Web & SearchMCP Registryremote11 toolsB · 76

YouTube Transcript AI MCP server

Name: YouTube Transcript AI
Author: youtube-transcript.ai

ai.youtube-transcript · Updated today

Read YouTube transcripts and search what people say across 425k videos. Free API key.

At a glance

YouTube Transcript AI is an MCP server in the Web & Search category. It is hosted remotely and connects over HTTP, and needs Authorization. It exposes 11 tools, including get_youtube_transcript, search_youtube_videos and find_in_transcript. It scores B (76/100) on the MCP Skills Hub health score as of Oct 28, 2026.

Source 0

One-click install

VS Code VS Code Insiders Cursor

Opens your editor and pre-fills the config. Your editor will ask before adding it.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in your AI client

Setup for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex, Windsurf, Cline and VS Code — copy-paste ready.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Claude CodeAnthropic's agentic CLI

Add the server

bash

claude mcp add --transport http youtube-transcript https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp --header 'Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>'

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
3
Verify it's connected
bash
```
claude mcp list
```
Sharing it with your team?
Add `--scope project` to write it to .mcp.json in the repository root, which you can commit (with the secrets left as environment variables).
Use it in a session
Ask Claude to use the tools this server exposes (e.g. get_youtube_transcript, search_youtube_videos, find_in_transcript). It discovers them automatically.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Claude DesktopDesktop app (MCP config)

Open your MCP config
macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json · Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add this server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"
      ],
      "env": {
        "AUTH_HEADER": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Why the wrapper?
This is a remote (HTTP) server and Claude Desktop only launches local processes, so mcp-remote proxies the connection. It will open a browser window if the server needs OAuth.
Restart Claude Desktop
The tools appear under the 🔌 menu once the app reloads.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in CursorAI-first code editor

Create / edit .cursor/mcp.json in your project

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "url": "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Enable it
Cursor Settings → MCP → toggle the server on. Tools become available to the Composer/Agent.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Codex CLIOpenAI coding agent

Add to ~/.codex/config.toml

toml

[mcp_servers.youtube-transcript]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp", "--header", "Authorization:${AUTH_HEADER}"]
env = { AUTH_HEADER = "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>" }

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Why the wrapper?
Codex runs MCP servers as local processes, so mcp-remote bridges this HTTP endpoint to stdio.
Run Codex
Codex loads MCP servers from config.toml on startup and exposes their tools to the agent.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in WindsurfCodeium's agentic IDE

Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "serverUrl": "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Reload
Windsurf → Cascade → refresh MCP servers. Cascade can now call the tools.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in ClineVS Code autonomous agent

Open Cline → MCP Servers → Configure
Adds to cline_mcp_settings.json.

Add the server

json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.

How to install YouTube Transcript AI in VS CodeCopilot / MCP support

Create .vscode/mcp.json

json

{
  "servers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Fill in your credentials
Replace Bearer <YOUR_TOKEN> with your real value. Keep secrets out of any config file you commit.
Start it
VS Code shows a ▶ Start action above the server entry. Agent mode (Copilot Chat) can then use the tools.

What does YouTube Transcript AI need from you?

Bearer token — API key sent as a Bearer token. Create a free key at https://youtube-transcript.ai/get-api-key

AuthorizationrequiredsecretHTTP header
API key sent as a Bearer token. Create a free key at https://youtube-transcript.ai/get-api-key

What tools does YouTube Transcript AI expose? (11)

Read from the live server. Click any tool for its input schema.

