Connecting is free and works with any TubeAI account, the Free plan included. The research tools cost no credits, and each call counts toward your plan’s daily request limit. Thumbnails, thumbnail edits and a planning board’s optional Google Trends and X posts use TubeAI credits. You use Claude with your own Claude account.

Which Claude apps does it work with?

TubeAI’s setup covers claude.ai, where you add it as a custom connector, and Claude Code, with one terminal command. A connector added in claude.ai also works in Claude Code when you’re signed in with the same Claude account.

Is this Hugo inside Claude?

No. In Claude, Claude is the model, and TubeAI supplies the tools and your workspace. Hugo, TubeAI’s YouTube strategist, lives in the TubeAI web app, the Chrome extension and on Telegram.

Does Claude spend my credits without asking?

TubeAI marks every tool that spends credits, or overwrites something you have, so that Claude confirms each call. The confirmation itself is Claude’s, and your Claude permission settings apply. Research never spends credits.

What are the daily limits?

Every tool call counts toward your plan’s daily request limit, the same budget the TubeAI app’s database pages use. It resets at 00:00 UTC. New transcript fetches have their own daily cap, and transcripts TubeAI already holds don’t count. Ask Claude to check your TubeAI account to see today’s usage.

Can thumbnails use my face and my channel’s style?

Yes, on plans that include them. In claude.ai, Claude can show an uploader for your photo (PNG, JPG or WebP, at least 200px, up to 5MB), which TubeAI keeps for 30 days, or you can give it a public image link. With your channel’s @handle, TubeAI matches the colors, fonts and layout of your real thumbnails, so Claude only supplies the concept.

Do I need a YouTube channel connected?

Not for research. Saving folders and ideas needs a YouTube channel connected in TubeAI, and boards built from your niche use it too.

How do I disconnect it?

In Claude, open Settings → Connectors, choose TubeAI and disconnect. Deleting your TubeAI account also ends the connection.

The tools don’t show up in Claude. What now?

In Settings → Connectors, open TubeAI’s menu and choose Refresh tools list. Still nothing: Disconnect, then Connect again. A connector added in the middle of a chat may only appear in a new chat.

Claude connectorMCP server

YouTube MCP Server for Claude

Add TubeAI to Claude with one URL. Claude can then search TubeAI’s YouTube database for outliers, niches and channels, study transcripts and proven title formats, make thumbnails, and save what it finds to your TubeAI account.

Start free See how to connect

Connector URL

https://beta.tubeai.app/api/mcp

Any TubeAI account, Free included
Research costs no credits
claude.ai and Claude Code

An illustration, with sample channels and numbers

What Claude can do

TubeAI’s tools, in four groups

Claude picks the tools as it works, and chains them: a search, then a folder, then a board. Results stay slim until Claude asks for more.

ExploreFree
Search TubeAI’s YouTube database
Filter channels by niche, size, average views and outlier rate. Find videos by keywords, niche and date, ranked by how far they beat their channel’s average. Open one channel in depth, or find the channels and thumbnails most like one you name.
- explore_channels
- explore_channel
- explore_videos
- explore_video
- explore_similar_channels
- explore_similar_thumbnails
- explore_niches
ResearchFree
Titles, transcripts and video ideas
Proven title formats with their outlier stats, high-performing title words, and a check of which words in your draft titles carry proven performance. Transcripts of any public video. The outliers, formats and words behind new ideas for a channel, a niche or one of your folders.
- mini_titles
- mini_script
- mini_ideas
ThumbnailsUses credits
Thumbnails without leaving Claude
Claude writes the concept and TubeAI renders a set of 2 or 4 distinct thumbnails, shown in claude.ai in a numbered gallery. Change any one in plain words. Your channel’s style and your own face, on plans that include them.
- thumbnail_generate
- thumbnail_status
- thumbnail_view
- thumbnail_edit
- thumbnail_face_upload
WorkspaceFree to save
Saved to your TubeAI account
Check your plan, credits and today’s limits. Save channels and videos to folders, draft video ideas in My Ideas, read what you made in TubeAI, and build planning boards on plans that include Boards.
- workspace_account
- workspace_folder_get
- workspace_folder_create
- workspace_folder_add
- workspace_idea_get
- workspace_idea_save
- workspace_history
- workspace_board_get
- workspace_board_create
- workspace_board_analyze

Try asking

Ask in plain words

You never name a tool. A few requests, what Claude does with them, and the tools it runs.

Find the videos blowing up in personal finance this month, save the strongest channels to a folder and build me a board from it.
Claude looks up the niche, ranks this month’s videos by how far they beat their channel’s average, saves the channels you pick to a new folder, then builds a planning board from it, labelling each video’s concept, title format and thumbnail pattern. Boards need a plan that includes them.
explore_nichesexplore_videosworkspace_folder_createworkspace_board_create
Break down @channel: its best recent videos, whether it’s trending up, and who’s most like it.
A profile with its recent uploads and outliers, momentum and performance on plans that include them, then the channels most like it with a similarity score, and their top videos in one call.
explore_channelexplore_similar_channelsexplore_videos
What’s taking off among channels like mine this month? Show me the thumbnails.
One search across the channels most similar to yours for videos at 2x their channel’s average or more, newest first. Claude sees the thumbnails of the first twelve and talks you through the packaging.
explore_videos
Pull the transcripts of @creator’s last 3 videos and tell me how they open.
The latest three long-form uploads TubeAI has for the channel, up to 5,000 words each. Transcripts TubeAI already holds don’t count toward your daily transcript limit.
mini_script
Give me 10 video ideas from what’s outperforming on my channel, and save the best three to My Ideas.
Claude reads your channel’s outliers of the last 90 days, proven title formats and the words your outlier titles share, drafts ideas, and saves the keepers as private drafts, each with a link into My Ideas.
mini_ideasworkspace_idea_save
Make 4 thumbnails for “I Lived on $10 a Day for a Month” in my channel’s style, with my face.
Claude shows the face uploader, agrees the concept with you and confirms before spending credits, then shows the numbered gallery. Edit any one by its number. Style Match and your face work on plans that include them.
thumbnail_face_uploadthumbnail_generatethumbnail_status

