Pixabay MCP Server

Connect Pixabay to Claude, Cursor or any other MCP client and it stops being a tab you switch to. MCP Server for Pixabay API - Search and retrieve royalty-free images and videos. The pixabay mcp server is what makes that connection.

What the server does

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to the Pixabay API for searching and retrieving royalty-free images and videos.

• Image Search — Search through millions of royalty-free images
• Video Search — Find high-quality stock videos
• Advanced Filtering — Filter by category, orientation, color, size, and more
• Individual Lookup — Get specific images or videos by ID
• Multiple Formats — Access different image sizes and video qualities

Available tools

The toolset is worth reading before you wire it up, because it tells you what the integration is really for:

• search_images — The search_images tool exposed by this server
• search_videos — Search for royalty-free videos with similar filtering options:
• get_image_by_id — Retrieve a specific image by its Pixabay ID: - id: Pixabay image ID (required)
• get_video_by_id — Retrieve a specific video by its Pixabay ID: - id: Pixabay video ID (required)
• Building — The Building tool exposed by this server
• Testing — The Testing tool exposed by this server

Credentials and setup notes

Configuration is passed through the environment: PIXABAY_API_KEY. Treat anything key-shaped as a real credential — scope it to the minimum the server needs, and rotate it if it ever lands in a shared config.

Installation

Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client.

Where it fits

This sits in the developer tooling group, where several servers overlap in what they claim to do but differ sharply once you actually set them up. Pixabay's toolset — search_images, search_videos, get_image_by_id and 3 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by Unlock-MCP; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

This entry was verified against Pixabay's own documentation before publication; SyncDev keeps the directory reviewed rather than auto-generated.

Worth knowing first

• It runs with your machine's permissions. That is convenient and also the reason to think about what you point it at before you approve a tool call.
• Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
• Keep per-call confirmation enabled while you learn its behaviour; it is the cheapest safeguard you have.