WorkOS

WorkOS is an API platform that lets software teams add enterprise-grade identity and access features to their applications without building the underlying integrations themselves. Core products include Single Sign-On for any SAML or OIDC identity provider, Directory Sync for SCIM and HRIS providers, User Management, an Admin Portal that gives IT administrators a self-serve configuration experience, and Audit Logs. Authentication options span enterprise SSO, social sign-in with providers such as Microsoft and Google, passkeys, passwords, Magic Auth passwordless six-digit email codes, and multi-factor authentication, with AuthKit providing a hosted, customizable authentication UI built with Radix.

The platform has expanded beyond authentication into role-based access control, fine-grained authorization, Vault for encrypting and controlling access to sensitive data, Radar for bot and abuse protection, Pipes for connecting customers' third-party accounts, feature flags, widgets, domain verification, custom metadata, and Connect with built-in support for MCP and OAuth applications. Operational tooling includes an events API and webhooks, Datadog streaming for observability, multiple environments, a dashboard, migration guides for teams moving from other auth stacks, and a WorkOS MCP server for managing a workspace from MCP clients.

The company positions the product around helping SaaS vendors "cross the enterprise chasm" — meeting the SSO, SCIM, permissions and auditability requirements that large-organization buyers impose — and increasingly around authenticating and authorizing autonomous agents as more software actions are performed without direct human operation.

Founding story

Founder Michael Grinich previously founded Nylas, where the team built the email app Nylas Mail. That app was shut down; Grinich has said the main reason it could not be monetized was that it lacked the features required to sell into enterprises. That experience with enterprise IT requirements led to WorkOS, which he introduced publicly in March 2020 as a developer API for making apps enterprise-ready and described as "Plaid for enterprise IT systems."

Business model

WorkOS sells API-based infrastructure to software companies on a self-serve and sales-assisted basis. Developers can sign up for API keys and integrate SDKs directly, while larger accounts are served through contract-based enterprise plans that add uptime SLAs, premium support with response-time SLAs, expert-guided integration and migration support.

Pricing for Single Sign-On is connections-based: list price of $125 per connection per month for 1-15 connections, with tiered volume discounts of 20% ($100) for 16-30 connections, 36% ($80) for 31-50, and 48% ($65) for 51-100, and custom pricing above that scale. Custom, contract-based enterprise plans are available, and customers cited connections-based pricing as a factor in choosing WorkOS.

Traction

The company states it serves thousands of customers processing billions of API requests each month, and names OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Cursor, Perplexity, Sierra, Baseten, Fal, Replit, Vercel, Synthesia, Temporal, Gamma, Clay, Exa, Parallel and Serval among users. Customer accounts describe rolling out SSO in under a week and launching audit log storage, querying and export in days.

Latest developments

In March 2026 WorkOS announced a $100 million Series C at a $2 billion valuation led by Meritech and Sapphire, with participation from Audacious, Craft, Abstract and Greenoaks. The company said the capital would go toward making agentic software secure and reliable by default, following expansion from authentication into granular permissions, integrations, encryption, abuse detection, feature flags and MCP support.