Okta targets AI agent token costs with MCP scoping

2 days ago 8

Okta says identity-scoped Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool lists can reduce AI agent token costs.

Each model call made by an AI agent can include schemas, names, descriptions and parameters for every tool exposed by a MCP server. Okta calls the resulting prompt overhead the “tool tax”: tokens consumed as a model considers tools, including those it will never call.

The company argues that this cost appears before an agent attempts a tool call. A later rejection of an unauthorised request therefore cannot recover prompt tokens already consumed. Okta’s proposed control filters the list of tools before it reaches the model, using permissions assigned to an agent identity and the user associated with it.

Okta’s internal modelling found that some permission scenarios reduced the number of visible tools by more than 90%. The company said tool-schema costs fell by roughly the same proportion, although it did not provide absolute token or dollar figures.