Originality guard and checker

Since July 2025, YouTube can take a whole channel out of monetization when its videos feel interchangeable — its policy on inauthentic content. ChannelForge answers that in two ways. The originality guard compares every new episode with what the channel made before, and keeps repeats from being made or posted. The free originality checker reads any channel's titles and says what a reviewer would see.

What the guard does#

The guard works at four moments of an episode's life, on every plan:

1. When topics are planned, a topic that repeats one of the channel's last 50 episodes is skipped.
2. Before an episode starts, the channel's unused topics that repeat a recent episode are set aside — they stay visible on the channel's Originality card, where a member can keep one. A topic you chose yourself that the guard sets aside stops the job at once, and nothing is charged. When fewer than five topics are left, more are planned.
3. While the episode is made, its writer is told the channel's own recent openings, title frames, angles, shots and music, so it does something else. The quality gates then send it back for a fix round if its title or its opening line was used before, or if its narration repeats an earlier episode's; a close subject or angle is a note.
4. Before it is recorded, the finished episode is compared with the channel's last 50 episodes, the workspace's other channels over 60 days, and other workspaces' episodes of the same format over 120 days. It gets a verdict.

What is compared#

The narration, word by word; the captions and the hook; the subject — the words that tell what an episode is about; the title's frame ("What happens if you …"); the first words; the angle; the place; the shots; the music; the look. The comparison is code, not a model: the same episode always gets the same verdict, and every verdict can be explained line by line in an appeal.

Other workspaces' episodes are ChannelForge's own generated work, so comparing with them is allowed; nothing of theirs is ever shown to you — not even a title — and nothing of yours to them. A reason that involves one says only "another channel's episode in the same format". No platform data is used.

The verdicts#

Where you see it#

On a channel's page — the Originality card:

• a badge — Every episode its own, N close to an earlier one or N held — and how many of the last episodes were checked;
• a strip of the last 20 episodes, oldest on the left: the taller a bar, the closer that episode came to an earlier one (red: held, amber: close, green: its own);
• Places, Different openings and what is Repeated most;
• up to six episodes that came close, each with its reason;
• Topics set aside before any episode was made, each with why and a Keep it button;
• the originality record, to download.

On an episode's page — the Originality section: its verdict; one sentence per earlier episode it came close to, with Open it → for yours; and its numbers — Compared with how many earlier episodes, the Closest subject, the Most narration shared, and how many of the last episodes were in the same place or opened with the same words. Most narration shared measures the runs of three words two narrations have in common, not a share of their lines: 12 % is worth a note, and 40 % — about two lines in three repeated — holds the episode.

How to use it#

1. After a few episodes, look at the channel's card. Tall bars together, one place used again and again or one opening repeated mean the channel's topics are too alike — widen them with a focus, the outlier radar or comment themes.
2. To bring back a topic the guard set aside, press Keep it (editors, admins and owners). It returns to the backlog, and the guard never sets it aside again.
3. If an episode is held as a near-duplicate, read its reason on its page. Let the channel make the next topic — the schedule does — or, if you disagree, press Release for posting: it then costs what it cost to make, once.
4. If YouTube ever questions a channel, download its originality record and attach it to your appeal.

The originality record#

Under the card and the section: Originality record, for a YouTube appeal: Print · Markdown · JSON. The channel's record covers its ready and published episodes, the newest 200 — a held episode is left out of it, and has a record of its own. Each episode in it has its topic and angle; its facts and their sources, and what the independent critic's fact check said; its place and its shots; the critic's verdict; the variety numbers against the channel's own history; and the links of the posts made. An episode's own record adds the narration written for it. The record opens with how every episode is made: rendered from code written for it, narrated from a script written for it, its facts checked before it was published, no footage or reused video.

It never holds anything of another workspace, and no platform's numbers — no views, retention or revenue. Members of the workspace can download it, up to 60 times an hour.

The free checker#

The originality checker is a public page — no account, nothing kept — that reads a channel's titles and looks for the sameness that makes videos feel mass-produced.

1. Under Your video titles, paste between 5 and 50 titles, one per line; your latest videos are the best test. Pasted from a spreadsheet, a title may be followed by a tab and its description.
2. Or press Upload Studio's CSV: in YouTube Studio, open Analytics, choose Advanced mode, then export the current view as comma-separated values. The file is read in your browser, and only its titles (and a description column, if it has one) are sent.
3. Press Check my titles.

The report gives a risk — Low risk, Some risk or High risk — in a sentence; the Titles checked, Different openings, Title templates and Average length; and each pattern found, marked Strong pattern, Clear pattern or Worth a look, with your own titles as examples and What to do: in plain words.

Add a short explanation (members) is ticked to start with: a few sentences written for you from your titles and the report. It is for signed-in members who can start work in a workspace — editors, admins and owners — and is a job of that workspace (the one you used last): about 1 credit, with 2 reserved, up to 3 an hour and 10 a day. Without signing in, the report is the whole result.

The checker is ChannelForge's own reading of your titles: it is not YouTube's decision, it never connects to YouTube and it uses no YouTube data.

Credits and plans#

Limits and good to know#

• The checker takes up to 10 checks an hour and 40 a day from one address. Nothing you paste is stored; only an anonymous count of checks a day is kept. When you ask for an explanation, your titles and the report are held for at most 10 minutes while it is written, then deleted.
• The guard keeps a channel varied; it cannot make a weak niche strong. A channel that keeps coming close needs wider topics, not more fix rounds.
• A verdict is about the channel's own history first; your workspace's other channels are compared too, over 60 days.

Troubleshooting#

Related#

• The quality gates and the critic — the originality gate among the others
• Outlier radar — fresh angles from what is breaking out
• Platform policies we follow