YouTube MCP server
Ask your agent for the YouTubers in your niche, with real numbers.
Find YouTube channels for any topic from Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, check their recent views and save a shortlist, with a ceiling on every paid call.
- YouTube
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- Codex
Claude
Claude Code
CodexWhat it does
What the YouTube MCP server does
The OpenReach MCP server lets your agent search YouTube the way a marketer would: by niche, not by channel name. It searches channels and videos for your topic and ranks the channels that come up most often and most widely, so a channel that keeps making videos about home espresso ranks above one that made a single viral clip.
Then it checks the numbers that matter before you sponsor anyone. For each channel it reads the profile and recent uploads: subscribers, average views of recent videos, how often they upload, the date of the last video, country, links, and any emails in the description. YouTube shows views rather than likes in listings, so the engagement rate here is average views divided by subscribers, which shows how much of the audience still watches.
Channels that list a business email are flagged. YouTube only reveals the address behind a CAPTCHA, so OpenReach never returns it: open the channel’s About page and get it yourself.
Ask your agent
YouTube prompts for your agent
- “Find 20 YouTube channels about budget home espresso with between 10,000 and 200,000 subscribers that uploaded this month.”
- “For these five channels, compare average views against subscribers and tell me which ones are worth a sponsorship.”
- “Which of the channels in my project list a business email? Mark the rest as not a fit.”
- “Re-check the creators I saved last month and tell me whose views have dropped.”
MCP tools
YouTube MCP tools
- find_creators
- Channels for a niche keyword (
platform: youtube), from channel search and video search, ranked by how often and how widely they appear. - analyse_creator
- One channel’s profile and recent videos: subscribers, average views, engagement, uploads per week, last upload, country, links and contacts.
- analyse_creators
- The same for up to 25 channels at once. Channels that fail are listed separately.
- save_creators
- Keep channels in a project with a status and tags. Saving one again refreshes its numbers and keeps your notes. Free.
- list_creators
- Your shortlist, filtered by status or tag.
update_creatorschanges statuses, notes and tags in bulk. Free. - reanalyse_creators
- Fresh numbers for up to 25 saved channels before you reach out.
What you can do
YouTube MCP features
Niche search, not name search
Topic in, ranked channels out. The same engine as the YouTube channel finder.
Views over subscribers
Recent average views show a channel’s real reach today, whatever its subscriber count says.
An outreach list
Saved channels move from new to contacted, replied and won in the influencer CRM.
Spending controls
dry_runreturns the price andmax_cost_usdrefuses anything dearer, on top of your monthly limit.
Connect
Add the YouTube MCP server to your agent
Create an API key in Settings, then add the server. The fastest way: copy the setup prompt into your agent and it connects itself.
claude mcp add --transport http openreach https://api.openreach.gg/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $OPENREACH_API_KEY"ChatGPT and Claude can sign in with OAuth instead of a key. Config for Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and others is in the MCP setup guide.
What it costs
YouTube MCP pricing
Prices at the time of writing, billed by the data provider to your own key. Settings and usage lists every call with its cost.
| Action | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Channel search and video searchOne page each | One page each | $0.02 |
| Analyse one channelProfile and recent videos | Profile and recent videos | $0.02 – $0.03 |
| Saving, statuses, notes, exportEverything in the list | Everything in the list | Free |
Results are cached for a day, so asking again about the same niche or channel is free.
OpenReach is in active development. Prices are the data provider’s at the time of writing.
Search data
Start with $5 of free search data
Creator, Google Maps and search data in OpenReach comes from YepAPI. Sign up there and new accounts get $5 in free credit, for a limited time. That is enough to try every tool before you spend anything.
- 1
Sign up at YepAPI
New accounts get $5 in free credit, for a limited time.
- 2
Copy your API key
It is on your YepAPI dashboard once you sign in.
- 3
Paste it into OpenReach
During account setup, or later in Settings. Every tool works from there.
The free credit is YepAPI’s limited-time offer and may end. After it, you pay YepAPI per lookup at its price. OpenReach lists every call with its cost and a monthly limit caps what you spend. See pricing
YouTube MCP server FAQ
Does it use the YouTube Data API?
No. YouTube data comes from YepAPI, billed to your own key per call, so there is no Google Cloud project or YouTube quota to set up.
Can it get a YouTuber’s email address?
It returns emails written in a channel’s description and flags channels that list a business email. YouTube shows that address only after a CAPTCHA, so OpenReach never returns it; you open the channel’s About page yourself.
Can it contact YouTubers for me?
No. OpenReach finds channels, keeps your list and shows their contacts. You write and send each message yourself. The glossary entry on influencer outreach has tips.
Does it work with ChatGPT?
Yes, and with Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and any other MCP client. See the MCP setup guide.