CostBench
Verified pricing, hidden costs, negotiation data, price changes & TCO for 3,390+ software products.
Should I use this
Quality & Safety
Findings (1)
- LOWTool 'calculate_tco' description lacks action verbin calculate_tco
Based on automated analysis of tool definitions and protocol compliance.
Context Cost
This is the approximate number of tokens consumed each time the server's tools are loaded into a model's context. Higher counts reduce the attention available for other tasks.
Install
One-Click Install
Add this to your `claude_desktop_config.json` file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"mcp": {
"url": "https://costbench.com/mcp"
}
}
}Remote endpoints
https://costbench.com/mcpstreamable-httpWhat it can do
Tool inventory
Tools (9)
🟢get_pricing(slug, depth)
Full sourced pricing record for a software product: tiers, hidden costs, contract terms, market data, sentiment, negotiation tips, TCO scenarios, price history — every claim with its sources + a confidence/verification envelope.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Product slug, e.g. \"salesforce\""
},
"depth": {
"type": "string",
"enum": [
"summary",
"full"
],
"description": "summary = numbers+sources only"
}
},
"required": [
"slug"
]
}🟢get_hidden_costs(slug)
The documented hidden/implementation/add-on costs of a product (uplifts, onboarding fees, overages), each with a sourced quote + date. The "what they don't tell you" answer.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"slug"
]
}🟢get_negotiation_tips(slug)
Sourced negotiation tactics for a product with success-likelihood (how to get a discount).
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"slug"
]
}🟢get_price_history(slug)
Dated per-quarter snapshots of a product's pricing page. Returns observations, NOT a trend figure — CostBench does not publish one, because diffing snapshots across renamed/restructured plan lineups is ~90% measurement artifact.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"slug"
]
}🟢compare_software(slugs)
Side-by-side pricing comparison of 2–4 products (starting price, enterprise tier, median annual cost, free tier, ratings).
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slugs": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "string"
},
"minItems": 2,
"maxItems": 4
}
},
"required": [
"slugs"
]
}🟢discover_software(category, maxPrice, hasFreeTier, limit)
Find software products by criteria (category, max price, free tier). Returns matching slugs to look up.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"category": {
"type": "string"
},
"maxPrice": {
"type": "number"
},
"hasFreeTier": {
"type": "boolean"
},
"limit": {
"type": "number"
}
}
}🟢calculate_tco(slug, seats, tier, termYears)
Total cost of ownership for a product and team size: sourced line items (licenses with price escalation, benchmark implementation), year-one + multi-year totals, effective per-seat cost. The defensible "true cost for an N-person team" answer.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string"
},
"seats": {
"type": "number"
},
"tier": {
"type": "string"
},
"termYears": {
"type": "number"
}
},
"required": [
"slug",
"seats"
]
}🟢estimate_llm_cost(slug, model, inputTokens, outputTokens)
Estimate the cost of an LLM/API workload (input + output tokens) for a usage-priced provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock…) from its real rate card.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string"
},
"model": {
"type": "string"
},
"inputTokens": {
"type": "number",
"description": "Input tokens for the workload (e.g. per month). At least one of inputTokens/outputTokens must be > 0."
},
"outputTokens": {
"type": "number",
"description": "Output tokens for the workload. At least one of inputTokens/outputTokens must be > 0."
}
},
"required": [
"slug"
]
}🟢get_price_changes(slug, category, days, limit, include_suspect)
Recent software pricing changes CostBench detected against vendor pricing pages (increases, decreases, plan restructures) — dated, with before/after price bands and a source link. Filter by product slug, category, or lookback window. The "what changed lately" answer; each item links to the sourced record.
Input Schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"slug": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Only changes for this product"
},
"category": {
"type": "string",
"description": "Only changes in this category slug, e.g. \"crm\""
},
"days": {
"type": "number",
"description": "Lookback window in days (default 30, max 365)"
},
"limit": {
"type": "number",
"description": "Max items (default 25, max 100)"
},
"include_suspect": {
"type": "boolean",
"description": "Include moves flagged as likely extraction artifacts (unit switches, |change| > 300%). Default false."
}
}
}Community
Evidence