MCP Token Cost: I Cut My MCP Server From 15 Tools to 4
Sarvar Nadaf
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#17Peak rank
6Days on list
151Score · 7d
Oct 28, 2026First seen
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About this article
I rebuilt a real AWS cost-triage MCP server from 15 tools to 4. Same account, same question, 7 tool calls down to 2, schemas 88% smaller.
Here is a number that should bother you. GitHub's official MCP server loads about 55,000 tokens across 93 tool definitions before you ask it a single question. On a 200K context window that is more than a quarter of your budget, spent, before the agent does any work.
I did not believe it until I measured my own. So I built a small AWS MCP server the way most people build them, wired it into Kiro, and asked it one question: "where am I wasting money in this account?" It took seven tool calls to answer. Then I rebuilt the exact same server following AWS's own tool-design playbook. Same account, same question. Two tool calls. Fifteen tools became four. The tool schemas shrank by…
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- Sarvar Nadaf
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- Published
- Oct 26, 2026
Excerpt from DEV Community ↗, by Sarvar Nadaf.
Trending history
MCP Token Cost: I Cut My MCP Server From 15 Tools to 4 was first seen on DEV Community · Top this week on Oct 28, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 114 checks on 6 different days. Its best position was #17 of 30, reached on Oct 29, 23:43 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 2, 12:43 UTC.
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Last 14 days
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28
17
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17
Oct 26today
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Is MCP Token Cost: I Cut My MCP Server From 15 Tools to 4 trending on DEV Community right now?
Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 2, 12:43 UTC, after 6 days of trending.
What is the highest rank MCP Token Cost: I Cut My MCP Server From 15 Tools to 4 reached?
#17 on DEV Community · Top this week, on Oct 29, 23:43 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 60 minutes.
How long has MCP Token Cost: I Cut My MCP Server From 15 Tools to 4 been trending?
It was first seen on Oct 28, 2026 and has been on the list on 6 days (114 checks) since.