YouTube MCP Server (data)

What it does

A high-efficiency MCP server returning structured, token-minimized data from the YouTube Data API v3 (claims up to 87% token reduction vs raw API). Covers video details, search, transcripts (at zero quota cost), channel statistics, trending, and outlier-channel discovery — the research side of distribution: study what works before you publish.

Connect

claude mcp add youtube -e YOUTUBE_API_KEY=YOUR_KEY -- npx -y @kirbah/mcp-youtube

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kirbah/mcp-youtube"
      ],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-data": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kirbah/mcp-youtube"
      ],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  }
}

Tools you'll see

Field notes

MIT, pushed Jun 2026 — the most actively maintained YouTube data MCP. Read-only (no upload — pair with yutu). Higher-starred alternative: ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server (530 stars, multi-key quota fallback, ~2.5 months stale).

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