On 26 October 2026, vidIQ’s own compare pages listed three public US prices. Written by the ContHunt team. Free is $0. Boost is $19 month to month, or $199 billed yearly, which is about $16.58 a month. Max is $49 month to month, or $468 billed yearly, which is $39 a month. Those figures are the dollar amounts to plan around. The checkout page is the amount you will actually be charged, because taxes, regional offers, and coupons move the total.
The public prices#
vidIQ stated these US prices on its compare pages for OutlierKit, Viewstats, and 1of10, each marked as checked on 26 October 2026. The three pages agree with each other. Treat that agreement as the source, and treat a later plans page as the update.
| Plan | Month to month | Billed yearly | What the yearly price is per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | $0 |
| Boost | $19 | $199 | about $16.58 |
| Max | $49 | $468 | $39 |
Yearly billing is paid up front. $199 is not twelve charges of $16.58. It is one charge of $199. $468 is one charge of $468. If you cancel in month two, the savings math no longer describes your year.
A promo can sit on top of these numbers. In November 2026 vidIQ’s homepage was advertising a code for a discount on new Boost monthly upgrades, and the terms on that page said the offer was for new Boost monthly upgrades only, was not retroactive, and could not be combined with other coupons. A homepage code is not a change to the list price. Read the line that shows the amount due before you pay.
Enterprise is a separate conversation. vidIQ describes it for brands, agencies, and multi-channel networks with three or more channels. The compare pages did not publish a public enterprise dollar amount. Ask them. Do not copy the Boost price and multiply by seats.
What you are paying for#
vidIQ’s job is a YouTube workflow: keyword hints, video ideas, packaging suggestions, and an AI coach attached to a channel you connect. The paid tiers are more of that workflow. They are not YouTube Studio, and they are not a research app for public TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.
Free is the trial of that workflow. The compare pages describe a free plan with 150 monthly AI credits, niche trends, data-backed ideas, and access to core tools. Use it to learn whether you open the product. A free plan you do not open is not a reason to buy Boost.
Boost is the entry paid plan. The compare pages describe it as the plan for keyword reach, personalized ideas, optimization, competitive intel, thumbnails, and the AI coach. Buy Boost when you already do that work every week and the free limits are the thing in your way. Do not buy it because a pricing table looks unfinished without a paid row.
Max is the higher paid plan. The compare pages describe it as everything in Boost, plus a larger AI allowance and a more capable coach mode. Buy Max when you are already hitting Boost’s limit on the tool you use, and you can name that tool. “More AI” is not a name. “I ran out of coach credits on Thursday for the third week” is a name.
Coaching sits beside these tiers for people who want a person as well as the software. The compare pages mention it and do not put it on the same dollar line as Boost and Max. Price it from vidIQ’s current plans page if a coach is the actual purchase.
Credits, and why two vidIQ pages disagree#
The dollar table above is the part the compare pages state cleanly. The credit allotment is not as clean, so this page will not pretend it is.
A vidIQ help article on features and credits lists a monthly AI credit allowance by plan: Free 150, Boost 2,000 for one channel, 2,500 for two, and 3,000 for three, and Max 6,000, 8,000, and 10,000 on the same channel steps. It also still names a Pro plan at 1,000 credits for one channel. The compare pages we used for the dollar amounts do not list Pro as one of the public tiers. If Pro still exists for your account, its price was not on those pages. Do not invent one.
The same help article says credits refresh monthly, unused credits do not roll over, and credits are per account rather than per channel. On a two-channel or three-channel plan, the number in the table is one shared balance. It also says Max and Coaching can buy extra credit packs, and that a pack does not upgrade the plan or unlock the next tier.
A plan card can also mention a smaller number, such as a clipping allowance, next to the larger AI-credit number. Those are different counters if vidIQ says they are. When the plan card, the help article, and the checkout disagree, the checkout is the one that bills you and the help article is the one that explains the counter. Screenshot both on the day you subscribe. A blog post, including this one, goes stale the day vidIQ edits the plans page.
How to read the yearly discount#
Boost yearly at $199 against twelve months of $19 is $228. The difference is $29. Max yearly at $468 against twelve months of $49 is $588. The difference is $120. That is the published discount for staying a year, not a promise about views.
Use the yearly price only if you already know you will use the product past the first month. The test is the previous month, not the pricing page. If you opened vidIQ on fewer than a handful of days, yearly billing locks in a habit you have not shown. Stay on monthly, or stay on free, until the habit is real.
