MQTT statistics

Name: MQTT statistics 2026
Creator: MQTT Viewer
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Figures on MQTT adoption, downloads, projects and protocol limits, each with its source and date.

Last updated 21 October 2026.

Key figures

MQTT was the most used communication protocol among the protocols charted in the 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey, used by 56% of respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
The MQTT integration was installed on 271,755 of the 560,087 Home Assistant installations that report integrations, 48.5%, on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
The official eclipse-mosquitto Docker image had 689,682,698 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026, the most of the broker images listed here. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The mqtt package on npm (MQTT.js) was downloaded 10,705,914 times from 19 September to 18 October 2026. (npm registry, 2026)
OASIS announced on 19 July 2016 that MQTT 3.1.1 had been approved as the international standard ISO/IEC 20922. (OASIS, 2016)
The largest MQTT 5.0 packet has a Remaining Length of 268,435,455 bytes, just under 256 MiB (about 268 MB). The payload is slightly smaller, because the variable header counts towards the Remaining Length too. (OASIS, 2019)

How popular is MQTT?

MQTT was the most used protocol among the protocols charted in the Eclipse IoT developer surveys from 2021 to 2024.

MQTT share of respondents in the Eclipse IoT developer surveys by year
Survey year	MQTT share	Respondents	Source
2020	41%	not stated	Eclipse Foundation, 2021
2021	44%	662	Eclipse Foundation, 2021
2022	33%	not stated	Eclipse Foundation, 2023
2023	49%	1,037	Eclipse Foundation, 2023
2024	56%	747	Eclipse Foundation, 2024
2025	v5 28%, v3 27%	not stated	Eclipse Foundation, 2026

In the 2020 Eclipse IoT developer survey, HTTP/HTTPS was used by 51% of respondents and MQTT by 41%, according to the comparison in the 2021 report. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
MQTT was the most used communication protocol among the protocols charted in the 2021 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, used by 44% of respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
In the 2021 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, HTTP/HTTPS was used by 26% of respondents, REST by 23% and TCP/IP by 21%. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
The 2021 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey had 662 respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
Sparkplug was used by 8% of respondents to the 2021 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, up from 7% in 2020. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
MQTT brokers were the most used messaging infrastructure in the 2021 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, used by 44% of respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2021)
In the 2022 Eclipse IoT developer survey, MQTT was used by 33% of respondents, HTTP/HTTPS by 24%, TCP/IP by 24% and REST by 22%, according to the comparison in the 2023 report. (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
MQTT was the most used communication protocol among the protocols charted in the 2023 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, used by 49% of respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
In the 2023 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey, HTTP/HTTPS was used by 27% of respondents, TCP/IP by 24% and REST by 22%. (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
The 2023 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey had 1,037 respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
MQTT with Sparkplug was used by 8% of respondents to the 2023 Eclipse IoT & Edge Developer Survey (the 2024 report gives 7% for 2023). (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
MQTT was the most used communication protocol among the protocols charted in the 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey, used by 56% of respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
In the 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey, HTTP was used by 32% of respondents and TCP/IP by 30%. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
The 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey had 747 respondents. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
MQTT with Sparkplug was used by 8% of respondents to the 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
Zenoh use grew from 1.79% to 4.29% of respondents in the 2024 Eclipse IoT & Embedded Developer Survey report. (Eclipse Foundation, 2024)
In the 2025 Eclipse IoT and Embedded Developer Survey, published in March 2026, MQTT v5 was used in IoT or edge deployments by 28% of respondents and MQTT v3 by 27%. (Eclipse Foundation, 2026)
The shares in the 2025 Eclipse survey protocol chart sum to more than 100%, so respondents could choose more than one protocol and the MQTT v5 and MQTT v3 figures cannot be added together. (Eclipse Foundation, 2026)
In the 2025 Eclipse IoT and Embedded Developer Survey, WebSockets were used by 24% of respondents, HTTP/1.1 by 17%, proprietary protocols by 15%, CoAP by 10% and OPC UA by 10%. (Eclipse Foundation, 2026)
The 2025 Eclipse survey asked which protocols are used in IoT and edge deployments and reported MQTT v5 and MQTT v3 separately, where the earlier surveys gave one MQTT figure. (Eclipse Foundation, 2026)

Samples and question wording differ between years.

