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Discover · FAQ

Where the data comes from, how fresh it is, and why searches are rationed

Every number on Discover comes from the official YouTube Data API on public data: channel statistics, video titles and descriptions, publish dates, topic tags and the paid-promotion flag. Nothing is crawled from youtube.com pages and no creator account is ever signed in to. A channel enters the inventory when someone runs its full report in the channel analyzer, or when a keyword search on YouTube returns it; a row is refreshed when its report is re-run and deleted after 30 days without one.

Searches are rationed because the API is. Since the June 2026 quota change, search.list sits in its own bucket of 100 calls a day per project, separate from the 10,000 units a day for every other call. A full channel report costs about 18 units; a keyword search costs one of those 100 calls plus one unit for the channel facts. That is why the inventory is searched first and YouTube only when it has nothing.

See channels with a full reportFree, no sign-in; the first 10 rows of every search.

Where does Discover get its channel data?

From the YouTube Data API v3 with an API key, which only reads public data: channel title, handle, country, subscriber and video counts, topic tags, the newest uploads with their titles, descriptions, dates, view and comment counts, the paid-promotion flag, and public comment threads for the audience score. Discover never signs in to a creator's account, never reads YouTube Studio, and never crawls youtube.com pages.

How many channels are in the Discover inventory?

The counts are printed at the top of the page on every load: channels in the inventory, channels with a full report, and sponsoring brands seen. On 3 November 2026 it was 602 channels, 13 with a full report and 145 brands. It grows with every analyzer report and every keyword search, and it is nowhere near all of YouTube; it is the channels people have looked at.

Is Discover a database of every YouTube channel?

No. Tools that claim tens of millions of channels index YouTube continuously. Discover holds the channels people have analyzed or searched for, which keeps it free and keeps every row within the API's terms. If your niche is thin, the keyword search fills it from YouTube and the rows stay for everyone.

How often is the data updated?

A full report is reused for a day, can be refreshed on request after that, and its inventory row is deleted after 30 days without a new report. Channels found by keyword search are stubs with the size and topics YouTube returned at that moment; they get live numbers when someone opens the report. Watched channels in the workspace are re-checked weekly.

Why does the subscriber count differ from what YouTube shows right now?

Two reasons. YouTube rounds public subscriber counts (263,000 shows as 263K) and Discover stores what the API returned at the last refresh, which can be up to 30 days old for a channel nobody has opened since. The row shows its refresh date; open the report to fetch today's number.

What is a "not analyzed yet" row, and how do I fill it in?

That channel came from a YouTube keyword search, so Discover holds only its name, handle, country, size, video count and topic tags. Uploads in 30 days, last upload, sponsors, scores and the contact flag need the full report, which anyone can run from the row's Analyze link for about 18 API units.

Does Discover scrape YouTube?

No. Scraping youtube.com pages breaks YouTube's terms and tends to break the scraper every few weeks. Everything here is API data within the project's quota, which is also why Discover rations YouTube searches instead of offering unlimited ones.

What is the YouTube Data API quota in 2026?

Each Google Cloud project gets 10,000 units a day for most endpoints, and since the June 2026 change search.list and videos.insert each have their own bucket of 100 calls a day. Every list call (channels, videos, playlistItems, commentThreads) costs 1 unit, invalid calls included. Quotas reset at midnight Pacific time. Older articles still say a search costs 100 units; that was the model before June 2026.

How much quota does one Discover search cost?

Searching the inventory costs nothing: it is a database query. A YouTube keyword search costs one call from the 100-a-day search bucket plus one unit for the channel facts of up to 50 channels. A full channel report costs about 18 units. Numbers like these are why every YouTube tool, paid or free, caps searches per day.

Why do YouTube influencer tools limit how many searches you can run?

Because search.list is capped at 100 calls a day per project by default, and raising it needs a compliance audit with no published turnaround. Tools either pre-index channels and serve searches from their own database, which is what Discover does, or sell credits that map to API calls. Unlimited live YouTube search does not exist at any price.

Can I get more YouTube API quota for my own tool?

You apply for a quota extension through Google's compliance audit form; the docs promise contact as soon as possible and developers report waits from weeks to months, often with partial grants. Cheaper reads help more: a channel's uploads via playlistItems.list cost 1 unit instead of a search, and batching 50 channel ids into one channels.list call costs 1 unit.

Is there a Discover API?

Not yet. The channel analyzer has a JSON and CSV endpoint for single channels. If you need the inventory programmatically, write to contact@replydial.com with the use case; we would rather build the right endpoint than guess.

Can I export the search results?

Yes, with a paid plan or during the 7-day trial: Export CSV gives the current search, up to 500 rows, with channel, handle, country, niche, subscribers, uploads in 30 days, last upload, sponsors, scores and the contact flag. The CSV never contains contact details; those stay on the report, as the creator published them.

Why is there no language filter?

