FINOPS MCP
What is a FinOps MCP?
A FinOps MCP is a Model Context Protocol server that connects an AI assistant to cloud & AI cost data and the telemetry that explains them. Instead of exporting billing files or rebuilding queries in a console, you ask Claude, Cursor or Codex a question in plain language and it calls structured tools against your spend.
WHAT IT DOES
What a FinOps MCP answers
Ask in plain language
Query allocated cost, usage and unit economics across AWS, GCP, Azure, Snowflake, Datadog and your LLM providers, without writing SQL.
Explain what changed
Run a cost-change diff and get the real drivers, correlated with the deploys, incidents and provider events behind them.
Allocate shared cost
Shared and untagged spend is split from real usage metrics, so answers arrive already attributed to a team, product or environment.
Act without leaving chat
Create cost and budget alerts, schedule Slack and Teams reports, and build dashboards from the same conversation.
HOW TO CHOOSE
The three kinds of FinOps MCP
Every cloud now ships a free billing MCP, and there are good open-source servers that run locally. They differ in what they can allocate, not just in price. Pick the row that describes the question you actually need answered.
Provider billing MCP
Open source, local first
Hosted context layer
Providers covered
One cloud per server
Several, from your machine
Cloud, data and LLM providers in one schema
Allocation
Tags only, where tagged
Tags plus rules you maintain
Shared and untagged cost split from usage metrics
Explains a change
Billing deltas only
Deltas plus heuristics
Cost diff correlated with deploys, incidents and events
Actions from chat
Read only
Proposes code changes
Alerts, reports, dashboards, event annotations
Setup
An IAM role per account
Local install plus credentials
One URL over OAuth
Where your data sits
In your cloud account
On your machine
Ingested into the Costory workspace
Cost
Free
Free
From 250 EUR per month, 15-day trial
HOW TO CONNECT
Connect it to Claude Code in two steps
You need a Costory account first. Claude Code connects natively over HTTP with OAuth, so there is no npx and no Node.js required.
Run this in your terminal:
Then inside Claude Code, run /mcp and select Authenticate. A browser window will open for you to log in with your Costory account.
Using Cursor, VS Code, Claude Desktop or Dust instead? Follow the per-client setup in the docs.
For built-in FinOps skills and the Claude Code marketplace plugin, see the costory-finops-mcp-skills repository.
COMMON QUESTIONS
FinOps MCP questions, answered
What is a FinOps MCP?
A FinOps MCP is a Model Context Protocol server that exposes cloud billing, allocation and automation tools to an AI assistant. The assistant calls tools such as query, create_alert and create_report against live cost data, instead of you pasting billing exports into a prompt.
Is there a free FinOps MCP?
Yes. AWS, Microsoft and Google each publish a free billing MCP server for their own cloud, and there are good open-source multi-cloud servers that run locally. They fit well when you need one provider, raw numbers and read-only access. A hosted context layer earns its price when you need multi-provider allocation, shared-cost splitting and write actions.
How is this different from a provider billing MCP or Cost Explorer?
A provider MCP answers about one cloud, in that cloud’s own schema, and only where resources are tagged. A context layer normalizes several providers into one schema, allocates shared and untagged cost from real usage metrics, and correlates a change with the deploy or incident behind it.
Do I have to give the MCP my cloud credentials?
Not with Costory. You connect once with a URL and OAuth, and the assistant never receives IAM keys. Billing data is ingested into your Costory workspace beforehand, and query scoping follows your workspace role. Local-first open-source servers take the opposite approach and keep credentials on your machine.
Which assistants and clients does it work with?
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex and Dust all support remote MCP servers natively. Any MCP-compatible client works, and clients without native remote support can proxy through mcp-remote.
Can a FinOps MCP take actions, or only answer questions?
It depends on the server. Provider MCPs are read-only. Costory exposes write tools, so the assistant can create cost and budget alerts, schedule Slack, Teams and email reports, build dashboards and annotate events, all scoped to your workspace.
FAQ