vidIQ Pricing 2026: Every Plan and Cost Compared

vidIQ pricing in 2026: Free at $0, Boost at $199/yr, Max at $468/yr, plus Coaching and Enterprise. Every plan, credit limit, and hidden cost compared.

vidIQ Pricing 2026: Every Plan and Cost Compared

Quick disclosure: 1of10 competes with vidIQ, so read our numbers with that in mind. Every price below was checked against vidiq.com in July 2026.

vidIQ pricing runs from $0 to about $1,188 per year across 5 plans in 2026. The Free plan costs nothing. Boost costs $199 per year on annual billing or $39 per month billed monthly. Max costs $39 per month, billed yearly only, about $468 per year. Coaching adds a human coach for roughly $99 per month, and Enterprise is priced by sales call.

The number that matters most in that list: the same Boost plan costs $199 on annual billing and $468 paid month to month. That is a 57% spread, one of the widest in the YouTube tools category, and it shapes every buying decision below.

This post covers the price facts: what each plan costs, what the credits actually meter, where the hidden costs sit, and what you can assemble for free instead. If you want the full hands-on verdict on the product itself, that lives in our vidIQ review. If you want the decision logic for your specific channel, read is vidIQ worth it.

Suggested hero image: vidiq-pricing-plans-compared-2026.png, alt: "vidIQ pricing table comparing all 5 plans in 2026"

vidIQ Pricing at a Glance

Here is the full 2026 lineup in one table. Prices verified against vidiq.com/pricing in July 2026.

Plan Monthly billing Annual billing AI credits/mo Billing options
Free $0 $0 150 n/a
Boost $39/mo ($468/yr) $199/yr (about $16.58/mo) 2,000 Monthly or annual
Max Not offered $39/mo billed yearly (about $468/yr) 6,000 Annual only
Coaching + Boost Not offered About $99/mo billed yearly (about $1,188/yr) 2,000 Annual only
Enterprise Custom Custom Custom Sales call

Two structural things to notice before the plan-by-plan breakdown:

  • Only Boost can be paid monthly. Max and Coaching lock you into annual commitments.
  • Credits are the real currency. Every AI feature, from thumbnail generation to AI Coach conversations, draws from a monthly credit pool that resets but does not roll over.

One accuracy note: at the time of writing, the Boost card on vidIQ's own pricing page was rendering a $0 price with $0 annual savings, which is a broken promo display, not a real price. The $199 per year and $39 per month figures are corroborated by the annual math on the page itself and by multiple independent 2026 sources. If you see $0 on the Boost card, do not expect it at checkout.

How Much Does vidIQ Cost?

vidIQ costs $199 per year for the Boost plan on annual billing, which is the plan most buyers mean when they ask about vidIQ cost. Paid monthly, the same plan is $39 per month, or $468 per year. Max runs about $468 per year on mandatory annual billing, and Coaching plans land around $1,188 per year.

The rest of this post breaks down what each of those numbers buys.

vidIQ Free Plan: What $0 Actually Gets You

The Free plan is a functional but deliberately narrow slice of the product. It exists to get the extension installed and to show you what sits behind the paywall.

What is included:

  • The Chrome extension's core stats overlay: views per hour, tags, and engagement data on every YouTube page you visit
  • Basic channel analytics
  • A limited version of Daily Ideas
  • 150 AI credits per month
  • "Personalized growth tips" from the AI Coach, many of which resolve to an upgrade prompt

What is restricted:

  • The keyword tool returns only a handful of results per search
  • Thumbnail generation and most AI outputs burn through 150 credits fast
  • Historical data and competitor tooling sit behind Boost

Bottom line on Free: genuinely useful as a permanent stats overlay, not usable as a growth workflow. Most active users hit the walls within the first week.

vidIQ Boost Plan: The $199 Question

The vidIQ Boost plan is the real product and the tier vidIQ wants you on. At $199 per year on annual billing it is the plan every "vidIQ cost" conversation should anchor to.

What Boost includes:

  • Unlimited keyword and trend research, the strongest feature in the product
  • AI thumbnail generation and title and description tools
  • Subscriber insights and channel analytics
  • The full AI Coach
  • Creator masterclasses, a legitimately good education library
  • 2,000 AI credits per month

The pricing trap sits in the billing toggle. Boost is $16.58 per month if you commit to a year up front, and $39 per month if you do not. Over 12 months that is $199 versus $468 for identical software. Nobody should ever pay the monthly rate for more than a month or two of testing.

