How do I sign up for Arcade and start on the Hobby (free) plan?

Most teams just want to get an agent talking to Gmail or Slack without a week of auth plumbing. The Hobby (free) plan exists exactly for that: to let you connect agents to real services using Arcade’s pre-built authentication and tools, without pulling out a credit card or arguing with procurement.

Quick Answer: To start on the Hobby (free) plan, go to Arcade’s signup page, create an account, and you’ll automatically be placed on the free tier with pre-built tools and included usage (100 user challenges and 1,000 standard tool executions). From there you can immediately start wiring agents to systems like Google Workspace and Slack via Arcade’s MCP runtime.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I sign up for Arcade on the Hobby (free) plan?

Short Answer: Visit arcade.dev, create an account, and you’ll be onboarded directly onto the Hobby (free) plan—no payment method required.

Expanded Explanation:
Arcade’s pricing is usage-based and friendly to experimentation. When you first sign up, your account is placed on the Hobby plan by default. That plan includes unlimited tools with pre-built authentication, 100 “user challenges” into services, and 1,000 standard tool executions so you can connect an agent to real systems and see it send emails, post to Slack, or create calendar events in minutes.

You don’t need to pick a plan in a modal or talk to sales first. Just sign up, confirm your email, and you can immediately start configuring OAuth, spinning up MCP tools, and calling them from your agent stack. If you eventually outgrow the free tier, Arcade will notify you before any automatic upgrade.

Key Takeaways:

• New accounts start on the Hobby (free) plan automatically.
• No credit card is required to access pre-built tools and included usage.

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What are the exact steps to get started on the Hobby (free) plan?

Short Answer: Sign up, verify your account, then connect a service and call a tool from your agent using Arcade’s MCP runtime and SDK.

Expanded Explanation:
The flow is intentionally low-ceremony: sign up, plug Arcade into your agent, then let the agent act with real user permissions. Arcade handles the heavy lifting—OAuth, token storage/refresh, and user-specific authorization—so you don’t have to rebuild a custom auth gateway just to send the first email from your agent.

Once you’re in, you can pull in Arcade’s MCP tools (like Google.SendEmail or Google.CreateEvent), initiate user authorization with auth.start, wait for the challenge to complete, and then let the agent call tools via MCP from Cursor, Claude, LangGraph, or your own orchestrator.

Steps:

1. Sign up at arcade.dev

   • Go to https://arcade.dev and click “Sign up for free” or “Sign up now.”
   • Create your account using email (and later wire up SSO/SAML if your org needs it).

2. Verify your account and access the dashboard

   • Confirm any verification email if prompted.
   • Log into the Arcade dashboard where you’ll see your workspace, usage, and tools.

3. Connect a service and call a tool from your agent

   • Use Arcade’s SDK to kick off a user auth flow (e.g., client.auth.start(...) then wait_for_completion).
   • Once the user grants scopes (for Gmail, Slack, etc.), call the corresponding MCP tool (e.g., Google.SendEmail, Gmail.ListEmails) from your agent and watch it take real actions using that user’s permissions.

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How is the Hobby (free) plan different from Growth or Enterprise?

Short Answer: The Hobby plan is for getting started with unlimited tools and limited usage; Growth and Enterprise add higher usage, support, and advanced governance for production, multi-team deployments.

Expanded Explanation:
On the Hobby plan, you get the same core runtime concepts—MCP tools, secure agent authorization, and zero token exposure to LLMs—but with usage caps and community-tier support. Growth and Enterprise plans are built for production-scale, multi-user agents: higher or custom usage, email/SLA-backed support, dedicated account management, and enterprise controls like RBAC, SSO/SAML, tenant isolation, and deep auditability.

Think of Hobby as “ship your first real agent that can actually do things,” and Growth/Enterprise as “run many agents across teams in production, where security and uptime are part of the contract.”

Comparison Snapshot:

• Hobby (Free):

  • Unlimited toolkit access
  • 100 user challenges and 1,000 standard tool executions included
  • Community support (e.g., GitHub Discussions)

• Growth:

  • Platform fee (listed at arcade.dev/pricing)
  • Higher included usage with automatic scaling
  • Email support with SLA

• Enterprise:

  • Custom usage and terms
  • Advanced controls (RBAC, SSO/SAML, audit logs, tenant isolation)
  • Dedicated account rep & custom SLA

• Best for:

  • Hobby: Individual builders and small teams prototyping agents.
  • Growth: Startups and teams moving from prototype to production.
  • Enterprise: Larger organizations with strict security, compliance, and scaling needs.

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Once I’m on the Hobby plan, how do I actually start using Arcade with my agents?

Short Answer: Use the SDK to run an auth challenge for a user, then wire Arcade’s MCP tools into your agent (Cursor, Claude, LangGraph, etc.) so it can execute actions like sending emails or posting to Slack.

Expanded Explanation:
Arcade is the runtime between AI and action. On the Hobby plan, that means you can immediately start having your agents take real actions, safely, under the user’s own permissions. OAuth flows run through Arcade, tokens are stored and refreshed behind the scenes, and the LLM never sees secrets—only tools.

A typical flow: your agent decides it needs to send an email, calls an Arcade tool like Google.SendEmail, Arcade checks if the user has granted scopes, prompts for auth if needed (a “user challenge”), then executes the action with user-specific permissions. All of that works the same in Hobby as in paid plans; the main difference is how much usage is included and how you’re supported when you scale.

What You Need:

• An Arcade account on the Hobby plan
  • Created at https://arcade.dev, with access to the dashboard and docs.
• An agent stack or MCP client
  • Cursor, Claude, LangGraph, or your own agent that can call MCP tools and handle basic SDK flows (auth.start, wait_for_completion, tool calls like Gmail.ListEmails or Google.CreateEvent).

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When should I move off the Hobby (free) plan, and how does upgrading work?

Short Answer: Upgrade when you consistently exceed the free usage limits or need production-level support and governance—Arcade will notify you before any automatic plan changes.

Expanded Explanation:
The Hobby plan is generous enough to build and test real agents, but production traffic will eventually outgrow 100 user challenges and 1,000 standard tool executions. When your usage approaches those thresholds, Arcade will send notifications so you’re not surprised. If you exceed Hobby limits, your account can be automatically upgraded to the next tier (e.g., Growth), and enterprise-level usage requires transitioning to an Enterprise plan within 30 days of notification.

Strategically, you should consider upgrading once:

• Multiple users or teams rely on your agents daily.
• You need formal support (email + SLA) rather than just community channels.
• Security and compliance teams require SSO/SAML, RBAC, audit logs, and deployment options like VPC or air-gapped.

Why It Matters:

• Predictable scaling: Usage-based pricing with advance notifications avoids surprise bills while letting you keep building without manually juggling limits.
• Production readiness: Moving to Growth or Enterprise brings the support, governance, and controls you’ll need when your agent is doing real work in systems like Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Linear.

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Quick Recap

To start on the Hobby (free) plan, just sign up at arcade.dev—no credit card, no sales call. You get unlimited access to pre-built MCP tools with secure, user-specific authorization, plus included free usage (100 user challenges and 1,000 standard tool executions) so your agents can move from “chat” to real actions like sending emails, creating calendar events, or updating CRM records. As you scale, you can upgrade to Growth or Enterprise for higher usage, stronger support, and enterprise-grade controls, with clear notifications before any automatic changes.

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