Keyword Research — Search Volume, CPC, Keyword Ideas & Difficulty

Get exact monthly Google search volume, CPC, competition, keyword difficulty, search intent and a 12-month trend for up to 10,000 keywords per run in 249 countries. You can also switch modes to find keyword ideas, keywords for any website, years of monthly history or AI search volume. You don't need an API key or a Google Ads account, and a keyword checked without a usable result costs only $0.0002.

Why this Actor

• 10 keyword research modes in one Actor: search volume, keyword ideas, long-tail suggestions, related keywords, keywords for a website, keyword difficulty, search intent, full keyword overview, historical data (up to about 4 years) and AI search volume. You don't need a separate tool for each job.
• More data per keyword at no extra cost: the default search volume row has 26 fields. Besides volume, CPC, low/high bids and competition you get keyword difficulty (0–100), search intent and month-over-month, 3-month and year-over-year trend % for every keyword served from the keyword database (the default). Many per-keyword tools return volume and CPC only.
• Low price for small lists, fair price for large ones: 10 keywords cost $0.027 and 1,000 keywords cost $1.23 on the Free plan ($0.63 on Gold), with difficulty and intent included (Apify platform usage is billed separately, usually $0.001–$0.005 for a small run). For a full 1,000-keyword list we are not the cheapest: batch-priced Actors cost $0.70–$1.99 on Free ($0.35–$0.40 on Gold), and a seed-suggestion Actor charges $1.00 per 1,000 rows. See the comparison below.
• Exact numbers you can use right away: volumes are exact numbers (not bands or ranges), and CPC and bids are numbers in USD (not text), so you can sort and filter them in a spreadsheet right away.

Compared with alternatives

Typical run: search volume for your own list of 10 or 1,000 keywords. Prices are Actor fees per the public Apify Store listings, checked September 2026; user counts are rounded. "—" means the listing does not offer or state it.

Option	10 keywords, Free	1,000 keywords, Free	1,000 keywords, Gold	Billing (Free plan)	Difficulty + intent
Most-used keyword volume Actor (~1,200 users)	$0.12	$12.00	$8.00	$0.012 per keyword	—
Flat-batch volume Actor (~790 users)	$1.99	$1.99	$0.40	$1.99 per batch of up to 1,000 keywords	—
Batch-priced Google + Bing volume Actor (~400 users)	$0.70	$0.70	$0.35	$0.20 per run + $0.50 per batch of up to 1,000 keywords	intent only
Per-keyword Actor with optional enrichment (~240 users)	$0.021	$2.00 ($3.00 with difficulty + intent)	$1.60 ($2.40)	$0.001 per run + $0.002 per keyword, + $0.001 per keyword for difficulty/intent	paid add-on
This Actor	$0.027	$1.23	$0.63	$0.0145 per data request + $0.0012 per keyword with data	✓ included

What this means:

• Small and medium lists: this Actor is the cheapest option with difficulty and intent, because it has no per-run or per-batch minimum.
• A full 1,000-keyword list: we are not the cheapest. On the Free plan the batch-priced Google + Bing Actor costs $0.70 (and also returns Bing volume, which we do not); on Gold both batch-priced Actors ($0.35 and $0.40) cost less than our $0.63. They do not include keyword difficulty or the 3-month and year-over-year trend %.
• Platform usage: for this Actor, Apify platform usage is billed separately on top of the prices above (at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005).

Keyword ideas from seed keywords (1,000 idea rows, Free plan):

Option	1,000 ideas	Difficulty + intent	Notes
Seed-suggestion Actor, volume/CPC/intent (~270 users)	$1.00	intent only	$0.001 per suggestion; platform usage also billed to the user
Seed-suggestion Actor with difficulty (~530 users)	$3.00	✓	$0.003 per keyword; one seed and up to 500 keywords per run
This Actor (Keyword ideas mode)	$2.01	✓ included	$0.0145 per page of up to 1,000 ideas + $0.002 per idea

For plain idea lists without difficulty, the $1.00 Actor is cheaper than this one. Those two Actors expand seed keywords into suggestions; their listings do not describe looking up metrics for a list of your own keywords.