Step by step

Connect it to Claude

Add the connector in claude.ai, or with one line in Claude Code, and approve it on TubeAI’s page.

1
Sign in to TubeAI
Any TubeAI account works, a free one included. Sign in to TubeAI in the browser you use for Claude, so the approval page knows it’s you.
2
Open Claude’s connectors
In claude.ai, open Settings → Connectors (under Customize).
3
Add a custom connector
Click Add → Add custom connector, name it TubeAI, and paste this URL as the remote MCP server URL. Leave Advanced settings empty.
https://beta.tubeai.app/api/mcp
4
Connect and approve
Click Add, then Connect. TubeAI’s “Connect TubeAI to Claude” page opens, showing your TubeAI account and where the access goes: press Approve. Not signed in? TubeAI’s login opens first and brings you back.
5
Ask Claude
Claude now has TubeAI’s tools. Start with your niche, a channel or an idea.
Say
- What’s working in my niche this month?
- Check my TubeAI account

Prefer Claude Code?

Run this line in a terminal, or paste it into Claude Code and ask it to run it. Then type /mcp, pick tubeai and sign in. Already connected in claude.ai? Claude Code picks it up when you’re signed in with the same Claude account.

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user tubeai https://beta.tubeai.app/api/mcp

Good to know

Costs, limits and your account

What’s free, what uses credits, and how the connection treats your account.

Research costs no credits
Searching, transcripts, title research and reading or saving your workspace are free. Only thumbnails, thumbnail edits and a board’s optional Google Trends and X posts use credits, and failed thumbnails and edits are refunded.
Claude confirms paid calls
TubeAI flags every tool that spends credits or overwrites something, which tells Claude to confirm before using it. Your Claude permission settings apply too.
A daily request limit
Every tool call counts toward your plan’s daily limit, shared with the TubeAI app’s database pages, and it resets at 00:00 UTC. Calls that keep coming past it pause database access for two days. Ask Claude to check your TubeAI account to see what’s left.
Always your own account
The connector acts in your own TubeAI account, with your plan and credits. Thumbnails land in your history, ideas as private drafts in My Ideas, channels and videos in Folders, boards on Boards.
OAuth sign-in
You approve the connection on TubeAI’s own page, over OAuth with PKCE, and TubeAI stores access tokens hashed. Disconnect any time in Claude’s Settings → Connectors.
Where the data comes from
Searches run on TubeAI’s own database of YouTube channels and videos. Transcripts, and videos you save that TubeAI doesn’t have yet, are fetched from YouTube.

One account

TubeAI, wherever you work

The same plan and credits everywhere, and one Hugo chat history on the web, in Chrome and on Telegram.

Web appTubeAI in your browserHugo, the research database and every generator, with your dashboard, folders, boards and ideas.
Chrome extensionTubeAI on YouTubeOutlier badges on video tiles, TubeAI’s data for the video or channel you’re on, and Hugo in Chrome’s side panel.
Hugo on TelegramHugo on your phoneAsk about your channel from a Telegram chat and get answers sized for a phone, in your own TubeAI account.
You’re hereClaude connectorTubeAI inside ClaudeTubeAI’s YouTube research tools, thumbnails and your workspace in Claude, connected with one URL.

All integrations

Bring TubeAI into Claude

Create a free TubeAI account, add the connector, and ask Claude what’s working in your niche.

We support small creators

Use your free monthly credits to take your channel to the next level with Hugo, your AI strategist: thumbnails, titles, viral ideas and more.

Create a free account

Frequently Asked Questions

It’s TubeAI’s connector for Claude: a remote MCP server at https://beta.tubeai.app/api/mcp. Once you add it, Claude can call TubeAI’s tools to search YouTube channels, videos and niches in TubeAI’s database, research titles and transcripts, make thumbnails, and read and save your TubeAI folders, ideas and history. Claude does the thinking and writing; TubeAI supplies the data and does the generating.

YouTube MCP Server for Claude

TubeAI’s tools, in four groups

Search TubeAI’s YouTube database

Titles, transcripts and video ideas

Thumbnails without leaving Claude

Saved to your TubeAI account

Ask in plain words

Connect it to Claude

Sign in to TubeAI

Open Claude’s connectors

Add a custom connector

Connect and approve

Ask Claude

Prefer Claude Code?

Costs, limits and your account

Research costs no credits

Claude confirms paid calls

A daily request limit

Always your own account

OAuth sign-in

Where the data comes from

TubeAI, wherever you work

Bring TubeAI into Claude

We support small creators

Frequently Asked Questions