-tenant scrappy MVP. 10/min, 1k/day until you've stress-tested.

REVIEW & GO LIVE

New listings start in draft. When you click Submit for review, the listing flips to review. A platform moderator runs a final smoke test against your upstream and either approves (→ live) or sends it back to draft with a reason. Typical turnaround: same business day.

You can pause a live listing any time (calls return 503) and resume later. Archiving is permanent (410).

GETTING PAID

Connect a Stripe Express account from the publisher dashboard. Onboarding takes a couple of minutes — ID, bank account, business details. We use Stripe Connect, so we never touch your bank credentials.

Settlement runs on the 1st of every calendar month for the prior month's earnings. The math:

gross calls × price/call            =  gross_revenue
gross_revenue − refunds (5xx upstream)   =  billable_revenue
billable_revenue × (1 − take_rate)     =  publisher_payout

Take rate: 10% founders' rate (first 100 publishers, 12 months) or 20% standard. See pricing.

Minimum payout is $5. Below that, the balance carries to the next month.

WHAT YOU CAN SEE

The publisher dashboard surfaces:

• 30-day call sparkline per listing.
• Calls in the last 24 hours; calls month-to-date.
• Pending payout (this month so far).
• Lifetime paid total.
• Recent calls feed (status, latency, payout per call).

Per-call records are anonymised — you see the slug, tool, status, latency, and the µ¢ payout. You do not see consumer identity.

PUBLISHER SUPPORT

Email [email protected] for anything Stripe Connect, payout, or pricing related. For listing edits and tool sync issues, the edit page on the dashboard handles most cases.