YouTube Comments inbox

What the Comments inbox does

Comments in the dashboard shows your YouTube channel's comments in one inbox, newest first, with the replies under each one. You can reply, answer a reply in the same conversation, moderate held comments and write reply drafts with AI. Nothing is sent to YouTube until you press an action yourself.

The Comments inbox is a plan feature: check Pricing or your Billing page for the plans that include it. On a plan without it, the Comments screen explains that and links to Billing; your YouTube connection and other YouTube features are not affected.

Connect your channel

Comments needs your website's own YouTube connection with a Google sign-in. Open Settings → YouTube and follow the YouTube walkthrough: you create a free Google project with a key and a sign-in client, paste both, then press Connect with Google and choose the channel. Sign in with the Google account that owns or manages the channel. The connection is per website, uses your own project's daily YouTube allowance and can be disconnected at any time.

If the Connections card says the website uses an old shared connection, switch to your own Google project from Settings → YouTube; the old connection is replaced only after the new one works.

Reply and follow conversations

Each comment shows its author, age, likes and video, with longer text shortened behind more. Press Reply to open a composer under the comment, write your answer and press Send. YouTube threads are one level deep, so a reply to a reply is posted under the original comment with the person's @handle in front, as on YouTube.

Use the filters to find work: Needs reply shows conversations where the newest comment is from someone other than your channel, Replied shows those your channel answered, and a video filter narrows the list. Filters scan your channel newest-first and say how far back they checked; Load more goes further. When YouTube does not send the whole conversation the status shows Not checked rather than guessing; Check reply status looks it up. Your own top-level comments are hidden unless you choose Show my own comments. Hide removes a conversation from your inbox for 30 days without changing anything on YouTube.

Moderate held comments

Comments YouTube held for review are marked Held. Choose Approve to make one visible or Remove to keep it off your channel; a published comment can be held for review or removed. Each action asks once for confirmation, and only the website Owner can moderate. YouTube has no way for apps to like or heart a comment, so use Open on YouTube for that.

Write replies with AI

Write with AI drafts a reply using your own OpenRouter key and the model you chose, based on the comment, the video and your website's details. The draft lands in the composer for you to edit; it is never posted automatically. If a draft cannot be written, the reason is shown and the composer keeps your text. AI costs are billed by your OpenRouter account, not by your plan.