Not included

• Bing, YouTube or Amazon volume: this Actor returns Google data only.
• Live Google search results (rankings, snippets, ads): use Google SERP Scraper.
• Visibility of a brand in AI answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews): use AI Search Visibility Tracker. This Actor's AI search volume shows demand, not who gets cited.
• Backlinks and domain authority: use Backlink Checker or Domain SEO Analyzer.
• Technical on-page audits: use SEO Site Audit.
• YouTube keyword ideas: use YouTube Search Scraper to see what ranks for a query on YouTube.

What data you get

Search volume mode (default), one row per keyword:

Field	Type	Example
id	string	"0f02f3bb0cfda02f" (stable: same keyword, mode and market give the same id in every run)
keyword	string	"running shoes"
searchVolume	integer	246000 (average monthly Google searches)
cpc	number	1.12 (average cost-per-click, USD)
competition	string	"HIGH" (LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH, paid competition)
competitionIndex	integer	100 (0–100)
lowBid / highBid	number	0.61 / 2.07 (top-of-page bid range, USD)
keywordDifficulty	integer	71 (0–100, how hard it is to rank organically)
searchIntent	string	"commercial" (informational, navigational, commercial, transactional)
secondaryIntents	array	["transactional"]
trendMonthlyPct / trendQuarterlyPct / trendYearlyPct	number	-18 / 22 / 0 (% change)
monthlyTrend	array	[{ "year": 2026, "month": 8, "searchVolume": 201000 }, …] oldest first
coreKeyword	string	null or the main keyword of its synonym group
wordCount	integer	2
detectedLanguage	string	"en" (estimated from the keyword text, not the market; one-word keywords can get another language — the market language is languageCode)
categoryIds	array	[10021, 10178] (Google product category ids)
lastUpdated	string	"2026-09-16 03:19:59 +00:00" (when the metrics were refreshed)
mode, country, languageCode, locationCode, dataSource, scrapedAt	context	"searchVolume", "US", "en", 2840, "database", ISO timestamp

Other modes add or swap fields:

Mode	Extra fields
Idea modes	seedKeyword; related keywords add depth and relatedKeywords
Keywords for a website	website, concepts (keyword groups), spellingCorrection when present
Keyword difficulty	keywordDifficulty only (plus context)
Search intent	searchIntent, intentProbability, secondaryIntents with probabilities
Keyword overview	topResultsAvgBacklinks, topResultsAvgReferringDomains, topResultsAvgRank, topResultsAvgDomainRank, normalized volume estimates
Historical data	monthsOfHistory, firstMonth, lastMonth, history (monthly volume, CPC, competition, bids)
AI search volume	aiSearchVolume, aiTrendMonthlyPct, aiTrendQuarterlyPct, aiMonthlyTrend
Optional add-ons	serpFeatures, serpResultsCount, serpUrl, serpLastUpdated (search results info); demographics (age and gender)

The RUN_SUMMARY record in the key-value store lists:

• keywords that had no data
• keywords that were not found
• skipped keywords
• any problems
• why the run stopped (result cap or budget)
• the events that were charged

How to use

1. Open the Actor in the Apify Console and go to the Input tab.
2. Paste your keywords into Keywords, one per line (or keep the prefilled examples).
3. Pick a Country. Leave Language empty to use the country's main language.
4. Optional: change What do you want? to another mode, for example Keyword ideas or AI search volume.
5. Click Start. Most runs finish in a few seconds.
6. Open the Output tab and export as CSV, Excel, JSON, XML or HTML, or pick the Ads & bids, Trends or AI search volume view.

