Keyword Search Volume API: Google Keyword Planner volume, CPC, competition and trend

Paste up to 10,000 keywords and get Google Keyword Planner metrics for each one: average monthly searches, CPC, competition, top-of-page bids, month-by-month history and a computed trend, for any country, region or city, in one flat schema. Every keyword you send gets a row, in your order. You pay $0.12 per run plus a per-keyword price you can compute before you run, and only for keywords that come back with searches. Ask for the same keyword in the same market again before Google publishes new figures and you get it back free, marked repeat: true.

No Google Ads account, developer token or OAuth setup. Works with an empty input, from the Console, the API, schedules, n8n, Make, Zapier, and AI agents through Apify's MCP server.

keyword	avgMonthlySearches	cpcUsd	competition	competitionIndex	trend.direction	dataMonth
project management software	201,000	40.32	LOW	3	flat	2026-09
crm for small business	4,400	51.28	LOW	22	rising	2026-09
email marketing tools	4,400	101.75	LOW	6	rising	2026-09

A real run of the default input, United States, English, Google Search, 2 November 2026.

Contents

• What you get
• What it does not do
• How much does it cost to check keyword search volume?
• How to use it
• Use it from an AI agent (MCP)
• Integrations: API, Python, JavaScript, n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets
• Three things about Google's numbers
• Is it legal? Privacy
• FAQ
• How it compares
• Changelog
• Feedback and support

What you get

One row per distinct keyword you send, in the order you sent them, then idea rows if you asked for ideas, then one summary row.

Field	What it is
status	ok for keyword and idea rows (found or not); skipped or source_error when a keyword was not measured, with the reason; summary for the last row.
keyword	Your keyword exactly as you sent it, so you can join results back to your list. Idea rows carry the keyword as Google returned it.
normalizedKeyword	What was actually looked up: trimmed, lower-cased, spaces collapsed, surrounding quotes and ? ! , ( ) removed.
inputCount	How many times this keyword appeared in your input. It is charged once.
found	true when Google reported a search volume for the keyword, including 0.
reason, message	Why a row has no figures (no_data, invalid_keyword, spending_limit, max_items, free_plan_limit, source_error) and, in plain words, what to do about it.
kind, seed	metric for your keywords, idea for related keywords. seed names the seed an idea came from when you expanded a single seed.
location, locationCode, language, network	The market the figures are for, as Google Ads names it.
avgMonthlySearches	Google's average monthly searches over the last 12 months.
cpcUsd	Average cost per click, in US dollars.
competition, competitionIndex	LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH, and the same on a 0 to 100 scale.
lowTopOfPageBidUsd, highTopOfPageBidUsd	The bid range advertisers paid to appear at the top of the page.
monthlySearches	Month by month, newest first: { "yearMonth": "2026-09", "searches": 5400 }. 12 months by default, up to 48.
trend	direction (rising, flat or falling: the last three months against the three before, with a 10% threshold; null under six months of history) and changePct1m, changePct3m, changePct12m (the latest month against one, three and twelve months earlier; twelve needs monthsBack of 13 or more).
dataMonth	The latest month Google has published, YYYY-MM. Repeats are free until this changes.
repeat, firstSeenAt	true when your account already received this keyword in this market this data month, and when it first did. Returned again free.
charged, chargedEvent, chargedUsd	Whether this row was charged, as keyword or idea, and how much.
retryable	source_error rows only: whether running again may help.
servedFromCache	Reserved for a shared cache planned for a later version; always false today.
raw	The provider's original row, only when includeRaw is on.

A full row:

{
  "status": "ok",
  "keyword": "CRM for Small Business",
  "normalizedKeyword": "crm for small business",
  "inputCount": 1,
  "found": true,
  "reason": null,
  "message": null,
  "kind": "metric",
  "seed": null,
  "location": "United States",
  "locationCode": 2840,
  "language": "en",
  "network": "google_search",
  "avgMonthlySearches": 4400,
  "cpcUsd": 51.28,
  "competition": "LOW",
  "competitionIndex": 22,
  "lowTopOfPageBidUsd": 8.96,
  "highTopOfPageBidUsd": 53.12,
  "monthlySearches": [{ "yearMonth": "2026-09", "searches": 5400 }, { "yearMonth": "2026-08", "searches": 6600 }],
  "trend": { "direction": "rising", "changePct1m": -18.2, "changePct3m": 86.2, "changePct12m": null },
  "dataMonth": "2026-09",
  "repeat": false,
  "servedFromCache": false,
  "charged": true,
  "chargedEvent": "keyword",
  "chargedUsd": 0.008,
  "firstSeenAt": "2026-11-02T18:11:06.243Z",
  "raw": null
}

(monthlySearches is shortened here; the real row carries all 12 months.)

