The YouTube MCP server thathears the videos and the comments
Octolens monitors YouTube for your keywords — videos and the comment sections under them — filters the noise with AI, and serves clean mentions to Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor over MCP. No Data API quotas, no per-video comment spelunking.
5-minute setup • OAuth sign-in, read-only • MCP on every plan“I tested 5 monitoring tools so you don't have to” — segment at 6:40 covers your category and pricing in detail.
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Trusted by brands people talk about online
YouTube Is the Least Monitorable Big Platform
Reviews, tutorials, and teardowns shape buying decisions for years — and the official API barely lets you watch for them.
Search is capped at 100 calls a day
The YouTube Data API allots search.list just 100 calls per day by default. That's not a monitoring budget — that's a demo budget. Continuous keyword coverage on the official quota means rationing every query.
Comments can't be searched at all
There is no API to search comments by keyword across YouTube — comment endpoints require a specific video or channel first. The places where viewers compare tools and drop verdicts are structurally invisible to a DIY monitor.
Video mentions compound for years
A review or tutorial that mentions you keeps collecting views and comments long after upload. Miss it at publish time and you miss the window to answer questions, correct errors, or thank the creator while it's growing.
Octolens monitors YouTube continuously — videos and their comment sections — scores every match with AI, and hands your assistant the mentions worth acting on. No quotas to ration, no per-video digging.
From Upload to Answer in Your AI Tool
One pipeline: Octolens does the collection and filtering, MCP does the delivery. You just ask.
Add keywords
Your brand, competitors, and the category phrases creators use — plus negative keywords for noise.
octolens.com → KeywordsOctolens collects
Videos and comments matching your keywords, with a 7-day backfill per keyword and continuous collection after. Hourly refresh on Pro, real-time on Scale.
videos + commentsAI scores everything
Every mention arrives scored for relevance and sentiment, tagged with labels like review, comparison, or complaint.
"relevanceScore": "high"Your assistant queries it
23 MCP tools: list and search mentions, run analytics, manage keywords and feeds — from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
list_relevant_mentionsFull tool reference in the MCP docs. The same data is available over the REST API and webhooks — on every plan. Prefer alerts and a feed over an AI assistant? See YouTube monitoring.
Connected in Five Minutes
No YouTube account or Data API key at any step. You need an Octolens account (7-day free trial) and an MCP-compatible tool.
Add your keywords in Octolens
Brand, competitors, category terms. YouTube collection (videos + comments) starts with a 7-day backfill.
Connect your client
One URL for every tool. Authentication is a browser sign-in to your Octolens account — there's no API key or token to paste.
Ask
Try: “show youtube mentions from today” — you should see your first scored mentions come back.
claude mcp add --transport http octolens \
"https://app.octolens.com/api/mcp/v2"
# then, inside Claude Code:
/mcp # → octolens → AuthenticateRun the command, then run /mcp inside Claude Code, select octolens → Authenticate, and sign in when the browser opens.
Verify it works
@octolens show youtube mentions from todayNew keywords can take up to 24 hours to index fully — check mentions in the Octolens dashboard first if nothing comes back.
What You'll Actually Ask It
Copy-paste these into Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor once you're connected.
7-day free trial · No credit card required
MCP Is One Door Into the Same Data
Octolens is the data layer for what people say online. Your assistant queries it over MCP — your team and your agents can consume it everywhere else too.
Webhooks → your stack
Push instead of poll: scored YouTube mentions delivered to Slack or your own endpoint as they're found. Wire buying-intent posts straight into your CRM.
Explore webhooks →Agent skills
Ready-made playbooks agents can run over the MCP server — mentions to Linear issues, churn signals to CS, public conversations to pipeline.
Browse agent skills →API → your product
The same YouTube data over one REST endpoint with one schema across 15+ sources. Build monitoring into your own product or internal tools.
Build with Octolens →Your Three Options for YouTube via MCP
The Data API wasn't built for continuous keyword monitoring. Here's the honest version.
| Octolens MCP | DIY Data-API MCP | Manual YouTube search | |
|---|---|---|---|
| API key & quota required | No | Yes — search capped at 100 calls/day | No |
| Video coverage | Continuous keyword monitoring | Rationed daily queries | What you think to search for |
| Comment coverage | Yes — matched by keyword | No keyword search exists in the API | Scrolling, video by video |
| AI relevance & sentiment scoring | Built-in | You build it | Your eyeballs |
| Alerts & continuous collection | Yes — plus Slack & webhooks | You build the poller inside the quota | No |
| Historical data & trends | Yes | Only what you've stored | No |
| Other platforms via the same server | 15+ sources | YouTube only | — |
| Cost | $199/mo ($159/mo annual) | Your time + quota gymnastics | Free + hours every week |
A DIY YouTube MCP hits the search quota wall on day one and can't touch comments at all. Manual search finds what you already suspected exists. If creator coverage moves your market, monitor it properly.
YouTube MCP Server & Monitoring, Answered
Setup, quotas, and coverage — everything about monitoring YouTube from Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
No. Octolens handles YouTube data collection on its side — you configure keywords and connect the MCP server with a browser sign-in to your Octolens account. No API console, no quota management.
Videos matching your keywords and the comments under relevant videos. Comment coverage is the differentiator: YouTube's API offers no keyword search across comments, so DIY monitors are blind exactly where viewers compare tools and share verdicts.
Two structural limits: search.list is allotted only 100 calls per day by default, and comments can only be fetched per-video or per-channel — never searched by keyword. A continuous keyword monitor doesn't fit inside either constraint. Octolens runs collection at platform scale and serves you the filtered result.
Matching covers videos and their metadata plus comment text. A video whose title or description mentions your keyword surfaces directly; discussion mentioning you under any relevant video surfaces through comment matching.
Depends on your plan: hourly refresh on Pro ($199/mo, or $159/mo billed annually), real-time on Scale ($599/mo, or $499/mo billed annually). Video mentions build over days, so hourly is comfortably fast enough to engage while a video is still growing.
Yes — add competitor names as keywords and every review, comparison, and teardown that mentions them surfaces, along with the comment sections where viewers argue about switching.
Claude Code, Claude Desktop and Web, ChatGPT, Cursor, and any other MCP-compatible client. It's one remote server URL with OAuth sign-in — there's no API key to manage and nothing to run locally.
Every new keyword gets a 7-day backfill, then collects continuously — your archive builds from the day you add a keyword. That's enough history for trends, sentiment shifts, and share-of-voice over time.
Give your AI tools ears on YouTube
Add your keywords, connect the MCP server, and ask your assistant what YouTube is saying about you — all inside the 7-day free trial.
No credit card required · API access on all plans · Cancel anytime