# Search YouTube comments with your AI agent

YouTube has no search box for comments. Give your agent the video URL instead: RouterGrowth returns the comments under it as records, with author, likes and replies, and the agent searches them for the word, the question or the competitor you care about.

HTML page: https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/youtube/comments-search
Part of: [YouTube tools](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/youtube.md)

## The call

[`social.comments`](https://www.routergrowth.com/catalog/social.comments): Comments on one public post URL (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, and replies to a post on X): text, author, likes, replies, time.

Price on this network: $0.002625 per comment, $0.002 minimum a call. The exact quote is shown before every run.

## What a real run returned

Run on 2026-10-17: 20 records in 16.2 s for $0.0525. Personal fields are masked. The 20 most recent comments under a public Notion tutorial on a creator's business channel. A question and a complaint about an outdated screen are already in the first rows.

| text | author | likes | replies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where can we get the training certificate | @ma*** | 0 | 0 |
| Its a bit out of date and current version (free one) is not quite like that | @ra*** | 0 | 0 |
| I appreciated the databases especially. I feel like a database myself lol… | @ed*** | 0 | 0 |

## How to do it

1. **Connect RouterGrowth once.** Add the MCP server to Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor. A new workspace starts with $1 of credit, enough to run this example many times.
2. **Give it the video.** Paste the video URL and say how many comments to read. social.comments returns each one with its text, author, likes, reply count and date.
3. **Search inside the thread.** Ask for the comments that mention a word, ask a question or name a competitor. The agent filters the records it already holds, so the search costs nothing more.
4. **Keep what you found.** Ask for a table, a CSV or a short summary of the questions that repeat, and paste it where your team keeps research.

## Ask it like this

- Pull the latest 200 comments on this video and list every one that asks a question about pricing. (`social.comments`)
- Read the comments on our last five uploads and find the ones that mention a competitor, with a link to each. (`social.posts`, `social.comments`)
- Which viewers asked for a template under this tutorial, and how many likes did each comment get? (`social.comments`)

## Connect

MCP server: `https://api.routergrowth.com/mcp`

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http routergrowth https://api.routergrowth.com/mcp
```

```bash
npm install -g routergrowth && routergrowth setup
routergrowth run -c social.comments -i '{"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbxQw4LQwws", "platform": "youtube", "limit": 20}'
```

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.routergrowth.com/v1/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ROUTERGROWTH_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"capability": "social.comments", "input": {"url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbxQw4LQwws", "platform": "youtube", "limit": 20}}'
```

## Worth knowing

- **The search runs on what was read.** YouTube offers no public comment search, so the call reads the thread and the agent searches it. Ask for enough comments to cover what you are looking for.
- **Paid per comment.** The charge covers the comments returned, so a small read costs little and an empty thread costs nothing. The quote is shown before the call.
- **Likes show what many people think.** Each comment carries its likes and reply count, the quickest way to find the questions many viewers share.

## Questions

### Can I search YouTube comments by keyword?

Yes, in two steps: social.comments reads the comments under the video, then your agent filters them for the word or phrase. YouTube itself does not offer a comment search.

### Can I search the comments of a whole channel?

Pull the channel's recent uploads with social.posts, then the comments under each one. The agent merges the threads and searches them together.

### What does each comment include?

The text, the author's handle, the number of likes and replies, when it was posted and the video URL.

### Do I need a YouTube API key?

No. The call runs on RouterGrowth's providers with your RouterGrowth key, with no Google Cloud project and no daily quota to manage.

### How many comments can one call return?

Set limit to the number you want. The hold covers that limit before the run and the charge covers the comments that come back.