Bottom line on Boost: fair value at $199 per year for search-driven channels. Poor value at $468 per year for anyone, which is exactly why the annual toggle is preselected.

Suggested image: vidiq-boost-annual-vs-monthly.png, alt: "vidIQ Boost plan annual versus monthly cost comparison showing the 57 percent spread"

vidIQ Max Plan: More Credits, Annual Only

vidIQ Boost $199 vs Max $468 comparison

Max is Boost with a bigger engine. It costs $39 per month but is only purchasable on yearly billing, which makes the real price about $468 per year, committed up front.

What Max adds over Boost:

  • 6,000 AI credits per month, 3x the Boost allowance
  • Up to 3x more AI Coach conversations
  • "Max Mode" AI, which vidIQ describes as 5x more powerful
  • Up to 11 hours of short-form clipping and generation

vidIQ advertises a $120 saving against month-to-month pricing, which implies a theoretical $49 per month rate that you cannot actually choose. In practice the plan has one price: $468 per year, paid once.

Bottom line on Max: only makes sense if you are provably exhausting Boost's 2,000 credits every month. Start on Boost, watch your credit meter for 2 months, then decide. Buying Max first is paying $269 extra per year on a guess.

vidIQ Coaching: The $1,188 Human Layer

Coaching + Boost bundles the full Boost plan with scheduled 1-on-1 sessions from a vidIQ coach and a custom growth plan. It runs about $99 per month, billed yearly, roughly $1,188 per year.

The math to run before buying: you are paying about $989 per year over Boost for the human component. That is real money in freelance-strategist territory. A channel consultant at $75 to $150 per hour would give you 7 to 13 hours of fully customized attention for the same spend, with no software bundled in you may not need.

Bottom line on Coaching: worth considering only if you specifically want recurring accountability inside the vidIQ ecosystem. If you want expert eyes on your channel, price out a freelancer first.

vidIQ Enterprise: Priced by Sales Call

Enterprise is the multi-channel tier for brands, agencies, and networks. Pricing is custom, quoted through sales.

What it adds:

  • Multi-channel and team access with roles and permissions
  • Cross-channel insights and reporting
  • Priority support and onboarding

Bottom line on Enterprise: standard enterprise fare. If you manage enough channels to need it, the quote conversation will tell you more than any pricing page.

What Happened to the vidIQ Pro Plan?

The vidIQ Pro plan no longer exists. It was a legacy low-cost tier, historically around $7.50 per month, that vidIQ retired when it consolidated its lineup around Boost. Searches for "vidIQ Pro plan" now land on the Boost page.

If you are a former Pro subscriber comparing old pricing to new: there is no like-for-like replacement. Boost at $199 per year is the entry paid tier now, at roughly double the old Pro annual cost, with the AI feature set as the justification.

The Hidden Costs of vidIQ

Checklist: hidden vidIQ costs to watch for

The sticker prices above are honest as far as they go. Four costs do not show up on the pricing page.

1. Credit exhaustion converts $199 plans into $468 plans

Every AI action meters against your monthly credit pool. Heavy users consistently report burning through Boost's 2,000 credits well before month end, a pattern visible across G2 reviews. When the meter hits zero, the product's answer is Max. If you use AI generation daily, budget for $468 per year, not $199, because that is where the credit system is designed to take you.

2. Annual-only tiers remove your exit

Max and Coaching cannot be bought monthly. If the product disappoints in month 2, you have already paid for months 3 through 12. Only Boost lets you pay as you go, at a 135% premium over the annual rate.

3. The upsell tax on your attention

The Free and Boost tiers surface upgrade prompts constantly, including inside AI Coach answers. This costs nothing in dollars and something in workflow friction. Our vidIQ review covers the pattern in detail.

4. Feature migration risk

Between 2022 and 2024, several features moved from free to paid tiers without prominent announcement, and the free keyword tool was cut to a handful of results per search. Any plan you buy today is a snapshot. Price and packaging here change more often than at most tools in the category.

Is Each vidIQ Plan Worth It?

Verdicts per plan, in one place. The full decision framework by channel type lives in is vidIQ worth it, but here is the plan-level answer.

