Pexafy ships a hosted MCP server, so AI assistants like Claude can search the Pexafy photo library directly inside a conversation — no plugin to build, no code to write. Ask in plain language and the assistant returns real photos that are free to use.

Connect Pexafy in Claude

Step-by-step setup for Claude.ai, Claude Desktop and Claude Code — most setups take under a minute.

​
What your assistant can do

Search by text

Describe a scene in natural language and get matching photos — Pexafy understands meaning and mood, not just keywords.

Search by image

Start from a reference picture and find visually similar photos — same subject, colors or style.

Find similar

Take any result and ask for “more like this” to build a visually consistent set.
Most assistants already have a generic web image search. It crawls the open web and hands back whatever ranks — screenshots, memes, logos, watermarked previews, low-resolution thumbnails, and images you have no right to reuse. The links often hotlink to pages that break, expire or block you. Pexafy is a different tool for a different job:
  • Every result is usable. One curated library of professional photos from nine free-photo providers — high-resolution and free to use, with no attribution required. You can actually publish what you find, not just look at it.
  • Built for photography, not the whole web. The engine is tuned for scenes, light, composition and mood, so a sentence like “the quiet after a summer thunderstorm” returns evocative, on-brief photos — not a literal keyword grab-bag.
  • Stable, structured results. Reliable CDN URLs in several sizes, plus metadata (color, orientation, photographer) you can filter on — instead of fragile web links.
  • Inline previews. Compatible clients show thumbnails right in the chat, so it feels just as immediate as native image search — with results you can ship.
The result: fewer dead ends, photos you’re actually free to use, and images that fit the idea you described — not just the words.

​
Connect it

Every step below comes from the client’s own documentation. The server URL is the same everywhere: https://mcp.pexafy.com/mcp.
Claude.ai and Claude Desktop connect over OAuth — there is no key to paste.
  1. Open Customize → Connectors.
  2. Click +, then Add custom connector.
  3. Paste https://mcp.pexafy.com/mcp and click Add.
  4. Sign in with your Pexafy account in the window Claude opens.
Available on Free, Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise; Free accounts can hold one connector.

​
Why connect it

  • Semantic search built in. Ask “an old man sitting at a café table he has visited every morning for thirty years” and get photos that actually capture the scene — not a bag of tags.
  • Free to use. Photos come from a permissive, free-to-use library — no attribution required. Ready-made credit (attribution.html / attribution.plain) is included if you’d still like to credit the photographer.
  • Your account, your quota. The assistant searches on behalf of your Pexafy account. Usage counts against your plan — see Pricing.
  • Always up to date. The connector tracks the live API, so new capabilities show up automatically.

​
The endpoint

This is a remote, machine-facing endpoint that speaks the Model Context Protocol. You don’t open it in a browser — you add it to an MCP-compatible client. The Connect in Claude guide walks you through it.
No Pexafy account yet? Create a free one first — it takes a minute and no credit card is required.