Pick your best title before you hit record
You brainstorm 5 titles, pick one on gut feel, and cross your fingers. BrightBean scores all 5 against proven patterns in your niche, tells you which will perform, and suggests rewrites for the rest.
The problem
Title selection is the highest-impact decision you make
Gut-feel titles
You pick the title that sounds good to you. But you're not your audience. The title that feels clever in your head often falls flat on the home feed.
Wrong tools, wrong price
vidIQ and TubeBuddy charge $50+/month for browser dashboards built for agencies. No API. No automation. Most solo creators use 10% of what they pay for.
With BrightBean
Score all 5 title ideas in seconds. See exactly which patterns top performers use. Get specific rewrite suggestions. The free tier covers most solo creators.
See it in action
From 5 title ideas to your best video yet
Here's what a typical session looks like for a tech reviewer planning their next upload.
Score your 5 title ideas
You're making a video about budget cameras. You've brainstormed 5 titles. Instead of picking one and hoping, you score all 5 against the patterns that work in the tech review niche.
Each title gets a 0-100 score based on 16 pattern categories: number lists, curiosity gaps, price anchors, personal pronouns, and more. The score tells you how well your title matches the patterns that top-performing tech videos use.
Your 5 title ideas
- 1 "Best Budget Cameras 2025"
- 2 "5 Cameras Under $300 That Pros Actually Recommend"
- 3 "I Tested 5 Budget Cameras So You Don't Have To"
- 4 "Camera Buying Guide for Beginners"
- 5 "The $280 Camera That Beat My $800 Sony"
// Title 1: "Best Budget Cameras 2025"
{ "score": 38, "patterns": ["year_tag"] }
// Title 2: "5 Cameras Under $300 That Pros Recommend"
{ "score": 74, "patterns": ["number_list", "under_price", "authority"] }
// Title 3: "I Tested 5 Budget Cameras So You Don't Have To"
{ "score": 81, "patterns": ["personal_pronoun", "number_list", "experience", "curiosity_gap"] }
// Title 4: "Camera Buying Guide for Beginners"
{ "score": 42, "patterns": ["specificity"] }
// Title 5: "The $280 Camera That Beat My $800 Sony"
{ "score": 85, "patterns": ["under_price", "personal_pronoun", "controversy", "specificity"] }
// Niche average for tech reviews: 54Understand why one title wins
Winner: Score 85
"The $280 Camera That Beat My $800 Sony"
This title hits 4 patterns at once. The specific price ($280 vs $800) creates a contrast that makes people click. The personal pronoun ("My") signals real experience. "Beat" is a power word that implies a surprising result. And naming Sony adds credibility.
31 points above the tech review niche average of 54.
Weakest: Score 38
"Best Budget Cameras 2025"
Generic list title with no hook. "Best" is overused and triggers skepticism. No personal angle, no specific price point, no curiosity gap. This title competes with every other "best cameras" video without a differentiator.
BrightBean suggests: "I Found the Best Budget Camera of 2025 (Under $300)"
Find your next 3 video ideas
You've picked your title. Now plan ahead. The /content-gaps endpoint shows you topics in your niche where demand is high but competition is low.
Each result includes a demand score (based on search volume and interest signals), a count of competing videos with 10k+ views, and an opportunity rating. Topics with high demand and few quality videos are your easiest wins.
The suggested titles come pre-scored, so you can plan your next 3 uploads in one session.
{
"content_gaps": [
{
"topic": "budget camera gimbal under $100",
"demand_score": 83,
"competing_videos_above_10k_views": 2,
"opportunity_rating": "very_high",
"suggested_title": "The $80 Gimbal That Changed My Videos"
},
{
"topic": "camera settings for indoor video",
"demand_score": 71,
"competing_videos_above_10k_views": 6,
"opportunity_rating": "medium",
"suggested_title": "My Exact Camera Settings for Indoor Videos"
},
{
"topic": "phone vs camera for youtube beginners",
"demand_score": 88,
"competing_videos_above_10k_views": 4,
"opportunity_rating": "high",
"suggested_title": "Phone vs Camera: Honest Test for New YouTubers"
}
],
"niche": "camera gear",
"videos_analyzed": 9200
}Check your thumbnail before publishing
Before you publish, run your thumbnail through BrightBean. The API checks for face detection, text readability, contrast ratio, and composition. It tells you exactly what to fix.
Small thumbnail changes have outsized effects on click-through rate. A 15% larger text overlay or a brighter background can be the difference between 5,000 and 50,000 views.
{
"score": 71,
"face_detected": true,
"emotion": "surprise",
"text_overlay_readable": true,
"contrast_ratio": 4.2,
"improvement": "Add brighter background. Text is readable but could be 15% larger."
