How do I get viral video ideas for my channel?

Viral Ideas is TubeAI's research-backed ideation tool. One generation produces up to 12 ranked video concepts tailored to your channel — built from competitor intelligence, your own past performance, real-time web and news trends, and live social signals from X and Reddit. Each idea comes production-ready, not as a one-line prompt.

What every idea includes

• Viral Score (out of 100) — the estimated likelihood of outsized performance; every returned idea scores 60 or above
• Estimated Views — anchored to your channel's own history, between your recent baseline and your proven ceiling
• Competition level — Low, Medium, or High, so you can spot first-mover opportunities
• A complete content structure — a hook for the first 15–30 seconds, structured sections with talking points, a conclusion, and an outro with engagement prompts
• A written rationale — why the idea should work: the audience pain point, emotional driver, and timing angle

Ideas deliberately avoid topics you've covered recently and anything suggested in your last three generations, so every batch is new territory.

The four generation modes

1. Auto — the default. TubeAI identifies your niche, finds relevant competitors automatically, and scans social and web trends. Available on every plan, including Free.
2. Content Bucket — points the analysis at one of your own saved video collections from My Videos. Available on every plan.
3. Channel Folder — uses a hand-picked set of competitor channels you've saved into a folder. Requires a paid plan.
4. Video Folder — same idea, but with individual saved videos as the reference set. Requires a paid plan.

All modes accept custom instructions — free-text guidance to steer the batch toward specific topics, brand rules, or an upcoming launch. Folders and buckets contribute up to 25 items each; larger collections use the top 25.

Running a generation

1. Open Viral Ideas under Content Creation in the sidebar (or ask Hugo — "find viral ideas for my channel" works from chat).
2. Pick a mode, add any custom instructions, and start the run.
3. Generations run in the background and typically finish in 5 to 10 minutes. You can keep using the platform while you wait; you'll be notified when results are ready.

You can also trigger a batch from any Content Bucket on the Dashboard's My Videos tab — the "Generate Viral Ideas" button seeds the run with that bucket's top 25 videos.

What it costs

50 credits per generation, regardless of mode. Credits are charged when the run starts and refunded automatically if it fails. Only one Viral Ideas run can be in progress at a time.

From idea to video

Any idea can be sent straight to the Scripts tool, carrying its full content structure so the script picks up where the idea left off. A whole batch can also seed a Board for deeper visual planning, and every generation is saved to your history — you can export any batch as a PDF for editors or collaborators.