---
title: "theAuth pricing: free to self-host, Cloud early access"
description: "theAuth is MIT licensed and free to self-host. Cloud is in early access with no published prices. Compare total cost against per-MAU pricing."
canonical: https://theauth.dev/pricing/
lastmod: 2026-10-10
---

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)

[Read the quickstart](https://docs.theauth.dev/quickstart)

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

[Ask in GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/glincker/theauth/discussions)

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.

- [Security](https://theauth.dev/security/)
- [Agent identity](https://theauth.dev/agent-identity/)
- [Self-host or Cloud](https://theauth.dev/#trust)