Hi,
We are building a custom integration (non-published platform app, user OAuth) that calls the Box MCP Server at https://mcp.box.com. Because this use case is charged, we measured how requests are counted.
Setup
On 2026-11-04 (PST) we created one custom app per test case and sent exactly 7 requests per app, each as an independent HTTP POST. All responses were HTTP 200 (202 for the notification). We then ran the Platform Activity report (all metrics) and the Box MCP Server Tool Calls report.
Platform Activity, metric = API, billable = Yes:
| What we sent (x7) | API count | Per request |
|---|---|---|
| initialize | 8 | 1 |
| initialize + notifications/initialized | 15 | 1 each |
| tools/list | 8 | 1 |
| search_files_keyword (0 results) | 8 | 1 |
| search_files_keyword (10 results) | 8 | 1 |
| get_file_content, short .txt | 15 | 2 |
| get_file_content, large PDF (~290k characters) | 15 | 2 |
| get_file_content, scanned PDF | 15 | 2 |
| get_file_content, PNG (returned isError) | 8 | 1 |
| REST GET /2.0/users/me | 8 | 1 |
Every app shows exactly one extra call. We assume it is the OAuth token exchange we did once per app just before the test.
The Tool Calls report shows 7 for each tool, as expected.
Questions
- The pricing page (https://docs.box.com/en/box-mcp/pricing) says "Any tool invocation: 1 API call". Is it expected that a successful get_file_content is counted as 2 API calls in Platform Activity? If so, what are the two calls (for example, file info + download)?
- Is it always 2 regardless of file type and size? In our test a short .txt, a large PDF and a scanned PDF were all 2, and a PNG that returned isError was 1.
- notifications/initialized was also counted as 1 API call. Is that expected? It is not listed on the pricing page.
- Are OAuth token exchanges (authorization code and refresh token) counted as API calls?
We need to estimate monthly API usage for an account with an API call limit, so any clarification would help. Thank you!