Google Trends Scraper - Compare and Trending Now

Google Trends Scraper - Compare and Trending Now

This Google Trends scraper returns Google Trends data as clean JSON, with no browser, no API key and no login. Three things in one Actor:

1. Keyword reports: how interest in a search term changed over time (0 to 100), which regions search for it most, and which related queries are rising.
2. Keyword comparison: 2 to 5 terms in ONE query on a shared 0 to 100 scale, exactly like the compare view on trends.google.com. This is the feature most Trends scrapers get wrong: if you scrape terms separately, Google normalizes each one to its own scale and the numbers are NOT comparable.
3. Trending Now: the searches trending right now in any country, with search volume, growth percentage, start time, related keywords and news articles.

Quick start

1. Decide what you need: set scrapeTrendingNow with trendingGeos, or list keywords, or list compareKeywords. All three can be combined in one run.
2. Set timeframe and geo. An empty geo means worldwide.
3. Click Start, then export JSON, CSV or Excel, schedule the run, or call it through the API or as an MCP tool.

What is trending in the US right now:

{
    "scrapeTrendingNow": true,
    "trendingGeos": ["US"]
}

Full report for each keyword:

{
    "keywords": ["standing desk", "ergonomic chair"],
    "timeframe": "today 12-m",
    "geo": "US"
}

Compare terms on one scale:

{
    "compareKeywords": ["notion", "obsidian", "evernote"],
    "timeframe": "today 3-m",
    "geo": ""
}

Timeframes: now 1-H, now 4-H, now 1-d, now 7-d, today 1-m, today 3-m, today 12-m, today 5-y, all, or a custom range such as 2024-01-01 2024-12-31.

Why use this one

• Fast. Trending Now returns in seconds, and a full keyword report typically takes under a minute. No headless browser anywhere.
• Comparison that actually works. compareKeywords is a plain input field, with no fragile flags, so it behaves the same from the Console, the API and AI agents over MCP.
• You only pay for data. A failed keyword, an empty result or an error is free. If the run charges you, it delivered data.
• Built for Google's rate limits. Google throttles Trends hard, per IP. This Actor rotates a fresh residential IP on every data request and retries automatically, which is why runs succeed where scripts and cheaper actors return nothing.

What this Actor does NOT do

• No absolute search volumes for keywords. Google Trends only publishes relative interest from 0 to 100. Only Trending Now items carry approximate real volumes such as 200000, because Google publishes those.
• No related topics. Google returns empty topic lists to any automated session, so this Actor does not pretend to offer them. Related queries work fully.
• Comparison is capped at 5 terms, which is Google's own limit for a shared scale. Individual keywords are capped at 20 per run to keep runs reliable.

What you get

Trending item (one per trend):

{
    "type": "trending_now",
    "trending_geo": "US",
    "keyword": "taylor farms",
    "search_volume": 200000,
    "volume_growth_pct": 1000,
    "started_at": "2026-07-16T21:20:00.000Z",
    "is_active": true,
    "trend_keywords": ["taylor farms", "taylor farms lettuce"],
    "topics": ["Food and Drink", "Health"],
    "news": [
        {
            "title": "Cyclospora Linked to Taylor Farms Lettuce Sent to Taco Bell",
            "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/...",
            "source": "The New York Times",
            "picture": "https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/..."
        }
    ]
}

Keyword report (one per keyword):

{
    "type": "keyword",
    "keyword": "coffee",
    "geo": "US",
    "timeframe": "today 12-m",
    "stats": { "average": 75.4, "peak": 100, "peak_date": "2026-04-12", "latest": 76, "direction": "rising" },
    "interest_over_time": [{ "date": "2025-07-13", "value": 67 }],
    "interest_by_region": [{ "geo_code": "US-HI", "region": "Hawaii", "value": 100 }],
    "related_queries": { "top": [{ "query": "coffee shop", "value": 100 }], "rising": [] }
}

Comparison (one item for the whole set, where values share one scale):

{
    "type": "comparison",
    "keywords": ["netflix", "disney plus", "hbo max"],
    "scale": "shared",
    "stats": { "netflix": { "average": 59.1 }, "disney plus": { "average": 7.6 }, "hbo max": { "average": 5.3 } },
    "interest_over_time": [{ "date": "2026-04-17", "values": { "netflix": 61, "disney plus": 8, "hbo max": 5 } }],
    "interest_by_region": [{ "region": "California", "values": { "netflix": 58, "disney plus": 9, "hbo max": 6 } }],
    "related_queries": { "netflix": { "top": [], "rising": [] } }
}

Every run also pushes one summary item saying what succeeded, what failed and why, and what was charged. Failures push free error items with plain-language messages.

