THE STANDARD
What the Model Context Protocol is.
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What is the Model Context Protocol?
An open standard that lets an AI assistant use an outside tool. Instead of each assistant inventing its own plugin system, one protocol describes how a tool announces what it can do and how the assistant calls it.
Who controls it?
No single company. It was donated to the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation in December 2025.
Which assistants support it?
Support varies by assistant and by plan. The dated position for each is listed below.
Where it came from
The Model Context Protocol was released as an open standard around 25 November 2024 under an MIT licence.
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MCP was donated to the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation on 9 December 2025, co-founded with Block and OpenAI, with platinum members including AWS, Google, Microsoft, Cloudflare and Bloomberg. It is no longer any single company's protocol.
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Anthropic's 9 December 2025 ecosystem update cited more than 10,000 active public MCP servers and more than 97 million monthly SDK downloads across Python and TypeScript.
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Who supports it, by plan
Anthropic
Free with one connector, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise.
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OpenAI
Custom connectors in ChatGPT need developer mode, set up on ChatGPT on the web under Settings, Apps, Advanced settings, Developer mode. Full read and write is a beta on Business, Enterprise and Edu, once an admin turns it on; Pro gets developer mode with read-only access; Plus and Free do not have it.
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Perplexity
Local MCP in the Mac app.
Remote MCP is listed as coming soon.
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Mistral
All plans including free, launched 2 September 2025.
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xAI
All Grok users, at grok.com/connectors. On Business and Enterprise an admin sets it up first.
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Reported, not in Google's consumer help
Google's consumer help pages do not document custom MCP as of 17 October 2026. Third-party guides report an 'Add a custom app' option under Connected Apps on the Gemini web app, limited by plan and region (reported as AI Ultra and US). Check in your own account.
Verified . Third-party reporting.
Microsoft
No clear route for a user to add a custom connector.
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Why it matters for memory
A memory layer is only useful if the assistant you happen to be using can read it. MCP is what makes that possible without a separate integration for every assistant. How to connect your Twin.