// MCP TOKEN COST

The GoCreative Agent API MCP server costs 15,888 tokens before the first call.

Connect GoCreative Agent API and its 152 tool definitions are loaded into the model's context on every request — 7.9% of a 200k window spent before your agent does anything.

QUICK ANSWER The GoCreative Agent API MCP server's tool definitions consume 15,888 tokens — 8.3× the median MCP server (1,905 tokens). A scoped grant exposing only the tools you use cuts that roughly in proportion.

MEASURED FROM SCHEMAS 152 tools · 15,888 tokens · 7.9% of 200k · 1.6% of 1M Method →

// CONTEXT WINDOW SHARE

What that buys 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 7.9%

1M WINDOW 1.6%

Corpus context: GoCreative Agent API ranks #86 of 3,213 measured MCP servers by definition cost. The median is 1,905 tokens, p90 is 7,952, and the heaviest (Fusionauth) is 183,337 — 92% of a 200k window on its own.

// PER-TOOL BREAKDOWN

Where the 15,888 tokens go.

Each row is one tool definition as a tools/list entry — name, description and input schema — counted with o200k_base. Average: 105 tokens per tool.

Tool	Category	Tokens	% of server
enrich_googlereviews	Read	130	0.8%
enrich_instagram	Read	128	0.8%
enrich_spotify	Read	127	0.8%
lookup_github	Read	126	0.8%
scrape_amazon	Read	124	0.8%
enrich_linkedin	Read	123	0.8%
lookup_oembed	Read	123	0.8%
scrape_reddit	Read	123	0.8%
enrich_tiktok	Read	121	0.8%
lookup_hn	Read	121	0.8%
extract_document	Read	120	0.8%
lookup_holiday	Read	120	0.8%
lookup_youtube	Read	120	0.8%
audit_github	Read	119	0.7%
lookup_currency_historical	Read	119	0.7%
lookup_geocode	Read	119	0.7%
search_instagram_hashtag	Read	119	0.7%
enrich_company	Read	118	0.7%
lookup_exchange	Read	118	0.7%
lookup_reverse_geocode	Read	118	0.7%
scrape_ebay	Read	118	0.7%
scrape_indeed	Read	118	0.7%
scrape_zillow	Read	118	0.7%
search_tiktok_hashtag	Read	118	0.7%
enrich_apify	Read	117	0.7%
enrich_browserbase	Read	117	0.7%
lookup_credit_card_validate	Read	117	0.7%
lookup_github_gist	Read	117	0.7%
lookup_github_releases	Read	117	0.7%
scrape_chromestore	Read	116	0.7%
enrich_x	Read	115	0.7%
lookup_color_contrast	Read	115	0.7%
lookup_qr_code	Read	115	0.7%
scrape_uniswap	Read	115	0.7%
scrape_yelp	Read	115	0.7%
enrich_browsersnap	Read	114	0.7%
lookup_url_unfurl	Read	114	0.7%
scrape_letterboxd	Read	114	0.7%
enrich_github	Read	113	0.7%
lookup_hash	Read	113	0.7%
lookup_user_agent_parse	Read	113	0.7%
lookup_crypto	Read	112	0.7%
lookup_cve	Read	112	0.7%
lookup_reddit	Read	112	0.7%
scrape_imdb	Read	112	0.7%
enrich_reviews	Read	111	0.7%
lookup_food_barcode	Read	111	0.7%
lookup_translate	Read	111	0.7%
lookup_whois	Read	111	0.7%
lookup_ip	Read	110	0.7%
lookup_jwt_decode	Read	110	0.7%
lookup_password_strength	Read	110	0.7%
lookup_unicode	Read	110	0.7%
lookup_url_encode	Read	110	0.7%
scrape_steam	Read	110	0.7%
lookup_age_calculator	Read	109	0.7%
scrape_aliexpress	Read	109	0.7%
lookup_base64	Read	108	0.7%
lookup_coingecko	Read	108	0.7%
scrape_airbnb	Read	108	0.7%
scrape_etsy	Read	108	0.7%
lookup_arxiv	Read	107	0.7%
lookup_dns	Read	107	0.7%
lookup_mxrecords	Read	107	0.7%
lookup_postal	Read	107	0.7%
lookup_timezone	Read	107	0.7%
lookup_word_count	Read	107	0.7%
posts_x	Read	107	0.7%
scrape_dockerhub	Read	107	0.7%
scrape_goodreads	Read	107	0.7%
scrape_booking	Read	106	0.7%
scrape_medium	Read	106	0.7%
scrape_redfin	Read	106	0.7%
scrape_tripadvisor	Read	106	0.7%
lookup_github_user	Read	104	0.7%
lookup_pokemon	Read	104	0.7%
scrape_appstore	Read	104	0.7%
scrape_walmart	Read	104	0.7%
lookup_dockerhub	Read	103	0.6%
lookup_unsplash_search	Read	103	0.6%
scrape_wikipedia	Read	103	0.6%
scrape_firefoxstore	Write	103	0.6%
