Pexels MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that provides access to the Pexels API for searching and retrieving photos, videos, and collections.

Available Tools

photos_search – Search photos
photos_curated – List curated photos
photo_get – Get a photo by id
videos_search – Search videos
videos_popular – List popular videos
video_get – Get a video by id
collections_featured – List featured collections
collections_media – List media in a collection

Usage

Using `uv` (recommended)

Install uv.

In your MCP client code configuration or Claude settings (file claude_desktop_config.json) add pexels mcp server:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pexels": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": ["pexels-mcp-server"],
            "env": {
                "PEXELS_API_KEY": "<Your Pexels API key>"
            }
        }
    }
}

uv will download the MCP server automatically using uvx from pypi.org and apply to your MCP client.

Using `pip` for a project

Add pexels-mcp-server to your MCP client code requirements.txt file.
```
pexels-mcp-server
```
Install the dependencies.
```
pip install -r requirements.txt
```

Add the configuration for your client:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pexels": {
            "command": "python3",
            "args": ["-m", "pexels_mcp_server"],
            "env": {
                "PEXELS_API_KEY": "<Your Pexels API key>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Using `pip` globally

Ensure pip or pip3 is available on your system.

pip install pexels-mcp-server
# or
pip3 install pexels-mcp-server

MCP client code configuration or Claude settings, add pexels mcp server:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "pexels": {
            "command": "python3",
            "args": ["pexels-mcp-server"],
            "env": {
                "PEXELS_API_KEY": "<Your Pexels API key>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Debugging

You can use the MCP inspector to debug the server. For uvx installations:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uvx pexels-mcp-server

Or if you've installed the package in a specific directory or are developing on it:

git clone https://github.com/garylab/pexels-mcp-server.git
cd pexels-mcp-server
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv run pexels-mcp-server -e PEXELS_API_KEY=<the key>

License

pexels-mcp-server is licensed under the MIT License. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute the software, subject to the terms and conditions of the MIT License. For more details, please see the LICENSE file in the project repository.

Pexels MCP Server