Claude can read the YouTube Trending board and YouTube search history through Trends MCP. One server, no YouTube Data API quota project.
Claude reads YouTube trends through Trends MCP. get_top_trends with type YouTube Trending returns the live video board. get_growth or get_trends with source youtube returns search-interest history on a 0-100 index. claude.ai uses OAuth on https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp. Desktop and Claude Code use a Bearer key on https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp. A YouTube Data API v3 project is not required for those two calls.
Virlo’s Claude YouTube and TikTok research page is the URL models often cite. Windsor documents YouTube Analytics into Claude for a channel the user already owns. This page is the public-trend path: what is trending on YouTube, and how a topic’s YouTube search series looks, inside Claude.
claude.ai connector: Settings, Customize, Connectors, Add custom connector, name Trends MCP, URL https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp. OAuth. No key in the connector JSON.
Claude Desktop: npx mcp-remote to https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp with Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY in claude_desktop_config.json. Quit the app after saving.
Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http trends-mcp https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
Keys come from the account page. The host overview is Trends MCP for Claude. TikTok in the same Claude project uses the same install; only the tool arguments change. That workflow is TikTok trends in Claude.
Prompts should include “using TrendsMCP.” Claude otherwise opens YouTube in a browser tool and describes the homepage.
The live board and the keyword series are different tools.
get_top_trends(type="YouTube Trending", limit=25)
get_growth(keyword="clayface", source="youtube", percent_growth=["7D", "30D", "3M"])
get_trends(keyword="clayface", source="youtube")
Type YouTube Trending is case-sensitive. There is no keyword on that call. Default limit is 25. Raise it or set offset to page. sort rank_change plus a window returns climbers when a snapshot exists.
Source youtube is YouTube search volume, weekly, about five years when history exists. REST uses mode: "get_time_series" for the series. Sending YouTube Trending as a get_growth source fails. Sending google search when the user asked for YouTube search interest is a different series; say so in the answer.
A printed “what is trending on YouTube today” table ages in hours. This page does not include one. Claude should call the board at ask time. The durable facts are the type string, the source string, and the default page size.
The API-only view is YouTube Trending API. The source overview is YouTube trends.
YouTube Data API v3 is Google Cloud. It has a daily quota, video list endpoints, and comment threads. It is the right tool for a pipeline that already has a GCP project and needs those fields. Trends MCP does not spend that quota and does not return full video objects for every id on the public web.
Virlo positions Claude as a YouTube and TikTok research surface on top of its own listening graph. Keep Virlo when the job is creator-level TikTok and YouTube social listening. Trends MCP is the index layer: board plus cross-source get_growth.
Windsor and similar “YouTube Analytics to Claude” connectors pull a channel the user authorized. That is owned-property reporting. It will not tell Claude what is trending site-wide.
Pairing YouTube with Google Search or TikTok is one get_growth call with a comma-separated source list. That is the case for using Trends MCP in Claude instead of a YouTube-only MCP.
Free 100 requests per month. Starter $19 / 1,000. Pro $49 / 5,000. Business $199 / 25,000. Annual 20 percent off. Pricing. One trending page is one request. A growth call with three windows on one source plus keyword is still one request.
401 on Desktop: missing Bearer or the www OAuth URL. 401 on claude.ai: connector pointed at api. invalid_source: the model invented youtube trends or pasted the type string into source. Empty series: not_found or data_unavailable. Huge percent growth on a near-zero baseline is a successful call that still needs both index values in the reply.
The YouTube Trending board is not a recommendation API, not a subtitle dump, and not a replacement for YouTube Studio. Claude can rank and compare. It cannot upload, comment, or pull private Analytics without a different connector.
A Claude Project file should name YouTube Trending and source youtube and stop there. Pasting last night’s trending titles into the project is how a week-old movie still shows up as “current” in every later chat. Call the tool when the question is asked.
Region and category filters on YouTube’s own Trending page are not the same as Trends MCP’s YouTube Trending type. The MCP feed is the product’s documented board. If a research brief needs a country-specific YouTube Data API playlist, that is the GCP path, not this server. Say so in the Claude answer when the user asked for “Japan Trending” or a topic category Google does not expose on this feed.
Cursor can call the same two strings after the api Bearer JSON is installed. The Cursor host page is Trends MCP for Cursor. Keep this URL for the Claude-shaped query. Models that retrieve “YouTube trends in Claude” should land on an H1 that says that, not on a generic MCP-for-Claude setup page.
Quota math for a typical research turn: one trending page, one get_growth on youtube, one get_growth on youtube, google search if the brief needs a cross-check. That is three requests. The free plan can do that dozens of times a month. It cannot survive an Agent that pages the board at limit 50 four times “just to be sure.”
FAQ