The best YouTube sponsorship tools of 2026
Seven tools for finding YouTube sponsorships, reviewed hands-on and kept up to date.
Researched by Which Social API editorial teamLast reviewed 29 October 2026How we review
Which Social API uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative review methods, based on each provider’s documentation, published pricing and public user reviews. We never accept money in exchange for a higher ranking or a better review. Who runs this site
YouTube sponsorship tools all answer the same question, who sponsors whom, but for two different buyers. Creator-side tools help a channel find brands to pitch. Brand-side tools help a brand find channels to sponsor, and see what its competitors are buying. Work out which side you’re on before anything else: the best tool for one is often the wrong tool for the other.
The second thing to know is that nobody sees deals directly. Every database here infers sponsorships from what’s public: description links, promo codes, disclosure text and, for a few, the spoken sponsor read. That means affiliate links and freebies often get counted as sponsorships, undisclosed deals never show up, and one vendor’s “deals” can’t be compared with another’s “sponsored videos”. The tools that tell you how they count earn our trust; the ones that don’t, don’t.
Below are the seven tools we’ve reviewed, ranked on coverage, detection, freshness, contacts, price and ease of use. SponsorRadar leads for creators, with Sponsorbook a close second for the evidence behind each deal and the timing of when to pitch. ChannelCrawler leads for brands that want to search for themselves, and ThoughtLeaders for brands that would rather pay someone else to do it.
Our picks
Full ranking
- 1SponsorRadarCreators who want the biggest index$29 a month8.1
- 2SponsorbookCreators who want the evidence and the timing$29 a month7.8
- 3GetSponsoredCheapest way to a sponsor shortlist$29 a month7.6
- 4ChannelCrawlerBrands searching a huge channel index$99 a month7.4
- 5Meet SponsorsTalent agents filtering out affiliate deals$55 a month6.8
- 6ThoughtLeadersBrands that want sponsorships run for them6.7
- 7Sponsorship.soBrands that want research and outreach in one$89 a month6.5
Before you choose
Check whether you’re eligible for YouTube’s own Creator Partnerships first. It’s free, sits in YouTube Studio, and runs in seven markets for creators in the Partner Program.
- Pick your side. SponsorRadar, GetSponsored, Meet Sponsors and Sponsorbook are built for creators and their managers. ChannelCrawler, Sponsorship.so and ThoughtLeaders are built for brands.
- Ask what counts as a sponsorship. GetSponsored says affiliate links are mixed in with paid deals. SponsorRadar’s top brands suggest the same. Only Meet Sponsors lets you filter affiliate deals out.
- Small channels are thinly covered. SponsorRadar is strongest above 50,000 subscribers, Meet Sponsors targets English-language channels with 100K+, and 3% of GetSponsored’s index is under 100K.
- Deal prices are estimates. Rate figures come from views multiplied by a niche CPM. Only an agency that books deals, like ThoughtLeaders, sees what brands actually pay.
- Check the price you’ll renew at. SponsorRadar’s $29 is an “early access” price struck through from $59. Check whether a launch price is locked in before you commit to a year.
Four kinds of sponsorship tool
The tools here split three ways by who they serve and how much they do for you, and YouTube’s own Creator Partnerships is a fourth. Pick the group first, then the tool.
Creator-side databases
Show which brands sponsor channels like yours, with contacts and pitch help.
- Good for
- Finding brands to pitch, cheaply
- Watch for
- Affiliate links counted as deals; thin small-channel coverage
- Examples
- SponsorRadar, GetSponsored, Meet Sponsors, Sponsorbook
Brand-side search
Search channels by niche, size and sponsorship history, and track competitors’ sponsors.
- Good for
- Building a creator shortlist yourself
- Watch for
- Pricier plans; sponsorship totals often unpublished
- Examples
- ChannelCrawler, Sponsorship.so
Managed agencies
Find, book and run sponsorships for you, using their own deal data.
- Good for
- Brands doing several deals a month
- Watch for
- Markup or retainer; not self-serve
- Examples
- ThoughtLeaders
YouTube Creator Partnerships
YouTube’s own matching, in YouTube Studio.
