YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing platform with user-generated content, live streaming, and monetization opportunities, widely used for marketing, education, and entertainment
Verdict
Common use cases
- Download video captions for content analysis
- Track competitor upload schedules weekly
- Audit channel subscriber growth trends
- Export playlist metadata for reporting
- Monitor channel activity feeds for engagement
Integration
- Vendor
- YouTube
- Category
- other
- Auth
- OAUTH2
- Tools
- 14
- Composio slug
youtube
Tools
- Download YouTube caption track
Downloads a specific youtube caption track, which must be owned by the authenticated user, and returns its content as text.
- Get Channel Activities
Gets recent activities from a youtube channel including video uploads, playlist additions, likes, and other channel events.
- Get channel ID by handle
Retrieves the youtube channel id for a specific youtube channel handle.
- Get Channel Statistics
Gets detailed statistics for youtube channels including subscriber counts, view counts, and video counts.
- List captions
Retrieves a list of caption tracks for a youtube video, returning an empty list if no captions exist or failing if the video id is invalid or not found.
- List channel videos
Lists videos from a specified youtube channel, ensuring results are of `type: 'video'`.
- List user playlists
Retrieves playlists owned by the authenticated user, implicitly using mine=true.
- List user subscriptions
Retrieves the authenticated user's youtube channel subscriptions, allowing specification of response parts and pagination.
- Search YouTube
Searches youtube for videos, channels, or playlists using a query term, returning the raw api response.
- Subscribe to channel
Subscribes the authenticated user to a specified youtube channel, identified by its unique `channelid` which must be valid and existing.
- Update thumbnail
Sets the custom thumbnail for a youtube video using an image from thumbnailurl; the authenticated user must have permission to edit the video.
- Update video
Updates metadata for a youtube video identified by videoid, which must exist; an empty list for tags removes all existing tags.
- Upload video
Uploads a video from a local file path to a youtube channel; the video file must be in a youtube-supported format.
- Video details
Retrieves specified information parts (e.g., snippet, contentdetails, statistics) for a youtube video, identified by its id.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. Open your Switchy workspace and navigate to Settings > Integrations > Browse MCP Servers. 2. Find YouTube in the list and click Connect. 3. You'll be redirected to Google's OAuth consent screen—sign in with the Google account that manages your YouTube channel. 4. Grant read-only access to YouTube data (scopes include youtube.readonly and youtube.force-ssl). 5. After approving, you'll return to Switchy and see a green Connected badge next to YouTube. 6. Open any Project, type '@YouTube list my playlists' in the chat, and hit send—if you see a list of your playlists, the connection works. 7. To test channel lookups, try '@YouTube get channel statistics for @mkbhd' (replace with any handle). 8. If authentication fails, revoke access at myaccount.google.com/permissions and reconnect from Switchy.
What teammates see: by default, memories from YouTube are scoped to the Project (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Projects have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Competitor Upload Audit
@YouTube list the most recent videos from the channel with handle @veritasium and show me their titles, view counts, and upload dates.Open in a Project →
Caption Export for SEO
@YouTube download the English caption track for video ID dQw4w9WgXcQ and return the full transcript as plain text.Open in a Project →
Channel Growth Snapshot
@YouTube get channel statistics for the channel with handle @mkbhd and summarize subscriber count, total views, and number of videos.Open in a Project →
Playlist Inventory Check
@YouTube list all playlists I own and show their titles, video counts, and privacy status.Open in a Project →
Recent Activity Feed
@YouTube get recent activities from the channel with handle @3blue1brown and highlight any new video uploads or playlist changes from the past week.Open in a Project →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@YouTube list all videos from @mkbhd's channel in the last 30 days and summarize the topics covered
Found 8 videos from MKBHD (channel ID: UCBJycsmduvYEL83R_U4JriQ) published in the last 30 days. Topics include: two smartphone reviews (Galaxy S24 Ultra, iPhone 15 Pro Max camera comparison), one electric vehicle first-drive (Rivian R2), a studio tour update, two tech news roundups covering AI announcements and Apple's WWDC rumors, and a collaboration video discussing content creation workflows. Total views across these videos: 12.4M. Most popular was the Galaxy S24 Ultra review at 3.2M views.
This example combines the get-channel-ID-by-handle tool with list-channel-videos, then uses the AI to synthesize themes. Requires OAuth scope youtube.readonly. Note that YouTube's API returns videos in reverse-chronological order but doesn't natively filter by date range—the MCP fetches recent uploads and the AI filters by timestamp.
