Discover YouTube channels similar to any channel you're researching. Find competitors, collaboration partners, and emerging players in the same niche — all through natural language prompts in your AI assistant.
Prerequisites
- Connected AI assistant — Claude, ChatGPT, or any other supported platform
- Active NexLev account — Connect to your AI assistant to get started. Upgrade to Pro for higher quota limits.
Basic Usage
Provide a channel ID and ask for similar channels:
How it Works
A similar-channel search is a background job, not an instant lookup. Your assistant runs it in two steps:
get_similar_channelsstarts the search and returns ajobIdright away. This is the call that counts against your search quota.get_similar_channels_statusis polled with thatjobIdevery few seconds until the job reportscompleted(results attached) orfailed. Polling is free — only the search itself is charged.
A level 1–3 search typically finishes in well under a minute; the deepest of them can take up to about 150 seconds. Mariana Search usually takes a few minutes and is polled for up to 15 minutes. If your assistant goes quiet after you ask, it is waiting on the job — seconds for a level 1–3 search, minutes for a Mariana Search.
Search Options
Only two things change how the search itself runs. Ask for them in plain language — the assistant maps your wording onto the tool:
| Option | Values | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search depth | 1 quick · 2 moderate · 3 in-depth · 4 Mariana Search | 1 | Levels 1–3 widen the same search and surface more distant matches, but take noticeably longer. Level 4 is Mariana Search. |
| Channel type | all long-form and mixed · short Shorts-first | all | Restricts the search to Shorts-first channels when you only care about the short-form landscape. |
Run a deep (level 3) similar channel search for UC9XrHBgOxsNFEBXkLtEqCwA
Mariana Search (level 4)
Mariana Search is the deepest similar-channel search NexLev runs. It is not just a slower level 3 — it looks one ring further out. Ask for it by name:
Find channels similar to UC9XrHBgOxsNFEBXkLtEqCwA using the deepest search
How it differs
A level 1–3 search answers "who looks like this channel?" and the deeper levels answer it more thoroughly. Mariana answers a different question: it works outward from the channel's closest matches to surface the ones sitting behind them — channels in the same space that a direct search never reaches.
Expect a different result set from level 3, not a longer one. The obvious competitors are not repeated back to you; what you get is the layer past them, ranked by similarity.
Before you run one
- Lite, Premium, or Pro plan required. Free and Niche Finder connections cannot run a Mariana Search. Levels 1–3 are unaffected.
- Budget a few minutes. Assistants poll for up to 15 minutes; levels 1–3 stop at about 150 seconds.
- It draws on its own allowance, not the limits that govern levels 1–3 — see Mariana Search allowance.
Everything else behaves the same: the results carry the same fields, and similarity thresholds, subscriber ranges and other refinements are applied by your assistant afterwards exactly as they are for levels 1–3.
Example Prompts
Direct competitors (high similarity)
Collaboration partners (complementary range)
Find similar channels to UC9XrHBgOxsNFEBXkLtEqCwA with 45–65% similarity
Market landscape
Show me all channels similar to UC9XrHBgOxsNFEBXkLtEqCwA and their subscriber counts
Fast-growing similar channels
Find similar channels to UC9XrHBgOxsNFEBXkLtEqCwA with high outlier scores
Narrowing the results
From those similar channels, keep the ones with 100K–1M subscribers and over 50K average views
Which of these are under 6 months old with outlier scores over 5x and in English?
What it Returns
- Similarity score per channel (% content overlap)
- Subscribers and average views per video
- Channel age, upload frequency, last upload date
- Outlier score, RPM, and revenue estimates
- Category, language, and monetization status
Sorting & Filtering
The tool returns the full result set in one job; your assistant sorts and filters it for you afterwards. Ask in plain language, and keep refining the same results without spending another search:
Sort by: Similarity score · Subscribers · Avg views per video · Channel age · Upload frequency · Last upload
Filter by: Subscriber range · Avg views · Outlier score · RPM · Revenue · Category · Language · Country · Upload frequency · Has Shorts · AI content
Advanced Use Cases
Niche saturation analysis
Find all channels similar to [channel ID] and show subscriber distribution
Emerging competitors
Find similar channels started in the last 90 days with high growth
Partnership shortlist
Show me channels with 45–60% similarity to [channel ID] with 50K–500K subscribers
Rate Limits
Two limits apply to a level 1–3 search, and it must fit inside both. Mariana Search runs on a separate allowance instead — see below.
MCP tool calls
Calls to get_similar_channels from your AI assistant, per user:
| Plan | Free | Lite | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls per 24 hours | 1 | 20 | 30 |
Per user · resets every 24 hours
Upgrade to Pro →Polling get_similar_channels_status does not count.
Similar Channel search quota
On top of the MCP allowance, Similar Channel searches run against an hourly, daily and weekly quota that is shared with the Chrome extension and the NexLev dashboard — a search started in any of them draws from the same counters.
| Plan | Per hour | Per day | Per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | 15 | 50 | 150 |
| Lite (and Premium) | 15 | 25 | 75 |
Each window opens with your first search inside it, not on the clock hour, and rejected searches consume nothing. When one is exhausted, your assistant reports which limit you hit and when it resets — for example, "You have reached your daily limit of 25 Similar Channel searches on the Lite plan. Your limit resets in 6 hours."
Mariana Search allowance
Mariana Search does not touch either limit above. It has its own allowance on a rolling 30-day window that opens with your first Mariana search and closes 30 days later — not on the calendar month, and not on your billing date.
| Plan | Mariana searches per 30 days |
|---|---|
| Pro | 10 |
| Lite (and legacy Premium) | 3 |
The allowance is shared with the Chrome extension and the NexLev dashboard. When it runs out, your assistant reports where you stand and when it resets — for example, "You've used 3/3 Mariana searches in your current 30-day window."
Troubleshooting
- No results — Verify the channel ID is valid and public. Very new channels may not have enough content for similarity to be calculated. Try a deeper search:
Run a level 3 similar channel search for [channel ID]. - Unexpected results — Similarity is based on content patterns, not just topics. Very unique channels may have fewer close matches.
- Search limit reached — Wait for the window named in the message to reset, or enable usage credits to continue at $0.20 per search. Retrying before the reset cannot succeed, and the counters are shared with the extension and dashboard, so searches you ran there count too.
- Job failed or timed out — Start the search again; a failed job is not charged, and a failed paid search is refunded automatically. If a level 3 search keeps timing out, retry at level 1.
- Mariana Search found no channels — Mariana needs a channel with close enough matches to work outward from. When there aren't any, the job fails and your allowance slot comes back. Run a level 3 search on that channel instead.
- Mariana Search is still running — That is normal; it routinely takes a few minutes. Keep polling for up to 15 minutes, and expect results to fill in as the job progresses.
- Mariana Search unavailable — Level 4 needs a Lite, Premium, or Pro connection. Levels 1–3 still work on other plans. Upgrade to Pro for 10 Mariana searches per 30 days.
- Mariana allowance reached — Wait for the 30-day window named in the message, or enable usage credits to continue at $0.90 per search. The allowance is shared with the extension and dashboard, so searches you ran there count too.
- Tool not responding — Check your NexLev account is active and the MCP connection is complete (see Quickstart). If you've hit your daily quota, Upgrade to Pro for higher limits.
What's Next?
- Channel Search — Discover long-form and Shorts channels across any niche
- Channel Analytics — Get comprehensive channel metrics and analytics
- Daily Analytics — Track day-by-day growth and performance trends
- Geography & Revenue — Analyze audience geography and revenue
- Niche Overview — Understand content strategy and opportunities