# Open source Google Sheets MCP servers, compared Several open source MCP servers can read a Google Sheet, and they are genuinely free. What they are not is zero-effort: each one needs a Google Cloud project, credentials, and a process you keep running. Here is the honest comparison, including where PasteSheet does not fit. *Last updated: 2026-07-26 · Source: * ## Key facts - MCP is an **open protocol** built on JSON-RPC 2.0. A server exposes Resources, Prompts and Tools to any MCP client — Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, VS Code and Windsurf all speak it. ([source](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18)) - Google does publish an **open-source** Workspace MCP server (a Gemini CLI extension) that includes Sheets — but you run it yourself, and it still needs a Google Cloud project and OAuth credentials. There is **no hosted, zero-setup** Google Sheets MCP server from Google. ([source](https://github.com/google/mcp)) - Google's API requires a **Google Cloud project plus OAuth credentials or a service account** before it will return a single row. ([source](https://developers.google.com/workspace/sheets/api/guides/authorizing)) - PasteSheet's MCP server exposes three tools — `list_tabs`, `get_schema` and `query_rows` — and is **read-only by design**: an agent can query your sheet but can never modify it. ## What people mean by an open source Sheets MCP server MCP is an **open protocol** — the specification itself is public, and anyone can implement a server against it. So in one sense every MCP server speaks an open standard. But when people search for an *open source Google Sheets MCP server*, they usually mean something narrower: source code they can read, fork, audit, and run on their own machine, with no vendor in the request path. That is a legitimate requirement, and it is worth being clear about which servers actually meet it — and what the day-two cost of running one looks like once the demo works. ## The options that are genuinely open source Two categories of code are worth knowing about: - **Community servers** such as `mcp-google-sheets` — permissively licensed, installable via `uvx` or Docker, and typically read-write. You supply the Google credentials and the process. - **Google's own Workspace MCP server** — Google publishes an open-source Workspace MCP server as a Gemini CLI extension, and that one *does* include Sheets. But it is the self-hosted flavour: Google's [hosted MCP servers skip Sheets entirely](https://pastesheet.com/guides/google-sheets-mcp-vs-google-official). - **Roll your own** — the protocol is JSON-RPC 2.0 and the Sheets API is documented, so a minimal server is a weekend. Keeping it correct, cached, and patched is the part that is not a weekend. ## What running one actually costs None of these servers can read a sheet until Google trusts them. That means a **Google Cloud project**, the Sheets API enabled, and either OAuth credentials or a service-account JSON key — the last of which is a long-lived secret you now have to store, rotate, and keep out of your shell history. Then there is the process itself. An MCP server is a running service: something has to start it, restart it when it dies, patch it when a dependency ships a CVE, and keep it reachable from whichever client you are using. And because most community servers default to **read-write**, a confused agent can modify the spreadsheet — which is exactly the failure mode you do not want to discover in production. The licence is free. The Cloud project, the secret rotation, the uptime, and the blast radius are the actual price. ## Self-hosted open source vs a hosted endpoint Neither column is strictly better — they optimise for different things: | | Open source, self-hosted | PasteSheet | | --- | --- | --- | | Source code you can audit | Yes | No — hosted service | | Google Cloud project | Required | Not required | | Credentials to manage | Service account or OAuth | None — a shared link | | Who runs the process | You | Managed and edge-cached | | Write access | Usually read-write | Read-only by design | | Also a REST API | No | Yes — the same endpoint | | Cost model | Free licence, your infra | Flat monthly, free tier | | Time to first query | An afternoon | A couple of minutes | ## Is PasteSheet open source? No — and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise on a page about open source. PasteSheet is a hosted service. If your requirement is auditable source code or data residency on your own hardware, a community server or Google's self-hosted Workspace extension is the right answer, and this page is not trying to talk you out of it. Where PasteSheet wins is the other requirement: you want an agent reading a spreadsheet *today*, you do not want a Cloud project, and you want the connection to be [structurally incapable of writing](https://pastesheet.com/guides/read-only-google-sheets-mcp). That is a different trade, not a better one. If self-hosting is the sticking point rather than the source code, the [hosted alternative guide](https://pastesheet.com/guides/self-hosted-google-sheets-mcp-alternative) covers the same ground from that angle. ## What the hosted route costs **MCP is included on the Free plan.** Connect any **public** endpoint over MCP with no Google Cloud project and no credit card. Private endpoints and the account-wide workspace server need a paid plan (from **Starter ($9/mo)**) for the keys and OAuth they authenticate with. Pro adds full-text search and aggregation (`count`, `sum`, `avg`, `group_by`) that your AI agent can call through `query_rows`. **Starter — $9/month.** For indie makers shipping a real app. - Endpoints: 10 - Requests: 50,000 / month - Rows per endpoint: 5,000 - Tabs per endpoint: 5 - Rate limit: 300 / minute ## Frequently asked questions ### Is there an open source Google Sheets MCP server? Yes. Community servers such as mcp-google-sheets are open source, and Google publishes an open-source Workspace MCP server (a Gemini CLI extension) that includes Sheets. Both are self-hosted: you supply a Google Cloud project, credentials, and somewhere to run the process. ### Is PasteSheet open source? No. PasteSheet is a hosted service. The trade-off is convenience and safety for control: you get a maintained, cached, read-only endpoint with no Google Cloud project, but you cannot read or fork the source. ### What does an open source MCP server actually cost to run? The licence is free. The real cost is a Google Cloud project, OAuth or service-account credentials you must store and rotate, and a process you deploy, patch, and keep online. ### Are open source Sheets MCP servers read-only? Usually not. Most community servers default to read-write, so a confused agent can modify your spreadsheet. PasteSheet exposes only list_tabs, get_schema, and query_rows, which cannot mutate the sheet. ## Sources - [Model Context Protocol specification](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/specification/2025-06-18) — Model Context Protocol - [google/mcp — Google's open-source MCP servers](https://github.com/google/mcp) — Google - [Authorize requests — Google Sheets API](https://developers.google.com/workspace/sheets/api/guides/authorizing) — Google - [Service accounts overview](https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/service-account-overview) — Google Cloud ## Related guides - [Self-Hosted Google Sheets MCP Alternative](https://pastesheet.com/guides/self-hosted-google-sheets-mcp-alternative) — A hosted alternative to self-hosted Google Sheets MCP servers: no service account, Docker, or uvx — paste a share URL and get a read-only endpoint. - [Google Sheets MCP vs Google's Official MCP](https://pastesheet.com/guides/google-sheets-mcp-vs-google-official) — Does Google have an official Google Sheets MCP server? Its official and Workspace MCP servers both skip Sheets — here is the no-setup way instead. - [Read-Only Google Sheets MCP for Agents](https://pastesheet.com/guides/read-only-google-sheets-mcp) — A read-only Google Sheets MCP server is safe to hand an AI agent: it can query, filter, and analyze your data but can never modify the spreadsheet. - [Google Sheets MCP Server for Claude & ChatGPT](https://pastesheet.com/guides/google-sheets-mcp) — Turn any Google Sheet into an MCP server so Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT can read and query it in plain English. No code, no backend — connect in minutes. --- [PasteSheet](https://pastesheet.com) turns any Google Sheet into a live REST API and MCP server for AI agents — no backend, no code. Canonical HTML version of this page: