Returns the top overperforming posts in a niche over a recent window (default one week), plus a breakdown of which content types are driving the trend and which creators are represented. Filter by keyword and platform. Great as the first call in a content-research loop: see what's hot, then deep-dive or remix the winners.
Get the posts spiking in a niche right now (over a recent window, default one week), plus a breakdown of which content formats and which creators are driving the trend. It is the first call in a content-research loop: see what is hot in a topic, then deep-dive or remix the winners. Filter by keyword and platform. Each call costs 2 credits (1 credit = $0.01).
Connect the Viral Outliers MCP server once and the niche_trends tool becomes available to your agent alongside all other skills:
claude mcp add --transport http viral-outliers https://viraloutliers.com/api/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer so_live_YOUR_KEY"In Claude.ai or ChatGPT, add a custom connector pointing at https://viraloutliers.com/api/mcp. Your agent then calls niche_trends on its own whenever the task needs it.
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
query | string | Niche keyword over captions/titles/handles. |
platforms | string[] | "tiktok" | "instagram" | "youtube". |
timeFrame | string | "one_week" (default) up to "all_time". |
limit | number | Top posts to return, clamped 1–50 (default 20). |
Two things in one response: the top overperforming posts in the niche for the chosen window (each with stats, thumbnail and outlier score), and an aggregate breakdown of the trend: which content types (reel, short, slideshow, video) are carrying it and which creators are represented among the winners. So you learn not just what is trending but the shape of the trend.
You filter with a niche keyword over captions, titles and handles, an optional platform list, a timeFrame from one_week (default) up to all_time, and a limit on how many top posts to return (1–50, default 20). The call is synchronous, with no job to poll.
niche_trends runs one capped outlier search for the niche and window, then aggregates the results into the format and creator breakdown server-side, which is why it is priced as a light read rather than per post. The posts it surfaces are ranked by outlier score, so a "trend" here means formats genuinely overperforming their accounts' baselines in that window, not just posts with high raw views.
From the response you branch naturally: get_post to deep-dive a winner, request_transcript to pull its hook, or remix_post to adapt it to your own niche. Narrowing timeFrame to one_week gives you this-week momentum; widening it toward all_time surfaces evergreen formats in the topic.
Weekly trend digests are the flagship: run niche_trends per client niche every Monday, remix the top three, and deliver fresh scripts. Content-calendar agents use the format breakdown to decide what to make more of: if slideshows are driving the niche this week, they lean into slideshows. Newsletter and report tools summarize "what is trending in {niche}" straight from the aggregate without a separate analysis pass.
Because it bundles the winners and the meta-breakdown, one call answers both "what should I make" and "which format and who is doing it": the two questions a content strategist starts every week with.
Manually, trend-spotting means scrolling three platforms, eyeballing what looks big, and guessing whether it is the format or just a big account. A plain keyword search on any platform returns recency- or view-ranked posts with no baseline, so you cannot tell a reproducible format from a one-account fluke.
niche_trends does the ranking and the aggregation for you: outlier-scored winners plus the format and creator breakdown, in one call at a flat credit price. Compared with generic "trending" feeds that are platform-wide and undifferentiated, this is scoped to your niche and built on the same per-account outlier math as the rest of the system, so the trends it reports are ones you can actually act on.
2 credits ($0.02) per call in prepaid credits (1 credit = $0.01). For example, 50 calls per dollar. Subscriptions include monthly credits; top-up packs start at $15. Failed asynchronous jobs are refunded automatically, and calls stop at a zero balance, never a surprise bill. See the full pricing table.
Call niche_trends with a keyword and timeFrame one_week. You get the posts overperforming right now in that niche, plus which formats and creators are driving the spike: the starting point for a content-research run.
search_outliers is the full filterable query: you control every parameter and page through raw results. niche_trends is the packaged first look: one keyword and window in, and it returns the top winners plus an aggregate breakdown of which formats and creators are driving the trend, so you get orientation before you drill in with search_outliers or get_post.
Also available as a REST API endpoint.
Related topics: trend detection API · viral niche discovery · content calendar automation · trending formats by niche · weekly content research automation