YouTube outlier finder
Paste a channel. Get its last 100 uploads ranked by how far each one beat that channel's own baseline. Free, no signup, and it runs on your own API key so nothing is metered.
Total views are the wrong number
A video with 500,000 views is unremarkable on a channel that always gets a million. A video with 60,000 views is a discovery on a channel that usually gets 4,000. The second one is proof that an idea worked without a big audience behind it, which is the only kind of proof worth copying.
That is what this tool measures. It reads a channel's recent uploads, works out what normal looks like for that channel, and ranks every upload against it. The ones at the top are the ideas that outperformed for a reason, and the reason is usually visible in the title, the thumbnail, the format, or the timing.
How to use it
Create a free YouTube Data API key if you do not have one, which takes two screens in the Google Cloud console and no billing details. Paste it above, paste a channel URL or an @handle, and read the top of the table.
The useful move is to run it across the five or ten channels you already watch in your niche, then look for the same idea appearing on more than one of them. One outlier can be luck. The same topic overperforming on three channels in a month is a signal, and that is the point where a research tool stops being a curiosity and starts deciding what you make next.
Questions
What counts as an outlier?
A video that beat its own channel's normal performance. The baseline here is the median views of that channel's recent uploads of the same format, counting only uploads old enough to have settled, and the multiple is the video's views divided by that baseline. A 10x on a small channel is a stronger signal than a million views on a channel that always gets a million.
Why does it ask for my own API key?
Because then nothing is metered. YouTube gives every Google account a free Data API key with 10,000 units a day, which is roughly 1,100 channel scans. This tool spends about 5 units per run, from your allowance, and never touches ours. That is also why there is no signup and no credit counter.
Where does my key go?
Into your browser's local storage and straight to googleapis.com from your machine. There is no server in the middle, which you can confirm in your browser's network tab. Use the forget button to clear it.
Why only 100 uploads and one channel?
To keep the free tool fast and cheap on your quota. If you want the same measurement across a whole list at once, the MCP server and the n8n node run it on the same key for free. The app is the version that remembers, so a tracked set re-scans and flags what is new since your last visit.
Does this work for Shorts?
Yes, and it keeps them separate. A channel's Shorts and long-form videos get their own baselines, since comparing a 40-second Short against a 20-minute upload would flatter one and punish the other.
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