Find Similar YouTube Channels by Content, Not Keywords

🔍 Find Similar YouTube Channels by Content, Not Keywords

Think of it as a search engine for creators. Give it a channel you like, it searches 200M+ creators and returns the ones that publish similar content - matched by what they actually make, not what category they're in. Ranked, filtered, and ready to export.

🧠 How It Works

1. We analyze every channel on YouTube. We maintain one of the largest public creator indexes available - 200M+ channels and growing.
2. You give us a channel. Paste one or more YouTube channel IDs as seeds.
3. We find the closest matches across 200M+ channels based on what they actually publish.
4. We score and rank them based on how closely their content matches your seed.
5. We apply your filters - subscribers, avg views, country, email availability, whatever you set.
6. You get the results. Ranked list with full metadata, ready to export. Usually takes a few minutes.

We don't cut corners. Every search runs against the full index. No curated subsets, no top-creator shortlists. A 500-subscriber cooking channel in rural Japan is searchable the same as MrBeast. Whether you're looking for creators under 10k subs, over 100k, or anywhere in between — any range, any filter, full coverage.

💡 Use Cases

Who	Problem	How
Brand marketer	Sponsored one creator, need 200 more like them	Seed the channel, get lookalikes with engagement data
Agency manager	Creator dropped out, need a replacement fast	Seed the dropped creator, filter by has_email flag
Marketing director	Agency pitched 15 creators, are they the best?	Seed a few pitched channels, see who else exists
International marketer	Need the Brazilian equivalent of a US creator	Seed US channels, filter by country
Affiliate manager	Need partners who drive sales, not impressions	Seed top earners, sort by avg views per video
Ecommerce brand	Need 50 micro-creators under 20k subs for UGC	Seed known micro-creators, filter max subs

⚡ How To Use It

1. Paste seed_channel_ids (1-10 YouTube channel IDs).
2. Set limit (default 100, max 25,000).
3. Optional: filter by subscribers, avg views, country, email availability, etc.
4. Run, download results (CSV/JSON/Excel).

Where do I get a channel ID? YouTube channel -> three dots -> "Share channel" -> copy the URL. The ID is the UC... part. Or use YouTube Channel Finder to find channels by keyword first.

💰 Pricing

• $0.12 per channel — pay per result
• Up to 25,000 results per search
• Apify free tier includes $5 of usage

🔗 Full Outreach Pipeline

Seed a channel, get lookalikes, extract emails, start outreach. One pipeline, no manual filtering, no spreadsheet cleanup.

1. Pick a seed channel (or find one with YouTube Channel Finder)
2. Run this actor with only_has_email — get up to 25,000 email-ready lookalikes
3. Run YouTube Channel Business Email Scraper on results to get actual addresses
4. Export to Google Sheets, CSV, JSON, or Excel via Apify integrations

🏆 Tips

• Multiple seeds = sharper results. One seed is broad. Three seeds is a niche.
• Keep all seeds in the same niche. Multi-seed finds channels similar to all seeds at once. If your seeds span multiple niches, run a separate search per niche.
• Filter by avg views, not subs. Millions of subscribers means nothing if nobody watches.
• Videos vs shorts. Filter min_avg_views_videos and min_avg_views_shorts separately.
• Email flag for outreach. only_has_email = only channels with a public email. Run them through the Email Scraper for actual addresses.
• Dedup across runs. Paste up to 500K channel IDs into exclude_channel_ids.

❓ FAQ

What's the difference between this and YouTube's "related channels"?

YouTube removed that feature for most creators. This searches 200M+ channels with engagement data, filters, and up to 25,000 results.

How do I find YouTube channels similar to a competitor?

Paste your competitor's channel IDs as seeds. The results are channels similar to what they work with. Add your own top creators as seeds too and the overlap gets even more specific.

Does it return email addresses?

It flags which channels have a public email (HasPublicEmail). To get actual addresses, run those channels through YouTube Channel Business Email Scraper.

How do I find YouTubers for sponsorship?

Add seed channels, set filters (subs, engagement, country, only_has_email), run, export. Best matches are at the top.

What's the best way to find YouTube influencers in a specific niche?

Use multiple seeds. One seed gives you broad results. Three seeds that all represent your niche give you the intersection - channels similar to all of them. The more seeds, the tighter the niche.

I got fewer results than my limit. Is something wrong?

No. We filter out inactive, spammy, and low-quality channels before returning results. If your filters are tight or the niche is small, there may not be enough channels that pass. The warning is normal — it means the filter is working, not that something broke.

If you need more, take your best results, use them as seeds for a new run, and keep going until you have as many creators as you need. Paste all previous results into exclude_channel_ids so you don't get charged for duplicates.

Need help?

Open an issue on the actor page with your Run ID.