YouTube Data MCP Server
YouTube Data API MCP server enabling AI agents to access YouTube video and channel data — searching videos, retrieving video metadata and statistics, fetching channel information, getting video captions/transcripts, and integrating YouTube's data into agent-driven content research, video analysis, and social media analytics workflows.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
HTTPS enforced. API key with YouTube-restricted scope. OAuth for user data. GDPR. Restrict API key to YouTube Data API only.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
An agent needs YouTube video data — metadata, statistics, transcripts, or search results — for content research, analytics, or social media intelligence.
Avoid When
You need to download video files, access private/premium content, or require real-time streaming data.
Use Cases
- • Searching YouTube for videos on specific topics from content research agents
- • Retrieving video statistics (views, likes, comments) from analytics agents
- • Getting video transcripts for content analysis from summarization agents
- • Analyzing channel performance and growth from social media agents
- • Finding competitor video strategies from market research agents
- • Tracking trending videos and topics from content strategy agents
Not For
- • Downloading YouTube videos (violates ToS; use legal alternatives)
- • Teams needing Vimeo, TikTok, or other video platforms
- • High-frequency polling (YouTube API has strict quota limits)
Interface
Authentication
YouTube Data API v3 key for public data (videos, channels, search). OAuth 2.0 required for user-specific data (subscriptions, playlists). API key available from Google Cloud Console.
Pricing
YouTube Data API v3 has 10,000 free quota units/day. Different operations cost different units (search costs 100 units). Free tier is generally sufficient for moderate agent use.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ YouTube API quota is measured in 'units' not requests — search is expensive (100 units)
- ⚠ Daily quota resets at midnight Pacific Time — agents must handle quota exhaustion gracefully
- ⚠ Transcript retrieval requires youtube-transcript-api or similar; not in YouTube Data API directly
- ⚠ OAuth 2.0 required for user data — API key only gives access to public data
- ⚠ Community MCP — may not expose full YouTube Data API surface (comments, live streams, etc.)
- ⚠ YouTube may change API quotas or deprecate endpoints without warning
Alternatives
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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.