The 2022 to 2024 figures answer the question "What communication protocol(s) do you use? (Select up to three)". The 2021 report does not print the question.

The 2021 to 2024 Eclipse survey reports are published under CC BY 4.0 and the 2025 report under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How many Home Assistant installations use MQTT?

On 20 October 2026, 48.5% of the Home Assistant installations that report integrations had the MQTT integration installed.

The MQTT integration was installed on 271,755 of the 560,087 Home Assistant installations that report integrations, 48.5%, on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
MQTT was the 18th most installed of all Home Assistant integrations on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
MQTT was installed on more Home Assistant installations than Matter, ESPHome, ZHA, Shelly or Z-Wave JS on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
The Matter integration was installed on 230,807 Home Assistant installations on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
The Z-Wave JS integration was installed on 46,268 Home Assistant installations on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
The Mosquitto broker add-on was installed on 239,902 of the 426,761 Home Assistant installations that report add-ons, 56.2%, on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)
The main Zigbee2MQTT add-on was installed on 109,344 Home Assistant installations on 20 October 2026. (Home Assistant Analytics, 2026)

Home Assistant Analytics counts only installations that opt in to sharing analytics.

Most of the 17 integrations ranked above MQTT are built-in ones that Home Assistant loads through default_config.

How many times are MQTT libraries downloaded?

Each of the main MQTT client libraries for JavaScript, Python, .NET and Rust has millions of downloads.

The mqtt package on npm (MQTT.js) was downloaded 10,705,914 times from 19 September to 18 October 2026. (npm registry, 2026)
PyPI Stats reported 7,768,957 downloads of the paho-mqtt package in the last month, read on 20 October 2026. (PyPI Stats, 2026)
The MQTTnet package on NuGet had 35,936,846 total downloads on 21 October 2026. (NuGet, 2026)
The rumqttc crate on crates.io had 9,220,515 all time downloads on 21 October 2026. (crates.io, 2026)

Download counts include automated CI builds and overstate the number of users.

The npm and PyPI figures cover about one month. The NuGet and crates.io figures are all-time totals. The monthly and all-time figures are not comparable.

Which MQTT brokers and libraries get the most attention?

GitHub stars and Docker Hub pulls for the main MQTT brokers with public source code and the main MQTT client libraries, read on 21 October 2026.

MQTT brokers

MQTT broker GitHub stars, Docker Hub pulls and latest release, read 21 October 2026
Project	GitHub stars	Docker Hub pulls	Latest release
EMQX	16,841	47,692,162	6.3.2 (16 October 2026)
Eclipse Mosquitto	11,286	689,682,698	v2.1.2 (9 February 2026)
VerneMQ	3,641	6,260,409	2.2.1 (17 September 2026)
NanoMQ	2,643	560,731	0.25.6 (19 August 2026)
HiveMQ Community Edition	1,214	6,755,815	2026.5 (27 May 2026)

MQTT client libraries

MQTT client library GitHub stars and latest release, read 21 October 2026
Project	GitHub stars	Latest release
MQTT.js	9,123	v5.16.1 (14 October 2026)
MQTTnet	5,077	v5.2.0 (1 July 2026)
Eclipse Paho Python	2,430	v2.1.0 (29 April 2024)
rumqtt (rumqttc client)	2,175	rumqttc-0.25.1 (21 November 2025)

Figures read from GitHub and Docker Hub on 21 October 2026.

