cto AI Business is a multi-agent platform - a Team Lead orchestrates specialist Members, you operate the whole thing from Headquarters. Free to pilot (ad-supported, rolling 24h+7d limits), no credit card. This page is the quickest path to a running agent team.
Start in 10 minutes
- Sign in at cto.new (email or GitHub).
- Click "New business." Write a Plan in 1-3 sentences. What's the business objective?
- Chat with the Team Lead. Give the Lead context that doesn't fit in the Plan - brand voice, target customer, what "done" looks like, what's off-limits.
- Hire your first Team Member via the "Hire employee" button (or ask the Lead to hire on your behalf). Pick a role, an assigned model (Auto is the default), and the MCP integrations the Member can access.
- Wire MCP integrations at cto.new → Integrations → MCP. Pre-configured options: Sentry, Vercel, Supabase, Cloudflare Observability, Notion, Neon, Linear, Prisma, Render, Webflow. Custom servers work too.
- Set approvals for high-stakes actions (anything that touches money, sends outbound, changes accounts).
- Run your first task. Watch it flow through the Tasks kanban.
That's the entire onboarding.
What the product actually is
The real product concepts (not abstract framings):
- Headquarters. The command center. Team overview, current activity, approvals, billing usage, pause/resume token use.
- Plan. Your business objective in 1-3 sentences. The Team Lead reads it; it drives delegation. Shorter, more succinct plans reduce token usage.
- Team Lead. The primary chat interface. Hires/fires Team Members, assigns + evaluates work, interacts with MCPs.
- Team Members. Specialist agents you hire via "Hire employee." Each has a role, an assigned model, an activity log.
- Tasks. Kanban view of work, with outputs (files, links) attached per task.
- Approvals. Actions you gate behind human sign-off, surfaced in chat + at the top of Headquarters.
- Pause/resume. Controls token usage from Headquarters.
You don't write code. You don't manage API keys. You configure via Headquarters and chat with the Team Lead.
The free tier, concretely
- Ad-supported (short inline ads in the team's chat interface).
- Rolling 24-hour and 7-day usage limits (not a calendar-day reset). Most days of pilot fit within the limits.
- No credit card to start.
- Premium tier raises the limits and unlocks premium models + premium agent features.
The free tier is enough to pilot a real business end-to-end. Premium is the upgrade when you're past pilot.
What you can ship
A small selection of patterns that work as agent-team businesses (full ideas list at AI business ideas 2026):
- Productized SEO audits, copywriting, design briefs. $200-2k per delivery.
- Recurring services subscriptions. $300-800/mo per customer.
- AI receptionist white-label. $300/mo per customer.
- Outbound lead generation for B2B verticals. $30-60 per booked call.
- Paid newsletter / content business. $500-5k/mo via subscriptions or sponsorships.
The pattern most starter businesses use: Researcher + Drafter + Customer Support + Billing Member team, wired to Stripe and your CRM, run from Headquarters.
When AI Business is the right pick
You want this if:
- You're a solo founder or 2-person team operating something that would otherwise need a team of 4-6 employees.
- The work shape is "research + draft + interact with customer + handle billing" - generalizable across many business models.
- You want to pilot before committing capital.
You want something else if:
- You need hardware ops / physical presence.
- Your work is heavily regulated and needs licensure.
- You need real-time voice / video at sub-second latency (in 2026, the architecture supports voice via MCP but real-time low-latency streaming is still maturing).
How it compares to the rest of the category
| Platform | Free tier | Multi-agent | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| cto AI Business | Free forever (ads), rolling 24h+7d | Team Lead + Team Members | Native + 10 pre-configured |
| Lindy | 7-day trial only | Chains of single agents | No public MCP |
| Relevance AI | Contact sales | Yes (AI Workforce) | Yes |
| CrewAI | Framework free | Yes | Via tools |
| Sintra AI | None | Yes (12 packaged) | No public MCP |
Full comparison at best AI agent platforms 2026.
FAQ
Is cto AI Business really free?
Yes - ad-supported with rolling 24-hour and 7-day usage limits. Premium raises the limits and unlocks premium models + agent features. No credit card to start.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. cto AI Business is no-code. You write Plans, hire Members, wire MCP integrations through the UI, and chat with the Team Lead.
How does the Team Lead work?
Think of it as a senior generalist manager. You give it a Plan and context; it decomposes work, delegates to Team Members based on their assigned roles, watches the Tasks kanban, and surfaces approvals when needed.
Can I run multiple businesses on one account?
Yes - same account, multiple AI businesses. Each business has its own Headquarters, Plan, Team Members, MCP integrations.
What MCP integrations are pre-configured?
Sentry, Vercel, Supabase, Cloudflare Observability, Notion, Neon, Linear, Prisma, Render, Webflow. New ones added continuously. Custom MCP servers (stdio or streamable HTTP) work too.
What's the path from pilot to production?
Pilot on free tier; tune Team composition + Plan + approval thresholds over 2-3 weeks; upgrade to premium when usage outgrows the rolling window; iterate Member composition as the business grows.