Plan Verdict For whom
Free Yes, keep it forever Anyone; the extension overlay is free data
Boost annual ($199/yr) Yes, conditionally Search-driven channels: tutorials, how-to, reviews
Boost monthly ($39/mo) No Nobody, beyond 1-2 months of testing
Max ($468/yr) Only with evidence Users who provably exhaust 2,000 credits monthly
Coaching (about $1,188/yr) Usually no Price a freelance strategist first
Enterprise Case by case Agencies and multi-channel operations

The single most expensive mistake in the lineup is paying Boost's monthly rate long-term. The second is buying Max before Boost's credit ceiling has ever stopped you.

Does vidIQ Have a Free Trial?

vidIQ does not list a standard free trial in 2026. The pricing page offers the permanent Free plan instead of a time-limited trial of paid features. vidIQ has run promotional trials and discounts in the past, so one may appear seasonally, but you should not plan around it.

The practical trial path most buyers use:

  1. Install the free extension and use the Free plan for 2 weeks
  2. If you keep hitting the keyword-tool and credit limits, that is your signal
  3. Buy Boost on annual billing, never monthly, and calendar a reminder before renewal

The permanent Free plan is a better evaluation window than most 7-day trials anyway. There is no countdown pressuring you to decide.

The Cheaper Path: What You Can Assemble for $0

Before spending $199 to $468 per year, it is worth knowing how much of a research workflow you can build from free tools in 2026. The honest answer: a lot of it.

A $0 stack that covers real ground:

  • Outlier research, free. 1of10's free plan includes outlier search across millions of channels, bookmarks, and 3 tracked channels. Instead of keyword volume, you see which specific videos are doing 10x to 100x their channel's average, which is the data that predicts clicks. The method is covered in how to find YouTube outliers the hard way vs the fast way.
  • In-YouTube stats overlay, free. The 1of10 Chrome extension shows outlier scores, video rankings, and views-over-time charts on every YouTube page, the same slot the vidIQ extension occupies.
  • Metadata tools, free. Tag generation (tag generator), description writing (description generator), and keyword ideas (keyword generator) are all free landing tools. Nobody should pay a subscription for tags in 2026.
  • YouTube Studio, free. Your own analytics, traffic sources, and CTR data are already in Studio at zero cost. Most of what a paid dashboard re-displays starts here.

What the free stack does not give you: vidIQ's deep keyword volume data, and 1of10's AI generation suite, which starts on the Basic plan at $29 per month. The point is not that free replaces everything. The point is that the research layer, the part that decides what video you make next, no longer requires a subscription to test properly. A wider tool comparison lives in best tools to get more views on YouTube, and the direct head-to-head is in 1of10 vs vidIQ.

Suggested image: free-youtube-research-stack-2026.png, alt: "Free YouTube research stack compared against vidIQ pricing tiers"

FAQ

How much does vidIQ cost?

vidIQ costs $199 per year for Boost on annual billing, or $39 per month billed monthly, which totals $468 per year. Max costs about $468 per year and is annual-only, with 6,000 AI credits. Coaching plans run about $1,188 per year. A permanent Free plan exists at $0 with 150 monthly credits.

Is vidIQ free?

vidIQ has a permanent free plan. It includes the Chrome extension's stats overlay, basic analytics, limited Daily Ideas, and 150 AI credits per month. The free keyword tool returns only a few results per search, and most AI features push you toward the paid Boost plan quickly. Free is a preview, not a workflow.

Does vidIQ have a free trial?

No standard free trial is listed in 2026. vidIQ offers its permanent Free plan instead of a time-limited trial, though promotional trials have appeared in the past. The free plan is the intended evaluation path: install the extension, test the limits, then decide whether Boost's $199 annual price earns its keep.

What is the difference between vidIQ Boost and Max?

Credits and AI depth. Boost gives 2,000 AI credits per month at $199 per year on annual billing. Max gives 6,000 credits, up to 3x more AI Coach conversations, Max Mode AI, and short-form clipping for about $468 per year, billed annually only. Buy Max only after Boost's credit ceiling has actually stopped you.

Is there still a vidIQ Pro plan?

No. The vidIQ Pro plan was a legacy tier around $7.50 per month that vidIQ retired when it restructured around Boost. There is no like-for-like replacement. Boost at $199 per year is now the entry paid plan, and searches for vidIQ Pro pricing resolve to the Boost page.

CTA block: Before you pay for keyword scores, see what proven demand looks like. Search millions of channels for videos doing 10x their average, free, at 1of10.com.