The official eclipse-mosquitto Docker image had 689,682,698 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026, the most of the broker images listed here. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The EMQX MQTT broker repository had 16,841 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The emqx/emqx Docker image for EMQX had 47,692,162 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The latest EMQX release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was 6.3.2, dated 16 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The Eclipse Mosquitto MQTT broker repository had 11,286 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The eclipse-mosquitto Docker image for Eclipse Mosquitto had 689,682,698 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The latest Eclipse Mosquitto tag on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was v2.1.2, dated 9 February 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The VerneMQ MQTT broker repository had 3,641 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The vernemq/vernemq Docker image for VerneMQ had 6,260,409 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The latest VerneMQ release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was 2.2.1, dated 17 September 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The NanoMQ MQTT broker repository had 2,643 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The emqx/nanomq Docker image for NanoMQ had 560,731 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The latest NanoMQ release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was 0.25.6, dated 19 August 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The HiveMQ Community Edition MQTT broker repository had 1,214 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The hivemq/hivemq-ce Docker image for HiveMQ Community Edition had 6,755,815 Docker Hub pulls on 21 October 2026. (Docker Hub, 2026)
The latest HiveMQ Community Edition release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was 2026.5, dated 27 May 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The MQTT.js MQTT client library repository had 9,123 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The latest MQTT.js release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was v5.16.1, dated 14 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The MQTTnet MQTT client library repository had 5,077 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The latest MQTTnet release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was v5.2.0, dated 1 July 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The Eclipse Paho Python MQTT client library repository had 2,430 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The latest Eclipse Paho Python release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was v2.1.0, dated 29 April 2024. (GitHub, 2026)
The rumqtt (rumqttc client) MQTT client library repository had 2,175 GitHub stars on 21 October 2026. (GitHub, 2026)
The latest rumqtt (rumqttc client) release on GitHub on 21 October 2026 was rumqttc-0.25.1, dated 21 November 2025. (GitHub, 2026)

GitHub stars indicate attention and do not count deployments.

EMQX is source-available under the Business Source License 1.1. VerneMQ binary packages are covered by an end user licence agreement.

How much traffic do public MQTT brokers carry?

Measured by MQTT Viewer. A collector subscribes to # on each public broker for 60 seconds every day at 02:17 UTC. Method.

Full results are in the daily measurements of test.mosquitto.org, broker.hivemq.com, broker.emqx.io and others.

On 21 October 2026, MQTT Viewer received 2,486.62 live messages per second, excluding retained messages, from test.mosquitto.org during a 60-second subscription to #. (MQTT Viewer measurement, 2026)
On 21 October 2026, MQTT Viewer could not connect to mqtt.eclipseprojects.io. (MQTT Viewer measurement, 2026)

When was MQTT created and what are its limits?

MQTT dates from 1999 and is standardised by OASIS and ISO/IEC. It allows a packet Remaining Length of up to 268,435,455 bytes, just under 256 MiB (about 268 MB).

MQTT was created in 1999 by Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM and Arlen Nipper of Arcom, now Eurotech. (MQTT.org, 2026)
MQTT 3.1.1 became an OASIS Standard on 29 October 2014. (OASIS, 2014)
OASIS announced on 19 July 2016 that MQTT 3.1.1 had been approved as the international standard ISO/IEC 20922. (OASIS, 2016)
MQTT 5.0 became an OASIS Standard on 7 March 2019. (OASIS, 2019)
The Sparkplug 3.0 specification was released on 21 October 2022. (Eclipse Foundation, 2022)
The Eclipse Foundation announced on 7 November 2023 that the Sparkplug 3.0 specification was published as ISO/IEC 20237. (Eclipse Foundation, 2023)
An MQTT 5.0 fixed header is at least 2 bytes long. (OASIS, 2019)
The largest MQTT 5.0 packet has a Remaining Length of 268,435,455 bytes, just under 256 MiB (about 268 MB). The payload is slightly smaller, because the variable header counts towards the Remaining Length too. (OASIS, 2019)
The MQTT 5.0 Remaining Length covers the variable header and the payload of a packet. (OASIS, 2019)
MQTT 5.0 strings, including topic names and topic filters, can be up to 65,535 bytes long. (OASIS, 2019)
MQTT 5.0 sets no limit on the number of levels in a topic beyond the 65,535-byte string limit. (OASIS, 2019)
MQTT 5.0 defines 3 QoS levels: QoS 0 at most once, QoS 1 at least once and QoS 2 exactly once. (OASIS, 2019)
IANA registers port 1883 as "mqtt" and port 8883 as "secure-mqtt", both assigned to OASIS. (IANA, 2026)

