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Sign up with Mapbox

Every Mapbox account includes free monthly usage. If you sign up without a payment method, your account starts on a demo trial with usage limits until you add one. When you plan to use Mapbox in production, upgrade to standard access from your Developer Console.

Sign up for demo access, no credit card required

You can sign up for demo access from the Mapbox signup page or while connecting to a hosted Mapbox MCP server. Both methods give you the same demo access.

Sign up on mapbox.com for demo access

  1. Go to the signup page, fill out the form, and select Start without a card.
  2. Complete the form and click Create account.
  3. Open the confirmation email from no-reply@mapbox.com and verify your email.

Confirmation links are valid for 24 hours.

Sign up while connecting to a Mapbox MCP server

When you connect an AI assistant to a hosted Mapbox MCP server, such as the DevKit MCP Server, your browser opens a Mapbox sign-in page as part of the OAuth flow. If you do not have an account yet, click Sign up for Mapbox and choose Start without a card to create one.

What demo access includes

With demo access, you can try nearly everything you can with standard access, such as logging into your Developer Console and accessing Mapbox APIs and SDKs. This trial period doesn't require an invoice or payment method, but the account is subject to usage limits.

Some Mapbox products are not available on demo access. Upgrade to standard access to use them.

Limits

Demo access is subject to usage caps and rate limits, which are significantly lower than on standard access:

  • Usage caps on how much of each product you can use on demo access. The Console dashboard shows your usage against each cap. As long as the account stays below the usage caps, the limits reset monthly.
  • Rate limits on how many requests the demo token can make in a short period.

When you reach a usage cap on demo access, you lose access to all Mapbox APIs until you upgrade. Your Developer Console shows the message Usage limit reached. Upgrading removes the usage limits and restores access to the Mapbox APIs.

Standard rate limits still apply after upgrading

After upgrading, standard rate limits for each Mapbox API still apply to the account.

Upgrade to standard access

Upgrading moves your account to pay-as-you-go pricing. You keep your username, styles, tilesets, and all other data. Mapbox never upgrades your account automatically, and you cannot switch from standard access back to demo access.

To upgrade your account, follow these steps:

  1. Log in and click Add payment method in the Welcome to Mapbox banner at the top of the page.
  2. Provide the required information, including a payment method.
  3. Choose what to do with your demo token.
    • Rotate token (Recommended) replaces the demo token with a new default public token. Requests made with the old token fail from that point on, so it cannot generate charges on your account.
    • Keep token leaves the token unchanged so a running prototype keeps working. Choose this only if a prototype still depends on the token, and create a new token before you use Mapbox in production.
  4. Confirm your choice. Your Developer Console shows Account setup complete! and the usage limits no longer apply.

After upgrading, your account works like any other pay-as-you-go account. You receive a monthly invoice for usage above the free tiers, and you can create and manage access tokens as usual. You can also set up usage notifications to get email alerts when your monthly usage reaches thresholds you set. Go to the Usage notifications page in your account settings, choose a service, and enter a monthly usage threshold in that service's usage units (for example, requests or monthly active users). You can add multiple thresholds for each service.

Charges after upgrading

Any application that still uses your default public token after you upgrade generates billable usage on your account. Review where the token is in use before you take a project to production.

Token security after upgrading

Before you use Mapbox tokens in production, review the security recommendations and create a new token with the features you need.

Troubleshooting

Are you having trouble signing up for demo access, using your demo token, or upgrading your account? If you still cannot resolve the issue after reviewing this documentation, contact support.

I cannot create a new access token or delete my existing one

Demo access includes one access token, and you cannot create, rotate, or delete tokens on demo access. Provide a payment method to manage tokens.

I upgraded my account. Do I need to update the token in my code?

If you chose Rotate token, yes. Copy the new default public token from your Access Tokens page and replace the old value in your project.

If you chose Keep token, the existing token continues to work. Before you use Mapbox in production, create a new public token with URL restrictions and replace the demo token in your project.

Also see How to use Mapbox securely.

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