The summary row (status: "summary", always last) tells you what the run did: how many keywords were charged (chargedCounts), the run's computed cost (computedCostUsd), how many were repeats, zero-volume, no-data, invalid or skipped and why, how many upstream lookups were bought, the data month, and any warnings in plain sentences. Agents should read it before deciding what to do next. The same object is saved as OUTPUT in the run's key-value store.

Keyword ideas

Set mode to ideas to expand your keywords as seeds into related keywords with the same metrics, or to both to get metrics for your keywords and ideas in one run. maxIdeas (default 100) caps the idea rows, sortBy decides which ideas are kept (highest search volume by default), and minSearchVolume drops small ideas. Google returns hundreds to thousands of ideas per request, so you can ask for up to 10,000. When several seeds are expanded together Google does not say which seed produced which idea, so seed is filled only when you expand one seed.

In both mode, ideas are fetched first, and any of your own keywords that appear among the ideas are answered from them, so a separate lookup is often not needed and the run finishes faster. An idea that is one of your keywords appears once, as your keyword's row.

What it does not do

• No keyword difficulty or search intent. Those are third-party model estimates, not Google figures. This actor returns only what Google Ads reports.
• No SERP features, rankings or competitor domain keywords.
• No "AI search volume". Some tools sell estimates of how often a keyword is asked of chatbots; there is no source for that figure, so it is not offered here.
• No Bing or Microsoft Advertising volumes yet. Planned.
• No current month. Google publishes a month's figures only after it ends, around the middle of the next month.
• No exact counts. Google rounds volumes into buckets (see Three things about Google's numbers).

How much does it cost to check keyword search volume?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay a fixed amount per run, plus a price per keyword that comes back with searches. Prices depend on your Apify plan:

Event	Free plan	Starter	Scale	Business
Run start	$0.12	$0.12	$0.12	$0.12
Keyword with searches	$0.012	$0.008	$0.006	$0.005
Idea with searches	$0.008	$0.005	$0.004	$0.0035

Cost of a run = $0.12 + keyword price × new keywords + idea price × new ideas, where "new" means not already delivered to your account in this market this data month, with a search volume above zero. To know the most a run can cost before you start it, assume every keyword is new.

Worked examples, new keywords, metrics mode:

Keywords	Free plan	Starter	Scale	Business
5	$0.18	$0.16	$0.15	$0.145
100	$1.32	$0.92	$0.72	$0.62
1,000	$12.12	$8.12	$6.12	$5.12
10,000	not available (see below)	$80.12	$60.12	$50.12
1,000 again in the same data month	$0.12	$0.12	$0.12	$0.12

Never charged:

• Keywords you already received in the same market this data month (repeat: true). You get the figures again free.
• Keywords Google has no data for (reason: "no_data").
• Keywords with an average of zero searches. You still get the row.
• Keywords Google Ads would reject (reason: "invalid_keyword", for example an emoji or @). They are never sent.
• Duplicates in your input. Each distinct keyword is charged once.
• Skipped, error and summary rows.

Set a spending limit. Every Apify run accepts a maximum total charge (maxTotalChargeUsd in the API, "Max cost per run" in the Console). The actor reads it before buying any data: keywords that would not fit in the limit are not looked up and come back as skipped with reason: "spending_limit", and the summary row says how many. maxItems (default 1,000) caps new keywords per run in the same way; raise it to 10,000 for big lists.

Free plan. A run on Apify's free plan looks up at most 1,000 new keywords (one Google lookup). The rest come back as skipped with reason: "free_plan_limit", and repeats are still answered. Free plan accounts receive $5 of Apify credit each month.