More detail: MQTT ports and MQTT QoS levels .

What are the MQTT limits on AWS IoT Core and Azure IoT Hub?

AWS IoT Core and Azure IoT Hub implement a subset of MQTT, with limits far below those in the specification.

AWS IoT Core supports MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
AWS IoT Core supports QoS 0 and QoS 1, and does not support QoS 2. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
The largest message payload AWS IoT Core accepts is 128 KB. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
AWS IoT Core topic names can be up to 256 bytes long, with up to 7 forward slashes. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
AWS IoT Core allows 100 publish requests per second per connection. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
AWS IoT Core allows 50 subscriptions per connection by default; the quota can be raised. (Amazon Web Services, 2026)
Azure IoT Hub supports MQTT 3.1.1 only, on port 8883 or over WebSocket on port 443. (Microsoft, 2026)
Azure IoT Hub does not support QoS 2. (Microsoft, 2026)
Azure IoT Hub does not persist retained messages. (Microsoft, 2026)
The largest message Azure IoT Hub accepts over MQTT is 256 KB. (Microsoft, 2026)
Microsoft describes Azure IoT Hub as not a full-featured MQTT broker and points to Azure Event Grid for full MQTT support. (Microsoft, 2026)
Azure Event Grid supports MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5, with messages of up to 1 MB (1024 KB). (Microsoft, 2026)
Azure Event Grid supports retained messages of up to 64 KB each. (Microsoft, 2026)

The AWS IoT Core documentation was read on 21 October 2026.

How these figures were collected

MQTT Viewer measures the public broker traffic figures itself (method). Every other figure comes from the publisher linked beside it.

The date beside each figure is the date it was read, or the publication date where the source states one.
Download counts, GitHub stars and Docker Hub pulls are read once and change daily.
Figures are reported as the source publishes them.
Where a percentage is calculated from two counts, both counts are given beside it.

Report corrections as GitHub issues on mqtt-viewer/mqttviewer.app.

Cite this page

Suggested attribution:

MQTT Viewer, MQTT statistics 2026, https://mqttviewer.app/learn/mqtt-statistics, updated 21 October 2026.

The content of this page is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Frequently asked questions

Is MQTT the most popular IoT protocol?

MQTT was the most used protocol among the protocols charted in the Eclipse IoT developer surveys from 2021 to 2024, used by 56% of respondents in 2024. The 2025 survey split MQTT by version, with MQTT v5 at 28% and MQTT v3 at 27%, both ahead of WebSockets at 24%.

How many Home Assistant installations use MQTT?

The MQTT integration was installed on 271,755 of the 560,087 Home Assistant installations that report integrations on 20 October 2026, 48.5%. Home Assistant Analytics counts only installations that opt in to analytics.

What is the maximum MQTT message size?

The largest MQTT packet has a Remaining Length of 268,435,455 bytes, just under 256 MiB (about 268 MB). The Remaining Length covers the variable header and the payload, so the payload itself is slightly smaller. Cloud platforms set much lower limits: AWS IoT Core accepts payloads of up to 128 KB and Azure IoT Hub messages of up to 256 KB.

Who invented MQTT?

Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM and Arlen Nipper of Arcom, now Eurotech, created MQTT in 1999.

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