This article is part of our MCP Guide: what the Model Context Protocol is, how to use it safely, and how to choose servers, tools and help. Want a second opinion on your setup? Request a free MCP readiness review.
These are the most useful Model Context Protocol (MCP) statistics for 2026, each linked to the page it came from and dated. As of October 2026, the MCP project reports Tier 1 SDK downloads "approaching half a billion" a month. Back in December 2025, Anthropic counted more than 10,000 active public MCP servers.
We built this page because many "MCP statistics" posts repeat numbers with no source. Our rule here is simple. If we couldn't open the original page, the number is not on this list. Where a figure comes from a vendor or a security firm's own research, we say so.
All figures were checked on 28 October 2026. The registry figures come from our own query of the official MCP Registry API on that date.
Key Takeaways
- MCP launched in November 2024. A year later Anthropic reported 10,000+ active public servers and 97M+ monthly SDK downloads.
- By July 2026, the MCP project said Tier 1 SDKs were close to half a billion downloads a month, with TypeScript and Python each past 1 billion total.
- The official MCP Registry listed 52,042 servers (latest versions) when we queried its public API on 28 October 2026.
- MCP is now run by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, which launched the MCPA certification on 14 September 2026.
- Independent security scans keep finding weak authentication: Astrix found only 8.5% of 5,205 open-source servers used OAuth.
Adoption and growth
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP public launch | November 2024 | Anthropic | 25 Nov 2024 |
| Active public MCP servers | More than 10,000 | Anthropic | 9 Dec 2025 |
| Monthly SDK downloads (Python + TypeScript) | 97M+ | Anthropic | 9 Dec 2025 |
| Connectors in Claude's directory | Over 75 | Anthropic | 9 Dec 2025 |
| Monthly downloads, Tier 1 SDKs | "Close to half-a-billion" | MCP blog | 28 Jul 2026 |
| Total downloads, TypeScript and Python SDKs | Each past 1 billion | MCP blog | 28 Jul 2026 |
| MCP tool calls from ChatGPT users | 98x their January level by August | Linux Foundation press release | 14 Sep 2026 |
| MCP calls handled by Resend | Over 1 million in a single month | Linux Foundation press release | 14 Sep 2026 |
| Share of Honeycomb interactive queries made by agents | Nearly 20% (customer quote) | MCP blog | 28 Jul 2026 |
A few notes on reading these. The download figures are package downloads, which include automated installs, so they measure developer activity rather than unique users. The ChatGPT and Resend figures appear in a Linux Foundation press release, which doesn't cite an underlying dataset. The Honeycomb figure is a quote from a Honeycomb engineer in the MCP release post, not an MCP-wide number.
At the December 2025 handover, the MCP blog also listed first-class client support in ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Visual Studio Code (MCP blog). For an up-to-date app list, see which AI apps support MCP.
Official MCP Registry numbers
The official MCP Registry is the community's public list of MCP servers. We queried its public API (/v0/servers) on 28 October 2026 and counted what it returned. These are our own observations, not figures published by the MCP project.
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Servers listed (latest version of each) | 52,042 | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Listings marked active | 51,355 | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Listings marked deprecated | 687 (1.3%) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Servers offering a remote (hosted) endpoint | 34,351 (66.0%) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Remote servers offering Streamable HTTP | 33,614 (97.9% of remote) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Servers offering an installable package | 19,496 (37.5%) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Package servers distributed on npm | 12,415 (63.7% of package servers) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Package servers distributed on PyPI | 4,885 (25.1% of package servers) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Servers published under a GitHub namespace (io.github.*) | 30,740 (59.1%) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Servers whose latest version was published in October 2026 (1–28 Oct) | 21,445 (41.2%) | MCP Registry API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
How we counted: we paged through /v0/servers?version=latest until the API returned no further cursor, and counted one entry per server name. Some servers offer both a remote endpoint and a package (2,458 did), so those shares add up to more than 100%. The "published in October" row uses each listing's publishedAt date for its latest version, so it shows recent update activity, not new sign-ups. Older versions of the same server are excluded.
A registry listing is not a security review or an endorsement. For how listings work, read what the MCP Registry is.
Ecosystem and open-source activity
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official MCP SDKs | 10 (TypeScript, Python, C#, Go, Rust, Ruby, Java, Swift, PHP, Kotlin) | MCP docs, SDKs | Checked 28 Oct 2026 |
| Tier 1 SDKs | 6 (TypeScript, Python, C#, Go, Rust, Ruby) | MCP docs, SDKs | Checked 28 Oct 2026 |
| GitHub stars, modelcontextprotocol/servers repo | 91,640 | GitHub API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| GitHub stars, Python SDK | 24,698 | GitHub API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| GitHub stars, TypeScript SDK | 13,674 | GitHub API (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Public repositories in the modelcontextprotocol GitHub org | 45 | GitHub (our query) | 28 Oct 2026 |
| Current specification version | 2026-07-28 | MCP specification | 28 Jul 2026 |
| Minimum deprecation window for spec features | 12 months | MCP blog | 28 Jul 2026 |
The SDK tier list moves. The July 2026 release post named four Tier 1 SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, C#) with Rust in beta. By 28 October 2026 the SDK page listed six at Tier 1.
