get_balance
Check the current Spoken credit balance, account email, and recent usage for the configured API key. Does not consume credits.
LABSCO SUMMARY
The billing rule is written into the tool descriptions, and it is what makes transcribing a whole back-catalogue something you can plan.
get_transcript charges 1 credit the first time an episode is fetched, nothing on repeat fetches and nothing when the call errors, so re-reading a transcript you already have costs nothing and a failed call does not quietly bill you. list_episodes is where that rule starts to matter: it returns a show's entire catalogue and its own description warns that transcribing the returned episodes costs a credit each, which is why get_balance exists before the loop rather than after it. search_podcasts accepting a pasted episode URL removes the usual step of hunting for an id first.
What it is
A podcast transcript service with four tools: episode search, transcript fetch, a show's full episode list, and the credit balance behind them.
What you get
- Search that takes a URL as readily as a query: search_podcasts matches published episodes by text or from a pasted episode URL such as Spotify or YouTube, returning id, title, podcast, podcast_id and date, and consuming no credits.
- Transcripts in a readable form: get_transcript returns an episode's transcript as clean Markdown with real speaker names and timestamps, from an episode id.
- A whole show at once: list_episodes returns a podcast's entire back-catalogue newest first from a podcast_id, each entry carrying id, title and date, and consumes no credits itself.
- Billing stated in the tools rather than elsewhere: get_transcript costs 1 credit on an episode's first fetch, repeat fetches are free and errors are never charged, and get_balance returns the current credit balance, account email and recent usage without consuming a credit.
Requirements
A Spoken API key, supplied as SPOKEN_API_KEY, with credits on it for transcript fetches.
Setup effort
One command — npx -y spoken-mcp
USE CASES
01
Getting a quotable transcript from an episode someone linked you
Paste the episode URL into the search to resolve it to an id, then fetch the transcript with speaker names and timestamps.
02
Transcribing a whole show without running out of credits partway
Find the show, list its full back-catalogue, check the balance against what that will cost, then fetch the transcripts.
03
Finding the episode where a topic was actually discussed
Search by the words you remember rather than by show, then read the transcript to locate the passage by its timestamp.
4 tools
Counted once with only startup setup. Other versions, modes or optional credentials may expose a different list.
get_transcript
Fetch a podcast episode's transcript as clean Markdown with real speaker names and timestamps. Pass an episode id from search_podcasts. Costs 1 credit on the first fetch of an episode; repeat fetches are free and errors are never charged.
list_episodes
List a podcast's entire back-catalog (every episode, newest first). Pass a podcast_id from a search_podcasts result. Returns each episode's id, title, and date — fetch any with get_transcript. Use this to transcribe a whole show. Does not consume credits itself; transcribing the returned episodes costs 1 credit each (repeat fetches are free), so make sure the key has enough credits before looping.
search_podcasts
Search published podcast episodes by text query, or paste an episode URL (Spotify, YouTube, etc.). Returns matching episodes with their id, title, podcast, podcast_id, and date. Use the id with get_transcript, or the podcast_id with list_episodes to get the show's whole back-catalog. Does not consume credits.
BEFORE YOU INSTALL
What to know first
Tools you get
4 tools when we connected. Without SPOKEN_API_KEY the demo key limits get_transcript to one demo episode. get_transcript is the only tool that spends credits, 1 per episode on first fetch, and credits are bought on the website, not through the agent.
Requires
npx on PATH
Where it runs
The documented client runs the server on your machine.
CONTEXT COST
Light Standing cost
Rated by the size of the 4 tool definitions that ride along on every turn, not by how many there are
INSTALLATION
Connect your client
Server setup
TERMINAL
npx -y spoken-mcpMCP Clients
Claude Desktop
CLAUDE DESKTOP · JSON
{
"mcpServers": {
"spoken": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"spoken-mcp"
],
"env": {
"SPOKEN_API_KEY": "<YOUR_SPOKEN_API_KEY>"
}
}
}
}
