What’s the best free keyword research tool for YouTube?

General
1

I’m trying to grow my YouTube channel and I’ve realized I have no idea which keywords to target for my videos. I’ve tried a few free tools but most are either super limited or don’t really show search volume or competition clearly. Can anyone recommend a truly useful free keyword research tool for YouTube that helps with titles, tags, and descriptions, and maybe even shows what viewers are actually searching for?

2

Short answer from testing a bunch of stuff:

Best free stack for YouTube keyword research right now:

  1. VidIQ free Chrome extension
  2. Tubebuddy free Chrome extension
  3. YouTube’s own Search + autocomplete
  4. Google Trends

How to use them together:

  1. Start in YouTube search
    • Type your main idea, eg “productivity for students”
    • Look at the autocomplete:
    “productivity for students studying”
    “productivity for students with adhd”
    Those are real search terms from users.
    • Note 5 to 10 you can make videos on.

  2. Use VidIQ free
    • Install VidIQ, log in with your YouTube account.
    • Go to “Keyword Inspector”.
    • Enter each phrase you found.
    • Look at:
    – Search volume score
    – Competition score
    – Overall score
    • Focus on stuff with:
    – Medium or higher volume
    – Low or medium competition
    For new or small channels, anything with “good” or “very good” overall score is worth testing even if the search volume is not huge.

  3. Check Tubebuddy free for another angle
    • Tubebuddy also shows “Weighted” and “Unweighted” scores.
    • “Unweighted” is general competition.
    • “Weighted” is based on your channel.
    With the free plan it is limited but still useful to compare 2 or 3 main keyword ideas for a video.

  4. Validate interest with Google Trends
    • Go to Google Trends.
    • Switch to “YouTube Search”.
    • Compare a few keyword options.
    Example:
    “Notion tutorial” vs “Notion for students” vs “Notion notes setup”
    • Pick the one that has stable or rising interest, not dropping.

  5. Simple workflow for each video
    • Start with topic idea.
    • Use YouTube autocomplete to find long tail keywords, 3 to 6 words.
    • Run those through VidIQ Keyword Inspector.
    • Double check top 1 or 2 in Tubebuddy.
    • Use best one in:
    – Title near the front
    – First 2 lines of description
    – Tags plus a few related variations
    • Then add 3 to 5 more related phrases as secondary keywords in description and tags.

  6. Look at real data inside YouTube Studio
    After a few weeks:
    • Go to YouTube Studio → Analytics → Reach → Traffic source → YouTube search.
    • You will see exact search terms people used to find your videos.
    • Grab the ones that show impressions but low CTR or no dedicated video.
    • Use them as main keyword ideas for your next videos.
    This beats any external tool over time because it uses your own audience data.

Quick notes from experience:
• High volume and high competition terms look sexy but usually do nothing for small channels.
• Long tail with lower volume and low competition tends to get you first views and subs.
• One good long tail example:
“how to study faster” is huge and brutal
“how to study faster for exams in college” is longer, less sexy, but a better target early on.

If you want one single “best” free tool, VidIQ free is the closest because it shows search volume, competition, and a score, and it lives inside YouTube.
It is not perfect, the numbers are estimates, but it is enough to make smarter choices than guessing.

3

If you’re looking for one “best” free tool, I’d actually say: your own YouTube data in Studio beats VidIQ/Tubebuddy long term, even though they’re great like @mike34 said.

Couple of points that don’t just rehash their workflow:

  1. YouTube Studio > Your traffic > Your keywords
    After you have even 10–20 videos:

    • Go to Analytics → Reach → YouTube search
    • Sort by Impressions
    • Look for:
      • Queries where you rank but CTR is low
      • Queries that keep showing up but you don’t have a video “exactly” matching them
        Those search terms are literally verified demand from people already seeing your stuff. I’d rather chase those than a “Good score 72/100” that’s based on rough estimates.

  2. Use the “Content Gap” trick inside YouTube itself
    This is kinda hidden but crazy useful:

    • In YouTube Studio → Analytics → Research
    • Type a broad topic like “python tutorial” or “meal prep”
    • Filter by “Content gaps”
      That shows searches where viewers aren’t satisfied with current videos. Free. Native. No extension required.

  3. Think in “clusters,” not isolated keywords
    Most free tools push you to pick one magic phrase. That’s overrated. For each video idea:

    • 1 primary phrase you put in title + first line of description
    • 3–7 related phrases you work naturally into the script + description
      Example:
      Main: “notion for college students”
      Secondaries: “notion setup for college,” “notion notes for lectures,” “college notion dashboard”
      You rank for a basket of searches, not only one.

  4. Free alt tools people weirdly ignore
    These don’t show “exact YouTube volume,” but they’re good enough to see demand and angles:

    • AnswerThePublic (free daily searches)
      Great for “how / what / why” question ideas around your topic.
    • Keyword.io with YouTube selected
      Scrapes autocomplete in bulk. Good for catching variants you’d never type manually.
    • ChatGPT/Bard/etc. + YouTube autocomplete
      Not for volume, but to brainstorm long-tail versions and then validate them in YouTube search.

