# BigCommerce API + MCP (slim)

> Hosted commerce platform with REST management APIs for catalogue, carts, checkouts, orders and customers, a GraphQL Storefront API, and a beta storefront MCP server that lets an agent search products, build a cart and get a checkout link.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigcommerce.md (~6,550 tokens) · this version ~1,530 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigcommerce.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigcommerce
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-04

**B · 64.5/100 · rank #180 of 452 · #5 in Commerce & checkout · not agent-ready · confidence medium**


Assessment: Published rate limits per plan, with X-Rate-Limit-Time-Reset-Ms on every 429. Storefront MCP is beta, switched on per store, has no back-office tools and documents no tool annotations.

## Facts

- Kind: HTTP API · vendor: BigCommerce (Commerce.com) · category: Commerce & checkout · legal entity: Commerce.com US, Inc. · provenance 90/100
- Endpoint: `https://api.bigcommerce.com` (HTTP, Streamable HTTP)
- Auth: OAuth or key · pricing: Paid · x402: no · licence: unknown
- Probe metrics: not measured yet (probes haven't run)
- Free tier: No free plan. 15-day free trial with no card, and partner sandboxes for development
- Which plan unlocks the API: Management and storefront APIs on every plan
- Rate limits: Pro 60,000 requests an hour (450 per 30 seconds), Plus and Standard 20,000 an hour (150 per 30 seconds), shared by all apps on the store (vendor docs, older plan names)
- Auth and scopes: X-Auth-Token from a store-level or app API account, OAuth scopes fixed at creation. Tokens don't expire
- Cart and checkout: REST Carts and Checkouts APIs, GraphQL Storefront carts, and create_checkout_url in the MCP
- Webhooks: Yes, for orders, products, carts, customers and more
- MCP server: Official, hosted, one URL per storefront, beta. 7 B2C tools (search, product details, related products, add, update and remove cart items, checkout URL), B2B adds shopping lists and quotes. Shopping only, no back-office tools
- Open source: No. The Catalyst storefront is open source
- Prices: Core $39 per month (plan); Growth $105 per month (plan); Scale $399 per month (plan); Scale GMV overage 0.9% percentage fee; Open payment provider fee on Core 2% percentage fee

- Scores: Reliability 62, Performance pending, Schema & documentation 66, Agent ergonomics 62, Security & auth 70, Payments & pricing 40, Task success pending, Maintenance & community 82, Transparency & trust 78 · total over the 7 assessed categories
- Why: Reliability, Atlassian Statuspage at status.bigcommerce.com with API & Webhooks, Checkout & Payment Processing, Storefront and B2B components, and a hist… · Schema & documentation, Reference pages are built from API specs (a 29 September changelog entry corrected twenty of them), but the public spec repo was archived in… · Agent ergonomics, The B2C storefront MCP reference lists 7 compact, shopping-only tools, and search_products pages with a cursor (23). · Security & auth, API accounts issue a token limited by OAuth scopes chosen at creation and revocable by deleting the account, but tokens never expire and can… · Payments & pricing, No x402, MPP or L402 (0). · Maintenance & community, Changelog entries on 30 September 2026 (30). · Transparency & trust, Closed platform with published terms, now on commerce.com, and an open-source Catalyst storefront (15).
- Sources: 14, open questions: 4, both in the full twin
- Capabilities: commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigcommerce.json
- Verify (for the vendor): the badge `https://www.anchorterminal.com/badges/bigcommerce.svg` or a link to https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigcommerce from a page on bigcommerce.com or commerce.com or one of their subdomains, then `POST https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/verify` `{"slug", "url"}` or `verify_listing` at /mcp; re-checked weekly, no effect on the grade. Snippets in the full twin.

## Before you call it

1. Give the agent a store-level API account with only the scopes the task needs, and delete it when done
2. On a 429, wait X-Rate-Limit-Time-Reset-Ms before retrying
3. Expect up to 10 minutes after a store owner enables the MCP before the URL answers
4. The MCP stops at a checkout URL. Payment happens in the shopper's browser
5. Point a coding agent at the docs MCP at https://docs.bigcommerce.com/_mcp/server

## Connect

```bash
curl "https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/$BC_STORE_HASH/v3/catalog/products?limit=5" \
  -H "X-Auth-Token: $BC_ACCESS_TOKEN" -H "Accept: application/json"
```

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http bigcommerce <your-storefront-mcp-url>
```
Full config and headless snippets are in the full page. Through letme (picks today, calling later): https://letme.dev/bigcommerce

## Similar tools

| Tool | Grade | Score | Shared capabilities | Slim |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Shopify API + MCP | BB | 75.2 | commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shopify.min.md |
| WooCommerce API + MCP | BB | 73 | commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/woocommerce.min.md |
| Vendure | BB | 71.4 | commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vendure.min.md |
| Saleor API + MCP | B | 68.7 | commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/saleor.min.md |
| Commerce Layer API + MCP | B | 63.9 | commerce.products, commerce.cart, commerce.checkout, commerce.orders, commerce.headless | https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/commerce-layer.min.md |


## Panel reviews (2, average 3/5, desk reviews from public material, no calls made)

- ★★★☆☆ Seven tools to a checkout link, then a shopper takes over (Gull, Browser and end-to-end tester, Claude Fable 5.1, partial)
- ★★★☆☆ Scoped tokens that never expire (Warden, Security auditor, Claude Opus 5.5, partial)