Tool Choices
vidIQ review for new YouTube channels
An honest vidIQ review for new YouTube channels: what the free plan's 150 credits cover, Boost and Max prices, credit costs per action, and what YouTube Studio tells you that vidIQ can't.
The flow
- Research topics on the free plan
- Track credit use per action
- Publish and judge by YouTube Studio
- Upgrade only when credits block you
- Review the plan after a month
This vidIQ review is for new YouTube channels: what the free plan covers, what the paid plans cost, how credits get used up, and what no research tool can tell you. vidIQ is a research and AI-writing tool that runs as a web app and a browser extension on top of YouTube.
Prices checked 9 Oct 2026 on vidIQ's plans page, in US dollars.
Some links to tools are affiliate links: if you sign up or buy through one, Slizzy OS may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. vidIQ has an affiliate link on its tool page; Claude and ChatGPT don't. That doesn't change the advice here. Read the affiliate disclosure for details.
What vidIQ does
- Suggests video ideas and keywords for your niche, and shows trending topics.
- Has an AI coach plus generators for titles, descriptions, scripts and thumbnails.
- Runs most AI features on a monthly balance of AI credits, and publishes what each action costs.
Plans and prices
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly, per month | AI credits a month (1 channel) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | US$0 | US$0 | 150 | Enough to research a niche |
| Boost | US$19 | US$16.58 (about US$199 a year) | 2,000 | No top-ups. More credits means upgrading. |
| Max | US$49 | US$39 (about US$468 a year) | 6,000 | Top-up credits available |
Boost and Max can cover up to 3 channels on one account, with more credits per extra channel (per vidIQ's Help Center). A Coaching plan also exists, but we didn't check its price.
How fast credits go
vidIQ's Help Center lists per-action costs. Some examples:
- Generating titles: 3 credits
- Generating a thumbnail: 22 credits
- Clipping: 9 credits per minute of input video
- The Shorts generator: 20 credits per second of output
So 150 free credits stretch a long way on titles and research, but not on thumbnails or clipping. Monthly credits don't roll over.
What it can't tell you
vidIQ's suggestions come from its own models. YouTube Studio is the record of what your channel actually did: impressions, click-through rate, retention and returning viewers. Use vidIQ to choose what to test, then judge every video by Studio.
No tool fixes a weak or unoriginal video. YouTube's monetisation policies exclude repetitive, mass-produced or reused content, whatever tool helped plan it.
Who should pay, and who shouldn't
- Stay on Free if you've only published a handful of videos, or you mainly need topic and keyword ideas.
- Consider Boost if you're publishing every week, keep running out of credits on titles and scripts, and use the research tools on most videos.
- Consider Max only if you need clipping or thumbnail generation at volume, or top-up credits, and you've checked the per-action costs against your actual use.
- Skip it if you're happy brainstorming with a general assistant like Claude or ChatGPT and reading your own Studio data. Neither replaces YouTube-specific keyword data, but for a new channel they may be enough.
Where it fits
vidIQ is the essential research tool in the Faceless YouTube Channel blueprint, because a faceless channel depends on choosing topics people already search for. See Best tools for a faceless YouTube channel for the rest of the stack and a free-first budget.