The best YouTube MCP servers

The best YouTube MCP servers

When your agent needs YouTube data, an MCP server connects it to video transcripts, comments, channel stats and search results. Some are hosted and handle API keys for you. Others run locally and pull transcripts with yt-dlp or connect to the YouTube API with your own credentials. Each charges in its own way and does a different job.

Here are the main options, what they cover, what they cost, and which one fits your workflow.

The three kinds of YouTube MCP servers

YouTube MCP servers fall into three groups by what they offer and how they authenticate:

Transcript-only servers pull transcripts and nothing else. They are free or low-cost, need no API key of yours, and work for research on any public video. Use one when you need transcripts but not channel stats, comments or search.

Research servers add search, comments, channels and video metadata to transcripts. Some are hosted and need only an account with the vendor. Others run locally, with yt-dlp or your own YouTube API key. Use one when you need full YouTube research beyond transcripts alone.

Own-channel analytics servers connect to the YouTube Data, Analytics and Reporting APIs with your own Google OAuth credentials. They let your agent read your own channel's performance, traffic sources, revenue and retention. vidIQ is the hosted exception: it reads the channel you connected to vidIQ. Use one when you manage a channel and want analytics alongside public research.

The servers, compared

youtube-transcript.ai

youtube-transcript.ai MCP is a free, hosted server at https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp. It has one tool, get_youtube_transcript, which fetches the transcript of a public YouTube video as plain text with its title and metadata. You can pick a caption track by language code. There is no signup and no API key.

Add the URL as a custom connector in Claude or as an MCP server in ChatGPT's developer mode, or in any client that supports Streamable HTTP.

Best for: Free transcripts with no setup and no account.

anaisbetts/mcp-youtube

anaisbetts/mcp-youtube is a free, open-source local server (MIT) that uses yt-dlp to download a video's subtitles. Install yt-dlp (Homebrew and WinGet both work), then install the server as @anaisbetts/mcp-youtube; the README suggests mcp-installer. It has one tool, download_youtube_url, and needs no YouTube API key.

It is a small, long-standing project that does one job, and it works in Claude Desktop, Cursor and other clients that run local servers.

Best for: Free local transcripts without a YouTube API key, when you are happy to install yt-dlp.

TubeAlfred

TubeAlfred is a hosted server at https://mcp.tubealfred.com/. Its tools cover transcripts, public comments, channels, playlists, Shorts, video search and video details. You add the URL in your assistant's connector settings and sign in with your TubeAlfred account, with no local server and no Google API key. It reads public data only, not YouTube Studio analytics.

New accounts get free trial credits, then one monthly plan at $5/mo that also covers TubeAlfred's REST API. Costs vary by operation, comments cost more than a single lookup, and failed or unavailable results are not charged.

Best for: Low-cost hosted YouTube research with transcripts, comments, channels and search.

TranscriptAPI

TranscriptAPI's YouTube MCP runs hosted at https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp, or locally with npx -y transcriptapi-mcp (MIT). Its five tools get a transcript (with optional translation), search YouTube, list a channel's videos, search inside a channel and list a playlist. Sign in with Google or email to get an API key. In Claude on the web and ChatGPT you paste the key as part of the URL; in Cursor and Claude Code you send it as a Bearer header.

There is a free tier with a few credits a month, then Production at $49/mo or one-time top-ups from $10. Failed calls are refunded automatically.

Best for: Transcripts and search, hosted or local, from one API key.

vidIQ

vidIQ MCP is a hosted server at mcp.vidiq.com, also listed in Claude's connector directory. It works with the YouTube channel you connected to vidIQ: analytics, keyword research, outlier videos, competitor comparisons and subscriber insights, plus transcripts of any video and tools that generate titles, thumbnails and clips. Authenticate with a vidIQ API key from app.vidiq.com/account/settings/mcp, or with OAuth in Claude and ChatGPT.

The MCP server is available on every vidIQ plan, including Free, and calls draw from your plan's shared credit pool. See vidIQ's pricing.

