The routes to WordPress MCP 🛣️
Every route ends the same way: an AI app calling tools against your site, and the table below gives the Jetpack variant of the WordPress.com route its own row. Other MCP plugins exist beyond these routes.
Routes compared from each provider’s own documentation; the two on-site plugin routes were also connected to a WordPress site and prompted, and the table below gives every route in text.
| Route | Works for | Sign-in | claude.ai / ChatGPT in the browser | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com MCP server | Every WordPress.com site, free or paid | OAuth 2.1 in the browser | Yes (connector directory and ChatGPT plugin) | Bundled in the plan |
| Same server via Jetpack | Self-hosted sites connected through Jetpack | OAuth 2.1 with your WordPress.com account | Yes | No Jetpack plan required |
| MCP Adapter | Self-hosted sites on WordPress 6.9+ | Application Password | Not on their own today, per the Adapter’s guide (Claude’s request-header option untested) | Free GPL plugin |
| Easy MCP AI | Self-hosted WordPress 6.0 or later | OAuth 2.1 or API token | Yes, both are documented clients | Free, no paid tier |
| Hosted relay (WPVibe) | Self-hosted sites reachable over the public web; local sites need one extra step | Application Password | Yes, the relay is what makes browser apps work | Free plan (100 calls a day); paid from $99/year |
WordPress.com’s MCP server
The zero-install route: one OAuth connection from your AI app reaches every site on your WordPress.com account. The catch: the access setting is account-wide, covering every site and every connected agent at once. WordPress.com’s Claude guide says writes need your confirmation before Claude runs them, but deleted media, categories and tags are permanent.
Self-hosted sites through Jetpack
The same WordPress.com server, reached through the WordPress.com account a Jetpack-connected site is linked to. MCP access is off by default and switched on under Jetpack > Jetpack AI; the site then gets the same tool catalog as a hosted site. The same account-wide setting and permanent-delete rules apply.
The MCP Adapter
WordPress’s own adapter plugin, part of the AI Building Blocks initiative: free GPL, WordPress 6.9 or newer. It is strictly the server and transport layer, adds no AI features and no wp-admin screens, and an ability is reachable over MCP only if it has been marked public; permission checks still run against the current user before anything executes.
Sign-in is a username and an Application Password over HTTPS; most desktop clients also need Node.js on your computer for the npx helper. Browser apps are the exception: per the Adapter’s own guide, the web versions of Claude and ChatGPT add connectors through an OAuth sign-in with no field for an Application Password, and WordPress includes no OAuth server, so they cannot connect on their own today; Claude’s request-header option was not tested here. On a stock WordPress 7.1.3 install, the reachable list held exactly three read-only core abilities (site info, user info, environment info); everything else arrives through plugins that register and publish abilities.
Easy MCP AI
Easy MCP AI is built by Themeisle, the team behind WPShout. The Easy MCP AI plugin is free and self-contained (30,000+ active installs): the MCP server runs in PHP on your own site (PHP 7.4+), with no hosted relay and no account to create. It runs its own MCP server and turns the WordPress abilities you enable (WordPress 6.9+) into MCP tools; it does not use the MCP Adapter, and its 280+ built-in tools work from WordPress 6.0. What a given site exposes is smaller than that: most core tools are on by default, a set of riskier ones start off, and the WooCommerce, SEO plugin and analytics integrations appear only when an admin enables and connects them; the page layout tools for Elementor, WPBakery and Flatsome load on their own when one of those builders is active.
Claude and ChatGPT are both documented clients; adding a custom MCP server in ChatGPT depends on your plan and workspace settings. Optional data providers (Semrush, SE Ranking, DataForSEO) bill their own accounts. The trade-off: a write credential is real power, and approvals for destructive actions stay off until you switch them on.
Hosted relays: WPVibe
WPVibe (by SeedProd) takes the opposite architectural bet: the MCP server is a hosted Cloudflare Worker that relays calls to your site’s REST API, where WordPress itself (or the optional free WPVibe plugin, for deeper operations) executes them as the WordPress user you authorized. Sign-in is a WordPress Application Password approved on WordPress’s own screen, stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM) on WPVibe’s servers. The catch: a third party sits in the path, and WPVibe’s security page states it directly: “We do not claim that site content never leaves your host.” Risky actions can require your approval; a confirmation step for every write is not documented.
Is WordPress MCP free?
The MCP Adapter and Easy MCP AI are free GPL plugins, but on every route the AI app you connect may bill you separately. WordPress.com MCP works on every WordPress.com site, free or paid, and Jetpack-connected sites need no Jetpack plan, though which tools a site gets can still depend on its plan; WPVibe has a capped free plan.
