What the YouTube Keyword Tool gives you
Video viewers phrase their searches differently from people browsing the web. On YouTube, queries lean toward tutorials, reviews, reactions and "for beginners" walkthroughs. This tool collects the phrases YouTube itself suggests as people type, so you start from the language your audience already uses instead of guessing.
Each suggestion comes with metrics so you can decide which ideas deserve a video and which ones are better as a chapter or a line in your description.
How to research keywords for your next video
- Start with a broad seed such as "sourdough" or "home workout". One or two words produce the widest spread of ideas.
- Pick your country and language. You can target about 200 countries and more than 40 languages, so a channel for UK viewers and one for US viewers can see different results.
- Filter the list by search volume, keyword length, KD or CPC. Narrowing to four words or more is a quick way to surface specific tutorial topics.
- Sort and shortlist. Look for patterns: several suggestions around "sourdough starter" might justify a whole series.
- Save your work. Copy the list, export it to Excel or CSV, add the keepers to a keyword plan in your dashboard, or send them to the Keyword Grouper to split ideas into separate videos and playlists.
Behind the scenes: autocomplete plus Google search data
We send your seed to YouTube's autocomplete along with every letter from a to z and common question prefixes like "how to" and "why". The answers are merged and de-duplicated into a list of up to roughly 300 suggestions.
YouTube does not publish search volume for its own platform. To give you a demand signal, we look up each suggestion in Google search data and show the average monthly Google search volume, a 12- or 24-month trend, low and high CPC, competition from 0 to 100 and a KD score from 5 to 99. Treat the volume as a measure of overall interest in the topic, not as a count of YouTube searches.
Reading the numbers like a creator
- Trend: seasonal topics such as "halloween makeup" or "christmas cookies" climb weeks before the peak. Publishing early gives the video time to collect views.
- KD: our estimate built from ad competition, keyword length and search volume. It does not use backlinks. Smaller channels usually do better with longer, lower-KD phrases.
- CPC: a high bid range signals buyer interest. Those topics suit product reviews, comparisons and "is it worth it" videos, which also tend to attract sponsors.
Turning suggestions into titles, descriptions and tags
Titles
Put the main phrase near the start and keep the rest of the title human. "Sourdough starter from scratch (day-by-day)" reads better than a string of keywords.
Descriptions and chapters
Question-style suggestions make natural chapter names. Answering three or four related questions in one video helps it match more searches.
Tags
Tags matter less than titles, but they help with common misspellings and alternate names. A handful of variants from the list is plenty.
For more question ideas, try the Question Keyword Finder, or compare against Google suggestions in Keyword Suggest.
Free account and plans
A free account is required: sign in with Google or with a link sent to your Gmail, no credit card needed. Free accounts get 10 credits a day with full data for the first 5 results. Paid plans unlock the full list: Lite at $2/month (1,000 credits), Starter at $9/month (10,000) and Pro at $19/month (25,000). Each search uses one credit.
Frequently asked questions
Is the search volume the number of YouTube searches?
No. YouTube does not publish search volume. The figure is the average monthly Google search volume, used as a signal of how much interest a topic has.
Where should I put keywords in a YouTube video?
Lead with the title, then the first lines of the description, chapter names and what you actually say in the video. Use tags only for variants and common misspellings.
Why does a long seed return few suggestions?
The longer the phrase, the fewer ways YouTube can complete it. Start with one to three words, then filter by keyword length to find long-tail ideas in the results.
How do I pick keywords for a new channel?
Favor specific phrases with lower KD and moderate volume, such as a detailed tutorial for one situation. Less competition gives a new video a better chance to be found.
How many free credits do I get?
Free accounts include 10 credits a day, with full data for the first 5 results of each search. Paid plans from $2/month unlock full result lists.