How can I set a custom character limit for responses?

Use the `max_length` parameter in the tool call, or set the `DEFAULT_LIMIT` environment variable (default 5000 characters; 0 for no limit).

Does Fetch MCP Server support proxy requests?

Yes. Pass the `proxy` parameter (e.g., `http://proxy:8080`) to route requests through a proxy.

What credentials does it need?

It reads `DEFAULT_LIMIT` from the environment. Store these in your client's env block or a secrets manager — never commit them to a repository — and grant the narrowest scope that still covers your use case.

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Fetch MCP Server

A flexible HTTP fetching Model Context Protocol server.

Local serverstdio

What is the Fetch MCP Server?

A flexible HTTP fetching Model Context Protocol server.

The short version

An MCP server for fetching web content in multiple formats — HTML, JSON, plain text, Markdown, readable article content, and YouTube transcripts.

Fetch web content as HTML, JSON, plain text, or Markdown
Extract article content with Mozilla Readability (strips ads, nav, boilerplate)
Extract YouTube video transcripts (via yt-dlp or direct extraction)
Proxy support for requests behind firewalls
Pagination with max_length and start_index
Custom request headers

More MCP options

Compare MCP servers by category, or browse hosted MCP servers if you prefer an endpoint over a local process.

Maintainer setup documentation.

Recorded tools

Check the linked publisher documentation and your connected client's tool list. Names and availability can vary with the server version and account permissions.

Tool	What it does
fetch_html	Fetch a website and return its raw HTML content.
fetch_markdown	Fetch a website and return its content converted to Markdown.
fetch_txt	Fetch a website and return plain text with HTML tags, scripts, and styles removed.
fetch_json	Fetch a URL and return the JSON response.
fetch_readable	Fetch a website and extract the main article content using [Mozilla Readability](https://github.com/mozilla/readability), returned as Markdown. Strips navigation, ads, and boilerplate. Ideal for articles and blog posts.
fetch_youtube_transcript	Fetch a YouTube video's captions/transcript. Uses yt-dlp if available, otherwise extracts directly from the page. Accepts an additional lang parameter (default: "en") to select the caption language.
html	Fetch a URL and return raw HTML
markdown	Fetch a URL and return Markdown
readable	Fetch a URL and return article content as Markdown (via Readability)

How to install the Fetch MCP Server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-fetch-server"]
    }
  }
}

Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.

Configuration

Variable	Description	Required
DEFAULT_LIMIT	Configuration value read at startup.	Optional

Example prompts to try

“Use Fetch to fetch html.”
“Use Fetch to fetch markdown.”
“Use Fetch to fetch txt.”

Frequently asked questions

It supports HTML, Markdown, plain text, JSON, readable article content (Markdown via Mozilla Readability), and YouTube transcripts.

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