Ready-to-paste input:

{
  "mode": "searchVolume",
  "keywords": ["running shoes", "best coffee maker", "keyword research"],
  "country": "US"
}

Keyword ideas with filters (easy, high-volume ideas):

{
  "mode": "keywordIdeas",
  "keywords": ["coffee maker"],
  "country": "GB",
  "maxIdeasPerSeed": 300,
  "minSearchVolume": 50,
  "maxKeywordDifficulty": 30,
  "sortBy": "searchVolumeDesc"
}

Keywords for a website:

{ "mode": "websiteKeywords", "websites": ["example.com"], "country": "US" }

API: curl

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cheapapi~keyword-research-tool/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords": ["running shoes", "best coffee maker"], "country": "US"}'

API: JavaScript (apify-client)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('cheapapi/keyword-research-tool').call({
    keywords: ['running shoes', 'best coffee maker'],
    country: 'US',
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
for (const k of items) console.log(k.keyword, k.searchVolume, k.cpc, k.keywordDifficulty);

API: Python (apify-client)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("cheapapi/keyword-research-tool").call(run_input={
    "keywords": ["running shoes", "best coffee maker"],
    "country": "US",
})
for k in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(k["keyword"], k["searchVolume"], k["cpc"], k.get("keywordDifficulty"))

Use cases

• SEO content planning: find long-tail ideas with volume, difficulty and intent. Then filter for easy informational keywords to write about.
• PPC budgeting: get CPC, top-of-page bid ranges and competition for thousands of keywords before you build a Google Ads campaign.
• Competitor research: list the keywords a competitor's domain or landing page is relevant for.
• Market and product research: compare demand for products across countries. Track seasonality with 12 months (or up to about 4 years) of monthly volume.
• AI search / GEO planning: see which topics people ask AI assistants about and how that demand is trending, next to classic Google volume.
• Rank tracking and reporting: add fresh metrics to your keyword lists in dashboards or Google Sheets every month.

Modes

Mode (mode)	Input	One row per
searchVolume (default)	your keywords	keyword: volume, CPC, competition, trend, difficulty and intent
keywordIdeas	seed keywords (combined)	new keyword idea
keywordSuggestions	seed keywords	long-tail phrase containing the seed
relatedKeywords	seed keywords	related keyword ("people also search for"), with depth and neighbours
websiteKeywords	websites (domains or URLs)	keyword relevant to the site
keywordDifficulty	your keywords	keyword with a 0–100 difficulty
searchIntent	your keywords	keyword with main and secondary intents and probabilities
keywordOverview	your keywords	keyword with every available metric
historicalData	your keywords	keyword with its monthly history
aiSearchVolume	your keywords	keyword with its estimated monthly AI search volume and 12-month trend

Advanced options

Every option has a working default. You only need the simple fields above.

Option	Default	What it does
language	main language of the country	ISO code (en, de, zh-TW) or English name (German).
websites	–	Domains or page URLs for the Keywords for a website mode.
websiteScope	site	site = whole domain, page = only the exact URL.
dataSource	auto	Search volume mode only. auto reads the keyword database (fast, refreshed monthly, includes difficulty and intent). It fetches missing keywords live from the Google Ads keyword planner when the run is large enough. database = database only. realtime = always the live keyword planner.
locationCode	–	Google Ads geo-target code for a city or region (e.g. 1023191 = New York). Overrides Country.
locationName	–	Location in Google Ads format, e.g. London,England,United Kingdom. Overrides Country.
coordinates	–	"latitude,longitude" to measure searches around a point (real-time only).
processingSpeed	auto	fast or economy (queued, 1–3 hours) for real-time lookups and website keywords. The price is the same at every speed.
includeMonthlyTrend	true	Adds monthlyTrend (aiMonthlyTrend in the AI mode).
trendMonths	12	Months kept in the trend (1–60).
dateFrom / dateTo	–	Custom trend range, up to 4 years back (real-time only).
includeSearchPartners	false	Also count Google search-partner sites (real-time and website modes).
includeAdultKeywords	false	Keep adult keywords (real-time and website modes).
includeSerpInfo	false	Adds search result features (featured snippet, local pack, …) and the result count (database modes).
includeDemographics	false	Adds age and gender of searchers (paid add-on; search volume, overview and idea modes).
maxResults	5000	Hard cap on rows for the whole run (1–100,000).
deduplicate	true	Idea modes: a keyword returned by several seeds is output and charged once.
maxIdeasPerSeed	100	Ideas per seed (1–10,000). In Keyword ideas mode it is the total.
sortBy	relevance	Relevance, volume, CPC, competition or difficulty order.
relatedDepth	1	Related keywords: 0–4 hops from the seed.
includeSeedKeyword	false	Suggestions and related modes: also output the seed itself.
closelyRelatedOnly	false	Keyword ideas: only ideas very close in meaning.
exactMatch	false	Suggestions: seed words in the same order.
ignoreSynonyms	false	Idea modes: skip word-order and plural variants.
replaceWithCoreKeyword	false	Related keywords: use the main keyword of each synonym group.
offset	0	Idea modes: skip the first N ideas (continue a previous run).
minSearchVolume / maxSearchVolume	–	Volume range (AI volume in the AI mode).
minCpc / maxCpc	–	CPC range in USD.
minKeywordDifficulty / maxKeywordDifficulty	–	Difficulty range 0–100 (idea modes).
searchIntents	–	Keep only these main intents (idea modes).
mustContain / mustNotContain	–	Keep or drop keywords containing a word or phrase.

