Salesforce MCP Explained: Which Server Does What and What It Costs

Salesforce MCP Explained: Which Server Does What and What It Costs

Yes, Salesforce has its own MCP servers, and when people say "Salesforce MCP" they usually mean Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers: endpoints run by Salesforce that let Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP client read and change records in your org under each user's own permissions. They have been generally available since 29 April 2026 for Enterprise Edition orgs and above. An administrator has to switch them on, and Salesforce says they are intended for customers with Flex Credits.

Developers used to mean something else: the open-source Salesforce DX MCP server, which ran on their own machine as a local MCP server. Salesforce ended it on 2 November 2026. Its repository is archived and its npm package is deprecated, so a new setup should not start with it. MuleSoft and Heroku have MCP offerings of their own. This guide separates the four, shows the setup and the billing rules as Salesforce documents them on 12 November 2026, and compares the approach with a CRM whose MCP server ships with the product. Disclosure: Customermates, the second CRM discussed here, publishes this guide.

At a glance

For CRM data

Hosted MCP Servers: run by Salesforce, generally available since April 2026, Enterprise Edition and above, per-user OAuth.

For developers

The local Salesforce DX MCP server reached end of life on 2 November 2026 and its repository is archived. Salesforce points developers to its skills library instead.

Setup

A System Administrator enables a server in Setup and creates an External Client App with the mcp_api and refresh_token scopes.

Cost

Intended for Flex Credits customers. Salesforce has announced per-call metering for registered agents, with the rate still listed as TBA.

Built-in alternative

A CRM with its own MCP endpoint, such as Customermates, needs no server project. The trade-off is a much smaller platform.

The four Salesforce MCP offerings

If you work in sales or service and want your AI assistant to see accounts and opportunities, only the first row matters to you. The DX server stays in the table because older guides and search results still present it as the Salesforce MCP server.

Salesforce Hosted MCP Servers

A hosted MCP server is an endpoint Salesforce runs in front of your org. You don't install anything. Each person connects their AI client, signs in with OAuth, and every tool call runs as that person: object permissions, field-level security and sharing rules apply, and a record the agent changes shows that user's name in the audit trail.

Standard servers. Salesforce ships preconfigured servers with fixed tool sets. They are disabled by default, and an admin can enable them but not change their tools. The standard servers reference lists these:

The split SObject servers are the practical control here. A pilot group can get SObject Reads first, and write or delete access later, per server rather than per prompt.

Custom servers. Beyond the standard set, admins can build custom servers whose tools are Apex invocable actions, @AuraEnabled methods, Apex REST methods, Flows, named queries and API Catalog endpoints. Prompt Builder templates can appear as MCP prompts, though not every client supports MCP prompts. This is where a Salesforce org with years of custom logic gets the most out of MCP: a validated "create renewal opportunity" Flow becomes one tool instead of five raw record writes.

Change over time. Salesforce states in its end-of-life notice that tools, prompts and resources may change from release to release and that servers can be retired with advance notice. Pin your expectations to the server reference, not to a blog post from last quarter.

Is Salesforce MCP free?

Not in a way you can rely on. The hosted MCP overview says the servers are "intended only for customers with Flex Credits" and that "you may be billed for server usage".

A Salesforce Help article from 17 September 2026, Understand AIforce Impact, describes where this is going:

• Salesforce says it is targeting November for agent registration and a new billing model; the article still read that way on 12 November 2026. Each external agent gets its own identity and can get a narrower permission set than the human it works for.
• Every successful call a registered agent makes, over MCP or the direct API, is metered as a Headless Platform Interaction (HPI) against Flex Credits.
• The HPI multiplier is listed as "TBA", and agentic usage isn't metered yet. The Flex Credits rate card dated 3 November 2026 still shows "TBA" for the Headless Platform Interaction. Salesforce promises 30 days' notice before metering starts.
• Use of any Salesforce MCP server will require agent registration within three months of Salesforce's notice, for all customers. Existing customers that use agents with Salesforce APIs migrate those connections to the new billing model at renewal.
• Sandboxes, scratch orgs and Developer Edition orgs don't incur HPI metering.
• An org needs Flex Credit billing enabled, for example through Salesforce Foundations, which the article lists as currently available at $0 (checked on 12 November 2026).

So the honest answer on cost is: HPI metering was not active on 12 November 2026, Salesforce already reserves the right to bill for server usage, and the size of the announced per-call charge is unknown. If you plan a rollout to a whole sales team, ask your account executive for the HPI rate before you budget, and run the pilot in a sandbox, where calls are not metered.

How to turn on Salesforce MCP

Salesforce's GA announcement puts the shortest path at under 30 minutes. The steps below follow the setup overview, the guide to creating an External Client App, Salesforce's Claude setup page and the GA announcement.

1. Check edition and permissions

   You need an Enterprise Edition org or above (Salesforce's community wiki says Developer Edition orgs can use MCP servers too) and System Administrator (or equivalent) rights to create an External Client App. If the edition is right but no MCP servers appear, the wiki says to ask Salesforce Support to enable the MCPService permission.

2. Enable a server

   In Setup, go to API Catalog, then MCP Servers, and enable one server. Start with SObject Reads (platform/sobject-reads) in a sandbox. Salesforce says activation can take up to two minutes.

3. Create an External Client App

   In Setup, open External Client App Manager and create a new app; Connected Apps are not supported. Enable OAuth, enter your client's callback URL (for Claude, https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback), add the Access MCP servers (mcp_api) and Perform requests at any time (refresh_token) scopes, and under Security select the JWT-based access tokens for named users option. Salesforce's quick start also keeps PKCE on. The mcp_api scope grants MCP access only, not the existing REST APIs. The app can take up to 30 minutes to become usable; then copy its consumer key.

4. Connect the client

   In Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, and enter the server URL: https://api.salesforce.com/platform/mcp/v1/platform/sobject-reads for a production org, or the same address with /sandbox after /v1 for a sandbox. Choose your own OAuth client, paste the consumer key, and leave the secret blank unless your authorization server requires one. An org that blocks logins from login.salesforce.com needs the My Domain URL form on Salesforce's page instead. Salesforce's guide lists callback URLs for ChatGPT, Cursor and Postman too. Sign in and ask a read question about an account you know well, so you can check the answer.

5. Widen access deliberately

   Add SObject Mutations or custom servers for a named pilot group once reads behave as expected. Keep SObject Deletes off unless someone needs it.

The Salesforce DX MCP server

The Salesforce DX MCP server was an open-source developer tool under Apache 2.0 that ran locally with npx @salesforce/mcp, and it reached end of life on 2 November 2026. The repository banner and Salesforce's end-of-life notice say it is no longer maintained or supported and that no further releases will ship. On 12 November 2026 both repositories were archived and the npm package carried a deprecation message. The package stays installable, so a setup pinned to version 0.30.15 keeps running, but nothing will fix it if it breaks.

The notice tells developers to use skills instead and names Salesforce's skills and plugins library as the public location. Its README lists installation for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and others, and warns that skills may be renamed or removed between releases. Separately, the hosted Metadata Grounding server (beta) lets an AI client look up an org's metadata. The DX server was never the way for a sales rep to reach CRM data: that is the job of the hosted servers above.

MuleSoft and Heroku MCP

The MuleSoft MCP Connector lets Mule apps act as MCP servers or MCP clients. That matters when an AI agent should reach an ERP or legacy system that has no MCP server of its own, with MuleSoft in between. Heroku publishes an Apache 2.0 MCP server that runs through the Heroku CLI or npx, or can be deployed to Heroku, and manages apps, dynos, add-ons and pipelines. Neither is a sales tool.

Which one you need

Still deciding between an MCP server and a plain API integration? MCP vs API compares both.

A CRM with a built-in MCP server

If you have not committed to Salesforce yet, there is a different model: a CRM whose MCP server is part of the product. Customermates is one. It is an open-source, AI-native CRM for small client-facing teams, and it exposes one MCP endpoint at /api/v1/mcp on every cloud plan and on self-hosted installations. A connected client discovers 59 tools for contacts, organizations, deals, services, tasks and your own lists, the data model, saved views, dashboards, routines and webhooks. On Pro and higher, in Customermates Cloud, the unified inbox tools for email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram are added.

Connection works two ways, as the MCP documentation describes. Claude and ChatGPT connect as a custom connector: paste the URL, sign in, approve. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI use an API key that inherits its creator's permissions. To expose only part of the tool surface, append ?toolsets= to the endpoint URL, for example ?toolsets=records.

The cost arithmetic is plain. A five-person team on Starter pays €60 per month and gets the full CRM tool set over MCP. The inbox tools need Pro, €145 per month for the same team. The AI client's own subscription comes on top, from Anthropic, OpenAI or whichever provider you use. Current prices are on the pricing page.

One control difference matters. The Customermates MCP server tells clients to get the user's confirmation before deleting or sending, but that confirmation happens in the client. Once an authorized client calls a tool, the server executes it. Check how your client handles approvals, and start with reads and drafts.

For a client-facing team, the point of MCP is follow-up: with LinkedIn and email connected on Customermates Cloud from Pro, your own Claude or ChatGPT reads the conversation on the client record and drafts the reply and the next step for you to review and send. To try it, start your trial: 14 days of Pro with no credit card.

Where Customermates is the wrong choice. If you already run Salesforce with custom objects, Apex logic, territory or sharing models and field-level security, stay on Salesforce and use the hosted servers: moving loses more than it gains. Customermates also has no custom tool definitions and no field-level permissions. It fits a consultancy, agency or founder-led team choosing its first real CRM, or leaving a large one. The Salesforce alternative comparison covers that decision, and the HubSpot MCP guide covers HubSpot's remote server. For Salesforce next to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio and the email servers, see the ranking of the best MCP servers for sales.

Frequently asked questions

Salesforce, MuleSoft and Heroku details checked on 12 November 2026 against the hosted MCP overview, the standard servers reference, Understand AIforce Impact, the Flex Credits rate card of 3 November 2026, the hosted MCP community repository with its wiki, the Salesforce DX MCP repository and its end-of-life notice, the Salesforce skills library, the MuleSoft MCP Connector docs and the Heroku MCP repository.