Google Trends Explorer – Interest Over Time, Regions, Related Queries & Trending Now

What does Google Trends Explorer do?

Google Trends Explorer is a Google Trends scraper and unofficial Google Trends API on Apify. Enter keywords (or paste Google Trends links) and it returns the same data you see on trends.google.com – interest over time, interest by region, related queries, related topics and Trending Now searches – as structured data you can download or connect to your tools.

Get Google Trends data in JSON, CSV or Excel without an API key: interest over time, interest by region (country, state, city, metro), related queries and related topics (top + rising), keyword comparisons of up to 5 terms, and the daily Trending Now searches for any country.

Built for reliability: every request rotates the session (and proxy IP, if enabled) on rate limits, with exponential backoff, so large keyword lists finish instead of failing halfway. You only pay for results that were delivered – failed queries are reported in the dataset and never charged.

What can it do?

Data	Description
Interest over time	Weekly/daily/hourly 0–100 index for each keyword, with partial-data flag and averages
Interest by region	Values per country, region/state, city or US metro (DMA)
Related queries	Top and rising searches (incl. "Breakout") with links
Related topics	Top and rising topics with Knowledge Graph IDs (single-keyword queries)
Trending Now	Today's trending searches per country, with approx. traffic and news articles (official RSS feed)
Properties	Web, YouTube, News, Images and Google Shopping search
Keyword suggestions	Google Trends autocomplete: topic IDs and types (e.g. "Bitcoin – Cryptocurrency") to use topics instead of plain terms
Trends URLs as input	Paste trends.google.com/trends/explore?... links – keywords, country, time range, category and property are read from the URL

Every row has a trendsUrl to open the same chart in the browser. Related queries/topics include rank, isBreakout and growthPercent (rising %), so you can sort and filter without parsing "+250%" strings. Trending Now rows include a numeric approxTrafficNumber and an exploreUrl.

How to use Google Trends Explorer

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console (click Try for free on this page) and sign in or create a free Apify account.
2. In Keywords / search terms, add the words to look up – or paste chart links into Google Trends URLs. Turn on Compare keywords together to compare up to 5 terms on one scale.
3. Choose Countries / regions (e.g. US, GB, US-CA), a Time range (or a Custom time range) and, optionally, a Search property (Web, YouTube, News, Images, Shopping).
4. Tick the data you want: Interest over time, Interest by region, Related queries (top + rising), Related topics (top + rising), and/or add Trending Now countries.
5. Click Start. When the run finishes, open the Output tab and download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML. Turn on Flatten output (CSV / Sheets friendly) for one row per date or region.
6. To keep data fresh, create a Schedule (e.g. weekly) or start the Actor from your code via the Apify API.

Use cases

• SEO & content planning – find rising queries before they peak.
• Market research & e-commerce – compare product or brand demand across countries and seasons.
• Data science – feed search-interest time series into forecasting models or dashboards.
• AI agents – call it as a tool via the Apify API or MCP to answer "is X growing?" questions.

Input example

{
  "keywords": ["chatgpt", "gemini", "claude"],
  "compareKeywords": true,
  "geos": ["US", "GB"],
  "timeRange": "today 12-m",
  "interestOverTime": true,
  "interestByRegion": true,
  "relatedQueries": true,
  "trendingNowGeos": ["US"]
}

Also: startUrls (Google Trends explore URLs), keywordSuggestions (autocomplete topics), trendingNowMaxItems, onlyRegionsWithData (default true – drops regions with no data) and flattenOutput (one dataset row per time point / region, ideal for CSV and Excel; still charged as one result per block).

Time range presets: past hour, 4 hours, day, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 12 months, 5 years, since 2004 – or a custom range like 2024-01-01 2024-12-31.

Output example (interest over time)

{
  "type": "interest_over_time",
  "keywords": ["bitcoin", "ethereum"],
  "geo": "US",
  "timeRange": "today 12-m",
  "timeline": [{ "date": "Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2025", "timestamp": 1761436800, "isPartial": false, "bitcoin": 62, "ethereum": 14 }],
  "averages": { "bitcoin": 55, "ethereum": 12 },
  "pointCount": 53
}

Other row types: interest_by_region, related_queries, related_topics, trending_now, keyword_suggestions, and error (not charged). If Google has no data for a keyword/region combination, the row is returned with noData: true and is not charged.

How much does it cost?

Google Trends Explorer uses pay-per-event pricing: $0.0025 per result ($2.50 per 1,000 results). You don't pay separately for compute or proxies.

Pay per result: one result = one complete data block (e.g. the full 12-month timeline for a keyword set, the full region table, the related-queries list for one keyword, the suggestions for one keyword, or one trending search). Flattened output does not change the price – a 53-point timeline split into 53 rows is still one result. The only other charge is Apify's standard Actor start event ($0.00005 per run, i.e. $0.05 per 1,000 runs). Set a maximum cost per run in the run options – the Actor stops cleanly when the limit is reached.

