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Vendia MCP as a Service Free Tier FAQ

This page provides answers to frequently asked questions about Vendia’s MCP as a Service Free Tier, designed to let individuals quickly turn their S3 files into AI-powered insights and AI-driven applications.

Getting Started

What is the Vendia MCP as a Service Free Tier?

The Vendia MCP as a Service Free Tier lets you turn any Amazon S3 bucket into an MCP-compliant AI solution in minutes. The Free Tier is designed to let individuals quickly turn their S3 files – text, images, PDFs, and much more – into AI-powered insights, applications, and headless workflows. Using the Free Tier, you can connect and use up to 3 Amazon S3 buckets with the AI client of your choice, without writing code or needing to run your own MCP server. The Free Tier requires no credit card, never expires, and can be used by anyone for any purpose, including commercial uses.

Popular free AI clients that work with Vendia MCP Server include Mistral AI: Le Chat.

Who is this offering for?

The Free Tier is ideal for:

  • Individuals with their own content in S3 buckets who want to use AI to gain insights or create applications based on their bucket resources
  • Developers investigating AI clients for S3-hosted content or S3-based workflows who aren’t ready to commit to a commercial license or subscription
  • Startups and SMBs looking to use AI to optimize or automate document or file-processing workflows built around S3 as their storage solution
  • Business analysts validating AI use cases for S3-hosted documents or forms

Features and Limitations

What’s included in the Free Tier?

  • Fully managed (“serverless”) MCP as a Service that can be used with any MCP-compatible AI client
  • Storage Connections - Connect and use up to 3 Amazon S3 buckets. Learn more about Storage Connections
  • API Catalogs - Add and use up to 2 OpenAPI/Swagger specifications. Learn more about API Catalogs
  • Per-resource access controls for fine-grained security
  • Read/write receipt logging to track AI agent activities. Learn more about Receipts
  • Easy-to-use UI console for configuration and management
  • Single user account (individual only) - See usage limits for details
  • No expiration – Use it as long as you like, no subscription or credit card required. See account expiration for details
  • Support – Free Tier includes online support only. See support options for details

For detailed limits and restrictions, see usage limits below.

Are there usage limits or restrictions?

The Free Tier is subject to the following Vendia-imposed limits. If you need higher limits, contact bd@vendia.com for assistance in selecting a more appropriate SKU for your needs.

General MCP Service:

  • MCP Server: 1 MCP server hosted in AWS us-east-1 region
  • MCP Calls: Up to 100,000 MCP calls per month (regardless of success or failure). This cap is applied to the account as a whole and renews on the first day of each month at midnight in the Pacific timezone. Note that one LLM prompt or MCP request may map to more than one MCP call.
  • Concurrent Requests: Maximum of 2 concurrent requests

Storage Connections (S3):

  • S3 Buckets: Connect and use up to 3 Amazon S3 buckets
  • File Size: Files delivered to, or created by, AI clients may be up to 5GB in size
  • Limitations:
    • Amazon S3 Table buckets are not supported
    • S3 buckets that enable only private VPC access are not supported

API Catalogs:

  • API Catalogs: Add and use up to 2 API Catalog configurations (OpenAPI/Swagger specifications)
  • Specification File Size: Maximum 5MB per specification file
  • Operations per Catalog: Maximum 25 operations per API catalog
  • Authentication: Maximum 1 authentication credential per API catalog

Your AI client may also have operational limitations on the size, type, number of files, or depth of directory nesting it can support or in the amount of content it can process within its context window. These are outside Vendia’s control; consult your AI client’s documentation to determine if its capabilities meet your needs.

Do Free Tier accounts expire?

No. The Free Tier does not expire.

What does “free” mean?

“Free” means you do not need to pay Vendia for operating a managed MCP server on your behalf, connecting to your S3 buckets, fulfilling your AI agent’s file discovery queries or content requests, or logging the agent’s activities.

However, you will still incur Amazon S3 and AI provider charges for using those company’s services, and if you increase your usage you may pay more as a result. Vendia makes no warranty or representation with respect to Amazon or AI client pricing. You may be subject to AWS data transfer charges if your S3 bucket(s) and/or your AI clients are located in regions other than US-East-1.

