Pricing
Free to self-host. Cloud is early access.
The library is MIT licensed. theAuth Cloud has no published prices, and this page will not invent any.
Two ways to run theAuth
Library MIT
FreeYou run it on your own database and hosting
- Agent identity, MCP OAuth 2.1 server and human auth
- TypeScript, Go and Python SDKs
- Postgres, SQLite, MySQL, D1 (Go: Postgres, MySQL, in-memory)
theAuth Cloud Early access
Not priced yetNo public prices, no published limits
- A managed option for teams that would rather not operate auth
- Scope and terms are still being decided
Total cost
Think in cost of ownership, not a price per user
In general terms, and without comparing any vendor's prices:
- Per-MAU pricingThe bill grows with active users, and with agents if they count as identities. Cheap at small scale, harder to forecast at large scale.
- Self-hostingNo per-user meter. You pay for a database, compute and the engineering time to patch, monitor and back it up.
- Switching costAn open license and a database you own make leaving cheaper. Hosted identity data is harder to move.
- What to modelUsers and agents at 12 and 36 months, ops hours, compliance work, and the cost of an outage.
FAQ
Pricing questions
Is theAuth free?
The library is MIT licensed and free to self-host, including the MCP OAuth 2.1 server, agent identity and human auth. You pay for your own database and hosting.
How much does theAuth Cloud cost?
theAuth Cloud is in early access and has no published prices yet. We will not quote numbers until they are public and approved.
How do I get early access to theAuth Cloud?
Ask in GitHub Discussions on the theauth repository. That is the only early access channel we document.
Why not just count monthly active users?
Per-MAU pricing ties your bill to growth, and agents add identities that are not people. Self-hosting removes that meter, but you take on operations. The right choice depends on your team and traffic.
Can I move between self-hosted and Cloud?
Cloud is not generally available, so we make no migration promises. The library runs on Postgres, SQLite, MySQL or D1, and your data stays in a database you control.
Get started
Give your first agent an identity.
Install the package, create an agent with scoped permissions, and read its first audit record. The core runs on Postgres, SQLite, MySQL or D1, and the Go module needs a single go get.
npm install @glinr/theauthgo get github.com/glincker/theauth-go