Best for: Creators who already use vidIQ and want their channel data and vidIQ's research in their agent.

coyaSONG/youtube-mcp-server

coyaSONG/youtube-mcp-server is a free, open-source server (MIT) that returns citation-ready transcript evidence: every segment comes with a timestamp and a link that opens the video at the quoted moment. Run it with npx -y @coyasong/youtube-mcp-server@latest, install the one-click bundle for Claude Desktop, or run it yourself as a Streamable HTTP server. Transcripts work with no API key; add a YouTube Data API key for search, comments, video and channel statistics, trends and comparisons.

It lists more than a dozen tools, including research-video, research-videos (the same query across 2 to 5 videos), enhanced-transcript, get-key-moments and get-segmented-transcript.

Best for: Transcript evidence you can verify, with exact timestamps and links.

Anarcyst/youtube-mcp-server

Anarcyst/youtube-mcp-server is a free, open-source Python server (MIT) that runs with uvx yt-mcp-server or pip. It searches videos, gets transcripts with timestamps, reads channels and their videos, gets comments, and can search across every transcript on a channel to find what a creator said about a topic. It needs no API keys, and it can also run as a Streamable HTTP server.

It needs Python 3.10+; yt-dlp installs automatically. The README notes that transcript tools can be rate-limited after many requests in a short time.

Best for: Free local research, including search across a creator's transcripts, with no API key.

pauling-ai/youtube-mcp-server

pauling-ai/youtube-mcp-server is a free, open-source Python server (MIT), installed as youtube-studio-mcp. It connects to the YouTube Data API v3, Analytics API and Reporting API with your own Google OAuth credentials. Your agent gets your channel's analytics, traffic sources, demographics, retention and revenue, bulk reports, and video, playlist and comment management. It also pulls transcripts for public videos.

You need Python 3.11+ and a Google Cloud project with the three YouTube APIs enabled. Create a Desktop OAuth client and save its JSON to ~/.youtube-mcp/client_secret.json. On first use it opens a browser for consent: sign in with the Google account that owns the channel, because a manager account cannot read Analytics.

Best for: Your own channel's analytics, revenue and retention, when you are happy to set up a Google Cloud project.

Manifold

Manifold is a hosted MCP server with no API keys of your own. Its YouTube tools read a channel, its newest or most viewed videos, any single video, a video's comments and transcript, and videos that match a search. The same server also covers SEO, AI answers, social, Reddit, ads and leads, and its Search Console and Bing tools cost 0 credits.

Manifold is pay per call. Every workspace gets 500 free credits, top-ups start at $10 and Pro starts at $20/mo. See the YouTube tools documentation for what each tool returns.

Honest limits: Manifold does not pull your own channel's analytics, revenue or retention data. vidIQ and pauling-ai's server handle your own channel. Manifold searches and reads public YouTube data.

Best for: Pay per call YouTube research with no API keys of your own, in the same server as your SEO, social, Reddit, ads and leads research.

Which YouTube MCP server should you use?

Pick by what you already pay for, whether you need your own channel's analytics, and whether you want to run a server locally.

You want free transcripts with no setup. youtube-transcript.ai is hosted and needs no signup or API key.

You want free local transcripts and can install yt-dlp. anaisbetts/mcp-youtube does that one job, or Anarcyst's server adds search, channels and comments.

You already use vidIQ. Use vidIQ MCP, so your agent works with the channel and analytics you already have.

You want a hosted research server with no YouTube API key of your own. TubeAlfred is $5/mo after a free trial, and TranscriptAPI has a free tier and runs hosted or locally.

You want citation-ready transcript research with exact timestamps. coyaSONG's YouTube MCP server returns transcript evidence you can verify with one click.

You want your own channel's analytics, revenue and retention. pauling-ai's YouTube MCP server connects to the full Analytics and Reporting APIs with your own Google OAuth credentials.

You want public YouTube research with pay per call pricing alongside SEO, social, Reddit, ads and leads. Manifold covers YouTube in the same server, with no API keys of your own.