What is the AI Coach?
The vidIQ AI Coach is a purpose-built AI feature that provides YouTube creators like you with data-driven insights, ideas, feedback, and strategies for growing your channel. VidIQ's AI Coach is designed to be the co-pilot you've always needed for your YouTube journey. Some of its benefits include:
Speed: Get the help you need, faster đ . No need to toggle between platforms or conduct extensive research for your YouTube queries on your own, AI Coach is always there for you.
Comprehensive: The AI Coach can assist you with a channel audit, offer advice based on your channel data, guide you on how to attract more views, suggest potential titles for certain topics, and so much more.
Convenient: Once you access the AI Coach from your dashboard, you'll find a list of common questions to help you get started and quickly find the answers to questions you didnât even know you had.
How to Get Started with AI Coach
If you're using a computer: First, log in to your vidIQ account. Once you're in, you'll see "New Chat" on the left sidebar to access the AI Coach:
How do you interact with the AI Coach?
The AI Coach is a helpful feature designed to assist you with YouTube and content creation-related questions. Its user-friendly interface makes navigating it easy and helps you find most of the answers you need about your channel.
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Once you are on the AI Coach page, you will see a chat-like interface where you can type in your questions or concerns.
For example, let's say you are struggling to come up with ideas for your next YouTube video. Simply type in your question, such as "What are some long-form video idea suggestions and script ideas on building my first camera setup?" The AI Coach will provide you with a variety of suggestions and tips to help you brainstorm and plan your next video.
âThe AI Coach operates in three modes, depending on the level of thoroughness you want the AI to handle your query:
Fast Mode â Quick, simple answers using basic tools like your channel data, video details, and YouTube search. Best for focused, single-step questions like title variations or quick lookups.
Deep Thinking Mode â Smarter and more thorough. Unlocks extra features like competitor insights, advanced title ideas, and in-depth strategy suggestions. Check out our video: "Small Channels LEVEL UP using vidIQ AI Coach with Deep Thinking" to see how Deep Thinking mode works in action.
Max Mode (Max and Coaching plans only) â The most in-depth option. Best for full channel audits, competitive research, and questions that require pulling together several layers of data at once. Because it does more work behind the scenes, Max Mode costs more credits per message than Fast or Deep Thinking. If youâre asking something quick or simple, Fast Mode usually gets you just as good an answer for a fraction of the credits.
Suggested Topics
The AI Coach offers a list of prompts to guide your queries. This can be found below the section where you input your prompt.
Hereâs are some of the options list of what you can do with each one of them:
Give me video ideas: Generates tailored video ideas based on your channelâs data, previous successful videos, or trending topics. If youâre new to YouTube, AI Coach will guide you with questions or advice to help find your niche and develop ideas.
Get more views: Suggests strategies to increase your views, personalized to your channelâs performance and audience behavior. For new creators, it provides proven growth tips and actionable steps to start building momentum.
Channel audit: Analyzes your channelâs recent performance and offers a clear, structured review to highlight strengths and opportunities. Recommendations are based on your latest available data.
Review my latest video: Gives feedback on your most recent upload, covering areas like title, thumbnail, description, pacing, and engagement hooks. (Note: If your latest video is very recent, AI Coach may not have complete data o realtime data.).
AI Coach abilities: Explains everything AI Coach can do, from ideation, growth strategies to competitor analysis, so you can make the most of it.
Current Trends: Shares trending topics in your niche or related areas based on your channelâs recent data. If youâre new or without an established niche, it highlights trends that are performing well for other creators.
Competitor Analysis: Reviews competitors youâve added in the Competitors feature, providing insights on their strategies and whatâs working for them. If no competitors are added, it suggests adding them first.
vidIQ Tools: Recommends the vidIQ features and tools most relevant to your channelâs stage and goals, so you can take advantage of the right resources at the right time.
Note: Some prompts use Deep Thinking (AI Coach Abilities, Current Trend, Competitor Analysis & vidIQ Tools) and only appear once Deep Thinking is selected.
Do not hesitate to interact with these prompts and get blown away by the answers. You may also ask a question about YouTube or come up with your own creative prompt.
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Chat History
In the top-left corner, youâll find the option to open the left side panel, which allows you access to all vidIQ tools and also gives the option to:
View all your past chats with AI Coach (along with other tools used), sorted by date.
Rename chats for easy reference.
Delete chats you no longer need.
