YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server

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answering

YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server is answering right now. Last checked 11 min ago. It exposes 14 tools. Last commit 23 Aug 2026.

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

Uptime history 9 days of history · worst day 99%

9 days agonow

100.0%

Uptime 24h

91 of 91 checks

Tools

read from the server

544 ms

Response time

average over 24h

Stars

last commit 23 Aug 2026

What the code does

We read the source, 12 h ago · tools taken from the live server · rules 3dff92dd89df

Capabilities

What this server is able to do. For an MCP server this is often the job itself — a terminal server runs commands because that is what it is for. Listed so you know what you are plugging in, not as an accusation.

Secret passed into the image build Dockerfile:16

ENV TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY=""

Is this your server and something here is wrong? Tell us — corrections are free and do not require a plan.

This code can reach further than it looks

We found places where it runs commands, builds paths or queries from values it is given. None of that is a flaw by itself — it becomes one when the code changes, and code changes quietly between releases. We re-read it on every one.

Connect this server

Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 11 min ago.

Claude Code Claude Desktop Codex Cursor VS Code

run in your terminal

claude mcp add youtube-transcript-and-youtube-search --transport http https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript-and-youtube-search": {
      "url": "https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

~/.codex/config.toml

[mcp_servers.youtube-transcript-and-youtube-search]
url = "https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp"

.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript-and-youtube-search": {
      "url": "https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript-and-youtube-search": {
      "url": "https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Available tools 14

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

transcripts

get_transcripts_job

Check the progress of a batch job: status (queued/running/done/cancelled), how many videos are ready, failed and still pending. Free — polling a job you already paid for costs nothing. Read the transcripts themselves with get_transcripts_results.

get_transcripts_result

Read ONE video's result out of a batch job by its video id, without paging through get_transcripts_results. 404 means the job does not exist or this video has not finished yet — check get_transcripts_job before concluding anything. Free.

get_transcripts_results

Read finished transcripts from a batch job, in the order submitted. Results appear as they are fetched, so this can be called before the job is done. Each entry is exactly what get_transcript returns for that video, plus its status. Page with next_page_token. Free.

channel

list_channel_videos

List videos from a channel's Videos tab, newest first. Accepts an @handle, a UC... channel id or a channel URL. ids_only=true returns just video ids (up to 500 per page) — use it when you only need ids to fetch transcripts.

search_channel_videos

Search videos inside one channel using YouTube's native relevance search. Results are ranked by relevance, so a video whose title lacks the query word is normal.

playlist

list_playlist_videos

List videos of a playlist in playlist order. Accepts a PL... playlist id or a URL with list=. ids_only=true returns just video ids (up to 500 per page).

search_playlist_videos

Find videos inside a playlist by a substring of the title (case-insensitive). YouTube has no native playlist search, so this scans up to 500 playlist items. truncated=true means there may be more matches beyond the scanned window.

cancel

cancel_transcripts_job

Cancel a batch job. Credits are refunded ONLY for videos not started yet — anything already fetched stays in the results and stays paid for. Free.

credits

get_credits

Check the remaining credit balance of the API key. Free. Use it when the user asks how many credits are left, or before submit_transcripts_job to confirm a large batch fits the balance (the batch charges 1 credit per video on submit).

latest

latest_channel_videos

Get the ~15 most recent videos of a channel from its RSS feed. Fastest and cheapest way to check what a channel published recently.

submit

submit_transcripts_job

Queue transcripts for MANY videos at once (up to 4000) and get a job_id back immediately — the work continues in the background. Use this instead of calling get_transcript in a loop for more than a handful of videos. Feed it video ids from list_channel_videos or list_playlist_videos (ids_only=true). Next: poll get_transcripts_job until status is 'done', reading finished transcripts from get_transcripts_results as they land. Costs 1 credit per video, charged on submit; duplicates are removed first. Requires a user key (sk_...).

transcript

get_transcript

Get the transcript (subtitles) of a YouTube video. Accepts a video id or any YouTube URL. Set video_metadata=true to get the title, channel and duration in the SAME call — do not call get_video_info first, that is a second billed call for data this one already returns. format=text returns plain readable text (default, cheapest to read); format=json returns timed segments with start/duration in seconds; srt/vtt return ready subtitle file bodies and srv3 the raw YouTube XML. Prefer text unless you need timestamps or a file. Costs 1 credit.

video

get_video_info

Get metadata for one YouTube video (title, channel, duration, views, thumbnails) plus the list of available transcript languages, WITHOUT downloading the subtitles. Use it only when the transcript itself is not wanted. If you are going to fetch the transcript anyway, call get_transcript with video_metadata=true instead — it returns both for one credit, where these are two separate calls and two credits.

youtube

search_youtube

Search YouTube for videos or channels. Paginate by passing next_page_token from the previous result. has_more tells you whether another page exists.

Endpoints

URL	Transport	State	Latency	Checked
https://api.transcriptout.com/mcp	streamable-http	answering	532 ms	11 min ago

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YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server — questions

Answers built from our own checks of this server.

What can YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server do?

It exposes 14 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: cancel_transcripts_job, get_credits, get_transcript, get_transcripts_job, get_transcripts_result, get_transcripts_results and 8 more. 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 YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server mostly used for?

Its tools cluster around transcripts, channel and playlist. 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 YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server 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 544 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.

How do I connect YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server?

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

Does YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server need an API key?

No. YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 14 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.

How fast is YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server?

It answers our handshake in 544 ms on average, which is faster than 30% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.

Is YouTube Transcript & Search MCP Server open source?

Yes — it is published under the MIT licence and 0 stars on GitHub. The source link is on this page, so you can read exactly what it does with your data before you connect it.