Pixabay MCP Server
Unofficial MCP server for the Pixabay API: search and fetch royalty-free images and videos.
1 stars41 downloads/wk
Reviews
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Pixabay MCP Server tools (4)
write = sends, deletes, buys or postsRead from the package source without running it. The installed server may list more.
pixabay_get_imageFetch a single Pixabay image by id (e.g. one returned from pixabay_search_images), including every size tier Pixabay provides for it.
pixabay_get_videoFetch a single Pixabay video by id (e.g. one returned from pixabay_search_videos), including every size tier Pixabay provides for it.
pixabay_search_imagesSearch Pixabay's library of royalty-free images by keyword and filters. Returns a token-efficient summary per match (one representative image URL plus metadata) \u2014 call pixabay_get_image with an id for the full set of size tiers.
pixabay_search_videosSearch Pixabay's library of royalty-free videos by keyword and filters. Returns a token-efficient summary per match (one representative video URL plus metadata) \u2014 call pixabay_get_video with an id for the full set of size tiers.
Public scan report
scanner v0.1.9 · 2026-09-23 · same rubric, same numbers if you re-run it
- Code scan3 source files scanned25/25
- –Live reliabilityno gateway calls yet and no remote to proben/a
- –Tool poisoningtools not inspected (local package is not executed); not countedn/a
- Auth qualitystatic API keys via environment variables6/15
- Maintenancelast push 7 days ago15/15
- Maintainer identityregistry namespace matches repository owner; GitHub account older than a year8/10
What the publisher says
From the Pixabay MCP Server repository's README, as published. We do not edit it. Read it on GitHub
pixabay-mcp-server
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the Pixabay API. It gives AI assistants — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, and any MCP client — tools to search and fetch royalty-free images and videos.
[!IMPORTANT]
Unofficial project. This is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Pixabay.
"Pixabay" is a trademark of its respective owner. You use it under your own Pixabay account
and are responsible for complying with
Pixabay's Terms of Service and
Content License.
Table of contents
- Features
- Quick start
- Example interaction
- Configuration
- Tools
- Tool reference
- Output shape
- Resources & prompts
- Example prompts
- License & compliance
- Rate limits & caching
- Handling of Pixabay text
Features
(search, get). Pixabay has a single API-key auth tier and no write endpoints, so there's no partial "read-only v1" — this is the whole surface.
- 4 tools covering Pixabay's two documented endpoints — images (search, get) and videos
terms require it, not an optimization), safesearch defaults to true, and the mandatory courtesy attribution (by {user} via Pixabay) is surfaced on every result even though Pixabay doesn't require it.
- Compliance-aware by design — every outbound request is cached for 24 hours (Pixabay's
(webformatURL for images, the medium rendition for videos); looking a specific item up by id returns every size tier Pixabay provides, so you can pick what actually fits.
- Real image & video URLs — search results return one balanced default size tier per item
metadata as text, never base64 blobs), dropping vanity metrics (views/downloads/likes/ comments) that a model rarely needs.
- Token-efficient output — full Pixabay responses are trimmed to a compact shape (URLs +
plus a considered single retry with backoff on 429/5xx, network timeouts, and rate-limit-aware logging.
- Robust — typed failures returned as MCP isError results the model can recover from,
ever be sent as a URL query parameter — Pixabay has no header alternative).
- Safe — the Pixabay API key is redacted from every log line and error message (it can only
- Lean & modern — ESM, Node 20+, zero-install via npx, no telemetry.
Quick start
1. Get a Pixabay API key
Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.
Nothing above is checked by us. What we check is on the safety report.
Install directly
Runs npx -y @hanoak/pixabay-mcp-server on your machine. Read the scan report first; the gateway never runs local packages.
claude mcp add pixabay-mcp-server -- npx -y @hanoak/pixabay-mcp-server
Pixabay MCP Server: common questions
- Is Pixabay MCP Server safe?
- Mostly: it is graded B (83/100). Read the Pixabay MCP Server safety report
- How do I install Pixabay MCP Server?
- It runs on your machine. Copy the Claude Code, Claude Desktop or Cursor config from the install section.
- Does Pixabay MCP Server need an API key?
- Yes. The registry entry asks for
PIXABAY_API_KEY. - Is Pixabay MCP Server maintained?
- The last commit was 8 days ago (2026-09-16). The latest release is v1.0.0.
- What can I use instead of Pixabay MCP Server?
- Servers from other publishers that do the same job: Brave Search MCP server, Chatroost — unofficial Telegram MCP server and HasData YouTube MCP server. Compare all Pixabay MCP Server alternatives.
Alternatives to Pixabay MCP Server
Same job from other publishers: the closest match first, then the best rated.
- Brave SearchBrave Search MCP Server: web results, images, videos, rich results, AI summaries, and more.not reviewedEstablishedA
Chatroost — unofficial Telegram MCP serverUnofficial Telegram MCP server — read, search, reply and react in your own Telegram account.not reviewedEstablishedA
HasData YouTubeSearch YouTube and read video, channel and transcript data as JSON. No Google Cloud project.not reviewedGrowingA- OpenlibrarySearch books and authors, fetch editions, browse subjects, and resolve cover images.not reviewedGrowingA
- Ultimate Gemini MCPImage generation with Google Gemini 3.1 Flash: 512px-4K, reference images, search groundingnot reviewedGrowingB
