Overview
The Pexels MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server that provides access to the Pexels API for searching and retrieving photos, videos, and collections. It exposes a set of MCP tools to perform common media operations: photos_search to search photos, photos_curated to list curated photos, photo_get to fetch a photo by ID, videos_search to search videos, videos_popular to list popular videos, video_get to fetch a video by ID, collections_featured to list featured collections, and collections_media to list media within a collection. The server can be installed and run via uv (recommended) or as a Python module. It requires a PEXELS_API_KEY environment variable for authentication. Configuration examples show how to add the MCP server to a Claude/MCP client, including uvx-based automatic download and usage via python -m pexels_mcp_server. Debugging is supported with the MCP inspector (uvx) and local development workflows. The project is MIT-licensed.
Features
photos_search
Search photos on Pexels via MCP.
photos_curated
List curated photos from Pexels.
photo_get
Retrieve a photo by its ID.
videos_search
Search videos on Pexels via MCP.
videos_popular
List popular videos from Pexels.
video_get
Retrieve a video by its ID.
collections_featured
List featured collections on Pexels.
collections_media
List media items within a collection.
Who Is This For?
- MCP clients:Enable MCP clients to search and retrieve Pexels media using the MCP server.




