TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) MCP Server

by transcriptapi Your server? Claim it

answering

TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) is answering right now. Last checked 12 min ago. 212 installs a week from npm. It exposes 5 tools.

YouTube transcripts, search, channels and playlists for AI agents, by transcriptapi.io.

Installs per day peak 187 · avg 8 · +1492% w/w

a month agotoday

Uptime history 9 days of history

9 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

91 of 91 checks

Tools

read from the server

124 ms

Response time

average over 24h

212

Installs / week

npm and PyPI

Nothing serious here today

Today is the operative word: we check TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 12 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add youtube-transcript --transport http https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp

Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address

https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.youtube-transcript]
url = "https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "url": "https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "servers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 5

Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on. If a tool disappears, we record the date.

channel

get_channel_videos

List the most recent uploads of a YouTube channel, newest first. Accepts a channel id (UC…), a handle (@name) or a channel URL. Returns ids, titles, durations, view counts and publish dates.

search_channel_videos

Search for videos inside one YouTube channel by keyword — 'find the video where <channel> talks about <topic>'. Accepts a channel id, @handle or channel URL.

youtube

get_youtube_transcript

Fetch the transcript (captions/subtitles) of a YouTube video as text. Accepts a watch URL, youtu.be link, Shorts link or bare 11-character video id. Returns the spoken text with timestamps grouped in ~30 s blocks by default; format 'text' is prose without timestamps, 'srt'/'vtt' are subtitle files, 'json' is raw segments with start/duration. Works with creator-uploaded and auto-generated captions. translate_to translates the transcript with AI (extra credits, scales with length) — omit unless asked.

search_youtube

Search YouTube for videos by keyword. Returns video ids, titles, channel names, durations and view counts. Use a returned id with get_youtube_transcript to read it.

playlist

get_playlist_videos

List the videos in a YouTube playlist, in playlist order. Accepts a playlist URL (anything with list=…) or the playlist id. Returns ids and titles for get_youtube_transcript.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://api.transcriptapi.io/mcp	streamable-http	answering	110 ms	12 min ago

Alternatives to TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io)

same job, measured the same way

YouTube Transcript + YouTube Search MCP

by getyoutubetranscript

YouTube transcripts, search, channel browsing, and playlists for AI agents via MCP.

8 tools answering

YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server

by transcriptout

YouTube transcripts, search, channels, playlists and bulk transcript jobs for AI agents. 14 tools.

14 tools answering

Youtube Transcripts

by fetchworks-dev

YouTube transcripts for AI agents: videos, channels, playlists, search. Timestamps, SRT, VTT.

7 installs/wk local only

BulkTranscripts YouTube

by bulktranscripts

YouTube transcripts, search, channel/playlist listings and upload tracking for AI agents.

7 tools answering

YouTubeTranscriptAPI

by youtubetranscriptapi

YouTube transcripts, search, and channel and playlist listings for any AI app. Hosted.

answering

YTAPI

by ytapi

YouTube transcripts, comments, video details, heatmaps, search, channels and playlists.

answering

Youtube Data

by superagnt

YouTube data for AI agents: channels, videos, transcripts, comments, search. Video research.

answering

YouTube Transcripts

by fbetteo

Transcripts from YouTube videos, whole channels and playlists for AI agents, with bulk ZIP export.

8 tools answering

TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) do?

It exposes 5 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: get_channel_videos, get_playlist_videos, get_youtube_transcript, search_channel_videos, search_youtube. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README. How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →

What is TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) mostly used for?

Its tools cluster around channel and youtube. That is what this server is built to work with — the grouping comes from the actual tool names, not from a category we assigned.

Is TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) working right now?

We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 91 of 91 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 124 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io)?

Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.

Does TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) need an API key?

No. TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io) completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 5 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io)?

It answers our handshake in 124 ms on average, which is faster than 93% of all working MCP servers we measure. That puts it in the quick quarter of the ecosystem. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

How many people use TranscriptAPI — YouTube transcripts (transcriptapi.io)?

The npm package transcriptapi-mcp was installed 212 times in the last week. Week over week that is +1492%. We show installs rather than GitHub stars on purpose: a star is a bookmark, an install is someone actually running it.