YouTube MCP Server

Analyzes YouTube videos by extracting transcripts, summarizing content, and answering questions using AI.

Local serverstdioPython 13

What is the YouTube MCP server?

YouTube MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on YouTube directly instead of describing what you should do. Analyzes YouTube videos by extracting transcripts, summarizing content, and answering questions using AI.

What you get

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for YouTube video analysis, providing tools to get transcripts, summarize content, and query videos using Gemini AI.

  • 📝 Transcript Extraction: Get detailed transcripts from YouTube videos
  • 📊 Video Summarization: Generate concise summaries using Gemini AI
  • Natural Language Queries: Ask questions about video content
  • 🔍 YouTube Search: Find videos matching specific queries
  • 💬 Comment Analysis: Retrieve and analyze video comments

Configuration and credentials

You will need 2 environment variables: GEMINI_API_KEY, YOUTUBE_API_KEY. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.

  • Python 3.9+ - Google Gemini API key - YouTube Data API key

Setting it up

Installation goes through your MCP client rather than a global install: point it at @smithery/cli on npm and it is fetched when the client starts. The copy-paste blocks for Claude Desktop, Claude Code and Cursor are further down this page.

Choosing this one

Among the developer tooling options, the useful question is rarely "what can it do" but "what does it cost you to run" — permissions, credentials, and how much of your context its toolset consumes. It is maintained by Prajwal-ak-0; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.

SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.

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.
  • Missing credentials fail quietly in some clients — if no tools show up, check the environment block first.
  • MCP clients confirm each tool call by default. Leave that on until you have watched what the youtube mcp server does with a few real requests.

How to install the YouTube MCP server

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-5": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@smithery/cli"],
      "env": {
        "GEMINI_API_KEY": "your-value",
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.

Configuration

  • Python 3.9+ - Google Gemini API key - YouTube Data API key
VariableDescriptionRequired
GEMINI_API_KEYCredential the server authenticates with.Yes
YOUTUBE_API_KEYCredential the server authenticates with.Yes

Frequently asked questions

YouTube MCP allows you to extract transcripts, generate video summaries with Gemini AI, ask natural language questions about video content, search for videos, and analyze video comments.