What is Retool?
Prompt-built internal apps, agents and workflows on your data.
Who is Retool best for?
Retool is best for engineering and operations teams that build internal apps and AI agents on their own databases.
Internal tools on live data
Apps are generated from a prompt against your real Postgres, Databricks, Salesforce and other sources, using your existing schema and roles.
Operations teams automating processes
Workflows chain AI steps, data changes and business rules, with an audit trail for every run.
Companies with strict security rules
SSO, role-based access and audit logs apply to generated apps by default, and Enterprise can run self-hosted or air-gapped.
Customer and partner portals
The Business plan adds portals and embedded apps, with the first 50 external users free.
How much does Retool cost?
Retool is free for up to 5 users, and its paid plans charge per person: Team costs $12 per builder and $7 per internal user a month, and Business $65 and $18, with lower rates billed yearly.
- Unlimited web and mobile apps
- 500 workflow runs, 250 AI credits and up to 20 agent hours a month
- 5GB of database and 5GB of file storage
- 5,000 workflow runs a month
- 1,000 AI credits a month (750 plus 250 bonus)
- Staging environment and app release versions
- 3,000 AI credits a month (1,500 plus 1,500 bonus)
- Audit logs, detailed permissions and custom branding
- Portals, embedded apps and external user pricing
- SAML or OpenID Connect SSO, SCIM and Git source control
- Self-hosted or air-gapped deployment
- 1,000 AI credits per builder plus 4,000 pooled a month
Billed yearly, Team is $10 per builder and $5 per internal user a month, and Business $50 and $15. A builder is anyone who built or edited an app or workflow in the billing cycle; everyone else is an internal user. On Business, the first 50 external users are free, then each costs $10 a month up to 250, $7 up to 500 and $5 beyond ($8, $6 and $4 billed yearly). Extra workflow runs cost $75 per 5,000 a month, agents are billed by the hour at a rate that depends on the model, and extra AI credit packs are sold on paid plans. Self-hosting is only on Enterprise. Students and educators can apply for a free Business account, and non-profits for 25 free seats. The Team plan also costs $7 per internal user. The Business plan also costs $18 per internal user. Full pricing on retool.com. We checked these prices on .
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How do I connect Retool to my AI agent?
Retool MCP is Retool's official MCP server. Add it to your agent once, then ask it to manage your Retool org and build internal apps.
Your agent can look after your Retool organisation and its users, and help build apps, which saves trips to the admin pages for routine setup.
Retool gives each account its own server address. Open the setup guide, copy your address, then add it to Claude Code like any other server.
Use the address from Retool's setup guide.
Run /mcp and sign in to Retool in the browser.
Then ask your agent
- Runs
- On the web
- Sign-in
- OAuth
- Maker
- Retool
- Guide
- docs.retool.com
What are the best Retool alternatives?
Three tools on Recaply do Retool's job. All three are open source, so you can run them on your own server.
ToolJetOpen SourceChoose it when you want to host it yourself and keep your data on your own server.
AppsmithOpen SourceChoose it when you want admin panels and dashboards built on your own servers from an Apache 2.0 codebase you can extend
RefineOpen SourceChoose it when you want internal tools as plain React code that you own, version in Git and deploy on your own servers
Questions about Retool
What is the difference between a builder and an internal user in Retool?
Retool charges the builder rate for anyone who built or edited an app or workflow during the billing cycle, and the lower internal user rate for everyone who only uses the apps. On Team that is $12 against $7 per person a month, billed monthly.
Who is Retool for?
Retool is best for engineering and operations teams that build internal apps and AI agents on their own databases.
Is Retool free?
Yes. Retool has a free plan: unlimited web and mobile apps.
How much does Retool cost?
Retool's paid plans are Team at $12 per builder per month and Business at $65 per builder per month.
Does Retool have an MCP server?
Yes. Retool MCP is Retool's official MCP server, so agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and GitHub Copilot can manage your Retool org and build internal apps. Retool runs it on the web and you sign in with your Retool account.
Is there an open source alternative to Retool?
Yes. ToolJet, Appsmith, Refine and Reflex and 4 more are open source tools that do the same job, so you can run your own.
What are the best Retool alternatives?
The closest alternatives on Recaply are ToolJet, Appsmith and Refine.
Where can I try Retool?
On its official website, retool.com.
Can I self-host Retool?
Yes, but only on the Enterprise plan. Free, Team and Business run on Retool Cloud, while Enterprise supports managed cloud, self-hosting in your own VPC and air-gapped setups. Retool says a self-hosted install takes about 15 minutes with Docker.
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