enrich_threads	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_builtwith	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_json_validate	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_lighthouse	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_stackoverflow	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_weather	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_zip	Read	102	0.6%
scrape_vscode	Read	102	0.6%
scrape_yahoo	Read	102	0.6%
search_youtube	Read	102	0.6%
lookup_bluesky	Read	101	0.6%
lookup_color_palette	Read	101	0.6%
lookup_lorem	Read	101	0.6%
lookup_npm	Read	101	0.6%
scrape_googleplay	Read	101	0.6%
scrape_pinterest	Read	101	0.6%
scrape_wikidata	Read	101	0.6%
lookup_asn	Read	100	0.6%
lookup_gomodule	Read	100	0.6%
lookup_iban	Read	100	0.6%
lookup_pypi	Read	100	0.6%
scrape_binance	Read	100	0.6%
scrape_crunchbase	Read	100	0.6%
scrape_producthunt	Read	100	0.6%
scrape_sec	Read	100	0.6%
lookup_crates	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_ipinfo	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_itunes	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_mastodon	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_similarweb	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_steam	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_wikipedia	Read	99	0.6%
scrape_fbpage	Read	99	0.6%
scrape_glassdoor	Read	99	0.6%
lookup_beer	Read	98	0.6%
lookup_packagist	Read	98	0.6%
lookup_rubygem	Read	98	0.6%
lookup_spfrecord	Read	98	0.6%
lookup_country	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_dictionary	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_email_validate	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_hn_user	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_mdn	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_open_library	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_ssl_cert	Read	97	0.6%
lookup_anilist	Read	96	0.6%
lookup_domainage	Read	96	0.6%
lookup_lemmy	Read	96	0.6%
lookup_random_image	Read	96	0.6%
lookup_sslstatus	Read	95	0.6%
lookup_uuid	Read	95	0.6%
lookup_dog_breed	Read	94	0.6%
lookup_pagespeed	Read	94	0.6%
lookup_twitch	Read	94	0.6%
scrape_substack	Read	94	0.6%
scrape_telegram	Read	93	0.6%
lookup_emoji	Read	92	0.6%
scrape_polygon	Read	91	0.6%
scrape_coinbase	Read	90	0.6%
lookup_nasa_apod	Read	88	0.6%
lookup_useragents_top	Read	86	0.5%
lookup_random_user	Read	82	0.5%
lookup_random_quote	Read	80	0.5%
lookup_advice	Read	79	0.5%
lookup_joke	Read	76	0.5%
wallet_helper	Read	72	0.5%
usage_stats	Read	62	0.4%
install_snippets	Write	61	0.4%
list_endpoints	Read	60	0.4%
pricing_info	Read	55	0.3%

// SCOPED GRANT

Most agents use a handful of these tools. They pay for all 152.

A PolicyLayer grant exposes only the tools you allow — ungranted definitions are filtered out of the tool list, so they never enter the context window. Estimates below assume typical-weight tools (105 tokens each).

Grant scope	Definition cost	Reduction
All 152 tools (no gateway)	15,888 tokens	—
3 granted tools	~314 tokens	−98%
5 granted tools	~523 tokens	−97%
10 granted tools	~1,045 tokens	−93%

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

//FAQ

GoCreative Agent API token-cost questions.

How many tokens does the GoCreative Agent API MCP server use?+

Its 152 tool definitions total 15,888 tokens — 7.9% 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 GoCreative Agent API 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 GoCreative Agent API's token usage?+

Expose fewer tools. A PolicyLayer grant scopes GoCreative Agent API 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 314 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 07-06-2026 from the PolicyLayer scan database over all 152 catalogued GoCreative Agent API tools. Counts refresh with every site build.