How much does it cost to scrape Google Trends?

Pay per event. Current prices:

Event	Free and Bronze	Silver (10% off)	Gold and above (20% off)	You pay when
Keyword report (keyword-result)	$0.03	$0.027	$0.024	the report contains data
Comparison report (comparison-result)	$0.05	$0.045	$0.04	the comparison contains data
Trending country (trending-fetch)	$0.02	$0.018	$0.016	a country's trend list came back
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	each run starts

The Store pricing card shows these same prices per 1,000 events: "$30.00 / 1,000" on the Keyword report row means one keyword report costs 3 cents. The Actor Start event is charged once per run, one event per GB of memory, minimum one event, and carries no Store discount. A Trending country event is one flat price for that country's whole list, up to about 480 trends with news, however many items come back.

At Free and Bronze prices: a daily "what is trending in the US" schedule is about $1.20 a month, a 10-keyword research run is $0.32, and comparing 5 brands is $0.07. Silver and Gold accounts pay 10% and 20% less on every result event.

Failed or empty results are never charged. That is the whole point.

Input

Field	Type	What it does
scrapeTrendingNow	boolean	Turn on the Trending Now job
trendingGeos	array	Country codes to pull Trending Now for, one per entry
trendingHours	integer	Trending window in hours (default 24)
includeTrendingNews	boolean	Attach news articles to each trend
maxTrendingItems	integer	Cap on trends returned per country
keywords	array	Keywords analyzed individually, each its own report
compareKeywords	array	2 to 5 terms compared on one shared scale
timeframe	string	Time window, for example today 12-m or a custom range
geo	string	Geo for keyword analysis. Empty means worldwide
category	integer	Google Trends category id
property	string	Search property, for example web, images, news or YouTube
includeInterestOverTime	boolean	Include the over-time series
includeInterestByRegion	boolean	Include the regional breakdown
includeRelatedQueries	boolean	Include top and rising related queries
language	string	Response language (default en)
proxyConfiguration	object	Proxy settings. Apify residential by default

FAQ

Is there an official Google Trends API?

No public one, which is why this Actor exists. It reads the same public endpoints that the trends.google.com pages call themselves, with no API key, no login and nothing estimated or modelled.

Why can't I compare keywords that were scraped separately?

Because Google normalizes every query to its own 0 to 100 scale, so a 100 for one term and a 100 for another mean completely different things. Put the terms in compareKeywords instead and Google returns them on one shared scale, which is what the comparison item gives you.

Does Google Trends give absolute search volume?

Not for keywords. Google Trends publishes relative interest from 0 to 100 only. The one exception is Trending Now, where Google itself publishes an approximate volume, such as 200000, along with a growth percentage.

Which countries does Trending Now cover?

Any country Google Trends supports, 50 or more, for example US, GB, IN, DE, JP and BR. Put one geo code per entry in trendingGeos, and each country is charged as one Trending country event.

Why do keyword reports need a residential proxy?

Google rate-limits Trends aggressively per IP. The default Apify residential configuration is what makes keyword reports reliable, because datacenter proxies get 429s. Trending Now does not need a proxy at all.

Can I use it as an MCP tool from an AI agent?

Yes. The input is flat and explicit, and every output item has a type field to route on, so an agent can ask for "compare interest in X versus Y over the last 3 months" or "what is trending in Germany right now" without any special flags.

Why does this Actor run with limited permissions?

Least privilege. It only reads and writes its own run storages, the dataset and key-value store Apify creates for each run, so it never needs access to the rest of your account. It reads only publicly available Google Trends data, without logging in, bypassing paywalls or collecting personal data.

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