HasData/youtube-mcp

A hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives Claude, Cursor, Windsurf and any other MCP client four read-only YouTube tools. Search YouTube, read video and channel data, and pull transcripts, with no Google Cloud project and no YouTube Data API key.
**1,000 free credits every month, no card required**, which is 100 YouTube calls.
- Prompts and resources
Contents
- What you need
- Quick start
- Example prompts
- Tools
- Errors and failure paths
- Pricing, free tier and limits
- Tool selection
- How it compares
- FAQ
- HasData links
- Development
- Contributing
- License
What you need
An MCP client that speaks streamable HTTP with custom headers. A HasData API key from the dashboard, free to create. Nothing else. This is a remote server, so the simplest path is a URL and a header, with no container to run and no Google account anywhere in the flow. A stdio-only client can use the @hasdata/youtube-mcp (npm) or hasdata-youtube-mcp (PyPI) launcher instead.
Quick start
The server URL is the same for every client. We run it hands-on in Claude Code and Claude Desktop. The other blocks follow each client's own documented format for a remote server.
| Field | Value |
| :--- | :--- |
| URL | https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=youtube |
| Transport | HTTP, streamable |
| Auth header | x-api-key: HASDATA_API_KEY |
Clients with OAuth support can add the same URL as a connector and sign in without putting a key in a config file.
Claude Code
Claude Desktop
Settings, then Connectors, then Add custom connector, then paste https://mcp.hasdata.com/mcp?apis=youtube and sign in.
For the config-file route, Claude Desktop loads only local (stdio) servers, so it reaches a remote server through a stdio launcher. The @hasdata/youtube-mcp package is that launcher, and it reads the key from the environment. Add this to claude_desktop_config.json:
Python instead of Node? Swap the launcher for the PyPI package, which uvx runs without a manual install:
Cursor
~/.cursor/mcp.json for every project, or .cursor/mcp.json for one:
Windsurf
~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json. Windsurf calls the field serverUrl, not url:
Cline
VS Code
.vscode/mcp.json in the workspace:
Codex CLI
~/.codex/config.toml:
Gemini CLI
~/.gemini/settings.json:
Example prompts
Prompts, not code. Paste one in and the agent picks the tool itself. Each is annotated with the calls it takes, because in MCP the model decides how many calls to make and every successful call costs 10 credits.
> Find the ten most viewed videos about the Model Context Protocol from the last month, then pull the transcript of the top one and give me the three claims it makes about tool calling.
*Two calls, 20 credits.*
> Take the channel @GoogleDevelopers. List the tabs it publishes, then summarize the last five uploads and tell me which topics repeat.
*Two calls, 20 credits. Reading a tab you have not seen takes a second call, because the tab list arrives inside the first response.*
> Take this video id, dQw4w9WgXcQ. Get its stats, then check which of its related videos come from the same channel.
*One call, 10 credits. Related videos ride along in the same response.*
> Search YouTube for "web scraping tutorial", sorted by upload date, videos under four minutes only, and give me the chapter titles of each result that has them.
*One call, 10 credits.*
> Pull the German transcript of this video if one exists, and tell me which languages it is available in.
*One call, 10 credits.*
Search takes YouTube's own filter tokens, and an agent narrows by duration, upload date and content type without post-processing. Transcripts arrive with the list of available language tracks, which lets the agent pick one without guessing.
Paging costs a call each time. A research prompt that searches, pages twice, then pulls three transcripts is six calls and 60 credits. The free tier goes further on narrow questions than on open-ended crawls.
Tools
| Tool | What it returns |
| --- | --- |
| hasdata_youtube_channel_getYoutubeChannel | Channel identity (title, description, avatar, banner, country, join date), subscriber and total-view counts, social links, and the items on the requested tab (videos…. 10 credits a call |
| hasdata_youtube_search_getYoutubeSearchResults | Searches YouTube for a query and returns the full results page split into videoResults (videoId, title, views, length, publish date, chapters, channel info, extensions…. 10 credits a call |
| hasdata_youtube_transcript_getYoutubeTranscript | The timed transcript (subtitles) of a YouTube video by its 11-character videoId. 10 credits a call |