| Keyword | Volume | CPC | Competition | 12-month trend |
|---|
How it works
The YouTube Keyword Tool harvests real autocomplete suggestions from YouTube's public suggest endpoint. That is the same engine that powers the dropdown in YouTube's search bar, so every suggestion is something real people have searched for on YouTube. We then enrich every phrase with monthly Google search volume, CPC, competition and a 12-month trend from the Keywords Everywhere API.
How the harvest works. The harvest runs in your browser, so the requests come from your IP address, not ours. It calls Google's suggest API with ds=yt and client=youtube to get the YouTube-specific suggestions. Your seed term is combined with every letter and digit, plus about 70 modifier words covering questions, comparisons, prepositions, buying phrases, tutorials and how-to phrasing. YouTube returns up to 10 suggestions per prefix, and we keep every unique one. A typical 5-seed harvest produces 200 to 500 or more keywords.
Volume enrichment. As keywords arrive, we send them to the Keywords Everywhere API in batches of 100 for Google volume, CPC, competition and the 12-month trend. YouTube does not publish per-keyword search volume, so we use Google's data as a stand-in. In practice it tracks YouTube interest well.
Country targeting. The Country dropdown sets both YouTube's region hint and the country for the volume lookup. Volume and CPC are specific to that country's Google data. Your last-picked country is remembered for next time.
Careful pacing. The harvest sends about one request every 1.5 seconds to stay under YouTube's per-IP rate limit. A full 5-seed harvest takes about 15 minutes. You can stop at any time and keep the keywords found so far.
Plan caps. On the Free plan you can run 500 keyword lookups per day across all our keyword tools combined.
What the columns mean
- Keyword
- The exact suggestion YouTube's autosuggest returned for one prefix of your seed term. Click the link icon to open the keyword in SERP Checker for a live look at the results page.
- Volume
- Google's average monthly searches over the past 12 months, from Google Keyword Planner via the Keywords Everywhere API. YouTube does not publish per-keyword volume, so Google's number stands in for it. In practice the two track each other well.
- CPC
- The average cost per click advertisers pay in Google Ads for that keyword, in the country's currency. A high CPC usually marks a keyword with buying intent, where advertisers compete hard.
- Competition
- Google Ads' competition score: Low, Medium or High. It shows how many advertisers bid on the keyword. It is a rough guide to YouTube difficulty too, since heavy ad competition usually comes with many creators chasing the same views.
- 12-Month Trend
- A small chart of monthly Google search volume over the past year. Use it to spot seasonal patterns or rising and falling interest in a topic. Hover over any point for that month's exact value.
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube Keyword Tool?
A free keyword research tool with no signup. It runs in your browser and asks YouTube's public autosuggest for real suggestions around your seed term. Every phrase it finds is then enriched with monthly Google search volume, cost per click (CPC), competition and a 12-month trend from the Keywords Everywhere API.
How does YouTube autosuggest work for keyword research?
YouTube's suggest endpoint is the same engine that powers the dropdown in the YouTube search bar. It is exposed through Google's suggest API with ds=yt and client=youtube. Each prefix returns suggestions that real YouTube users have searched for. We combine your seed term with every letter and digit, plus about 70 modifier words such as questions, comparisons and how-to phrases. We keep every unique suggestion. The result is hundreds of long-tail video search phrases.
Why do YouTube keywords differ from Google keywords?
YouTube users phrase their searches differently. They type more conversational, action-based queries such as "how to fix", "tutorial", "review" and "vs". They search for entertainment, music and walkthroughs more than for shopping or local information. A keyword that is popular on Google may have weak YouTube demand, and the other way round. Run both the Google and YouTube tools on the same seed to see the gap.
How do I find good keywords for a YouTube video?
Use the harvested phrases as ideas for video titles, descriptions and tags. Look for three signals together: real Google volume (which loosely tracks YouTube interest), a Low competition badge, and natural conversational phrasing. Words like "how to", "vs", "review", "tutorial", "guide" and "best" are strong starting points. Once you pick a target keyword, put it in your title, in the first 100 characters of your description, and in 3 to 5 of your tags.
Should I use these as YouTube tags?
Yes, within reason. Tags help YouTube understand what a video is about, but they are a much weaker ranking signal than they were a decade ago. Pick 5 to 10 of the most relevant phrases as tags. Do not stuff in every long-tail variant. Prefer phrases whose volume and wording match the actual topic of the video. The most important place for your target keyword is still the video title.
Are the volume numbers actual YouTube search volume?
No, and we want to be clear about that. The Volume column shows Google search volume for the phrase, from Google Keyword Planner via the Keywords Everywhere API. YouTube does not publish per-keyword search volume. Google's data is a good stand-in because the two track each other well in practice. If "how to edit videos" is searched a million times on Google, it is searched plenty on YouTube too. Read the number as a relative popularity signal, not a YouTube view count.
Why does the harvest take about 15 minutes?
To stay under YouTube's per-IP rate limit, we send about one request every 1.5 seconds. A 5-seed harvest makes about 530 calls (5 seeds times 106 prefixes), so it takes about 15 minutes. Any faster and YouTube would block your IP. Leave the tab open. Results stream into the table as they arrive, and you can stop early and keep what has been found so far.
Can I find video topic ideas this way?
Yes, that is what the tool is built for. Start with a broad seed in your niche, such as "gardening", "guitar" or "python tutorial", and let the harvest run. Filter the table by question words ("how to", "what is", "why does") to find tutorial topics. Filter by comparison words ("vs", "or") to find versus-style ideas. Sort by Volume to see what your audience searches for most.
Is this a YouTube search volume checker?
It is the closest honest thing to one. YouTube does not publish search counts for its own search box, so no tool can show a true YouTube search volume. Anything labelled that way is showing something else. This tool pairs YouTube's real suggestions, the phrases people actually type on YouTube, with Google's monthly search volume from Keyword Planner via the Keywords Everywhere API. That is the best public demand signal for each phrase. For the how-to and informational queries that dominate YouTube, the two engines track closely. For a fast AI-written list with the same volumes, try the YouTube Keyword Generator.