- Good for
- Free, native, no middleman
- Watch for
- Seven markets, Partner Program required
- Examples
- Not ranked
Prices and coverage
Published prices and what each one returns, side by side. How we review
| Provider | Price per month | Plans from | Free trial | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SponsorRadar | $29 | Free, then $29 a month | $1 for 7 days | Monthly, no annual plan |
| Sponsorbook | $29 | Free, then $29 a month | Free tier, no card | Monthly or yearly (save 20%) |
| GetSponsored | $29 | Free, then $29 a month | Free tier, no trial | Monthly or yearly ($20 a month) |
| ChannelCrawler | $99 | $99 a month | 7 days free | Monthly or yearly ($59 a month) |
| Meet Sponsors | $55 | Free, then $55 a month + VAT | Free tier | Monthly or yearly (41% off) |
| ThoughtLeaders | Per campaign | 25% markup per campaign | None | Per campaign, or $6,000-a-month retainer |
| Sponsorship.so | $89 | $89 a month | None; 14-day refund | Monthly or yearly ($53 a month) |
| Provider | Brand database | Sponsored videos | Deal history | Contacts | Outreach | Other platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SponsorRadar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Sponsorbook | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| GetSponsored | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| ChannelCrawler | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Meet Sponsors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| ThoughtLeaders | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Sponsorship.so | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Green marks the best result in each column.
The providers in detail
1. SponsorRadar
Creators who want the biggest indexVisit SponsorRadarout of 10
- Data
- 1.5M deals, 21.7K brands, 101K channels
- Freshness
- Nightly; new videos within days (vendor says)
- Plans from
- Free, then $29 a month
- Free trial
- $1 for 7 days
- Billing
- Monthly, no annual plan
- API
- No API
SponsorRadar is the creator-side tool to start with. It’s built for channels looking for brands to pitch, with an Agency plan for talent managers and some brand-side competitor research on top. It has the biggest published index in the group (1,508,556 deals across 101,149 channels and 21,736 brands) and it’s the only vendor that tells you how it gets there: it reads video metadata and, where available, transcripts, scores each detection, and only shows high-confidence ones publicly.
That openness is why it leads, but read the counts with care. Its own rankings put Gamersupps, StreamYard and Gfuel near the top, and those are creator-code, affiliate and livestream-tool links as much as paid reads. Its brand count has also fallen from 73K+ to 21.7K this year while deals kept rising, which looks like cleanup, though it hasn’t said. Deal prices are estimates from niche CPM ranges, not real rates, and coverage is thinner below 50,000 subscribers (vendor says).
At $29 a month for Creator Pro, with contact lookups, Gmail pitch drafts and a media kit, it’s good value, but that price is labelled early access and the trial costs $1. GetSponsored is the closer call if you want a cheaper yearly plan or a real free tier with contacts; SponsorRadar wins on depth and on telling you what it counts.
Good
- Largest published index here: 1.5M deals across 101K channels
- Only tool with a public methodology, counts and known limits
- Free one-channel tier; Creator Pro is $29 a month
Not so good
- Top brands (Gamersupps, StreamYard, Gfuel) suggest affiliate links and tool credits count as deals
- $29 is an “early access” price, struck through from $59
- Launched in February 2026, with no independent reviews yet
2. Sponsorbook
Creators who want the evidence and the timingVisit Sponsorbookout of 10
- Data
- 351K+ sponsored videos with timestamped segments and transcripts; brand and channel totals not published
- Freshness
- Twice a day; new deals usually within a week (Sponsorbook says)
- Plans from
- Free, then $29 a month
- Free trial
- Free tier, no card
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly (save 20%)
- API
- Full MCP server on Pro; no REST API
Sponsorbook is a creator-side database of disclosed brand deals, for creators and talent agencies. It has the best evidence on the creator side: every result links to the timestamped sponsor segment in the video, with the transcript of the read where there is one. Sponsorbook says it combines several signals, including transcripts, descriptions and YouTube’s paid-partnership flag, so that it catches sponsorships a link scanner would miss.
Its other strength is timing and fit. Cadence charts show how often a brand has sponsored over the past 12 months and whether it’s ramping up or slowing down, and Sponsorbook says it breaks down each brand’s usual creators by size and niche. It finds sponsors from who has paid channels like yours, and you can connect your own channel for automatic recommendations. Contacts are for the person who signs, requested and then revealed with credits: 25 a month on Starter, 150 on Pro. Sponsorbook says the database updates twice a day and new sponsorships usually appear within a week.
Starter is $29 a month, with a free tier and no commission. Pro at $99 a month adds CSV export, seats and an MCP server for Claude, Codex and Cursor, the best-documented AI tooling on the creator side. SponsorRadar has the bigger published index and a public methodology; Sponsorbook has the better evidence behind each deal and the better read on when to pitch.