How to use it

1. Open the actor, paste your keywords (one per line), pick a location if it is not the United States, and start it.
2. Or call it from the API, a schedule, an integration or an AI agent with JSON input. Every field has a default; {} measures three demo keywords.

Input

Field	Default	What it does
keywords	three demo keywords	Keywords to measure or expand. Up to 10,000 distinct per run.
keywordsText	empty	Optional: a list as text, one per line or comma-separated. Merged after keywords.
mode	metrics	metrics, ideas or both.
location	United States	Country, region or city as Google Ads names it (Germany, California, Austin, Texas), or a numeric Google Ads location id (2840).
language	empty	Language code or name (de, German). Empty means the main language of the location. 46 languages are supported.
network	google_search	google_search, or google_search_and_partners to include Google's search partner sites.
includeMonthlySearches	true	Include the month-by-month history on each row.
monthsBack	12	Months of history, 1 to 48. Above 12 the lookup can take longer.
maxIdeas	100	ideas and both modes: total idea rows.
sortBy	search_volume	ideas and both modes: which ideas maxIdeas keeps: search_volume, relevance (Google's order), competition_index or cpc.
minSearchVolume	0	Drop ideas below this average monthly volume. Never applied to your own keywords.
includeAdultKeywords	false	Include adult keywords; Google Ads leaves them out by default.
maxItems	1,000	Hard cap on new keywords looked up and charged in this run. Repeats are not counted.
includeRaw	false	Add the provider's original row under raw.

Keywords are cleaned before they are looked up, because a single keyword Google Ads rejects would otherwise fail the whole batch: case, extra spaces, surrounding quotes and ? ! , ( ) are removed (so what is the best bbq in austin? is measured as what is the best bbq in austin). Keywords that still contain characters Google rejects (%, @, |, <, >, emoji), are longer than 80 characters or have more than 10 words come back with reason: "invalid_keyword" and a message naming the problem, and are not charged.

Locations accept the Google Ads name with or without spaces after commas, a unique beginning of it, or the numeric id. When a name matches several places (London is in England, Ontario and Arkansas), or none, the run stops at once with the closest matches, so you can send the full name. A run that stops on invalid input costs only the $0.12 run start, which Apify charges when any run begins; no keyword is charged.

Examples

1. Measure a list for one country

{
  "keywords": ["projektmanagement software", "crm software", "e-mail marketing tools"],
  "location": "Germany"
}

German is picked automatically for Germany.

2. A whole keyword inventory, every month

{
  "keywordsText": "plumber near me\nemergency electrician\nroofing contractor\nhvac repair",
  "location": "Austin, Texas",
  "maxItems": 10000
}

Save it as a task and schedule it monthly (see below).

3. Expand seeds and keep the big ones

{
  "keywords": ["email marketing"],
  "mode": "ideas",
  "maxIdeas": 200,
  "minSearchVolume": 500
}

4. Your keywords plus ideas, with two years of history

{
  "keywords": ["running shoes", "trail running shoes"],
  "mode": "both",
  "maxIdeas": 50,
  "monthsBack": 24
}

Run it on a schedule

Save your input as a task and add an Apify schedule that runs it once a month, a few days after the middle of the month, when Google has usually published the previous month. Runs inside the same data month return your keywords free as repeats, so a schedule that fires twice, or a list that grows a little between runs, does not pay twice for the same figures. When Google publishes a new month, every keyword is new data and is charged again. dataMonth on every row tells you which month the figures are from.

Memory: how repeats are recognised

The actor remembers what it delivered to you in a key-value store called keyword-volume-memory in your own Apify account, one set of entries per market and data month, with the figures, so a repeat costs nothing to look up. It never sees other users' memory and nobody else sees yours. Delete the store (Storage, Key-value stores) to start fresh; entries from earlier data months are removed automatically.

One exception, stated plainly: if two of your runs overlap in time, each may charge a keyword the other delivered, because neither has finished saving yet. From then on, it is remembered for every run in that data month.

Use it from an AI agent (MCP)

This actor is built to be called by agents: every field has a default, every keyword you send gets a row, errors name the field and say what to send instead, and the cost of a run can be computed before it starts.