}Getting started
Two ways to use BrightBean
Pick whichever fits your workflow. Both use the same data, same scoring, same intelligence.
Option A: No code required
Use BrightBean through Claude Desktop
If you don't write code, this is your path. Add one config block to Claude Desktop and ask Claude to score your titles, find content gaps, or benchmark your channel in plain English.
{
"mcpServers": {
"brightbean": {
"url": "https://api.brightbean.xyz/mcp",
"transport": "sse"
}
}
}
Add this to claude_desktop_config.json, then ask Claude: "Score these 5 titles for the tech review niche."
Option B: REST API
Call the API directly
If you're comfortable with curl or Python, call the API directly. You can build your own scoring workflow, integrate with Notion or Google Sheets, or automate your pre-publish checklist.
curl -X POST https://api.brightbean.xyz/v1/score/title \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-d '{"title": "The $280 Camera That Beat My $800 Sony", "niche": "tech"}'Response in under 500ms. JSON you can pipe into any tool.
See all endpoints →How scoring works
16 patterns across 4 categories
BrightBean scores every title against the patterns that top-performing videos in your niche actually use. Scores are calibrated per niche, so a 70 in cooking means something different than a 70 in gaming.
Structure
- Number lists ("5 Things...")
- Brackets and parentheses
- Dash payoffs ("...Here's What Happened")
- Length and word count
Engagement
- Curiosity gaps
- Questions
- Controversy signals
- Power words
Authenticity
- Personal pronouns ("I", "My")
- Experience markers ("I Tested")
- Story signals
- Opinion framing
Specificity
- Price anchors ($280, Under $300)
- Timeframes (30 Days, 1 Week)
- Named brands
- Concrete details
What's a good score?
Below niche average. Missing most proven patterns. Rewrite recommended.
Around niche average. Decent, but room for improvement. Check suggested rewrites.
Above average. Hits multiple patterns. Strong candidate.
Top-tier. Multiple high-impact patterns matched. Publish with confidence.
The numbers
Built for solo creators, priced for solo creators
Free tier
500 API calls. Enough for ~100 title scores and 50 content gap searches per month.
16 patterns
Titles scored across structure, engagement, authenticity, and specificity categories.
Any niche
Cooking, tech, fitness, finance, gaming, beauty, education. Scoring is calibrated per category.
Common questions from solo creators
Do I need to be technical to use BrightBean? +
No. You can use BrightBean through Claude Desktop or any MCP-compatible AI tool without writing code. Add one config block and ask Claude to score your titles in plain English. If you do want to use the API directly, it's standard REST JSON that works with any HTTP tool.
How is this different from vidIQ or TubeBuddy? +
vidIQ and TubeBuddy are browser extensions with dashboards designed for agencies. BrightBean is a scoring API. It's more precise (16 pattern categories vs. generic SEO scores), programmable (automate your workflow), and cheaper (free tier covers most solo creators). You get data you can act on, not dashboards you browse.
Is the free tier enough for a solo creator? +
For most solo creators, yes. 500 calls covers about 100 title scores, 50 content gap searches, and plenty of thumbnail checks. If you upload weekly, that's roughly 20 title scores per video plus room for content planning. If you need more, the Hobby plan is $19/month for 3,000 calls.
What niches does BrightBean support? +
All of them. Scoring is calibrated per niche, so a cooking title is compared against top-performing cooking videos, and a gaming title against top gaming videos. Supported niches include cooking, tech, fitness, finance, gaming, beauty, education, and hundreds more. If your niche exists on YouTube, BrightBean scores for it.
What makes a good title score? +
Niche averages range from 45 to 60. Anything above your niche average is solid. Scores above 70 typically hit 2-3 proven patterns (number lists, curiosity gaps, specificity). Scores above 80 combine multiple high-impact patterns. A title scoring 85 doesn't guarantee a hit, but it means your title uses the structural patterns that top performers in your niche consistently use.
Can I score titles in bulk? +
Each API call scores one title. To score 5 titles, make 5 calls. At under 500ms per call, scoring 5 titles takes about 2-3 seconds total. Through Claude Desktop, you can ask "Score these 5 titles for the cooking niche" and it handles all 5 calls for you.
Does the score guarantee more views? +
No score can guarantee views. Content quality, timing, algorithm dynamics, and audience all matter. What the score does is tell you whether your title uses the structural patterns that correlate with higher performance in your niche. Think of it as removing the guesswork from your title choice, not predicting the outcome.
Make your next title your best title.
Free tier: 500 API calls, no credit card required.