@YouTube download the English captions from my latest video and check if I said 'um' or 'uh' more than 20 times
Downloaded English (auto-generated) caption track from video 'Q3 Product Roadmap Update' (video ID: dQw4w9WgXcQ). Transcript contains 2,847 words over 12 minutes. Filler word count: 'um' appears 14 times, 'uh' appears 9 times, total 23 instances. This averages roughly 1.9 filler words per minute. The highest concentration occurs between 4:30-6:00 during the pricing discussion section.
Demonstrates caption download and AI text analysis. Only works for videos owned by the authenticated user—attempting to download captions from others' videos will fail with a permissions error. Auto-generated captions may contain transcription errors that affect word counts. Requires youtube.force-ssl scope.
@YouTube show me my subscription feed activity from the last week—which channels posted, and flag any I haven't watched in 3+ months
Analyzed 47 subscriptions. In the last 7 days, 19 channels posted new content (total: 63 videos). Channels with new uploads: Veritasium (3 videos), 3Blue1Brown (1 video), Kurzgesagt (2 videos), and 16 others. Cross-referencing with your watch history: 8 subscribed channels have posted content you haven't engaged with in 90+ days, including TechLinked (last watched 118 days ago), Corridor Crew (94 days), and Unbox Therapy (103 days). These 8 channels represent 14 of the 63 new videos.
Combines list-user-subscriptions with get-channel-activities to build a feed overview. The 'haven't watched' analysis requires the AI to infer from activity patterns since the YouTube MCP doesn't expose watch history directly—this is an illustrative interpretation. Real implementation would need additional data sources or user confirmation. Rate limits apply: 10,000 quota units/day for most projects.
Use-case deep-dives
When YouTube MCP beats manual channel tracking for content planning
A 3-person content team researching competitor channels for a weekly video strategy meeting should use this MCP. The channel statistics and video listing tools pull subscriber counts, view trends, and upload cadence in one query instead of clicking through 8 tabs. The caption download tool is the hidden win: you can extract full transcripts from competitor videos to analyze messaging patterns or quote sources without manual playback. This works best when you're tracking 5-15 channels regularly. If you're doing one-off research or need comments and engagement data, the MCP's scope is too narrow—just use the YouTube app. For recurring competitive analysis where transcripts matter, this MCP saves 20 minutes per session and keeps the data in your workspace for reference.
This MCP is built for solo creators managing their own channel
A solo YouTuber or small creator team (1-2 people) managing uploads, playlists, and captions should lean on this MCP. The OAuth2 scope means it only touches your own channel, so you can list your videos, organize playlists, check subscription activity, and pull caption tracks for repurposing content into blog posts or social clips. The get channel activities tool is useful for tracking what your audience is engaging with across your uploads. The threshold: if you're managing multiple client channels or need to post comments and replies, this MCP won't help—it's read-only on your own content. For a creator who wants to automate content audits or repurpose video transcripts into other formats, this is the right tool.
When YouTube MCP works for internal knowledge base building
A 6-person support or success team maintaining a library of tutorial videos on their company's YouTube channel should consider this MCP. The list channel videos and download caption track tools let you build a searchable index of your own video content without manual transcription. You can pull captions into your workspace, tag them by topic, and surface relevant clips when answering customer questions. The channel statistics tool helps you see which tutorials get the most views so you know what to prioritize or update. This breaks down if your videos don't have captions enabled or if you need to index videos from multiple channels—the OAuth2 scope locks you to one authenticated account. For teams with a single-channel video library and captions turned on, this MCP turns your YouTube content into a queryable knowledge base.
Frequently asked
What does the YouTube MCP let me do in Switchy?
It pulls channel stats, recent uploads, captions, and subscription lists from YouTube into your workspace. You can download caption tracks you own, check subscriber counts, list videos from any channel, and see what channels your account follows. It's read-focused — you're not uploading videos or editing metadata through this MCP.
Do I need to own the YouTube channel to connect it?
No. OAuth2 grants access to your personal YouTube account, which lets you read public channel data, download captions you own, and list your own subscriptions and playlists. You don't need admin rights to a brand channel unless you're pulling private analytics or caption tracks tied to that channel's videos.
Can the YouTube MCP upload videos or post comments?
No. The 14 tools are read-only: fetching stats, listing videos, downloading captions, checking subscriptions. If you need to upload content or moderate comments, use YouTube Studio directly or a write-enabled API client outside Switchy.
How is this different from just opening YouTube in a browser?
It surfaces structured data — channel IDs, view counts, caption text — that you can pipe into prompts or dashboards without scraping HTML. You skip manual copy-paste when you want to analyze upload schedules, compare subscriber growth, or feed video transcripts into a summary workflow.
Does connecting YouTube count against my Switchy plan limits?
The OAuth connection itself doesn't consume seats or storage. Tool calls do count toward your workspace's monthly execution quota, so bulk-downloading captions or polling channel stats frequently will eat into that budget. One person on the team should connect it to avoid duplicate auth flows.