Skip the install. Get this working in under 2 minutes.
Start a free trial on cloud.anythingmcp.com, add the Pexels in one click, then point your AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or Cursor) at the generated MCP endpoint. No Docker, no git clone, zero engineering experience required.
AnythingMCP is listed in Claude's connector directory: add it to Claude in one click (opens in a new tab), then sign in and choose which MCP servers Claude may use.
Summary
Pexels free stock media: search photos and videos with orientation, size, colour and locale filters, curated photos, popular videos, single photo or video details, and featured or own collections. Pexels API with an API key.
Try asking
Example prompts for Pexels
Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.
Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Pexels, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
Pexels + Claude
Pexels free stock media: search photos and videos with orientation, size, colour and locale filters, curated photos, popular videos, single photo or video details, and featured or own collections. Pexels API with an API key.
Prerequisites
See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:
PEXELS_API_KEY
Step 1 — Get credentials
The connector searches and browses free stock photos, videos and collections through the Pexels API. It is read-only.
- Sign in at pexels.com and open Image & Video API (https://www.pexels.com/api/new/).
- Fill in the short form about your use and copy the API key.
- Paste the key alone into
PEXELS_API_KEY, without the wordBearer. The connector sends it as theAuthorizationheader. - Start with
pexels_search_photosorpexels_search_videosand aquery. Photos come with ready-made sizes insrc; videos list one file per resolution invideo_files.
The default limit is 200 requests per hour and 20,000 per month per key; above it Pexels answers 429. Pexels asks every app to show a visible link to Pexels and, where possible, to credit the photographer with a link to photographer_url; it raises limits for free on request if you attribute properly. pexels_get_collection_media reads only featured collections and the collections of the account that created the key; any other collection answers 404, even a public one.
Step 2 — Install the adapter
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Step 3 — Add the connector in Claude
Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (
https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide showsYOUR_SERVER_ID.
Recommended path — works on claude.ai web without editing any config file.
- In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
- Click +, then Add custom connector.
- Enter a name, e.g.
Pexels, and the remote MCP server URLhttps://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID, then click Add. - Click Connect and sign in to AnythingMCP (OAuth) to allow access.
All tools below appear in your chat — start typing prompts.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
pexels_search_photos | Search free stock photos by keyword, with optional orientation, minimum size, colour and locale |
pexels_list_curated_photos | List photos hand-picked by the Pexels team, updated at least hourly |
pexels_get_photo | Get one photo by id: width, height, photographer and profile link, average colour, alt text and image URLs (original, large2x, large… |
pexels_search_videos | Search free stock videos by keyword, with optional orientation, minimum size and locale |
pexels_list_popular_videos | List the currently popular videos on Pexels, optionally limited by minimum width or height and by duration |
pexels_get_video | Get one video by id: width, height, duration, user, preview image, video files (quality, file type, size, link) and preview pictures |
pexels_list_featured_collections | List the collections featured by Pexels with id, title, description and the number of photos and videos |
pexels_list_my_collections | List the collections of the Pexels account that owns the API key, with id, title, description, privacy and media counts |
pexels_get_collection_media | List the photos and videos in one featured collection or one of the key owner's collections, optionally only photos or only videos |
FAQ
Does it work with Claude Code as well as Claude Desktop? Yes — point both at https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID.
Next steps
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