  5. One place I disagree a bit with @mike34
    VidIQ is solid, but if your channel is tiny-tiny, I would not over-index on their scores at all. Those numbers are super approximate. Early on I’d prioritize:

    • Keyword is very specific to a problem
    • There are some views on similar videos, but the top results are:
      • Old
      • Poor thumbnails
      • Weak titles
        That “quality gap” is sometimes more important than an “overall score” in a sidebar.

  6. Brutally simple “no-tools” rule of thumb
    If you had zero tools at all, you could still pick decent keywords by:

    • Typing your main idea in YouTube and looking at autocomplete
    • Checking first page:
      • Can you realistically make a thumbnail/title that beats a few of them?
      • Are there channels <50k subs getting views for that term?
        If yes, topic is probably winnable. If all top results are monster channels with insane production, move on.

  7. Watch time > keyword perfection
    Ugly truth: you can hit the “right” keyword and still get nothing if:

    • People bounce in the first 20–30 seconds
    • Title + thumbnail promise something your video doesn’t deliver cleanly
      Keywords help you get shown. Retention + satisfaction decide whether you stay shown.

tl;dr:
Use VidIQ/Tubebuddy as helpers, not oracles. Lean way heavier on:

  • YouTube Search autocomplete
  • Analytics → YouTube search terms
  • Analytics → Research → Content gaps

And spend more energy on making the best answer to that search than on chasing the perfect keyword score.

4

Short answer: there isn’t one “best free keyword research tool for YouTube,” but you can stack a few light free tools into a system that actually beats most paid stuff for ideas and validation.

I’ll skip what @mike34 already covered (Studio data, content gaps, etc.) and hit different angles.

1. Use Google as your free YouTube keyword radar

Everyone focuses only on YouTube search. Huge miss.

  • Many YouTube views come from Google results that feature videos.
  • For any idea, search it on Google and see if a video carousel shows:
    • If there is a video box with multiple YouTube videos, that keyword has some video intent.
    • Check those titles and thumbnails. If they look weak or outdated, that is a legit opportunity.

This helps you pick topics that can rank in both Google and YouTube with one video.

2. Free “volume without volume” trick

You said you want search volume and competition. No free tool gives perfect numbers, but you can fake a decent signal:

  1. Type your main idea in YouTube.
  2. Open:
    • The first 5 relevant videos on that topic
    • Sort each by “Most popular”
  3. Look for:
    • How many videos on that topic have >50k or >100k views
    • How many different channels are getting those views

If:

  • Only 1 or 2 channels dominate all the views → high competition, maybe skip.
  • Lots of smaller channels have solid views → good long tail potential.

It is not “search volume,” but it tells you if people care enough to watch at scale.

3. Free Chrome trick that most people ignore

Open YouTube in incognito (important so your history does not bias results), then:

  • Start typing your topic and slowly add letters.
    Example: “keto breakfast a”, “keto breakfast b”, etc.
  • Collect the autocomplete phrases in a doc.
  • Prioritize the ones that:
    • Include “how to,” “for beginners,” “without,” “vs,” “review,” or a year like “2025”
    • Are pretty specific (4+ words)

Tools like Keyword.io kind of automate this, but doing it manually once in a while lets you see which angles actually pop out in real time.

4. Title / angle matters more than micro-keyword differences

Where I slightly disagree with @mike34: I would not obsess over clusters right away if your channel is under, say, 1k subs. For really small channels, one ultra clear angle per video often performs better than trying to cover a whole cluster at once.

Example:

  • Weak: “Notion for students + study tips + organization”
  • Better: “Notion for college students: build a GPA tracker from scratch”

Once you have some traction, then build clusters around what already hit.

5. Use comments as a free keyword mine

On your own videos and competitors’ videos:

  • Sort comments by “Newest” and “Top comments.”
  • Look for:
    • “Can you make a video about…”
    • “This helped, but I still don’t understand…”
    • Repeated questions in slightly different wording

Turn those into long tail titles almost word for word. That phrasing reflects how people actually search, even if you never see an official “search volume” number.

6. Simple decision framework for each idea

Before hitting record, ask:

  1. Are people clearly watching this type of video already?
  2. Are at least some smaller channels (under 50k subs) getting views from it?
  3. Can I make:
    • A clearer thumbnail
    • A more specific promise in the title
    • A better first 30 seconds

If yes to all three, the keyword is “good enough.” Perfect volume data is optional.

7. About “the best free YouTube keyword tool”

If I had to name a single “tool,” boring answer:

  • Native YouTube and Google search + your own analytics
  • Supplemented by one free autocomplete scraper like Keyword.io or a limited use tool like AnswerThePublic

Pros:

  • Completely free or freemium
  • Directly reflects real user behavior
  • Scales as your channel grows rather than locking you into scores

Cons:

  • No clean search volume number
  • Requires more manual digging and judgment
  • Can feel slower than slapping a browser extension on your screen

Compared with what @mike34 outlined, this is a bit more external-facing: looking at Google, competitors, and comments instead of just your internal Studio data.

If you combine:

  • YouTube autocomplete
  • Google “video intent” checks
  • Comment mining
  • Basic competitor view analysis

you are already ahead of most creators who blindly chase whatever a score meter tells them.