Summarize any YouTube video from your AI
The ChatYT MCP server drops YouTube summarization into Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and any other MCP-compatible client. One npx command, three free summaries before you even decide to sign up.
# Install on your machine (one line):
npx -y chatyt-mcp
# Then paste the config snippet below into your AI client.
# That's it - no signup, no API key, 3 free summaries to start.Pick your client. Paste one block. Done.
The MCP server itself is the same everywhere. The only thing that changes is where the config lives. Restart the client after pasting and summarize_video shows up automatically.
{
"mcpServers": {
"chatyt": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "chatyt-mcp"]
}
}
}No global install needed
npx -y chatyt-mcp fetches the latest version on every launch. To pin a version, replace the args with ["-y", "chatyt-mcp@0.1.0"].
Built for YouTube research.
Two tools live, more shipping every few weeks. Everything on the roadmap is already supported by chatyt.io — it's just a matter of exposing it through MCP.
summarize_videoliveReturns a multi-paragraph summary of any YouTube video plus 4 suggested follow-up questions. Cached across users so duplicate requests are instant and free.
get_transcriptliveFetch the full timestamped transcript of any YouTube video. Each entry includes text, start, and duration. Same cache as summarize_video — instant on hits.
Roadmap
summarize_video — liveget_transcript — liveask_video — Q&A over a single video (next)summarize_playlist — bulk playlist summarization (planned)generate_flashcards — Anki-style study cards (planned)
How people actually use it
Research while coding
Ask Claude Code to summarize a conference talk while you're in the middle of debugging. "Use chatyt to summarize the React Compiler talk at https://..." and you get a multi-paragraph brief without ever leaving the terminal.
Daily briefings in the morning
Set up a Claude prompt that pulls summaries of every video on your watch-later list. ChatYT does the indexing, MCP delivers the text to your AI of choice, you read 8 talks worth of content in 5 minutes.
Journalism / fact-checking
Drop a press conference URL into Claude Desktop. Within seconds you have a paragraph-level summary you can paste into your draft, with citations back to the original timestamps.
Course companion
Studying a 2-hour lecture? Ask Cursor "summarize this video, then quiz me on the key points." ChatYT delivers the summary, Claude generates the quiz from it.
Three steps. No surprises.
3 free
no signup
Anyone with the MCP server installed gets 3 free summaries per IP, lifetime. No card, no email.
+10 credits
free signup
Sign up from the same machine and the 3 summaries are added to your history. You get 10 credits to keep going.
Unlimited
via API key
Generate up to 3 API keys from account settings to bypass the anonymous limit and bill against your normal credit balance.
Using your API key
Set the CHATYT_API_KEY environment variable in your MCP client config and the server authenticates automatically - no rate limit, full account history.
Everything else
What is the ChatYT MCP server?
A small open-source program that exposes ChatYT's YouTube summarization to any MCP (Model Context Protocol) client - Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and others. Once installed, you can ask Claude or your editor to summarize any YouTube video and it'll be handled by ChatYT in the background.
Do I need to sign up to use it?
No. You get 3 free summaries per IP, lifetime, with no signup and no credit card. If you sign up afterwards from the same machine, the videos you already summarized are automatically added to your ChatYT history.
What happens after the 3 free summaries?
Sign up for a free ChatYT account to get 10 starting credits - more than enough to keep going. From your account settings you can create up to 3 API keys to use unlimited summaries through MCP, billed against your normal credits.
Which clients does it work with?
Anything that speaks MCP. We've tested it with Claude Desktop, Claude Code (Anthropic CLI), Cursor, and Windsurf. The same npx command works for all of them - the difference is just where you paste the config.
How accurate are the summaries?
Summaries are generated by the same engine that powers chatyt.io - GPT-4 class quality, with the full transcript fetched and indexed for accuracy. Re-summarizing a video you (or anyone else) has already processed is instant and free, because the result is cached.
Is my data private?
Video metadata, transcripts, and summaries are stored in ChatYT just as they are when you use the web app - they're cached so repeated requests are free for everyone. We don't sell or share your data. See the Privacy page for full details.
Put YouTube into your AI.
One install, three free summaries, no signup. Then 10 credits if you stay. Built for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and anything that speaks MCP.
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