# YouTube Transcript AI MCP server

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.

## Install

### How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Claude Code

1. Add the server

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

2. 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
```

4. 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).

5. 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 Desktop

1. Open your MCP config

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

2. 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>"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

3. Fill in your credentials

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

4. 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.

5. Restart Claude Desktop

   The tools appear under the 🔌 menu once the app reloads.

### How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Cursor

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

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

2. Fill in your credentials

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

3. Enable it

   Cursor Settings → MCP → toggle the server on. Tools become available to the Composer/Agent.

### How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Codex CLI

1. 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>" }
```

2. Fill in your credentials

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

3. Why the wrapper?

   Codex runs MCP servers as local processes, so mcp-remote bridges this HTTP endpoint to stdio.

4. 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 Windsurf

1. Edit ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json

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

2. Fill in your credentials

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

3. Reload

   Windsurf → Cascade → refresh MCP servers. Cascade can now call the tools.

### How to install YouTube Transcript AI in Cline

1. Open Cline → MCP Servers → Configure

   Adds to cline_mcp_settings.json.

2. Add the server

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

3. 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 Code

1. Create .vscode/mcp.json

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

2. Fill in your credentials

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

3. Start it

   VS Code shows a ▶ Start action above the server entry. Agent mode (Copilot Chat) can then use the tools.

## Tools

- `get_youtube_transcript` — Fetch 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_videos` — Search 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_transcript` — Find 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_batch` — Read 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_comments` — Fetch 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_videos` — List 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_words` — Search 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_context` — Read 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_topic` — Find 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_topic` — Find 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_time` — Count 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

Source repository: https://github.com/zxl777/youtube-transcript-mcp

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Source: https://mcp-skills-hub.vercel.app/mcps/ai-youtube-transcript-youtube-transcript · MCP Skills Hub · data as of 2026-10-28T12:31:05Z