Roundup
Best YouTube MCP servers in 2026
Nine servers that give an AI assistant access to YouTube transcripts, search and channel data, sorted by what they do rather than by hype. One of them is ours; we say so where it matters.
At a glance
| Server | Type | Stars | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| BulkTranscripts | Hosted | n/a | Agents that need transcripts plus search, channel and playlist listings without running anything |
| kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript | Self-hosted | 591 | A single transcript tool you run locally |
| anaisbetts/mcp-youtube | Self-hosted | 544 | Claude Desktop users comfortable installing yt-dlp |
| ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server | Self-hosted | 573 | Managing your own channel: uploads, analytics, Shorts |
| jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript | Self-hosted | 478 | A Python transcript server with language options |
| TranscriptAPI MCP | Hosted | n/a | Developers already on a TranscriptAPI subscription |
| supadata-ai/mcp | Hosted API, official server | 62 | Multi-platform: YouTube plus TikTok, Instagram, X and web pages |
| 0xchamin/mcptube | Self-hosted | 156 | Building a personal knowledge base from videos |
| ShellyDeng08/youtube-connector-mcp | Self-hosted | 71 | Search, channels, playlists and transcripts in one local server |
The servers
1. BulkTranscripts
Best for: Agents that need transcripts plus search, channel and playlist listings without running anything
One remote URL with OAuth sign-in. Seven tools: transcript, batch of 20, YouTube search, channel search, channel listing, playlist listing, and a free new-upload check. Repeat reads from your library are free; 30 credits to start. This is our server, so weigh the rest of this list accordingly.
Cost: 30 free credits, then one-time packs from $4.99; credits never expire
2. kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript
Best for: A single transcript tool you run locally
The most-starred transcript-only server. Give it a video URL and it returns the caption text. No search, no channel listing, and extraction runs from your own network, so cloud deployments may hit YouTube's blocking.
Cost: Free software; your machine or proxy
3. anaisbetts/mcp-youtube
Best for: Claude Desktop users comfortable installing yt-dlp
Fetches subtitles through yt-dlp so Claude can summarise a video. Simple and widely used; depends on yt-dlp staying ahead of YouTube changes.
Cost: Free software; requires yt-dlp installed
4. ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server
Best for: Managing your own channel: uploads, analytics, Shorts
Built on the official YouTube Data API rather than captions, so it covers video management and analytics for channels you own. Needs a Google API key and its quota.
Cost: Free software; YouTube Data API quota
5. jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript
Best for: A Python transcript server with language options
Retrieves transcripts with language selection, installable with uvx. Same trade-off as the other self-hosted tools: your network does the fetching.
Cost: Free software
6. TranscriptAPI MCP
Best for: Developers already on a TranscriptAPI subscription
Hosted MCP exposing transcripts, YouTube search, channel and playlist tools on top of the TranscriptAPI credit system. Closest in scope to ours; the difference is monthly billing and no bulk web app. See the full comparison.
Cost: 100 free credits, then monthly plans from $5
7. supadata-ai/mcp
Best for: Multi-platform: YouTube plus TikTok, Instagram, X and web pages
Official server for the Supadata API. Broadest platform coverage on this list and can generate transcripts with AI when a video has no captions. Monthly credits. See the comparison.
Cost: 100 free credits per month, then plans from $5 per month
8. 0xchamin/mcptube
Best for: Building a personal knowledge base from videos
Goes beyond fetching: stores transcripts and analysis so later questions build on earlier ones. More of a workflow than a plain connector.
Cost: Free software
9. ShellyDeng08/youtube-connector-mcp
Best for: Search, channels, playlists and transcripts in one local server
The self-hosted option whose tool set most resembles a hosted service: search videos, channels and playlists, then pull transcripts. Smaller community than the transcript-only servers.
Cost: Free software
How to choose
Ask three questions. Does the assistant need to find videos, or will you hand it URLs? Only the servers with search and channel tools can find. Must it work from a cloud machine? Self-hosted servers fetch from their own IP, which YouTube blocks unpredictably; hosted ones handle that. Is the job one video or an archive? For archives, a server that can list a channel and batch-fetch saves hundreds of tool calls.
Connect the hosted one
One command in Claude Code, one JSON block in Cursor or VS Code. Setup for each client is on the MCP server page.
claude mcp add --transport http bulktranscripts https://bulktranscripts.co/mcpQuestions
What is a YouTube MCP server?
A Model Context Protocol server that gives an AI client such as Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code tools for YouTube: fetch a transcript, search videos, list a channel. The client calls the tools; the server does the fetching.
Hosted or self-hosted?
Self-hosted servers are free but fetch from your own network, which YouTube blocks unpredictably on cloud IPs, and you maintain them. Hosted servers cost credits and handle routing and retries for you. For a laptop and occasional use, self-hosted is fine. For anything that must work every time, hosted.
Which server can list a whole channel?
BulkTranscripts, TranscriptAPI, Supadata and youtube-connector-mcp expose channel and playlist listings. The transcript-only servers need the video URLs handed to them.
How were these chosen?
From GitHub search results for YouTube MCP servers on 2026-09-08, plus the hosted services that ship an MCP endpoint. Star counts are from that day. We have not run a benchmark across all nine; descriptions come from each project's own documentation.