YouTube search volume data for AI assistants

YouTube search data on Trends MCP is a weekly 0-100 index of video search volume with about 5 years of history, plus a live trending feed. As of August 15, 2026, artificial intelligence had an index value of 46 and electric vehicles had an index value of 61. The free plan includes 100 requests per month. Starter is $19 per month.

What the data showed in August 2026

Artificial intelligence had a YouTube search index value of 46 on August 15, 2026, down 19.3% from 57 on May 16, 2026 and down 6.12% from 49 on August 16, 2025.

Electric vehicles moved the other way. The phrase had a YouTube search index value of 61 on August 15, 2026, up 8.93% from 56 on May 16, 2026 and up 60.53% from 38 on August 16, 2025. The contrast matters: on Google Search over the same window, electric vehicles fell 60.61% while artificial intelligence fell 49.45%. Video search interest and web search interest are telling different stories about the same 2 topics.

What the live feed showed on August 19, 2026

The YouTube Trending feed was led by music, gaming, and trailers. YE & Don Toliver - OK held rank 1. NBA 2K27 | MyCAREER Eras Trailer took 2, and Jynxzi CaseOh & Joe Bart 3v3 vs EVERY Rank in Rainbow Six Siege took 3. DDG - Sneaky Beat Freestyle (Music Video) sat at 4, and Honest Trailers | Supergirl (2026) at 5.

Further down the top 10: NBA 2K27 MYPLAYER BUILDER REVEAL at 6, Key Glock - BIG 5 (Official Video) at 7, A Different World | Official Trailer | Netflix at 8, I Can't Believe They Streamed This at 9, and FullyChop - Purple Switch (Official Music Video) at 10. Marvel's D23 Panel recap sat at 11, Slow Horses Season 6 Official Trailer at 14, and DUNE 3 Official NEW Teaser Trailer (2026) at 19. Trailers for 5 separate franchises held top-20 positions on the same day.

The exact calls

get_top_trends with type YouTube Trending returns the live feed with no keyword. get_trends and get_growth use the youtube source with a search phrase for history.

get_top_trends(type='YouTube Trending', limit=25)

get_growth(keyword='artificial intelligence', source='youtube', percent_growth=['3M', '1Y'])

How YouTube search differs from Google Search

YouTube search volume measures video interest, not web search interest. A topic can trend on Google while the YouTube series stays flat, because searchers want a quick answer rather than a 20-minute video. The electric vehicles divergence above, +60.53% over 1Y on YouTube against -41.79% over 1Y on Google Search, is what that split looks like in practice. The Google Search data page covers web search interest in more depth.

The keyword is a search phrase, not a video title or channel name. Artificial intelligence is valid. A specific video title is a different query with its own series.

Who uses YouTube search data

Content teams watch search curves to decide whether a topic is still rising or has peaked, and to time video production against demand. Investors watch search volume as an attention signal. Journalists watch a viral topic's search series for a few weeks after the first headline to see if the spike stuck.

A practical workflow: call get_growth with 3M and 1Y on a list of phrases, keep the ones with positive search growth on both YouTube and Google, then call get_top_trends during a breaking window to see which videos are leading the feed. A desk tracking 30 phrases can run that loop inside 100 requests per month on the free plan.

Limits and caveats

Low-volume phrases return weak quality scores or misses. The 0-100 index is relative to that keyword's own peak in the window, so two phrases at 60 are not equal in absolute searches. Search volume does not measure view counts, watch time, or ad impressions.

Quota is 100 requests per month on the free plan, Starter $19 per month. A crawl of 10,000 keywords overnight is a different product. Deduplicating the list and caching weekly snapshots is how research teams stay inside the month.

Getting started

Sign up on the free tier, copy the API key, and make the first call with any HTTP client. The setup guide covers Claude, Cursor, and plain REST in 4 copy-paste blocks. The Google Trends page covers web search interest, and the trending topics API page covers multi-feed discovery.