Technical Details

What cloud region is supported?

Connected S3 buckets may reside in any region. Vendia’s Free Tier MCP service resides in the AWS US-East-1 (N. Virginia). The Free Tier does not support changing the region of the MCP service.

Account Management

Can I upgrade to a paid SKU later to gain more features or capacity?

Yes. As your needs grow, you can upgrade to Vendia Pro or Vendia Enterprise. Contact bd@vendia.com for assistance.

What file types are supported?

Vendia’s managed MCP service enables AI clients to discover, read, and create text, image, and PDF files residing in an S3 bucket up to 5GB in size. However, LLM capabilities vary widely in terms of their support for reading and writing different file types and the actions they can take on them. Consult your AI client’s documentation to understand its support for the file types you intend to use.

How do I get started?

Getting started with the Free Tier is easy and takes less than five minutes:

  1. Create a cross-account IAM role to enable Vendia to read from the S3 bucket you want to connect to AI
  2. Copy that role from the AWS console and paste it in Vendia’s console
  3. Copy the MCP server URL from Vendia’s console
  4. Paste that URL into your AI client’s MCP settings page

Popular free AI clients that work with Vendia MCP Server include Mistral AI: Le Chat.

That’s it! No coding, no servers, no deployments, no hassles. For detailed instructions, see the Vendia MCP Server Getting Started Guide.

I don’t want the AI agent to see everything in my S3 bucket. Can I limit what it has access to?

Yes. When you grant Vendia’s managed MCP server access through the AWS IAM cross-account role, you can decide which directories (or files) you want to be visible. You can change these settings by creating a new role and replacing the existing one in the Vendia console at any time.

I don’t want the AI agent to create files in my bucket; can I prevent that?

Yes. When you grant Vendia’s managed MCP server access through the AWS IAM cross-account role, you can decide whether or not to grant write (“PUT”) permission.

How can I be sure that the AI client won’t damage my existing files?

Vendia’s free tier product prevents AI clients from overwriting existing files, even if write permission is granted. You can also use AWS IAM policies to segregate the directories you want AI clients to read from versus the directories where you want it to create new files, to provide another degree of control over the impact of AI client-created content.

How can I track what files my AI agent is seeing and doing?

You can use the Vendia UI console provided with the Free Tier to view Receipts that track all AI agent activities. Receipts provide complete visibility into which files are being accessed, API calls being made, and all other operations performed by your AI clients. For more information, see Receipts.

Where can I get support?

Important: Free Tier accounts include online support only. Enterprise support options are available with paid plans. Please submit your questions or suggestions via our contact form.

API Catalogs

What are API Catalogs?

API Catalogs allow you to upload OpenAPI or Swagger specification files to enable AI applications to discover and interact with your APIs. Once you add an API specification, AI agents can automatically explore available endpoints, understand parameters, and make informed API calls.

How do I start using API Catalogs?

To use API Catalogs, add your OpenAPI or Swagger specifications through the Vendia console. The Free Tier allows you to add and use up to 2 API Catalog entries.

What API specification formats are supported?

API Catalogs support OpenAPI and Swagger specifications in the following formats:

  • JSON (.json)
  • YAML (.yaml, .yml)

Both OpenAPI 3.x and Swagger 2.0 specifications are supported. Maximum file size is 5MB per specification. Each API catalog is limited to 25 operations in the Free Tier.

How do I add authentication to my API Catalogs?

When configuring an API Catalog, you can add custom headers to include authentication credentials such as API keys, bearer tokens, or other required headers. These headers will be included in API requests made by AI agents.

Can I add and use API Catalogs with third-party APIs?

Yes. API Catalogs work with any API that has a valid OpenAPI or Swagger specification, including:

  • Internal microservices and APIs
  • Third-party services like Slack, JIRA, Snowflake, and others
  • Public APIs
  • Custom APIs you’ve developed

For more information, see the API Catalogs documentation.

Additional Resources

For more information about configuring and using Vendia MCP Server: