MCP-Bench: Benchmarking Tool-Using LLM Agents with Complex Real-World Tasks via MCP Servers

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2508.20453v1
• Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2025 05:58:57 GMT
• Title: MCP-Bench: Benchmarking Tool-Using LLM Agents with Complex Real-World Tasks via MCP Servers
• Abstract summary: MCP-Bench is a benchmark for evaluating large language models (LLMs) on realistic, multi-step tasks.<n>Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), MCP-Bench connects LLMs to 28 representative live MCP servers spanning 250 tools across domains such as finance, traveling, scientific computing, and academic search.
• Score: 24.6512259539754
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: We introduce MCP-Bench, a benchmark for evaluating large language models (LLMs) on realistic, multi-step tasks that demand tool use, cross-tool coordination, precise parameter control, and planning/reasoning for solving tasks. Built on the Model Context Protocol (MCP), MCP-Bench connects LLMs to 28 representative live MCP servers spanning 250 tools across domains such as finance, traveling, scientific computing, and academic search. Unlike prior API-based benchmarks, each MCP server provides a set of complementary tools designed to work together, enabling the construction of authentic, multi-step tasks with rich input-output coupling. Tasks in MCP-Bench test agents' ability to retrieve relevant tools from fuzzy instructions without explicit tool names, plan multi-hop execution trajectories for complex objectives, ground responses in intermediate tool outputs, and orchestrate cross-domain workflows - capabilities not adequately evaluated by existing benchmarks that rely on explicit tool specifications, shallow few-step workflows, and isolated domain operations. We propose a multi-faceted evaluation framework covering tool-level schema understanding and usage, trajectory-level planning, and task completion. Experiments on 20 advanced LLMs reveal persistent challenges in MCP-Bench. Code and data: https://github.com/Accenture/mcp-bench.

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