Governance and certification
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP donated to the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) | Announced 9 December 2025 | Anthropic | 9 Dec 2025 |
| AAIF co-founders | 3 (Anthropic, Block, OpenAI) | Anthropic | 9 Dec 2025 |
| Founding AAIF projects | 3 (MCP, goose, AGENTS.md) | MCP blog | 9 Dec 2025 |
| MCPA certification launch | 14 September 2026 | Linux Foundation | 14 Sep 2026 |
| MCPA exam price | $250 (exam only) | Linux Foundation Training | Checked 28 Oct 2026 |
| MCPA exam weight on security and governance | 24% | Linux Foundation Training | Checked 28 Oct 2026 |
| MCP roadmap priority areas | 5 (up from 4 in March) | MCP blog | 22 Aug 2026 |
For what the certification covers, see the MCPA certification. For the foundation itself, see who owns MCP.
Security statistics
Security numbers vary a lot because each study uses a different sample and a different definition of "vulnerable." All figures below are vendor or researcher findings, labeled as such. None is a census of every MCP server.
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCP servers found exposed to the internet | 1,862 | Knostic (security vendor research) | 17 Jul 2025 |
| Of 119 exposed servers checked by hand, share that listed tools without authentication | 119 of 119 | Knostic (security vendor research) | 17 Jul 2025 |
| Open-source MCP server repos analyzed | 5,205 | Astrix Security (security vendor research) | 15 Oct 2025 |
| Share of those servers requiring credentials | About 88% | Astrix Security | 15 Oct 2025 |
| Share using static API keys or tokens | About 53% | Astrix Security | 15 Oct 2025 |
| Share using OAuth | 8.5% | Astrix Security | 15 Oct 2025 |
| API keys passed through plain environment variables | 79% of API keys | Astrix Security | 15 Oct 2025 |
| MCP servers scored by an automated scanner | 5,725 | SpiderRating (ratings vendor) | 23 Mar 2026 |
| Share of those servers graded F | 36% | SpiderRating (ratings vendor) | 23 Mar 2026 |
| Share with a token-leakage finding (top issue) | 13% (757 servers) | SpiderRating (ratings vendor) | 23 Mar 2026 |
| Risk categories in the OWASP MCP Top 10 | 10 (MCP01 to MCP10) | OWASP | Checked 28 Oct 2026 |
How to read these:
- Knostic scanned the internet with Shodan and checked only the
tools/listrequest, so it found servers that answered without a login. It notes that many deployments sit on private networks. - Astrix used an LLM to read each repository's README. It says its analyzer may misjudge credential types, and about 26% of servers fell into an "unknown" bucket.
- SpiderRating runs a commercial rating service. Its grade blends description quality (45%), security (35%) and metadata (20%), so an F is not the same as "exploitable."
The OWASP MCP Top 10 list was in beta when we checked it. Its first risk is "Token Mismanagement & Secret Exposure," which matches what the scans keep finding. For what to do about it, read is MCP safe? and MCP security risks.
Efficiency statistic worth knowing
| Statistic | Figure | Source | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Token use in Anthropic's code-execution example | Cut from 150,000 to 2,000 tokens (98.7% saving) | Anthropic Engineering | 4 Nov 2025 |
This is one worked example, not an average. It shows why loading hundreds of tool definitions into an AI model's context gets expensive, and why server design matters. See MCP vs API for more on tool design.
Numbers we left out
We dropped several figures that circulate widely because we could not trace them to a primary source we could open. They include unattributed "percent of servers vulnerable" totals and market-size forecasts quoted without the original report. If you have a primary source for a number we're missing, we'll review it.
How to cite this page
Please cite the original source in each row, not this page alone. Each row gives the publisher and date. If you use our registry counts, cite them as "eSEOspace query of the official MCP Registry API, 28 October 2026."
Next step
New to the protocol behind these numbers? Start with what MCP is, then browse the full MCP Guide.
Frequently asked questions
How many MCP servers are there?
There is no single official count. Anthropic reported more than 10,000 active public MCP servers in December 2025. The official MCP Registry returned 52,042 servers (latest versions) when we queried it on 28 October 2026. Many more private servers run inside companies and aren't listed anywhere.
How many people use MCP?
No source publishes a user count. The closest signals are SDK downloads (close to half a billion a month for Tier 1 SDKs, per the MCP project in July 2026) and support in major AI apps such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot.
What percentage of MCP servers are insecure?
It depends on the study. Astrix found about 53% of 5,205 open-source servers used static keys or tokens and only 8.5% used OAuth. Knostic found that all 119 exposed servers it checked by hand listed their tools without authentication. These are samples, not the whole ecosystem.
When was MCP released?
Anthropic introduced MCP on 25 November 2024. It donated MCP to the Agentic AI Foundation, under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025.
How often is this page updated?
We checked every figure on 28 October 2026. MCP numbers change quickly, so check the linked source for the latest value before you quote it.
