vidIQ

Free gives 150 AI credits a month plus features that do not use credits, with their own caps. Keyword research returns 3 results per search, outlier search 8, personalized ideas are limited to 3 a day, customized ideas to 3 in total, and you can track up to 3 competitors. The browser extension scorecards and real-time stats are available on every plan.

Those research caps, not the credits, are what most small channels hit first. Three keyword results per search is enough to test the tool on a topic, but not to plan a month of uploads. Boost removes the keyword and outlier caps and raises daily ideas to 50.

Credits are one shared monthly pool. Plan credits refresh on the sign-up date for Free or the upgrade date for paid plans, unused ones do not roll over, and plan credits are spent before any purchased add-on credits. The help center lists these costs per action:

• AI Coach: 10 credits per message, 25 with deep thinking, 35 in Max Mode.
• Thumbnails: 22 per generation, regeneration or edit.
• Title generator: 3 per generation of up to 3 titles; descriptions: 1.
• Script writer: 1 per minute of script length; clipping: 9 per minute of input video.
• Shorts generator: 20 per second of output video.

Boost is the step most small channels need: it removes the research caps, adds 2,000 credits, thumbnails and deep-thinking AI Coach, and tracks up to 20 competitors. Max triples the credits to 6,000, adds Max Mode, up to 3x AI Coach conversations and up to 11 hours of short clipping, and allows top-up credit packs.

Editorial assessment

A channel publishing one long video a week and making a few thumbnails fits Boost; one that turns every upload into several Shorts will spend credits fast, since a 30-second Short costs 600, and is the case for Max. Free and Boost users cannot buy top-ups, only upgrade or wait for the refresh.

The plans page chooses a currency by location. From our server in Germany it showed Boost at €19 a month billed monthly or €16.58 a month billed yearly, and Max at €39 or €31, with the same result under a US English browser setting. We did not see the US dollar prices and have not converted them.

The coaching page, by contrast, showed VIP Coaching in US dollars: $319 a month equivalent, billed as $3,830 once a year. The billing help says a promotional rate renews at the full plan price, and taxes can be added at renewal under the terms. Check the currency and total on the checkout page itself.

vidIQ MCP lets an AI assistant query vidIQ data on YouTube and Instagram channels, videos, trends and comments. ChatGPT uses an app listing; Claude, Cursor, Codex and other clients add the server address and sign in through OAuth. Connections can be revoked in the account settings.

The help center says MCP is available on Free, Boost and Max during a launch period with no published end date. Most tool calls cost 5 credits, video and reel analysis 10, and a few utility calls 0, all from the same monthly pool as the web tools.

Plans renew automatically. Card and PayPal subscribers cancel under Account Settings, Manage Plan, while App Store and Google Play subscriptions are cancelled through those stores. Access continues to the end of the paid period, and the help center states there are no refunds or credits for unused days; an upgrade applies unused time as credit.

The terms also let vidIQ name you as a customer and use your channel name, logo, avatar and public channel statistics in its promotion, excluding your photo, voice or endorsements. You can revoke that permission by emailing privacy@vidiq.com.

1. Record the starting credit balance and the date it refreshes.
2. Run keyword research on the topic and note the 3 results returned.
3. Ask AI Coach three questions about angle and hook (about 30 credits).
4. Generate titles twice (about 6 credits) and one thumbnail (22 credits).
5. Compare the remaining balance with the expected 150 – 58 = 92 credits.

Accept a plan with a keyword, a title you would publish and a usable thumbnail, with a balance that matches the published rates. Reject invented statistics about your channel or a balance that differs without explanation. Leave the observed result blank until the exercise is run.

To edit the video itself after planning, see Descript. For turning a script into a narrated short without filming, compare Cliptalk and HeyGen.