// MCP TOKEN COST

The Alibabacloud Dataworks MCP server costs 54,307 tokens before the first call.

Every request your agent makes carries every tool definition this server exposes — context your code, documents and conversation can't use, mostly for tools the agent never calls. You don't need them all in the window, and you don't have to pay for them.

QUICK ANSWER The Alibabacloud Dataworks MCP server's 186 tool definitions consume 54,307 tokens — 27% of a 200k context window, and 29× the median MCP server (1,900 tokens). A scoped grant exposing only the tools you use cuts that roughly in proportion.

MEASURED FROM SCHEMAS tiktoken o200k_base · rank #12 of 3,165 measured servers · refreshed every build Method →

// CONTEXT WINDOW SHARE

What that costs before your agent starts working.

Tool definitions are overhead: they occupy context on every request and compete with your code, documents and conversation history for the same window.

200K WINDOW 27%

1M WINDOW 5.4%

Corpus context: Alibabacloud Dataworks ranks #12 of 3,165 measured MCP servers by definition cost. The median is 1,900 tokens, p90 is 7,952, and the heaviest (Fusionauth) is 183,337 — 92% of a 200k window on its own. New to this? See MCP token cost and context window in the glossary.

Token cost is one axis. See the risk picture across your whole stack →

// PER-TOOL BREAKDOWN

Where the 54,307 tokens go.

Each row is one tool definition as a tools/list entry — name, description and input schema — counted with o200k_base. Average: 292 tokens per tool.