Taxes and local currency can make both columns look different from this table. The compare pages say to confirm the final amount on the plans page before purchasing. Do that. A US list price is a planning number for a US checkout.
Which plan matches which job#
Pick the plan by the job that failed last month. The price is the second question.
| Job that failed | Plan that can fit | Plan that does not fix it |
|---|---|---|
| You have not tried the overlay | Free | Boost, bought on the first visit |
| You want keyword and title ideas inside a YouTube workflow you already use | Boost | A second keyword extension beside it |
| You already live in Boost and you run out of the AI allowance you use | Max | A higher tier you open once |
| You need a person to review the channel with you | Coaching, priced on their site | Max, if what you wanted was the person |
| You need several channels under one agency account | Enterprise, ask them | Three separate Boost checkouts guessed from the self-serve price |
| You need your own search and retention | YouTube Studio, which is free | Any vidIQ tier |
| You need to bulk-edit a back catalog | TubeBuddy, priced on TubeBuddy’s site | vidIQ, if the library is the bottleneck |
| You need public Shorts, Reels, and TikTok examples before a script | A research product, not an overlay | vidIQ’s keyword score |
YouTube Studio remains the free baseline for a channel you own. Studio’s research tab and retention graph are first-party. No third-party plan is more accurate about your own viewers than YouTube is. Pay vidIQ when the missing piece is the overlay workflow, after Studio has already answered the question it can answer.
TubeBuddy is the other paid YouTube tool people put next to this table. It fits bulk edits and thumbnail tests. It has its own price, on its own site, and it is not a row in the table above. The head-to-head on the work, rather than the invoice, is TubeBuddy vs vidIQ. A TubeBuddy review and the free alternatives sit beside that page: TubeBuddy review and free TubeBuddy alternatives.
What the price does not buy#
A vidIQ subscription does not show another channel’s private retention, revenue, or subscriber quality. It does not publish the video. It does not make an unrelated tag relevant. It does not force YouTube to recommend a Short that people swipe away from.
It also does not watch a niche’s public TikToks and Reels and hand you the opening pattern. That is a different job. vidIQ alternatives is the page for “should I keep this subscription at all,” sorted by job. This page is only the price. Read them together. The alternatives page does not repeat these dollar amounts, on purpose, so a stale number does not sit in two places. When the numbers change, this is the URL to update.
If the work is public short-form research across YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, the page for that job is How Deep Search works.
A check before you pay#
Do this on the day you subscribe, not from memory of this article.
- Open vidIQ’s plans page and write down the amount due today, including the tax line and any code you applied.
- Write down whether the charge is monthly or one yearly charge. $16.58 is not the charge. $199 is the charge, if you picked Boost yearly.
- Open the credits help article and write down the allowance for the plan and the channel count you selected. Note whether that number matches the plan card.
- Name the feature you used on the free plan that you will lose or outgrow. If you cannot name it, stop.
- If the feature is “ideas,” confirm you shipped a title from the free ideas before you rent a larger allowance of the same ideas.
- If the feature is “I do not know what is working in this niche,” stop and go look at public videos. A higher vidIQ tier is the wrong invoice for that gap.
- Screenshot the checkout. The screenshot is the record. This article is the map of what the public pages said on 26 October 2026, plus the credit article that disagreed with a single clean number.
Cancel anything that duplicates a job you already cover. Overlap is the hidden cost. Boost plus a second keyword extension plus Studio is three views of one channel. One of them should go.
Where this sits with the rest of the vidIQ pages#
Search Console has been sending “vidIQ pricing” to a URL that no longer exists. This page is that URL, restored with the prices dated and the conflict between vidIQ’s own pages left visible. vidIQ alternatives stays the replacement decision. TubeBuddy vs vidIQ stays the two-overlay decision. Neither of those pages should be asked to carry a price that will be wrong next month.
If your question is retention on Shorts you already published, the next read is YouTube Shorts analytics, in Studio, not a plan upgrade. A price cannot explain a drop-off at the first second.
The practical order is unchanged by the invoice. Studio first, for the channel you own. One overlay if you use an overlay, at the tier whose limit you have actually hit. Public short-form research when the missing evidence is other people’s videos. Confirm the charge on vidIQ’s checkout, then keep the screenshot with the decision you named.
Get started when the gap is public Shorts, Reels, and TikTok examples, which none of the rows in the price table are built to watch.