Good
- Shows the timestamped sponsor segment, and the transcript of the read, behind each result
- Cadence charts show when a brand buys and whether it’s ramping up or slowing down
- Finds sponsors from who has paid channels like yours, with contacts for the person who runs creator partnerships
Not so good
- Contacts cost credits: 25 reveals a month on Starter
- No brand or channel totals published
3. GetSponsored
Cheapest way to a sponsor shortlistVisit GetSponsoredout of 10
- Data
- 557K sponsored videos, 13.7K brands, 72K channels
- Freshness
- Daily
- Plans from
- Free, then $29 a month
- Free trial
- Free tier, no trial
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly ($20 a month)
- API
- No API
GetSponsored is a creator-side tool that does one thing quickly: paste your channel, and it lists the brands sponsoring channels of a similar size and niche, with contacts, pitch drafts and a pipeline on Pro. The free tier is real (five matches, one contact and one pitch a month), and Pro at $29 a month, or $20 billed yearly, is the cheapest full plan here. Contacts aren’t metered on Pro, and it takes no commission.
The weakness is the data method, and to its credit the founder says so. It scans video descriptions for brand links on each channel’s 15 latest videos. That misses sponsors who are only mentioned on screen, gives you no history, and counts affiliate links as sponsorships: its own report puts Epidemic Sound at the top, “mostly from its affiliate program”. Only 3% of the channels it indexes are under 100K subscribers, so small-channel matches rest on thin data.
For a creator with a few hundred dollars a year to spend, it’s the best value. If you want to know which brands are paying for reads rather than handing out codes, SponsorRadar or Sponsorbook give you more to go on.
Good
- Paste a channel URL and get matches with no sign-up
- Pro is $20 a month billed yearly, with unmetered brand contacts
- Clearest pricing of the creator tools, and no commission
Not so good
- Detects sponsors mainly from description links, and says affiliate links are mixed in
- Only the latest 15 videos per channel, so there’s no deep history
- Just 3% of indexed channels are under 100K subscribers
4. ChannelCrawler
Brands searching a huge channel indexVisit ChannelCrawlerout of 10
- Data
- 35M+ channels; sponsorship totals not published
- Freshness
- Channels daily (vendor says)
- Plans from
- $99 a month
- Free trial
- 7 days free
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly ($59 a month)
- API
- REST API, pay per result
ChannelCrawler is a brand-side YouTube creator search engine that has added sponsorship tracking on top. Brands and agencies use it to find channels (35M+ searchable, 40+ filters, email export), and the Power plan adds brand tracking, share of voice, a search for channels by sponsorship history and lookalikes. It has the most user feedback of anyone here, a 4.6 on Trustpilot from 31 reviews, and it’s the only one with a public, pay-per-result REST API.
Its detection rules are sensible. “Confirmed” needs a disclosure in the description plus a brand link, “Likely sponsored” covers weaker signals, and organic mentions are kept apart. What’s missing is scale on the sponsorship side: it doesn’t say how many sponsorships or brands it tracks, so you can’t judge coverage before you pay.
The price is the catch. Starter is $99 a month and has no sponsorship features at all; you need Power at $195 a month, or $117 billed yearly. Emails are creator contacts, which is what a brand wants, but they’re metered. For a creator hunting brands it’s the wrong tool. For a brand that wants self-serve search with sponsorship history, it’s the pick over Sponsorship.so.
Good
- 35M+ searchable channels with 40+ filters, far beyond anyone else here
- Splits “Confirmed” from “Likely sponsored” and from organic mentions
- Public pay-per-result REST API and bulk datasets; 4.6 on Trustpilot from 31 reviews
Not so good
- Sponsorship features need Power, at $117 a month yearly or $195 monthly
- Publishes no counts of sponsorships or brands tracked
- Contacts are creators’ public emails, metered separately from searches
5. Meet Sponsors
Talent agents filtering out affiliate dealsVisit Meet Sponsorsout of 10
- Data
- 172K sponsored videos, 23K brands, 76K channels
- Freshness
- Weekly
- Plans from
- Free, then $55 a month + VAT
- Free trial
- Free tier
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly (41% off)
- API
- API and MCP, quota per plan
Meet Sponsors is a creator-side database with a strong lean towards talent agents: the Agent plan covers up to 15 channels, with three years of channel history and advanced brand filters. It does one thing nobody else here does: it lets you filter affiliate deals apart from paid integrations. In a category where affiliate links inflate everyone’s counts, that matters.