get_youtube_transcriptFetch the full text transcript of a YouTube video. Accepts a YouTube URL (watch, youtu.be, shorts, embed) or a bare 11-character video ID, and returns the transcript as plain text with title and metadata. Optionally pass a BCP-47 language code to select a specific caption track. Very long transcripts (multi-hour videos) come back in parts of up to 120,000 characters: when there is more, the result
search_youtube_videosSearch YouTube and return matching videos with channel, view count and duration. Use it first when researching a topic: run several differently-worded queries (and in more than one language), then read the best hits with get_youtube_transcript, find_in_transcript or get_transcripts_batch. Optional filters on views and length.
find_in_transcriptFind where a video talks about something. Give one or more keywords and get back only the matching passages, each with a timestamp and a link that opens the video at that moment. Far cheaper than reading the whole transcript when you are looking for specific points. Matching is a case-insensitive text match, so try synonyms and spelling variants (auto-captions often mis-hear names).
get_transcripts_batchRead the transcripts of several videos in one call (up to 5), each cut to a length you choose, so you can skim a set of search results without filling your context. Each video counts as one request against your daily quota. For the rest of a long video use find_in_transcript or get_youtube_transcript.
get_video_commentsFetch the top comments of a YouTube video (YouTube's "top" ordering, replies not included), with like counts. Comments are where viewers report what worked for them, which makes them useful for checking claims made in the video.
list_channel_videosList the latest videos of a YouTube channel or playlist, with view count and duration. Use it to follow a creator who looks credible, or to cover a playlist.
search_spoken_wordsSearch what people actually say inside YouTube videos. Full-text search over about 100 million spoken sentences from about 425,000 English-language videos (the ones users looked up on youtube-transcript.ai), with typically 1 to 8 million new sentences added every day. Returns matching sentences, each with the video, channel and a link that opens the video at that moment. Use it to find evidence an
get_spoken_contextRead what was said around a moment in a video: the sentences before and after a timestamp. Use it after search_spoken_words to see what a matching sentence was part of, before you quote or rely on it. Works for videos in the library only.
rank_videos_by_topicFind the videos that talk about something the most, ranked by how many sentences mention it. Better than searching titles when you want the videos that really go deep on a topic. Each result has the number of mentions, the first mention and a link. Read the best ones with get_youtube_transcript or find_in_transcript. Same library, caption quirks and dates as search_spoken_words.
rank_channels_by_topicFind which channels talk about something the most, ranked by mentions, with how many of their videos mention it. Use it to find who covers a topic: creators to follow, experts, or partners. Same library, caption quirks and dates as search_spoken_words.
spoken_mentions_over_timeCount how often something is mentioned over time, by day, week or month. Each period shows the mentions and the rate per million spoken sentences, so busy and quiet periods compare fairly. Use it to see whether a topic is rising or fading. The date is when we captured the captions, not when the video was published, and the first day (2026-09-13) holds a one-off backfill of earlier captions, so com

What the code can do

This is a remote server — nothing is installed or run on your machine, so there is no local code to analyze. What it can reach is described above: your requests go to the provider's host.

Before you install

Signals gathered from the source repo and package registry — not a safety verdict.

What it can reach

Third-party hosted service — Your requests and any data in them are sent to youtube-transcript.ai.
No local execution — Nothing is installed or run on your machine.

Last commit 15 days ago — Actively maintained.
0 GitHub stars — Very little community usage so far.

Client compatibility

Claude Code: NativeClaude Desktop: Via mcp-remoteCursor: NativeCodex CLI: Via mcp-remoteWindsurf: NativeCline: NativeVS Code: Native

Health score

B · 76

Maintenance, adoption, transparency and packaging — not a safety audit. How this is calculated

Maintenance30%100%
Last commit 15 days ago.
Adoption20%0%
0 stars.
Transparency20%100%
4/4: ✓ public source repo, ✓ declared license, ✓ documentation, ✓ discoverable tool list.
Provenance15%75%
Links to its own repository; package linkage unverified.
Packaging15%100%
Remote endpoint with documented authentication.

Documentation

Full README

YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code and any MCP client the ability to read YouTube transcripts. Hosted, nothing to install. Free API key: 10 requests a day.

A hosted Model Context Protocol server that exposes one tool, get_youtube_transcript, backed by youtube-transcript.ai. Paste a YouTube link mid-conversation and your AI reads the full transcript on demand.

Connector URL:

text

https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp?key=YOUR_KEY

Replace YOUR_KEY with your API key. Create a free key with a Google sign-in; it takes about a minute.

Why

Free to start. A free key covers 10 transcripts a day. Pro is 1,000 a day for $120 a year, on the same key.
Reliable. A hardened fetch pipeline with proxy fallback returns transcripts even on videos that block typical scrapers.
Any language. Pick a caption track by language code (en, zh-CN, es, ja, …) or let it choose the default.
Built for agents. One tool, plain-text output with title and metadata. Multi-hour videos come back in parts, so nothing gets cut off.

Authentication

Tool calls need an API key. There is no OAuth. Send the key in one of two ways:

| Where | Example | |-------|---------| | Header | Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY | | URL | https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp?key=YOUR_KEY |

The URL form is for clients that only accept a connector URL.

Quick start

Alternatives to YouTube Transcript AI

Maintain YouTube Transcript AI? Add a badge to your README

Shows its health grade, and links readers to install steps for every client.

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