Track competitor YouTube channels by views, likes and upload cadence
Pull the latest videos from competitor YouTube channels as JSON with views, likes, comments, duration and date, to benchmark what works and how often they post.
Your competitors publish on YouTube every week, and you only notice a hit when someone forwards it. Checking channels by hand does not tell you which formats get the views, how long the videos run or how often they post. Lovely Router reads a channel for you. Send channel handles, get one JSON object per video, pay per video from a prepaid balance. Run it weekly from a script, a spreadsheet job or an AI agent with one API key.
Hand it to your AI agent
Copy this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any coding agent. It tells the agent where the docs are and how to use your API key.
Track competitor YouTube channels by views, likes and upload cadence. Use the Lovely Router data tools: each returns JSON and is billed per result.
- Docs (read first): https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/find.md and https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/run.md
- Plan first: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/suggest with `{"task": "<my task in plain words>"}` (free). It returns the tools to run in order, each with an example `input`, the `input_required` fields, an estimated cost and a ready-made `run` request. Replace the example values with my task's; if a field is unclear, read the tool with GET https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>. To browse instead, POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/discover searches the catalog.
- Show me the plan and its estimated cost (`total_est_cost_usd`) before running anything large.
- Run: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>/run with `{"input": {...}, "max_results": N}`. A 200 has the finished run with `items`; a 202 means it is still running, so poll the `poll` path until `status` is `succeeded`, `failed`, `timed_out` or `stopped`.
- Only delivered results are billed. Keep max_results small on the first run, check the output, then scale up.
- If you support MCP, connect https://lovelyrouter.com/mcp instead (Streamable HTTP, same key; https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/mcp.md) and use suggest_tools, get_tool and run_tool.
- Auth: read my API key from the LOVELY_API_KEY environment variable and send it as `Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY`. Never print or commit the key. If it is not set, ask me to create one at https://lovelyrouter.com/app/keys.
- Billing is prepaid: every call is charged to my balance, so test with a small request before running anything large.
- Every docs page is plain Markdown; the full index is https://lovelyrouter.com/llms.txt.
My task: <the inputs (links, keywords or accounts) and how many results you need>How it works
List the channels
Write down the handles (such as
@MrBeast) or channel URLs of the competitors, creators and partners you follow.Run the tool with a cap
Send them to
POST /v1/tools/youtube-channel/run, withmaxItemsin the input to say how many videos you want andmax_resultsas the run cap. The run holds its maximum cost from your balance and returns the videos as JSON.Store and compare
Save each run with a date. Sort by views, compare likes and comments per view, and count videos per week for each channel.
Get a channel's videos with one request
Get YouTube channel videos takes channel handles in youtubeHandles, or channel URLs in startUrls. maxItems is the number of videos you want back:
curl https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/youtube-channel/run \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"input": {
"youtubeHandles": ["@MrBeast"],
"maxItems": 3
},
"max_results": 3
}'A run still going after 60 seconds returns 202; Run a tool shows how to poll. One run can return up to 500 videos.
What each video holds
| Field group | What you get |
|---|---|
| Identity | Video title |
| Reach | Views |
| Engagement | Likes and comment count |
| Format | Duration |
| Timing | Publication date |
The tool is set to skip Shorts. To benchmark a channel's Shorts, use youtube-shorts.
Recipes
Every Monday, pull the latest 20 videos of each rival. Diff against last week, and post the new uploads with views and likes to your team chat.
Pull 100 videos from a channel, sort by views, and ask a model to group the titles into formats (tutorial, review, list, story) and rank them by average views.
Count videos per month from the dates, and compare how often each competitor publishes and how long their videos run.
Pull the last 30 videos of a creator, check that views are steady and that likes and comments sit in a normal range relative to views.
Keep a weekly table per channel and feed it to a dashboard.
Prefer plain words? Connect the MCP server and tell Claude Code or Cursor: "Get the latest 25 videos from @MrBeast and @MarkRober, then show a table of title, views, likes and date, sorted by views. Set max_results to 50."
Pair it with other YouTube sources
The channel list shows what was published. These tools show the rest:
Videos from YouTube channels (handles such as @MrBeast, or channel URLs): title, views, likes, comments count, duration, date.
Shorts from YouTube channels: title, views, likes, comments, date.
YouTube videos for search keywords, or from YouTube links (search results, channel, playlist or video URLs): title, views, likes, comments count, duration, channel, date.
Comments on YouTube videos or Shorts: text, likes, replies count, author, date. Sorted by top or latest.
Full transcripts (captions) of YouTube videos, with timestamps: one per video link, in the language you ask for when the video has it.
youtube-shortscovers a channel's Shorts, which this tool skips.youtube-searchfinds videos by keyword, to discover channels you do not follow yet.youtube-commentsreads what viewers say under a competitor's best video.youtube-transcriptgives the full spoken text of a video, to study how a hit is structured.
For picking creators to work with, see influencer research.
What you pay
You pay per video: starting a run holds its maximum cost, the per-call fee plus the per-video fee times max_results, and the run settles to what it returned. The rest of the hold goes back to your balance. A run that fails or times out pays only for the videos it delivered, and a run refused at the start costs nothing.
Checking 20 channels at 25 videos each is billed as 500 videos. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: top up from $5, and one balance pays for tools and models. The card above shows today's price; pricing lists every tool.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a channel URL instead of a handle?+
Yes. Put channel URLs, such as a youtube.com/@name link or a youtube.com/channel/UC... link, in startUrls. Handles go in youtubeHandles.
How many videos can I get per channel?+
You decide with maxItems. The run cap max_results goes up to 500 videos per run. For more, start several runs.
Does it include Shorts?+
No, Shorts are left out of this tool. Use YouTube Shorts for those.
What do I get for each video?+
Title, views, likes, comments count, duration and date, as the description of the tool lists.
Do I need a YouTube account or API quota?+
No. You send handles and an API key. Nothing about YouTube sign-in is on your side.
Do I need a subscription?+
No. You add credit to a prepaid balance and each run draws it down. Failed runs pay only for the results they delivered, and nothing renews automatically.
Comparing creators for a campaign? See influencer research, social listening and the rest of the tool catalog.