Attaching Media for Context
You can attach images (e.g., pictures, thumbnails) or videos to your prompts for AI Coach to review. However, for videos, you can:
Select your own uploaded videos
Search for recommended videos
Choose trending videos
Use public YouTube videos from other creators for reference
Please note, you can upload up to 50 images or select 50 reference videos per hour. These attachments allow the AI Coach to give feedback based on specific visual or content examples you provide it with.
Creating Thumbnails, Clips, and Videos with AI Coach
Beyond answering questions, AI Coach can generate things for you directly in the chat: thumbnails, video clips, and short AI-generated videos.
Thumbnails: Describe what you want, and AI Coach can generate a thumbnail for you right in the conversation. For the most consistent results, attach a clear reference photo of yourself or your subject rather than relying on the AI to interpret a video frame. See our Thumbnails article for prompt tips and best practices.
Clips: You can ask AI Coach to pull clips from a video, the same way the standalone Clipping tool works. For more control over the result (clip length, captions, portion of the video to use), we recommend using the Clipping tool directly rather than through chat.
AI-generated video: AI Coach can also generate short AI videos from a text description, similar to the standalone Video Generator.
A note on generation time: Generating a thumbnail, clip, or video takes longer than a normal chat response. If AI Coach says something is âstill generatingâ or you donât see a result right away, this usually means itâs still processing; it does not mean the request failed. Give it a few minutes and check back in the same chat before assuming something went wrong.
For anything more than a one-off generation, we generally recommend using the dedicated Thumbnails, Clipping, or Video Generator tools instead of chat. They give you more control over the result and are easier to fine-tune than describing changes back and forth in conversation.
FAQ of the AI Coach feature
Limit: 0 responses left this month.
If you encounter a message limit warning or are prompted to upgrade, it means you have reached the maximum messages the AI Coach allows. Availability depends on your plan and account setup. Free plans include a limited number of messages per month, while higher-tier plans provide significantly more capacity.
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This limit is in place to ensure fair usage and availability of the service for all users.Why is the AI Coach not working properly on my device?
AI Coach may be affected by active parental controls, VPNs, adblockers, or third-party browser extensions. These can interfere with the functionality of the AI Coach by restricting access or altering how the service interacts with your browser.
Unsupported Questions: AI Coach may not be able to support the query you've asked.
The AI Coach is designed to handle specific kinds of questions related to YouTube, channel optimization, video performance, and content strategy. Queries outside of these topics may not be processed.
Can the AI Coach offer support for my vidIQ account?
AI Coach is designed to provide content strategy, analytics insights, and YouTube growth recommendations. It cannot make changes to your vidIQ account or handle account-related issues like billing, login problems, or bug reports.
Why does the AI Coach look Different on the Mobile App vs. Web?
The mobile app currently shows an earlier version of AI Coach. For the most up-to-date features and experience, use the AI Coach on a browser, either on desktop or mobile.
Why is the AI Coach giving me strange or unrelated answers?
Sometimes the AI Coach may provide answers that seem off-topic, inaccurate, or unexpected. This can happen if the context in your current chat gets too long or complex. If this happens, we recommend:
1. Starting a fresh conversation by opening a new chat with AI Coach.
2. Rephrasing your query or breaking it into smaller, more specific prompts.
In most cases, beginning a new chat helps AI Coach âresetâ its context and provide more accurate and relevant responses.
Why did generating a thumbnail, clip, or video use so many credits, and can I get them back?
Generating media (thumbnails, clips, or videos) through AI Coach uses credits the same way the standalone tools do, and costs can add up faster than a text response because more processing is involved. If a result isnât what you expected, thatâs usually part of the normal creative process: refining your prompt and trying again is expected, and those credits arenât refunded.
If the tool genuinely failed instead of producing an imperfect result (for example, credits were used but no video or thumbnail was ever produced, or the output ignored your instructions completely), thatâs different; reach out to our Creator Support team so we can review and refund credits for the failed generation. See Getting the Best Results from the vidIQ AI Coach for more on this distinction.
What are some feature limitations of the AI Coach?
AI Coach is powerful, but here are a few things to keep in mind:
AI can make mistakes. Always double-check important stats.
AI Coach cannot âwatchâ or visually analyze your videos. It can access certain video data but cannot observe or interpret visual or audio content from your videos.
Some analytics refresh up to 48 hours later.
AI Coach cannot analyze the content of private/scheduled videos.
Shorts insights are improving but may be less precise.
Livestreams arenât supported yet.
AI Coach remembers within a chat, but not across chats.
The next time you have a question about growing your YouTube channel, why not ask the vidIQ AI Coach? Give it a try and let it guide you on your YouTube journey to success!