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Every 15 minutes

Save new YouTube comments to Airtable

New top-level comments on your YouTube channel are added to an Airtable table every 15 minutes with the video, author, text, likes and a link.

Runs
Every 15 minutes
Apps
Airtable, YouTube
AI
Not needed
Access
YouTube API key; Airtable data.records:write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: every 15 minutes, add new comments on my YouTube channel to my Comments table in Airtable with video title, author, comment text, like count and a link to the comment.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Comments are where viewers ask for the next video, report a mistake or say they would pay for something. YouTube Studio shows them as a feed that is fine for replying and poor for keeping track.

This copies each new comment on your channel into an Airtable table, where you can sort, tag and assign them like any other request. The link opens the comment directly on the video.

It suits creators with a small team or an editor, and companies whose YouTube channel draws product questions that someone needs to answer.

What you get out of it

  • Comments become a work list

    With a Status field in Airtable, the team can see which questions have been answered and which are still open. Nothing depends on remembering a scroll position in Studio.

  • Find video ideas in the data

    Grouping by video or filtering for words like 'tutorial' or 'how' shows what viewers keep asking for. That list is a ready source of next topics.

  • Share without channel access

    Editors, support staff or a sponsor can view the Airtable base without being added to your YouTube channel.

  • Likes show what matters

    The like count is saved with each comment, so a question with 40 likes rises to the top of a sorted view.

  • Read-only API key

    The automation uses a YouTube API key that can only read public data. It cannot reply, delete or change anything on your channel.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 15 minutes ClickRuntime asks YouTube for the latest comments across all videos on your channel.

  2. It skips comments it has already saved.

  3. Each new comment becomes a row in your Airtable table with the video, author, text, likes and a direct link.

  4. Your team can then add a status, an owner or a reply note in Airtable.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Airtable
  • Connect YouTube

What you get

RunsEvery 15 minutes
Save new YouTube comments to Airtabletoday, 9:00Succeeded
Airtable · Comments tableVideo: How we cut our AWS bill by 40% Author: @devops_dana Comment: Would love a follow-up on reserved instances vs savings plans Likes: 12 Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy12AbCdE34&lc=UgzK3... Status: New

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Airtable and YouTube steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
save_new_youtube_comments_to_airtable.pyexample
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, state, report_fetched

CHANNEL_ID = "UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
AT = "https://api.airtable.com/v0/appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Comments"

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    r = http.get("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads", params={
        "part": "snippet", "allThreadsRelatedToChannelId": CHANNEL_ID, "order": "time",
        "maxResults": 100, "textFormat": "plainText", "key": credentials.secret("YOUTUBE_API_KEY")})
    r.raise_for_status()
    seen = state.get("seen") or []
    new = [t for t in r.json().get("items", []) if t["id"] not in seen]
    report_fetched(len(new))
    if not new:
        return {"saved": 0}
    ids = list({t["snippet"]["videoId"] for t in new})
    vids = http.get("https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos", params={
        "part": "snippet", "id": ",".join(ids[:50]), "key": credentials.secret("YOUTUBE_API_KEY")}).json()["items"]
    titles = {v["id"]: v["snippet"]["title"] for v in vids}
    rows = []
    for t in reversed(new):
        c = t["snippet"]["topLevelComment"]["snippet"]
        vid = t["snippet"]["videoId"]
        rows.append({"fields": {"Video": titles.get(vid, vid), "Author": c["authorDisplayName"], "Comment": c["textDisplay"],
                                "Likes": c["likeCount"], "Posted": c["publishedAt"], "Status": "New",
                                "Link": f"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={vid}&lc={t['id']}"}})
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('airtable', 'work')}"}
    for i in range(0, len(rows), 10):
        http.post(AT, headers=headers, json={"records": rows[i:i + 10], "typecast": True}).raise_for_status()
    state.set("seen", (seen + [t["id"] for t in new])[-3000:])
    return {"saved": len(rows)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does it save replies to comments too?
It saves top-level comments, which is where most questions and feedback start. Replies can be added as linked rows if you want full threads; ask your assistant to include them.
Do I need to connect my YouTube account?
No. Public comments can be read with a YouTube Data API key, so the automation never gets access to your channel settings. Comments held for review are not visible to it.
What Airtable fields does it expect?
Video, Author, Comment, Likes, Posted, Status and Link. With typecast on, Airtable fills a single-select Status field with New for you. Rename the fields in the script if your table uses different names.
What permissions does it need?
YouTube API key; Airtable data.records:write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Save new YouTube comments to Airtable” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.