Each lookup is paid, so a keyword that is looked up but removed by a filter costs $0.0002 (keyword checked without a result) instead of a full result price. Setting a date range, search partners or city/coordinate targeting switches the search volume mode to real-time data. The log tells you when this happens.

Example output

Search volume mode (input: {"keywords": ["phone"], "country": "US", "trendMonths": 3}), a real row:

{
  "id": "0f02f3bb0cfda02f",
  "keyword": "phone",
  "searchVolume": 673000,
  "cpc": 4.63,
  "competition": "HIGH",
  "competitionIndex": 76,
  "lowBid": 2.92,
  "highBid": 8,
  "keywordDifficulty": 54,
  "searchIntent": "informational",
  "secondaryIntents": null,
  "trendMonthlyPct": 22,
  "trendQuarterlyPct": 50,
  "trendYearlyPct": 50,
  "monthlyTrend": [
    { "year": 2026, "month": 6, "searchVolume": 550000 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 7, "searchVolume": 673000 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 8, "searchVolume": 823000 }
  ],
  "coreKeyword": null,
  "wordCount": 1,
  "detectedLanguage": "th",
  "categoryIds": [10007, 10878, 12171],
  "lastUpdated": "2026-09-16 03:19:59 +00:00",
  "mode": "searchVolume",
  "country": "US",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "dataSource": "database",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-29T05:06:56.864Z"
}

detectedLanguage is "th" here because the keyword database estimates the language from the keyword text alone, and a single word like "phone" can be mis-detected. It does not affect the metrics: the volume, CPC and trend are for the market you chose (country US, languageCode en).

Keyword ideas mode (input: {"mode": "keywordIdeas", "keywords": ["phone"], "country": "US", "trendMonths": 3}), one idea row:

{
  "id": "2a37305c4b49a8d2",
  "keyword": "nothing phone",
  "searchVolume": 165000,
  "cpc": 0.31,
  "competition": "HIGH",
  "competitionIndex": 92,
  "lowBid": 0.03,
  "highBid": 0.38,
  "keywordDifficulty": 31,
  "searchIntent": "informational",
  "secondaryIntents": null,
  "trendMonthlyPct": 22,
  "trendQuarterlyPct": 0,
  "trendYearlyPct": 174,
  "monthlyTrend": [
    { "year": 2026, "month": 6, "searchVolume": 301000 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 7, "searchVolume": 246000 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 8, "searchVolume": 301000 }
  ],
  "coreKeyword": "phones nothing",
  "wordCount": 2,
  "detectedLanguage": "en",
  "categoryIds": [10007, 10878, 12171],
  "lastUpdated": "2026-09-12 02:47:34 +00:00",
  "mode": "keywordIdeas",
  "country": "US",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "seedKeyword": "phone",
  "dataSource": "database",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-29T05:07:12.418Z"
}

AI search volume mode (input: {"mode": "aiSearchVolume", "keywords": ["seo"], "country": "US", "trendMonths": 3}):

{
  "id": "e80f8ac5279cf3dc",
  "keyword": "seo",
  "aiSearchVolume": 77880,
  "aiTrendMonthlyPct": -16,
  "aiTrendQuarterlyPct": -34,
  "aiMonthlyTrend": [
    { "year": 2026, "month": 6, "aiSearchVolume": 86786 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 7, "aiSearchVolume": 93165 },
    { "year": 2026, "month": 8, "aiSearchVolume": 77880 }
  ],
  "mode": "aiSearchVolume",
  "country": "US",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "dataSource": "aiSearch",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-29T05:06:38.126Z"
}

Pricing

Typical cost: $0.027 for 10 keywords and $1.23 for 1,000 keywords on the Free plan ($0.63 on Gold), plus Apify platform usage billed separately.