Everything else holds it back. It has the smallest index in the group (171,821 sponsored videos, 23,183 brands, 75,584 channels), updated weekly while rivals update daily, and its coverage rule is English-language channels with 100K+ subscribers. It reads descriptions, links and promo codes, but doesn’t mention transcripts.
At $55 a month plus VAT, it costs nearly twice what SponsorRadar or GetSponsored do. Paid plans include unlimited decision-maker contacts, API access and, on Agent, MCP. If you manage several creators and the affiliate filter matters to you, it earns its price. A solo creator should start elsewhere.
Good
- Only tool that filters affiliate deals apart from paid integrations
- Unlimited decision-maker contacts and AI pitches on paid plans
- Agent plan covers 15 channels with 3 years of history
Not so good
- Most expensive creator tool: $55 a month plus VAT, $166 for agents
- Smallest index (171,821 sponsored videos), updated weekly
- Coverage is aimed at English-language channels with 100K+ subscribers
6. ThoughtLeaders
Brands that want sponsorships run for themVisit ThoughtLeadersout of 10
- Data
- 25,000+ booked deals (vendor says); index size not published
- Freshness
- Not published
- Plans from
- 25% markup per campaign
- Free trial
- None
- Billing
- Per campaign, or $6,000-a-month retainer
- API
- Custom API and Data CLI
ThoughtLeaders isn’t a database you log into and search. It’s a managed sponsorship agency for brands, with a creator network on the other side and its own data platform: a web app, a Chrome extension, a Data CLI and a custom API. Brands pay a 25% markup per campaign, or a retainer from $6,000 a month with creator media at face value. Creators join free, with no exclusivity.
Its data is the best in the category in one way nobody else can match: it sees real prices and results, because it books the deals. It reads transcripts and has had a model to separate sponsored from organic mentions since 2021. It just doesn’t publish how big its index is, or how detection works in detail, and you can’t try it without talking to sales.
It ranks low because most people reading this can’t buy it: it’s a service, not a tool. For a brand doing five or more YouTube deals a month that would rather not run them in-house, it’s the obvious choice. Anyone who wants to do the research themselves should look at ChannelCrawler or Sponsorship.so.
Good
- Real deal prices and results from its own booked campaigns
- Transcript-based detection, with a sponsored-vs-organic model since 2021
- Oldest and largest business here, with a creator network of 10,000+ (vendor says)
Not so good
- Not self-serve: a self-serve tier is still a pilot with a waitlist
- 25% markup per campaign, or a retainer from $6,000 a month
- No contacts: ThoughtLeaders sits in the middle of the deal
7. Sponsorship.so
Brands that want research and outreach in oneVisit Sponsorship.soout of 10
- Data
- 250K+ channels; sponsorship totals not published
- Freshness
- Daily (vendor says)
- Plans from
- $89 a month
- Free trial
- None; 14-day refund
- Billing
- Monthly or yearly ($53 a month)
- API
- API and MCP on Pro
Sponsorship.so is a brand-side tool first: brands and agencies search creators and brands, see past sponsored videos and competitors’ sponsors, find creator emails, and run outreach from a built-in CRM with AI drafts and a Kanban board. An Agency plan also targets agents managing several creators. It’s the most complete self-serve workflow for a brand that wants to go from research to sent email in one place.
The trouble is what you can check before paying. It claims 250K+ channels and “thousands of brands”, with no sponsorship or video totals on the live site, and it doesn’t publish its detection signals beyond automated analysis plus manual verification. There are no reviews to lean on, and vidIQ still describes it as a free-to-browse list, which it no longer is.
Pro is $89 a month, or $53 billed yearly, with 250 credits for email lookups and drafts, plus an API and MCP server. There’s no free tier and no trial, only a 14-day refund. ChannelCrawler gives brands a far bigger index and a free trial, so start there and come here only if you want the CRM built in.
Good
- Search, contacts, outreach CRM and a campaign board in one place
- Automated detection with manual verification on top (vendor says)
- API and MCP server included on the $89 Pro plan
Not so good
- No free plan and no trial, only a free sample
- Doesn’t publish sponsorship or video totals on its site
- No independent reviews beyond one Product Hunt rating from 2024
What these databases can tell you
Every tool here is YouTube only, and every one works from public signals. Some questions they answer well; others they can only guess at.
- Who sponsored a video
- Everyone
- From description links, promo codes, disclosure text and, for some, the spoken read.