Tool	Category	Tokens	% of server
CreateDIJob	Write	3,171	5.8%
UpdateDIJob	Write	2,570	4.7%
CreateDataQualityEvaluationTask	Write	2,487	4.6%
UpdateDataQualityEvaluationTask	Write	2,402	4.4%
CreateNode	Write	1,800	3.3%
UpdateWorkflow	Write	1,780	3.3%
UpdateNode	Write	1,679	3.1%
CreateWorkflowInstances	Write	1,422	2.6%
CreateDataQualityRule	Write	1,409	2.6%
CreateAlertRule	Write	1,307	2.4%
UpdateAlertRule	Write	1,295	2.4%
UpdateDataQualityRule	Write	1,267	2.3%
UpdateTask	Write	1,225	2.3%
UpdateDIAlarmRule	Write	758	1.4%
CreateDIAlarmRule	Write	757	1.4%
ExecuteAdhocWorkflowInstance	Execute	726	1.3%
CreateDataServiceApi	Write	697	1.3%
ListTaskInstances	Read	659	1.2%
BatchUpdateTasks	Write	655	1.2%
CreatePermissionApplyOrder	Write	563	1.0%
ListProjects	Read	537	1.0%
UpdateDataServiceApi	Write	535	1.0%
ListTasks	Read	460	0.8%
ListPermissionApplyOrders	Read	444	0.8%
ListResourceGroups	Read	418	0.8%
ListAlertMessages	Read	414	0.8%
ListTables	Read	413	0.8%
ListWorkflowInstances	Read	376	0.7%
ListNodes	Read	375	0.7%
ListDataSources	Read	362	0.7%
ListDIJobs	Read	352	0.6%
ListSchemas	Read	339	0.6%
CreateDataSource	Write	335	0.6%
ListTopics	Read	331	0.6%
ListCatalogs	Read	316	0.6%
RevokeTablePermission	Destructive	306	0.6%
TestDataServiceApi	Read	305	0.6%
StartDIJob	Execute	289	0.5%
ListMetaCollections	Read	286	0.5%
ListWorkflows	Read	285	0.5%
ListDatabases	Read	284	0.5%
ListDataQualityEvaluationTaskInstances	Read	273	0.5%
UpdateDataSource	Write	262	0.5%
ListDataServicePublishedApis	Read	261	0.5%
ListDataServiceApis	Read	259	0.5%
ListPartitions	Read	257	0.5%
CreateDISyncTask	Write	253	0.5%
ListDataQualityResults	Read	248	0.5%
ListDataQualityRuleTemplates	Read	242	0.4%
CreateDataQualityEvaluationTaskInstance	Write	240	0.4%
ListLineages	Read	223	0.4%
ListLineageRelationships	Read	218	0.4%
ListColumns	Read	217	0.4%
ListEntitiesInMetaCollection	Read	215	0.4%
ListDIJobRunDetails	Read	210	0.4%
UpdateTaskInstances	Write	210	0.4%
ListRoutes	Read	202	0.4%
ListAlertRules	Read	198	0.4%
CreatePipelineRun	Write	197	0.4%
ListFunctions	Read	196	0.4%
ListNetworks	Read	195	0.4%
GetDIJobLog	Read	192	0.4%
ListProjectRoles	Read	187	0.3%
ListPipelineRuns	Read	183	0.3%
ListWorkflowDefinitions	Read	181	0.3%
ListResources	Read	179	0.3%
ListDataQualityRules	Read	176	0.3%
UpdateResource	Write	175	0.3%
ListDIJobEvents	Read	173	0.3%
UpdateTableBusinessMetadata	Write	173	0.3%
GetTable	Read	169	0.3%
ListTaskOperationLogs	Read	166	0.3%
SaveDataServiceApiTestResult	Write	166	0.3%
GetProjectRole	Read	164	0.3%
ListProjectMembers	Read	158	0.3%
DeleteWorkflow	Destructive	155	0.3%
ListDataQualityEvaluationTasks	Read	154	0.3%
AbolishDataServiceApi	Read	151	0.3%
GetDataServicePublishedApi	Read	151	0.3%
CreateResource	Write	149	0.3%
DeleteDataServiceApi	Destructive	148	0.3%
ListTaskInstanceOperationLogs	Read	147	0.3%
PublishDataServiceApi	Write	146	0.3%
GetCatalog	Read	145	0.3%
ListDIAlarmRules	Read	142	0.3%
ListNodeDependencies	Read	140	0.3%
GetDIJob	Read	135	0.2%
MoveWorkflowDefinition	Write	134	0.2%
GetSchema	Read	133	0.2%
MoveResource	Write	133	0.2%
TestDataSourceConnectivity	Read	132	0.2%
AttachDataQualityRulesToEvaluationTask	Write	132	0.2%
GetWorkflowDefinition	Read	131	0.2%
CreateMetaCollection	Write	129	0.2%
MoveFunction	Write	129	0.2%
MoveNode	Write	129	0.2%
ListUpstreamTasks	Read	128	0.2%
UpdateMetaCollection	Write	126	0.2%
ListDIJobMetrics	Read	124	0.2%
CloneDataSource	Read	121	0.2%
ApprovePermissionApplyOrder	Write	120	0.2%
ListDataAssetTags	Read	119	0.2%
ListDownstreamTasks	Read	119	0.2%
ExecPipelineRunStage	Execute	118	0.2%
RevokeMemberProjectRoles	Destructive	115	0.2%
GrantMemberProjectRoles	Read	115	0.2%
AddEntityIntoMetaCollection	Write	115	0.2%
ConvertTimestamps	Write	115	0.2%
TriggerSchedulerTaskInstance	Execute	113	0.2%
UpdateWorkflowDefinition	Write	113	0.2%
RenameWorkflowDefinition	Write	111	0.2%
CreateProjectMember	Write	110	0.2%
UpdateFunction	Write	110	0.2%
ListDownstreamTaskInstances	Read	109	0.2%
ListUpstreamTaskInstances	Read	109	0.2%
RenameFunction	Write	109	0.2%
RenameResource	Write	109	0.2%
RemoveTaskInstanceDependencies	Destructive	108	0.2%
RenameNode	Write	108	0.2%
GetDatabase	Read	105	0.2%
DeleteDIAlarmRule	Destructive	102	0.2%
GetDataServiceApi	Read	102	0.2%
ListDataSourceSharedRules	Read	102	0.2%
GetPartition	Read	99	0.2%
SubmitDataServiceApi	Write	98	0.2%
DeleteDIJob	Destructive	97	0.2%
UpdateColumnBusinessMetadata	Write	97	0.2%
StopDIJob	Execute	96	0.2%
GetTaskInstanceLog	Read	95	0.2%
GetDataServiceApiTest	Read	93	0.2%
DeleteWorkflowDefinition	Destructive	91	0.2%
GetWorkflow	Read	90	0.2%
DeleteFunction	Destructive	88	0.2%
DeleteNode	Destructive	88	0.2%
DeleteResource	Destructive	88	0.2%
GetTask	Read	88	0.2%
ImportWorkflowDefinition	Write	88	0.2%
CreateWorkflowDefinition	Write	87	0.2%
AbolishPipelineRun	Execute	86	0.2%
GetFunction	Read	86	0.2%
GetNode	Read	86	0.2%
GetPipelineRun	Read	86	0.2%
GetResource	Read	86	0.2%
CreateFunction	Write	86	0.2%
DeleteProjectMember	Destructive	85	0.2%
GetProjectMember	Read	85	0.2%
GetCreateWorkflowInstancesResult	Read	84	0.2%
StopWorkflowInstances	Execute	83	0.2%
StartWorkflowInstances	Execute	82	0.2%
DeleteDataQualityEvaluationTask	Destructive	81	0.1%
DeleteDataQualityRule	Destructive	79	0.1%
ToTimestamps	Read	79	0.1%
GetColumn	Read	78	0.1%
RerunTaskInstances	Read	78	0.1%
RemoveEntityFromMetaCollection	Destructive	77	0.1%
SetSuccessTaskInstances	Write	77	0.1%
StopTaskInstances	Execute	76	0.1%
ResumeTaskInstances	Write	75	0.1%
SuspendTaskInstances	Write	75	0.1%
GetDataQualityEvaluationTaskInstance	Read	74	0.1%
DeleteTask	Destructive	73	0.1%
GetAlertMessage	Read	73	0.1%
GetRemind	Read	73	0.1%
CreateLineageRelationship	Write	73	0.1%
GetDataSource	Read	72	0.1%
DeleteDataSource	Destructive	71	0.1%
GetJobStatus	Read	71	0.1%
GetWorkflowInstance	Read	71	0.1%
GetPermissionApplyOrderDetail	Read	69	0.1%
GetTaskInstance	Read	69	0.1%
GetResourceGroup	Read	68	0.1%
GetTopicInfluence	Read	68	0.1%
GetDataQualityRuleTemplate	Read	66	0.1%
GetNetwork	Read	66	0.1%
GetProject	Read	66	0.1%
GetRoute	Read	66	0.1%
DeleteLineageRelationship	Destructive	65	0.1%
GetDataQualityEvaluationTask	Read	65	0.1%
GetLineageRelationship	Read	65	0.1%
GetDataQualityRule	Read	64	0.1%
GetAlertRule	Read	63	0.1%
DeleteMetaCollection	Destructive	62	0.1%
GetMetaCollection	Read	62	0.1%
GetTopic	Read	62	0.1%
DeleteAlertRule	Destructive	61	0.1%
ListCrawlerTypes	Read	47	0.1%