YouTube does not publish a channel language in a reliable way; the defaultLanguage field is rarely set and the audio language varies per video. Discover shows the country YouTube reports and leaves language to you, rather than guessing from titles and being wrong for bilingual channels.

How does Discover decide a channel's niche?

Twenty-one niches, from Cloud & DevOps to Real estate, scored by how many niche cue words appear in the channel's recent video titles and descriptions plus YouTube's own topic tags. The strongest niche becomes the row's label; the others stay searchable. It is a keyword match, not a human review, so a channel about Kubernetes and cooking can show up in both.

How is the sponsor list built?

From the newest videos in the full report: a brand named as sponsor in a description, YouTube's paid-promotion flag with the brand's link, or a link seen on several sponsored videos. Only high and medium confidence counts appear on Discover; a single affiliate link or a brand mention is not a sponsorship. Spoken-only deals with no link and no flag are invisible to any description-based method.

What do the Commercial and Audience scores measure?

Both run 0 to 100 and are ReplyDial's read of public data, explained with their rules on each report. Commercial: how ready the channel is for brand work, from disclosed sponsors, affiliate links and products. Audience: how the channel treats viewers, from reply rate and response times in a sample of recent comment threads. They are not YouTube metrics and not an authenticity audit.

Can Discover tell me a channel's audience demographics?

No, and neither can any tool that works from public data. Age, gender, geography and watch time exist only in the creator's own YouTube Studio. Ask the creator for a dated Studio screenshot of the audience tab before signing; Discover's country column is the channel's declared country, not where its viewers are.

Does Discover estimate earnings or sponsorship rates?

No. Earnings are private and rate estimates from public data are guesses dressed as numbers; review sites are full of complaints about estimates that were off by a wide margin. Discover shows public numbers and labelled scores only. For pricing, use the method on the rates page: recent average views, a niche CPM range, a format multiplier.

Is the contact information stored?

Only a yes-or-no flag is in the inventory: whether the creator published a business contact in a channel or video description. The contact itself appears on the full report and on the creator's About page, as they wrote it. It is never exported, never aggregated into a list, and never kept beyond the report's 30 days.

Is Discover GDPR compliant and where is the data hosted?

The inventory holds public channel data about businesses and public creators, no viewer data and no contact lists; reports are deleted after 30 days without use. ReplyDial runs on Google Cloud in Europe (Finland). The privacy policy at /privacy#free-tools lists exactly what each free tool keeps and for how long.

Why are some channels missing from a niche?

Because nobody has analyzed or searched for them yet. Run a known channel through the analyzer and it joins the inventory with a full report; type a keyword and, if the inventory has nothing, Discover searches YouTube and stores up to 50 channels. The niches people search most are refreshed nightly within the API budget.

Does a bigger inventory mean worse data?

Only if rows go stale, which is why Discover deletes rather than keeps. A row without a report for 30 days is removed; a stub without an opened report stays a stub, clearly marked. Tools that keep millions of profiles for years end up listing channels that stopped uploading in 2022; reviewers notice.

Can I see when a row was last refreshed?

Yes. Each row carries its refresh date, and the report page shows when the data was fetched and when it can be refreshed again. If the date is older than you need, open the report and refresh it; the new numbers flow back into the row.

Does Discover use the YouTube paid-promotion label?

Yes, as one of three sponsor signals. YouTube's own label appears on 33 percent of sponsored videos in our 447-video sample from October 2026, while the description text named the brand on 83 percent, so Discover reads both plus repeated links. Details in the post on what the paid-promotion label means and misses.

What happens to the data when YouTube's quota runs out for the day?

Inventory search keeps working because it never touches YouTube. YouTube keyword searches and new reports pause until the quota resets at midnight Pacific, and the page says so instead of failing silently. Discover stops starting new lookups at 95 percent of the daily budget so a report never dies halfway.

Can I use Discover's data in my own client deck?

Yes, as public channel facts with the date they were fetched. Quote the row or the report, say the scores are ReplyDial's, and do not add totals across channels: YouTube's API policies forbid aggregated statistics across channels you do not own, and Discover does not compute them for the same reason.

Why does a keyword search sometimes return channels that do not match my filters?

A YouTube search returns up to 50 channels for the words; Discover stores them all and then applies your filters, so a subscriber range or country can hide most of what YouTube returned. The page tells you how many were found and how many were new; remove a filter to see the rest.

How accurate is the country column?

It is the country the creator set on their channel, as YouTube reports it, and it can be empty. It says nothing about where viewers are. Treat it as a sourcing filter, not an audience fact.

What does "full report only" filter?

Rows whose channel has been analyzed in full: uploads in 30 days, sponsors, scores and the contact flag are present. Use it when you want a shortlist you can act on today rather than stubs you would have to analyze first.

Now run the search

Discover shows the first 10 channels of any search with size, posting pace, sponsors, scores and whether a business contact is listed. When the inventory has nothing for your keyword, it searches YouTube for you.

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