YouTube Keyword Research Tool - Autocomplete & Competition

Turn one seed keyword into hundreds of real YouTube search terms - the exact suggestions YouTube shows in its search box - then score every keyword by how hard it is to rank for: estimated result count, view statistics of the current top 10, how many of those videos are less than a year old, how many different channels hold the top spots, and a single 0-100 opportunity score. Free-form, no API key, no quota.

Give it topics and get a keyword spreadsheet you can sort by opportunity, ready for JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets.

What you get

For every keyword:

• keyword, seedKeyword, source (seed, autocomplete, alphabet:a, question:how, modifier:vs...), suggestionRank
• wordCount, isQuestion - spot long-tail and question-style searches
• estimatedResults - how many videos compete for the term
• top10AvgViews, top10MedianViews, top10MinViews, top10MaxViews - how much demand the ranking videos capture
• top10VideosUnderOneYear - whether fresh content still breaks in
• top10UniqueChannels - whether one channel dominates the term
• top10ShortVideos - how many top results are Shorts
• topVideoTitle, topVideoChannel, topVideoViews, topVideoUrl and the full topVideos list
• opportunityScore - 0-100 heuristic combining demand, competition and freshness

Use cases

• Video topic research - find high-demand, low-competition angles before you film
• Title and tag optimisation - use the exact phrases people type into YouTube
• Content calendars - generate months of video ideas from a handful of seeds
• Niche validation - check whether a topic has real search interest and who already owns it
• Question mining - filter isQuestion for FAQ, tutorial and explainer video ideas
• Agency reporting - deliver keyword sheets for clients across countries and languages

How to use

1. Enter one or more Seed keywords.
2. Choose an Expansion method: direct suggestions only, Alphabet soup (seed + a to z), Questions and modifiers (how, why, best, vs, tutorial...), or Both.
3. Set Max keywords per seed (default 50, 0 for everything found).
4. Leave Measure competition on to score each keyword, or turn it off for a suggestions-only run in seconds.
5. Set Country and Language to research a specific market.
6. Run the actor and sort the Dataset by opportunityScore.

Output format

{
  "keyword": "sourdough bread recipe",
  "seedKeyword": "sourdough bread",
  "source": "autocomplete",
  "suggestionRank": 2,
  "wordCount": 3,
  "isQuestion": false,
  "estimatedResults": 2454818,
  "top10AvgViews": 4101606,
  "top10MedianViews": 3072042,
  "top10MinViews": 113063,
  "top10MaxViews": 16358555,
  "top10VideosUnderOneYear": 1,
  "top10UniqueChannels": 8,
  "top10ShortVideos": 0,
  "topVideoTitle": "Bake the Perfect Sourdough Bread: A Step-by-Step Guide",
  "topVideoChannel": "Natashas Kitchen",
  "topVideoViews": 3222265,
  "topVideoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gEoh3sk2AE",
  "topVideos": [
    { "videoId": "4gEoh3sk2AE", "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gEoh3sk2AE", "title": "Bake the Perfect Sourdough Bread: A Step-by-Step Guide", "channelTitle": "Natashas Kitchen", "viewCount": 3222265, "publishedText": "2 years ago", "durationSeconds": 713 }
  ],
  "opportunityScore": 58
}

How the opportunity score works

The score is a heuristic, not a search-volume figure. It rewards keywords where the current top 10 earn high median views (demand), where the total number of competing videos is comparatively low, and where recent uploads still rank (the term is not locked up by old evergreen videos). Use it to shortlist, then read the top-10 data to make the final call.

Pricing

You pay a small fixed amount per keyword returned.

Tips

• Both expansion typically yields 200-400 unique keywords per seed; raise Max keywords per seed to keep them all.
• Filter top10UniqueChannels ≥ 7 for terms where no single channel dominates.
• Sort by top10MedianViews descending and estimatedResults ascending to find under-served demand.
• Use two-letter Country codes (AU, GB, CA...) to get market-specific suggestions.

FAQ

Does it give search volume? YouTube does not publish search volumes. The top-10 view statistics are the closest public proxy for demand.

Are the suggestions the same as what I see on YouTube? Yes - they come from the same autocomplete service the YouTube search box uses, for the country and language you choose.

Can I research Shorts? The top10ShortVideos field shows how many top results are Shorts. Use the YouTube Shorts Scraper to dig into a term further.