Does YouTube still send emails for new uploads?

YouTube lets you choose email notification types under Settings, then Notifications. It doesn't promise an email for every upload, and the default Personalized bell setting only notifies you about some videos. Set the bell to All for the channels you care about.

Do YouTube channel RSS feeds still work in 2026?

Yes. We checked on September 28, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id= followed by a channel ID returns the channel's latest uploads.

Can I get a summary of the video in the email, not just a link?

Not with YouTube, RSS, IFTTT or Zapier on their own. A digest service like TubeScout summarizes each new video and sends them in one email per day. TubeScout is free for your first 7 digests, then from $3/month.

Is IFTTT free for YouTube email alerts?

IFTTT's free plan allows 2 applets as of September 2026, which covers one or two YouTube email automations. More needs a paid plan.

How to Get an Email When a YouTube Channel Uploads (2026)

There are four ways to get an email when a YouTube channel uploads: turn on YouTube's own email notifications (free, but you don't control which uploads trigger them), send the channel's RSS feed to an RSS-to-email service like Blogtrottr (free, reliable, title and link only), build an IFTTT or Zapier automation (free for a couple of channels), or use a digest service like TubeScout that emails you a summary of each new video once a day.

Last checked: September 28, 2026. We tested that every method below still works and took plan limits from each provider's own site on that date.

Method	Cost	What the email contains	Best for
YouTube notifications	Free	Title, thumbnail, link	A few channels, casual use
RSS feed + Blogtrottr	Free tier	Title, link, description	Reliable alerts for any number of channels
IFTTT	Free for 2 applets	Whatever you template (title, link)	One or two channels
Zapier	Free for 100 tasks/month	Whatever you template	People already on Zapier
TubeScout	7 free digests, then from $3/month	Summary of each new video, one email per day	Knowing what's in the video without watching

Method 1: YouTube's own notifications

YouTube can already notify you about new uploads. It's free and takes a minute, but YouTube decides a lot of it for you.

Open the channel on YouTube and click Subscribe.
Click the bell next to the Subscribe button and choose All. YouTube's help page says "All" covers long-form uploads and live streams. The default, Personalized, only notifies you about some uploads.
Click your profile picture, then Settings, then Notifications.
Under Email notifications, choose which email types you want to get.

The catch: YouTube's help pages don't promise an email for every upload, and on the Personalized setting it deliberately notifies you about only some of them. If you need to see every video, use one of the methods below.

Method 2: The channel's RSS feed, sent to your inbox

Every YouTube channel still has a public RSS feed. We confirmed it works on September 28, 2026. The format is:

https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID

Find the channel ID. Open the channel page, click the channel description to open the "About" panel, choose Share channel, then Copy channel ID. It starts with UC.
Build the feed URL. Paste the ID after channel_id= in the URL above.
Send the feed to email. Paste the feed URL into an RSS-to-email service. Blogtrottr is free and lets you pick delivery from "As soon as possible" to a daily digest. FeedRabbit is another option that was still running when we checked.

The catch: the email tells you a video exists. It doesn't tell you what's in it. One email per upload adds up fast across several busy channels, so the daily digest option is usually the better setting.

Method 3: IFTTT

IFTTT has a ready-made applet called "Email and daily digest for new YouTube videos".

Create a free IFTTT account and connect your YouTube account.
Open the applet, which uses the trigger "New public video from subscriptions".
Pick the action: "Send me an email" for one email per video, or "Add to daily email digest" for one email per day.

The catch: the free plan allows 2 applets. More than that needs Pro ($2.99/month) or Pro+ ($8.99/month) as listed on IFTTT's plans page.

Method 4: Zapier

Create a Zap with the YouTube trigger "New Video in Channel" and pick the channel.
Add an email action (Gmail, or Zapier's built-in email) and template the subject and body with the video title and link.
Turn the Zap on. Repeat for each channel.

The catch: Zapier's free plan includes 100 tasks a month and checks for new videos every 15 minutes. Each new video uses a task, so a few busy channels can burn through the free tier.

Method 5: Get a summary, not just a link

All four methods above send you a title and a link. You still have to open the video to find out if it matters. If that's the part you want to skip, you need a service that summarizes the video before it emails you.

That's what TubeScout does. You pick channels (search by name, or import your YouTube subscriptions), and every morning you get one email with a summary of every new video from those channels. It's free for your first 7 digests, with no credit card, and starts at $3/month for 20 channels after that.

Create a free account.
Search for the channels you want and add them.
Your first digest arrives the next morning, whenever those channels have new videos.

TubeScout isn't the only service that does this. Recapio, dailyfeed and others do too, with different free tiers and prices. We compared them in the best tools to get YouTube channel summaries by email. Want to see what a summary looks like first? Paste any video into the free YouTube summarizer.

Which method should you use?

One or two channels, you just want to know when they post: YouTube notifications, or IFTTT.
Many channels, you want every upload, free: RSS plus Blogtrottr on a daily digest.
You want to know what's in each video without opening it: a summary digest like TubeScout.

Not sure which channels are worth following? Start with our list of the best YouTube channels for indie hackers and solo founders, or read how to summarize YouTube videos.