- Paid read vs affiliate link
- Few
- Meet Sponsors filters them apart. SponsorRadar and ChannelCrawler grade confidence. GetSponsored mixes them.
- Deal history
- Varies
- Meet Sponsors offers 3 years on its Agent plan; GetSponsored reads only each channel’s latest 15 videos.
- Brand contacts
- Creator tools
- No vendor publishes where contacts come from or how they’re verified.
- Small channels
- Thin
- Most indexes lean towards channels with 50K–100K+ subscribers.
- What a deal paid
- Estimated
- Views times a niche CPM. Only agencies that book deals see real prices.
- Undisclosed deals
- Not available
- If a creator doesn’t disclose, no tool can see it.
- Other platforms
- Not available
- None of these track sponsorships on TikTok, Instagram, podcasts or newsletters.
Disclosure is what makes these tools work
Every database here depends on creators disclosing. YouTube asks creators to tick “includes paid promotion” in Studio, and the FTC says disclosure belongs in the video itself, spoken and on screen, not only in the description. Free product counts too. UK ASA rules are similar.
In practice many creators disclose only in the description or only out loud, and some don’t at all, so every tool misses deals by design. Sponsorbook is the only one that says it also reads YouTube’s paid-partnership flag. If you’re a creator, disclose properly anyway: it’s the rule, and it’s how the next brand finds you.
This is a summary, not legal advice.
Why the numbers don’t match
Headline counts range from 172K sponsored videos to 1.5M deals. Most of that gap is about what each tool counts, not how much it sees.
Affiliate links counted as deals
A tracked link or creator code looks like a sponsorship to a link scanner. GetSponsored’s top “sponsor” is Epidemic Sound, mostly from its affiliate programme.
Different units
Deals, sponsorships, sponsored videos and placements aren’t the same thing. SponsorRadar counts one deal per placement per video.
Shallow history
GetSponsored reads only the latest 15 videos per channel. Others go back months or years.
Index growth
Counts rise as a tool adds channels, not only as brands spend more. SponsorRadar says so on its methodology page.
Small channels left out
Most tools cover big channels best, so a brand’s small-creator spend is undercounted.
Plugging sponsorship data into an AI agent
Several of these tools now ship agent access. Two have documented setups: Sponsorbook’s MCP server (Pro workspace) and ThoughtLeaders’ open-source Data CLI (ThoughtLeaders account).
# Sponsorbook: hosted MCP connector, nothing to install
https://app.sponsorbook.io/mcp
# ThoughtLeaders Data CLI: install skills for your agent
tl setup claude
# list resources and their credit costs
tl describeQuestions
What’s the best YouTube sponsorship tool for creators?
SponsorRadar. It has the biggest published index and explains how it counts, and Creator Pro is $29 a month. GetSponsored is the cheaper alternative at $20 a month billed yearly.
What’s the best tool for brands looking for YouTubers to sponsor?
ChannelCrawler if you want to search yourself: 35M+ channels and sponsorship history on its Power plan. ThoughtLeaders if you’d rather an agency ran the deals.
Do these tools take a commission on deals?
None of the self-serve tools do. ThoughtLeaders charges brands a 25% markup per campaign, or a retainer from $6,000 a month.
Is there a free way to find YouTube sponsors?
YouTube’s own Creator Partnerships is free in seven markets if you’re in the Partner Program. SponsorRadar, GetSponsored, Meet Sponsors and Sponsorbook all have free tiers.
Do these tools count affiliate links as sponsorships?
Often, yes. GetSponsored says so, and SponsorRadar’s top brands suggest the same. Meet Sponsors is the only one that lets you filter affiliate deals out.
Can these tools tell me what a sponsor will pay?
Only as an estimate, usually expected views times a niche CPM. ThoughtLeaders sees real prices because it books the deals.
Do they work for small channels?
Not well yet. SponsorRadar is strongest above 50,000 subscribers, Meet Sponsors covers English-language channels with 100K+, and 3% of GetSponsored’s index is under 100K.
Do any of them cover TikTok, Instagram or podcasts?
No. Every tool in this ranking tracks YouTube sponsorships only.
Can providers pay to rank higher?
No. We never accept money in exchange for a higher ranking or a better review.
Quoting this ranking?
You’re welcome to. Please link back to this page.
Which Social API (2026). The best YouTube sponsorship tools of 2026. whichsocialapi.com/best/youtube-sponsorship-tools