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Plain Freight MCP Server

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Plain Freight is listed as active in the registry but did not answer our last check. It exposes 5 tools. Last commit 27 Sep 2026.

All-in DDP quotes for China to USA shipments, 100 g to 2,000 kg, from a live rate card

Uptime history 54 days of history · worst day 0%
54 days agonow
5.4%
Uptime 24h
5 of 92 checks
5
Tools
read from the server
305 ms
Response time
average over 24h
0
Stars
last commit 27 Sep 2026

What changed 9

Every tool that appeared, vanished or quietly changed what it asks for. Recorded since 28 September 2026. No other catalogue keeps this.

8 Oct a tool description was rewritten estimate_price
5 Oct a tool description was rewritten track_shipment
28 Sep 3 tool descriptions were rewritten check_offer_status, generate_offer, track_shipment
28 Sep 2 tools appeared check_goods, estimate_price
28 Sep 2 tools changed the parameters they ask for check_offer_status, generate_offer

Plain Freight does not always answer

Over the last week it answered 10.0% of our checks. We check every 15 minutes, so you hear about the next outage within the hour — not from your users.

Three servers free · no card

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 0 min ago.

run in your terminal
claude mcp add quotes --transport http https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp
~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.quotes]
url = "https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp"
.cursor/mcp.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quotes": {
      "url": "https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}
.vscode/mcp.json
{
  "servers": {
    "quotes": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 5

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

estimate
estimate_price
Rough price estimate for shipping goods from China to a US address, 100 g to 2,000 kg. Records nothing, contacts no one and needs no email. Inputs: total weight, and optionally the product and carton sizes or total volume. Returns estimated door to door prices in USD for air (and sea from 10 kg chargeable weight), the chargeable weight used (the greater of actual weight and carton volume in cm3 / 6,000), transit estimates, and whether US import duty is included. Figures come from Plain Freight's pricing engine for densely packed goods, priced on the applicable rate; goods that need a review get no figure. The exact ZIP code, pickup city and cartons can move the price, so the result is an estimate, not an offer.
generate
generate_offer
Prices a real shipment from China to a US address, 100 g to 2,000 kg, on Plain Freight's live pricing engine. Returns door to door prices in USD: each option covers freight, US customs clearance and delivery, and says whether US import duty is included (DDP) or paid at import. Carton dimensions affect the price: for light, bulky cargo the volumetric weight sets it. Side effects: each call records a separate quote request with Plain Freight, and if an email is given the written offer is emailed to that address once a second check settles (at most one offer email per address per day). Nothing is booked or charged. The result carries a quote_id, by which the second check's verdict can be read.
goods
check_goods
Checks whether Plain Freight can ship a product from China to the US, and which documents it needs. Records nothing. Input: the product description. Returns a verdict: instant_offer or branded_rate (priced at once, each on its applicable rate) or person_checks_first (for example batteries, chemicals, food, cosmetics, seeds, vapes or weapons: a person reviews the goods before any price), with a plain explanation and the documents or details to have ready. It applies the same goods screen as Plain Freight's offers; it is not legal or customs advice.
offer
check_offer_status
Reads the result of the second check on a Plain Freight offer, by the offer's quote_id. Read-only. Returns settled (true once the check finished), possibly updated options and summary, follow-up questions whose answers change the price or customs channel, the offer email status, and needs_review. When needs_review is true, prices are withheld until a person at Plain Freight reviews the goods (for example batteries, food or chemicals), and Plain Freight follows up by email.
track
track_shipment
Reads a booked Plain Freight shipment from its tracking link. Input: the tracking link from the booking email (https://plainfreight.com/track/<token>) or the bare token; the token is the credential, so only someone the customer shared the link with can read the record. Returns the shipment reference, the current stage on the 10-stage lifecycle (Booking through Delivered), shipment details and the dated event log. Read-only; changes to a booking go by email to [email protected] with the shipment reference.

Endpoints

URLTransportStateLatencyChecked
https://plainfreight.com/api/mcp streamable-http answering 103 ms 0 min ago

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Plain Freight — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can Plain Freight do?
It exposes 5 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: check_goods, check_offer_status, estimate_price, generate_offer, track_shipment. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
Is Plain Freight working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 5 of 92 checks got a reply (5.4%), average response time 305 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
The registry lists Plain Freight as active — why does it not respond?
The official MCP registry stores what the author submitted; it does not verify that the server still runs. We check the endpoint ourselves, and this one does not answer. Catalogues that copy the registry without checking will show it as working.
How do I connect Plain Freight?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.
Does Plain Freight need an API key?
No. Plain Freight completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 5 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.
How fast is Plain Freight?
It answers our handshake in 305 ms on average, which is faster than 45% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.
Is Plain Freight open source?
The code is open source: it is published under the MIT licence and 0 stars on GitHub. The licence covers the code in the repository, not the hosted service at plainfreight.com, which runs on its operator's own terms.