Apify Free plan: Apify does not pay developers for usage on its Free plan, so on the Free plan this Actor can be used for up to $0.25 of results per calendar month — enough to try it on a small input. When the allowance is used up, the run ends with a clear message (not an error). Any paid Apify plan removes the limit; prices are the same.

Pay per event. Every data request is charged when it is made, even if it finds nothing (the lookup itself is paid). Keywords you receive are charged as results; keywords that were looked up but are not in your output (no data, removed by your filters, duplicates) cost a small check fee. Requests rejected with an error are free. A request that was sent but timed out before answering is still charged like a request without results (it may already have been processed); for a keyword database request the keywords it asked for are then charged the check fee. Your Apify plan's prices are applied automatically.

Apify platform usage is billed separately by Apify (at the default 256 MB a small run typically uses about $0.001–$0.005). The prices and worked examples below are event fees only.

Event	Free, Bronze, Silver	Gold and above
Data request (per request made, even if nothing is found)	$0.0145	$0.0151
Keyword result (volume, overview, difficulty, intent, history, AI volume)	$0.0012	$0.0006
Keyword idea (ideas, suggestions, related, website modes)	$0.002	$0.002
Website analyzed (website mode, replaces the data-request fee; charged even if no keywords are found)	$0.12	$0.12
Audience demographics add-on (per row with demographics)	$0.005	$0.005
Real-time small batch fee (opt-in only, see below)	$0.10	$0.10
Keyword checked without a result (no data, filtered out or duplicate)	$0.0002	$0.0002
Request without results (added when a keyword database request outputs nothing)	$0.0009	$0.0003

How much one data request covers:

• search volume, overview and history: up to 700 keywords
• difficulty, intent, AI search volume and real-time volume: up to 1,000 keywords
• idea modes: one page of up to 1,000 ideas

With demographics on, the data request, the check fee and the no-result fee are charged twice (the lookup costs twice as much). With demographics on, a request whose rows come back without any demographics also gets the no-result fee.

The real-time small batch fee applies only if you explicitly choose real-time data and a real-time request returns too few keywords with data to cover it: under 82 keywords on the Free, Bronze and Silver plans, or under 163 keywords on Gold and above. Real-time-only options such as a date range or city targeting count as choosing real-time data. The fee is never charged with the default settings.

Worked examples (default settings):

Run	Free, Bronze, Silver	Gold and above
1 keyword, search volume	$0.0157	$0.0157
10 keywords, search volume	$0.027	$0.021
1,000 keywords, search volume (2 requests)	$1.23	$0.63
1,000 keywords, AI search volume (1 request)	$1.21	$0.61
100 keyword ideas for one seed	$0.21	$0.21
1 website with 500 keywords found	$1.12	$1.12
1 website, no keywords found	$0.12	$0.12
1 keyword not in the keyword database (nothing found)	$0.0154	$0.0154
100 keywords, 60 with data, 40 returned without data	$0.0945	$0.0591
Real-time data, 10 keywords	$0.127	$0.121

Set Maximum cost per run in the run options to cap spending. The Actor stops cleanly at the limit and keeps everything collected so far.

Integrations

• Make, Zapier, n8n: use the Apify app to start a run and receive the rows in your scenario.
• Google Sheets: send the dataset to a sheet with the Apify Google Sheets integration, or import the CSV export link.
• Webhooks: get notified (or trigger your pipeline) when a run succeeds or fails.
• Schedules: re-run the same keyword list weekly or monthly to track demand over time.
• API and MCP: call the Actor from any language through the Apify API (examples above), or let AI agents use it through the Apify MCP server.

