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MCP vs REST Latency

How much does the MCP protocol cost in latency versus raw REST? For each case the script issues 100 identical calls over each transport and records wall-clock latency from the client side. The overhead column is the median difference (MCP - REST).

As of pending first refresh
Calls / case 100
Host https://lab.flashalpha.com

Benchmark data refresh pending

Run FA_API_KEY=<key> python scripts/refresh-mcp-vs-rest-benchmark.py to populate wwwroot/data/mcp-vs-rest-benchmark.json. The runner takes ~2 minutes for 6 cases × 100 calls × 2 transports.