Claude YouTube Connector: How to Connect YouTube (2026)
There’s no official YouTube connector in Claude, and Claude can’t watch a video from a link. Add the Carly connector, connect YouTube, and set up triggers right from the chat: when a video goes live, do that. “When we publish a video, post it to LinkedIn and our Discord with a two-line summary.” You type it once in Claude. Carly does it every time, whether Claude is open or not.
Where Claude and YouTube fall short today
Claude is great at writing about video. It can’t see your channel. Here’s where people get stuck:
- There’s no YouTube connector. Search Claude’s directory for YouTube and you get third-party tools like vidIQ and Supermetrics, not YouTube itself.
- Links don’t work. Paste a YouTube link and Claude can’t watch the video, so people copy transcripts in by hand.
- Building your own hits quotas. A homemade YouTube connector runs on Google’s API, which gives new projects 10,000 quota units a day, per Google’s developer docs.
- Nothing happens when you publish. A video goes live, and nobody shares it, writes it up or logs the numbers unless someone remembers.
How Carly fixes it
- Triggers on new videos. The moment a video goes live, Carly shares it everywhere you choose.
- Reads your own channel. Titles, descriptions, stats and captions, so Claude writes from what you actually said.
- Reports on a schedule. Weekly views and top videos, emailed to you or posted in Slack.
- Everything feeds in. Carly connects YouTube to thousands of apps, including LinkedIn, Discord, WordPress and Mailchimp.
How to connect YouTube to Claude
- Add Carly to Claude. Click Get the Carly connector, then Connect, and sign in.
- Connect YouTube in Carly. Open Integrations, find YouTube and connect it.
- Tell Claude what should happen, and when. Carly sets up the workflow and runs it from then on.
Triggers you can set up from Claude
Type these into Claude. Each one becomes a trigger that runs in the cloud, whether or not you’re in the chat:
- “When we publish a video, post it to LinkedIn and our Discord with a two-line summary.”
- “When a video goes live, turn its captions into a blog post draft in WordPress.”
- “When we publish a video, add it to our content calendar sheet with the link.”
- “When a video passes 10,000 views, post a thank-you in our community.”
- “Every Monday at 9, email me last week’s views and our top three videos.”
- “On the first of the month, email the team our best-performing videos.”
Steps that don’t need AI run as free Zapier-style workflows.
Ask Claude about your channel
- “Which of our videos got the most views this month?”
- “Write a newsletter from our last three videos.”
- “Add the webinar link to the description of our latest video.”
Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month. Get started.
How Claude connects to YouTube today
Without Carly, there are three ways to get YouTube into Claude, and none of them is YouTube’s own:
- Third-party connectors. Claude’s directory lists vidIQ for creator analytics and Supermetrics for marketing reports. Each is a separate product.
- A custom connector. Developers build their own YouTube MCP servers on Google’s YouTube Data API, with a Google Cloud project, credentials and Google’s daily quota.
- Paste the transcript. Claude can’t watch a video, so most people copy the transcript into the chat.
| Claude today | Carly | |
|---|---|---|
| See your channel’s videos and stats | Through third-party tools or a custom connector | Yes |
| Write from what you said in a video | Paste the transcript | Yes, from your captions |
| Starts when you publish | No | Yes, with triggers |
| Shares new videos everywhere | Copy and paste | Yes, automatically |
FAQ
Does Claude have a YouTube connector?
Not one made by YouTube. Add the Carly connector and connect YouTube to Carly, and Claude can read your channel and act when you publish.
Why can’t Claude open a YouTube link?
Claude can’t watch video. With Carly connected to your channel, Claude works from your own videos’ captions, titles and stats instead.
Is there a ChatGPT version?
Yes, the same setup works with the Carly plugin in ChatGPT. See ChatGPT + YouTube.
Ready to automate your busywork?
Carly schedules, researches, and briefs you—so you can focus on what matters.
See what people say
"Before Carly, I relied on a Calendly link, but the whole process felt impersonal and not very professional. Carly changed that by handling all the back-and-forth, so I'm no longer stuck in endless email threads trying to line up schedules.
Now Carly reaches out to candidates, shares my real-time availability, lets them pick a slot, then sends a Zoom link and drops it straight into my calendar. She sends reminders to both of us before each call, which has significantly reduced no-shows and last-minute confusion.
On top of scheduling, Carly acts like a full executive assistant, sending me my schedule the night before so I can prepare for each call. It reminds me of the old x.ai assistant, but Carly is noticeably smarter, faster, and better suited to my healthcare recruitment business."
