Arcade
Arcade is the MCP runtime for AI agents that handles authorization, reliability, and governance. Ship agents that work and pass security reviews.
Editor's Verdict
Key Takeaways
- Agent Authorization
- Agent-Optimized Tools
- Central Control Plane
- Runs with Your Stack
In-Depth Review: What is Arcade?
Arcade provides a unified runtime layer between AI agents and external systems, handling user authentication, tool execution, and audit logging. It integrates with any identity provider, supports thousands of pre-built MCP tools, and is framework-agnostic. With Arcade, agents act on behalf of real users with dynamic permissions, ensuring security and compliance. Deploy on your terms – cloud, on-prem, or air-gapped. Trusted by enterprise teams to ship production AI agents.
Core Features
Agent Authorization
Agents act as real users with dynamic permissions; existing IDP plugs in, credentials never leave the runtime.
Agent-Optimized Tools
User intent maps to the right API call the first time with no hallucinated parameters or silent failures.
Central Control Plane
Every action logged by user, agent, and system; one place to set policy and audit.
Runs with Your Stack
Compatible with any LLM, framework, identity provider, or MCP client; no lock-in.
Compliance-Ready
SOC 2 compliant with SSO, RBAC, and full audit logs out of the box.
Deploy on Your Terms
Cloud, on-prem, air-gapped, or hybrid; full control over data location and security.
Built by Experts
Team from Okta, Snowflake, Redis, MongoDB; authored MCP tool authorization spec.
Pricing
Free
- 2,000 auth events/month
- 2,000 tool calls/month
- Fully managed on Arcade Cloud
- Community support on Discord and GitHub
Team
- Auth events at $0.10 each
- Tool calls at $0.01 each
- Fully managed on Arcade Cloud
- Next-business-day email support
Enterprise
- Annual bundles of auth events and tool calls
- Discounted additional rates as you scale
- Flexible deployment options (Cloud, VPC, air-gapped)
- 24/7 SLA-backed support
- Dedicated FDE & account team
- SSO, RBAC, audit logs, and private registry access
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Seamless AuthorizationIntegrates with existing identity providers, enabling agents to act as real users with dynamic permissions.
- Reliable Tool ExecutionOptimized MCP tools reduce hallucinations and retries, saving tokens and improving accuracy.
- Full Audit TrailsCentral control plane logs every action by user, agent, and system, easing governance and compliance.
- Flexible DeploymentSupports cloud, on-prem, air-gapped, and hybrid deployments, giving enterprises control over data.
- Framework AgnosticWorks with any LLM, framework, or MCP client, avoiding vendor lock-in.
Cons
- Limited Free TierFree plan has low usage limits (2,000 auth events and tool calls per month), which may be insufficient for prototyping beyond basic tests.
- Usage Costs Can ScaleTeam plan charges $0.10 per auth event and $0.01 per tool call, which can become expensive for high-volume applications.
- Dependency on MCP RuntimeRequires running within Arcade's runtime, adding an extra layer that some teams may consider overhead.
- Learning Curve for Custom ToolsDevelopers must learn the Arcade framework to build custom MCP tools, which may have a learning curve.
- Enterprise Pricing Not TransparentEnterprise plan requires contacting sales, making it harder to estimate costs upfront.
Use Cases & Recommended Professions
AI/ML Engineer→ View Toolkit
Needs to deploy secure, production-ready AI agents that interact with business systems without building auth infrastructure.
Security Engineer→ View Toolkit
Requires granular control and auditability over agent actions to pass security reviews and maintain compliance.
Product Manager→ View Toolkit
Wants to ship agent features quickly while ensuring governance and reliability for customer-facing products.
DevOps Engineer→ View Toolkit
Needs flexible deployment options (on-prem, VPC) and integration with existing identity and monitoring stacks.
Software Developer→ View Toolkit
Builds agents using various frameworks and needs a unified runtime for authorization, tool execution, and logging.
IT Administrator→ View Toolkit
Manages enterprise identity providers and requires a solution that plugs into existing OAuth/SSO flows for agent access.
Frequently Asked Questions
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ℹ️ Curation Disclosure: The overview and features of Arcade were synthesized using AI and fact-checked by our curation team to ensure accuracy.