Error rows and noData rows are free. The minimum maximum cost per run setting is $0.25. Apify's free plan includes $5 of platform credit every month, which is enough to try the Actor on real data before you pay anything.

Tips for reliable large runs

• Google rate-limits busy IP addresses. Apify Proxy is on by default and every retry gets a new IP. For more than ~20 queries per run, switch the proxy group to Residential, and raise the delay between requests if you see many retries.
• Keep the default 1-second delay; raise it if you see many retries in the log.
• Values are relative (0–100) within each request – use Compare keywords to get directly comparable numbers.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Google Trends Explorer works as a ready-made tool for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code and any other MCP client through the official Apify MCP server. The agent gets one tool, cleandata-labs--google-trends-explorer, with the input fields described on this page, and you pay the normal pay-per-event price from your Apify account (a free account works; it includes $5 of monthly credit).

MCP server URL with only this Actor:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer

On first connection your client opens the Apify sign-in (OAuth). To use an API token instead, send the header Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>.

Claude (claude.ai and Claude Desktop): Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector. Name: Google Trends, Remote MCP server URL: the URL above.

Claude Desktop with a local config file (claude_desktop_config.json, needs Node.js 18+):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-trends": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server", "--tools", "cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer"],
      "env": { "APIFY_TOKEN": "<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" }
    }
  }
}

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json, or .cursor/mcp.json in a project):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-trends": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

$claude mcp add --transport http google-trends "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer"

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "google-trends": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer" }
  }
}

Already connected to https://mcp.apify.com with the default tools? Just ask your agent to use cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer; it can run it through call-actor. To load several Actors in one connection, separate them with commas, e.g. https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer,cleandata-labs/url-to-markdown.

Tips for agents

• Smallest useful input: {"keywords": ["bitcoin"], "geos": ["US"]} (one result: the 12-month US timeline).
• Most runs finish in 5-10 seconds, so results are usually ready within the MCP call's default 30-second wait. The call returns a dataset ID; the agent reads the rows with get-dataset-items.
• Cost: $0.0025 per data block (one timeline, one region table, one related-queries list or one trending search). Errors and no-data rows are free.
• For "X vs Y" questions set compareKeywords: true so all terms share one 0-100 scale.
• For keyword research add relatedQueries: true; rising queries come with growthPercent and isBreakout.
• For "what is trending today" use {"keywords": [], "trendingNowGeos": ["US"], "trendingNowMaxItems": 10}. Pass keywords: [], otherwise the demo default ["chatgpt","gemini"] is also run.

Example prompts

1. "Is interest in "electric bikes" growing in Germany? Use Google Trends for the past 5 years and list the top rising related queries."
2. "Compare ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude on Google Trends in the US over the past 12 months on one scale. Which one is gaining fastest?"
3. "What is trending on Google in Romania today? Give me the top 5 Trending Now searches with their approximate traffic."

Integrations

Google Trends Explorer works with everything that connects to Apify:

• Make, Zapier and n8n – start a run and process the results in your no-code workflows.
• Google Sheets – export the dataset to a spreadsheet, or keep a sheet updated with a scheduled run.
• Webhooks – get a notification (Slack, email, your own endpoint) when a run finishes or fails.
• Apify API and clients – start runs and download results from your code with the REST API, the Python client (apify-client) or the JavaScript client (apify-client).
• AI agents – use it as a tool through the Apify MCP server or the LangChain / LlamaIndex integrations.

Python example:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("cleandata-labs/google-trends-explorer").call(run_input={"keywords": ["chatgpt", "gemini"], "geos": ["US"]})
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Limitations & legal

• Google Trends numbers are sampled and normalized by Google; they are an index, not absolute search volume.
• Related topics are returned by Google only for single-keyword queries.
• This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. It reads the public, aggregated (non-personal) data that trends.google.com shows to any visitor, on paths allowed by its robots.txt. You are responsible for using the data in line with Google's Terms of Service and applicable law.

FAQ

Do I need a Google account or API key? No.

Can I get data for a US state or city? Yes – use codes like US-CA in Countries / regions, or choose a Region resolution.

Why did a query fail? Usually a temporary rate limit. It's listed as type: "error", not charged; re-run it with a proxy.

Is it legal to scrape Google Trends? The Actor only reads public, aggregated search-interest data that Google shows to every visitor, without logging in. It does not collect personal data. Whether your specific use is allowed depends on your jurisdiction and purpose, so check Google's Terms of Service and applicable law, and ask a lawyer if you are unsure. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Can I use it with integrations, the API or LLM tools? Yes. Connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets or webhooks, call it from Python or JavaScript with the Apify API, or give it to AI agents as a tool via the Apify MCP server (see Integrations above).

Is this the official Google Trends API? No. Google has no generally available public Trends API; this Actor reads the public trends.google.com website and returns the data in a structured format. It is not affiliated with Google.

How many keywords can I run? As many as you like in one run. Apify Proxy is on by default, so rate-limited requests are retried from a new IP. For more than about 20 queries, switch the proxy group to Residential.