FAQ

Is there a Free-plan limit, and is platform usage included? On the Apify Free plan you can use up to $0.25 of this Actor's results per calendar month, enough to try it (Apify pays developers nothing for Free-plan usage while our data costs are real). Runs that reach the allowance stop cleanly with a message and keep everything collected; the allowance resets on the 1st, and any paid plan has no limit. Apify platform usage (compute) is not included: it is billed separately by Apify, typically $0.001–$0.005 for a small run at the default 256 MB, and shown in the run details.

How accurate and fresh is the data? Volumes are the Google Ads keyword planner numbers advertisers see: average monthly searches, rounded the way Google rounds them, as exact numbers rather than bands. Keyword database metrics are refreshed monthly (each row's lastUpdated shows when); real-time data is fetched during your run; AI search volume covers the last 12 full months.

What is the difference between database and real-time data, and can I target a city? The keyword database is the default: fast, refreshed monthly, with difficulty and intent. Real-time data asks the Google Ads keyword planner during your run and supports custom date ranges, search partners and city targeting (locationName such as London,England,United Kingdom, locationCode or coordinates), but has no difficulty or intent. Keywords missing from the database are listed in RUN_SUMMARY (keywordsNotFound); look them up with dataSource: "realtime" in a second run. Real-time-only options switch the run to real-time data automatically.

What is AI search volume? A model-based estimate of how often a keyword or question is asked in AI assistants and AI search each month, with a 12-month trend. Use it next to Google volume to spot topics growing in AI search; it is not an exact count from each assistant.

Why did I get fewer rows than keywords, and why was I charged for them? Very rare keywords may have no data (listed in keywordsWithoutData / keywordsNotFound); filters, maxResults, deduplication and the maximum cost per run can also reduce rows. Every lookup is paid when it is made, so a request that outputs nothing costs the data request plus the no-result fee ($0.0154), and keywords returned without data, filtered out or duplicated cost $0.0002 each. A keyword that is not returned at all is free. In the website mode each analyzed website costs $0.12 even with no keywords, and opt-in real-time requests with fewer than 82 keywords with data (163 on Gold) add the $0.10 small-batch fee. RUN_SUMMARY lists every charged event.

How do I control my budget? Set Maximum cost per run in the run options. The Actor checks the remaining budget before every request, asks for no more keywords than it can pay for in the worst case, and stops cleanly when the next request would not fit. maxResults caps the number of rows.

Can I monitor keywords every month? Yes. Save your input as a task and add a monthly schedule (the keyword database is refreshed monthly). Every row has a stable id (same keyword, mode and market give the same id in every run) and a scrapedAt timestamp, so you can append runs to one sheet or table and compare rows with the same id.

Do I need an API key or a Google Ads account? No. Everything runs on our own data infrastructure.

Is it legal? The Actor returns aggregated keyword statistics (search counts, bids, difficulty), not personal data. You are responsible for using the results in line with your local laws and the terms of the services you use them with.

Something does not work. Where do I get help? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab and include your run ID. The run's RUN_SUMMARY record helps us find the cause quickly.

Limitations

• Up to 10,000 keywords per run in per-keyword modes and 200 seed keywords in idea modes. Each keyword can be at most 80 characters and 10 words. Longer ones are skipped and listed in RUN_SUMMARY.
• Search volume is Google-only. Rare keywords may return no volume; they cost at most the $0.0002 check fee.
• Keyword difficulty, intent, overview, history, ideas and demographics come from the keyword database. They cover country-level locations and the major languages, not city targeting.
• Custom date ranges, search partners and city or coordinate targeting are real-time-only options, without difficulty or intent.
• AI search volume is an estimate with 12 months of history, so there is no year-over-year change for it.
• Demographics are not available for every keyword or country. Only rows that include them are charged.
• Economy processing can take 1–3 hours.

Privacy

The output contains only aggregated, anonymous keyword statistics. The Actor does not collect names, emails or any other personal data. Audience demographics are aggregate age and gender shares, never individual users.