Monetization

Pricing options

When publishing an MCP, you can choose one of three pricing models:

1. Connect Stripe

Before you can sell, you need to connect a Stripe account. Go to your Stripe onboarding page and click "Connect with Stripe" to begin.

You do not need an existing Stripe account. Stripe will create one for you during the onboarding flow. If you already have a Stripe account, you can link it instead. The process takes a few minutes — Stripe will ask for basic identity and bank details so they can send you payouts.

p001.ai uses Stripe Connect with a 10% platform fee. You keep 90% of every sale. Stripe handles all payment processing, tax reporting, and payouts to your bank.

2. Set your price

In the publish form, enter a price in USD. If the price is greater than $0, you can choose the pricing model:

• One-time purchase — user pays once.
• Subscription — user is billed monthly or yearly. You choose the billing interval.

You can change the price and pricing model at any time by editing your MCP. Existing purchases are not affected.

3. License keys

When a user purchases your paid MCP, p001.ai automatically generates a unique license key in the format:

p001_a1b2-c3d4-e5f6-7890

The buyer sees this key on the MCP detail page and in their purchases dashboard. They use it to activate your server.

4. Validating license keys in your MCP

To enforce your paywall, your MCP server should validate the license key at startup by calling the p001.ai validation API. This ensures only paying users can run your server.

Validation API

POST https://www.p001.ai/api/license/validate
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "license_key": "p001_a1b2-c3d4-e5f6-7890",
  "mcp_id": "your-mcp-uuid"
}

The response will be:

// Valid key
{ "valid": true, "mcp_id": "...", "mcp_name": "..." }

// Invalid key
{ "valid": false }

Example implementation

Read the license key from an environment variable and validate it against p001.ai before starting the server:

// index.ts — validate license key at startup
const LICENSE_KEY = process.env.LICENSE_KEY;
const MCP_ID = "your-mcp-uuid"; // your MCP's ID from p001.ai

if (!LICENSE_KEY || !LICENSE_KEY.startsWith("p001_")) {
  console.error("Missing or invalid license key.");
  console.error("Purchase one at https://www.p001.ai/mcp/your-server");
  process.exit(1);
}

const res = await fetch("https://www.p001.ai/api/license/validate", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    license_key: LICENSE_KEY,
    mcp_id: MCP_ID,
  }),
});

const { valid } = await res.json();

if (!valid) {
  console.error("License key is not valid for this MCP.");
  process.exit(1);
}

// License verified — start the server
const transport = new StdioServerTransport();
await server.connect(transport);

Update your config snippet to include the license key as an environment variable so buyers know where to put it:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "my-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "LICENSE_KEY": "paste-your-license-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

After purchase, the buyer copies their license key from the MCP detail page and pastes it into the config. Your server validates it against p001.ai on startup, and the tools become available.

5. Tracking earnings

View your sales and revenue on the Earnings page in your dashboard. Stripe handles payouts automatically — funds are deposited to your bank account on a rolling basis (typically 2-7 business days).

6. Platform fee

p001.ai charges a 10% platform fee on all paid transactions. This covers payment processing, hosting, and marketplace operations.

Stripe's own processing fees (typically ~2.9% + $0.30) are deducted separately by Stripe.

Next steps

Ready to publish? Create your MCP listing and start earning.