YouTube

YouTube on xpay — Agent-native video search and metadata without the signup friction

YouTube is the world's largest video platform, and its API is a go-to for developers who need to search videos, extract transcripts, pull channel metadata, or list playlist contents. Traditionally, accessing YouTube's API means creating a Google Cloud project, enabling the YouTube Data API, managing OAuth credentials, and dealing with quota limits. xpay removes that overhead: authenticate once with your xpay key, call YouTube tools directly from your AI agent, and pay $0.01 per call—no subscription, no per-provider signup.

What's available

• videos_searchVideos — Search for videos by keyword and get results with URLs, titles, and metadata
• videos_getVideo — Fetch detailed information about a specific video, including duration, view count, and description
• transcripts_getTranscript — Extract the full transcript of any video (when available)
• channels_getChannel — Retrieve channel information, subscriber count, and upload history
• channels_listVideos — List videos from a specific channel
• playlists_getPlaylist — Get playlist metadata and details
• playlists_getPlaylistItems — Retrieve all videos in a playlist

When YouTube is the right tool

• You need to search for videos programmatically and extract URLs or metadata for downstream processing
• You're building a research or content-analysis agent that must pull transcripts to summarize or analyze video content
• You want to monitor a channel's upload activity or retrieve a creator's video catalog
• You're aggregating playlist data for a recommendation or curation workflow
• You need to validate video existence or fetch metadata before embedding or linking to videos

When to choose something else

• If you only need to embed or link to videos on a web page, use YouTube's embed API directly (no MCP needed)
• If you require real-time live-stream data or chat moderation, YouTube's live API has specialized endpoints not yet wrapped here
• If you need to upload or manage your own channel programmatically, consider YouTube's OAuth-based content management API
• If you're doing large-scale bulk analysis of millions of videos, direct YouTube API access with higher quotas may be more cost-effective than per-call pricing

Pricing snapshot

All YouTube tools on xpay cost $0.01 per call. You pay only for what you use; there are no monthly fees or subscription tiers.

Quickstart

For Claude Code (recommended if you only need YouTube):

claude mcp add --transport http youtube "https://youtube.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"

Replace YOUR_XPAY_KEY with your xpay API key (get one free at https://xpay.tools after email or Google signup). Once connected, your Claude Code agent can call tools like videos_searchVideos or transcripts_getTranscript by name, passing the required arguments directly.

For Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, or VS Code with Copilot:

Add this entry to your mcp.json configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "url": "https://youtube.mcp.xpay.sh/mcp?key=YOUR_XPAY_KEY"
    }
  }
}

Restart your editor, and the YouTube tools will be available to your agent.

Invoking a tool:

Once connected, your agent can invoke tools by their native names. For example: "Search YouTube for 'machine learning tutorials' and return the top 5 results" will trigger videos_searchVideos with the appropriate arguments. The agent receives results with video URLs, titles, and metadata, ready for further processing.

Why route YouTube through xpay?

• No YouTube account or Google Cloud setup — xpay manages the upstream credentials. You authenticate once with your xpay key and start making calls immediately.
• Pay-per-call pricing — Every YouTube tool costs $0.01 per call. No monthly fees, no quota surprises. You only pay for the calls you make.
• MCP-native integration — YouTube tools are exposed as standard MCP resources. Your AI agent can discover, inspect, and invoke them using the same MCP protocol it uses for other tools.
• Unified billing across providers — If you use multiple xpay providers (Tavily, Apollo, etc.), one xpay key and one bill covers them all.
• Simplified credential management — No need to rotate YouTube API keys, manage OAuth tokens, or worry about leaking credentials in your codebase. xpay holds the secrets.