Pexels MCP Server

MCP server for Pexels — search photos and videos, and browse collections

Local serverstdio

What is the Pexels MCP server?

Pexels MCP server is a locally run integration for AI assistants that speak the Model Context Protocol. MCP server for Pexels — search photos and videos, and browse collections.

What you get

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for the Pexels API. Built in Rust, exposes photo search, video search, and curated/featured content as MCP tools.

What the assistant can call

Once Pexels is connected, these are the calls the assistant has available:

  • search_photos — Search photos by query with optional orientation/size/color/locale filters
  • curated_photos — Get a paginated list of curated, hand-picked photos
  • get_photo — Retrieve a single photo by ID
  • search_videos — Search videos by query with optional orientation/size/locale filters
  • popular_videos — Get popular videos with optional dimension and duration filters
  • get_video — Retrieve a single video by ID
  • featured_collections — List featured collections (themed sets of media)
  • collection_media — List media in a specific collection (filterable by photos/videos)

Configuration and credentials

Setting it up

Setup follows the usual MCP pattern — install or clone the server, register it in your client's configuration file, restart the client. The configuration blocks on this page cover the common clients.

Choosing this one

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. Pexels's toolset — search_photos, curated_photos, get_photo and 5 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow. It is maintained by codeChap; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

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

Before you rely on it

  • 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.
  • MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the pexels mcp server does with a few real requests.

Available tools

ToolWhat it does
search_photosSearch photos by query with optional orientation/size/color/locale filters
curated_photosGet a paginated list of curated, hand-picked photos
get_photoRetrieve a single photo by ID
search_videosSearch videos by query with optional orientation/size/locale filters
popular_videosGet popular videos with optional dimension and duration filters
get_videoRetrieve a single video by ID
featured_collectionsList featured collections (themed sets of media)
collection_mediaList media in a specific collection (filterable by photos/videos)

How to install the Pexels MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pexels": {
      "command": "/path/to/mcp-server-pexels"
    }
  }
}

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

Configuration

Example prompts to try

  • Use Pexels to search photos.
  • Use Pexels to curated photos.
  • Use Pexels to get photo.

Frequently asked questions

It connects Pexels to MCP-compatible AI assistants such as Claude and Cursor, exposing 8 tools (search_photos, curated_photos, get_photo, and more) that the assistant can call on your behalf. Instead of copying data back and forth by hand, the assistant works with Pexels directly.