// CUT THE COST

Your agent uses a handful of these tools. It pays for all 186.

You don't need all 186 of those definitions in the window. PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway that sits in front of Alibabacloud Dataworks: only the tools you grant are exposed to the agent, the rest never load. A smaller window means a sharper agent — less noise when it picks a tool — and every request costs less:

Grant scope	Definition cost	Reduction
All 186 tools (no gateway)	54,307 tokens	—
3 granted tools	~876 tokens	−98%
5 granted tools	~1,460 tokens	−97%
10 granted tools	~2,920 tokens	−95%

The risk dividend: 20 of these 186 tools are critical-risk (destructive or financial) and cost 2,040 tokens (4% of the definition load). Block them — the recommended starter policy — and you reclaim that context before tuning anything else.

Create a free account and register Alibabacloud Dataworks — nothing to install.
Grant only the tools you use — ungranted definitions never enter the context window.
Point your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, anything) at your gateway URL.

CUT ALIBABACLOUD DATAWORKS TOKEN COST →

Instant setup, no code required.

Model your own stack in the token-cost calculator, or see the Alibabacloud Dataworks policy for what a sensible grant looks like.

//FAQ

Alibabacloud Dataworks token-cost questions.

How many tokens does the Alibabacloud Dataworks MCP server use?+

Its 186 tool definitions total 54,307 tokens — 27% of a 200k context window — measured with tiktoken o200k_base over the serialised tools/list payload. Exact counts vary slightly by client and model.

Why does Alibabacloud Dataworks consume tokens before I send a message?+

MCP clients load every connected server's tool definitions — name, description, and input schema — into the model's context so it knows what it can call. That payload is charged against your context window on every request, whether or not a tool is used.

How do I reduce Alibabacloud Dataworks's token usage?+

Expose fewer tools. A PolicyLayer grant scopes Alibabacloud Dataworks to only the tools you allow — ungranted definitions are filtered out of the tool list, so they never enter the context window. A grant of 3 typical tools costs roughly 876 tokens, a 98% reduction.

Does deferred tool loading fix this?+

Partially, in some clients. Claude Code defers MCP tool schemas behind a tool-search step by default, and VS Code has experimental grouping — but you still pay tokens per search and reload, and Cursor, Windsurf and Gemini CLI load definitions upfront. Reducing the exposed tool set cuts the cost in every client.

// METHOD & REVIEW

How these numbers were measured.

01

Serialisation

Each tool is serialised as a tools/list entry — name, description, input schema — from the schemas in the PolicyLayer scan database. Clients differ slightly in framing, so treat counts as close estimates.

02

Tokeniser

tiktoken o200k_base (GPT-4o/o-series). Anthropic's current tokeniser isn't published, so Claude's exact counts will differ; for English text and JSON schemas the totals are close enough to treat these as estimates.

03

Deferred loading

Some clients now defer schema loading (Claude Code's tool search; VS Code experimental grouping). You still pay per search and reload — and Cursor, Windsurf and Gemini CLI load everything upfront.

Computed 03-07-2026 from the PolicyLayer scan database over all 186 catalogued Alibabacloud Dataworks tools. Counts refresh with every site build.