YouTube Transcript MCP Server
Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any MCP client the ability to read YouTube transcripts — free, no API key, no signup.
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 — no copy-paste, no browser tab.
Connector URL:
https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp
That's it. It's hosted — there's nothing to install or run. Add the URL to your client below.
Why
- Free & keyless — no account, no token, no quota wall.
- Actually reliable — a hardened fetch pipeline with proxy fallback returns transcripts even on videos that block typical scrapers, so your model rarely comes back empty-handed.
- Any language — pick a caption track by language code (
en, zh-CN, es, ja, …) or let it choose the default.
- Built for agents — one clean tool, plain-text output with title and metadata.
Quick start
Claude (web / desktop)
Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Name | youtube-transcript.ai |
| URL | https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp |
Then ask: “Summarize this video: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ”
ChatGPT
In the custom connector / MCP server setup, add an MCP server with URL https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp (transport: Streamable HTTP), enable it for your chat, then paste a YouTube link.
Cursor / Windsurf / Cline / Claude Desktop (config file)
For clients that launch MCP servers via a config file, bridge the remote server with mcp-remote:
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-transcript": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp"]
}
}
}
Clients that support remote MCP URLs natively can use https://youtube-transcript.ai/mcp directly.
get_youtube_transcript
Fetch the full text transcript of a YouTube video.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|
video | string | yes | YouTube URL (watch, youtu.be, shorts, embed) or a bare 11-character video ID |
lang | string | no | BCP-47 language code, e.g. en, zh-CN, es. Omit for the default track |
Returns plain text: the transcript with title, duration, and a list of available languages.
Example prompts
- “Summarize the key points of
<link> in 5 bullets.”
- “Pull the transcript of this video and translate it to Spanish.”
- “What does the speaker say about pricing in
<link>? Quote the exact lines.”
Programmatic use
The server speaks standard MCP over Streamable HTTP (JSON-RPC). A zero-dependency example is in examples/quickstart.mjs:
node examples/quickstart.mjs https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
Notes
- Fair use: the endpoint is rate-limited per IP to keep it free for everyone. For heavy/automated workloads, get in touch.
- Not affiliated with YouTube or Google. Transcripts are fetched from publicly available captions.
Links
License
MIT