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TCP endpoints enable you to deliver any network service with a TCP-based protocol. They’re commonly used to create connectivity for:
  • Remote access protocols like SSH, VNC, and RDP
  • Databases like MySQL, Postgres, MSSQL, and SQLite
  • IoT protocols like MQTT
  • Gaming servers like Minecraft
If you’re accepting TLS traffic, you may prefer to create a TLS Endpoint.
TCP endpoints are only available on a free plan after adding a valid payment method to your account.

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Quickstart

Cloud endpoints are persistent and live until they are deleted. They are created via the ngrok dashboard or API. Traffic Policy controls how a Cloud Endpoint handles traffic. See the Cloud Endpoints Quickstart for a step-by-step guide on how to create a Cloud Endpoint in the ngrok dashboard. The following example uses the API to create a Cloud Endpoint which returns a Hello world! 200 OK response.
Command line
Command line
You can reserve a TCP Address in the ngrok dashboard.
traffic-policy.yml

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URLs

ngrok validates URLs differently depending on their binding. Consult the following documentation for details on valid URLs for TCP endpoints: There is no standard scheme for TCP URLs, so ngrok renders them as tcp://.

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Static URLs

To give a public TCP endpoint a static URL, first create a TCP Address. When you create a TCP address, ngrok assigns you a random hostname and port, for example, 1.tcp.ngrok.io:12345. You only need a TCP address to make a public TCP endpoint have a static URL. You don’t need one for TCP endpoints on other bindings, like internal or kubernetes. After you create a TCP Address, specify the address (for example, 1.tcp.eu.ngrok.io:12345) in the URL when you create the endpoint. See the quickstart to learn how.

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Custom domains

ngrok assigns public TCP endpoints a random ngrok-controlled hostname and a random port. You can’t choose the hostname or the port. However, you can simulate a customized hostname by creating a CNAME record to the hostname of your assigned TCP address. If you do so, be aware that all ports on that hostname, even those provisioned to other accounts, are then available on your domain. For example, if your TCP address is 5.tcp.ngrok.io:12345, you can create the following CNAME record:
Then you can access that TCP endpoint with:

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Traffic Policy

Attach Traffic Policy to endpoints to route, authenticate, and transform the traffic through the endpoint.

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Authentication

When you create public TCP endpoints, you often want to secure them with authentication. You can secure your TCP endpoints with the following Traffic Policy actions. There is a limited set of actions available to authenticate TCP traffic because the TCP protocol is low-level.
  • IP Restriction
  • [Mutual TLS](/gateway/traffic-policy/actions/terminate-tls/

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Observability

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Traffic Inspector

The TCP tab in Traffic Inspector lists each connection to your TCP endpoint after it closes, including client IP, duration, bytes transferred, and any ngrok error.

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Log exports

You can export logs of traffic to TCP endpoints with ngrok’s events system. ngrok publishes the following events for log exporting:

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Limits & timeouts

Contact Support if you need to configure limits and timeouts on connections to TCP endpoints.

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Errors

If ngrok encounters an error while handling connections to a TCP endpoint for any reason (for example, a Traffic Policy action error or an internal server error), it closes the connection. Because of the low-level nature of the TCP protocol, there is no mechanism to transmit information about what error code ngrok encountered. Use the observability features to understand connection handling errors.

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API

You can create TCP Endpoints programmatically. Consult the documentation on [Endpoint APIs](/api-reference/endpoints/list.

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TCP Cloud Endpoint pricing

TCP endpoints are available on all plans. Consult the Endpoints Pricing documentation for billing details. TCP endpoints are only available on a free plan after adding a valid payment method to your account. See TCP Addresses pricing for details on pricing for fixed TCP Addresses.