Add it to any MCP client through Apify's hosted MCP server:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume

Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume" --header "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

Claude Desktop and claude.ai: add a custom connector with the URL above and sign in to Apify when asked.

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json) and VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json, use the key servers instead of mcpServers and add "type": "http"):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

Copy this into your agent's instructions:

To get Google search volume, CPC, competition and trend for keywords, call the Apify actor
kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume with JSON input:
  {"keywords": ["kw 1", "kw 2", ...], "location": "United States", "mode": "metrics"}
- location: a country, region or city name ("Germany", "Austin, Texas") or a Google Ads location id.
- mode "ideas" expands the keywords into related keywords; add "maxIdeas" and "minSearchVolume".
- One output row per distinct keyword, in input order, then idea rows, then a final row with
  status "summary". Read the summary: chargedCounts, computedCostUsd, warnings.
- found=false rows have reason "no_data" (Google has nothing) or "invalid_keyword" (fix and resend).
- status "skipped" rows were not looked up (spending limit, maxItems or free-plan limit): run again.
- Cost: $0.12 per run + about $0.005 to $0.012 per keyword with searches. Repeats in the same
  data month, no-data, zero-volume and invalid keywords are free. Send whole lists in one run.

Calls through MCP usually return within the client's wait time: in testing, runs answered from memory took 2 to 5 seconds, small fresh lookups 3 to 28 seconds, and ideas runs 11 to 31 seconds. A run that outlasts the MCP server's wait comes back as still running with its run ID; fetch its dataset when it finishes. Ask for 12 months of history unless you need more.

Agents can also pay per run without an Apify subscription through Apify's support for x402 agent payments; see Apify's documentation for the current setup.

Integrations

API (cURL)

Run and wait for the results in one call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/kkingsbe~keyword-search-volume/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords": ["crm software", "email marketing tools"], "location": "United States"}'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume").call(
    run_input={"keywords": ["crm software", "email marketing tools"], "location": "United Kingdom"}
)
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if row["status"] == "summary":
        print("cost", row["computedCostUsd"], "warnings", row["warnings"])
    elif row["found"]:
        print(row["keyword"], row["avgMonthlySearches"], row["cpcUsd"], row["trend"]["direction"])

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume').call({
    keywords: ['crm software', 'email marketing tools'],
    location: 'Austin, Texas',
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
for (const row of items.filter((r) => r.status === 'ok' && r.found)) {
    console.log(row.keyword, row.avgMonthlySearches, row.cpcUsd);
}

n8n, Make, Zapier

Use Apify's integration in each tool: the "Run an Actor" action with kkingsbe/keyword-search-volume and the JSON input above, then "Get dataset items" for the results. Filter on status equal to ok and found equal to true to keep only rows with figures. The fields have the same names in every tool.

Google Sheets

Keep your keywords in a sheet column and send them as keywordsText (one per line) from Make or Zapier, then write the dataset rows back to the sheet. Because every keyword gets a row in your order, and keyword is echoed exactly as you sent it, results line up with the original column.

Three things about Google's numbers

1. Volumes are rounded into buckets. Google reports averages such as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 90, 110, 140, 170, 210 ... 4,400, 5,400, 6,600. A keyword shown at 4,400 might be searched 4,000 or 4,800 times. Two keywords at the same value are not necessarily equal.
2. Close variants are grouped. Google often reports one figure for a keyword and its close variants (plurals, accents, word order, some misspellings), and search operators are not taken literally. café near me can show the volume of a much larger group than the accented phrase alone. Misspellings are not corrected for you: runing shoes has its own, much smaller figure.
3. New figures arrive mid-month, and never for the current month. Google publishes a month's data around the middle of the following month. Until then the latest month is the one before. dataMonth on every row tells you which month the figures run to, and it is also when your free repeats reset.

Keywords in categories Google Ads does not report (weapons, tobacco, drugs, and similar) come back with no data, exactly like keywords nobody searches for. Google does not say which is which.

Is it legal? Privacy

The figures are Google Ads Keyword Planner metrics obtained through a licensed data provider that uses the Google Ads API. No Google page is scraped and no login is used.

Your keywords are sent to that provider to be looked up, and the delivered figures are stored only in the keyword-volume-memory store in your own Apify account, where you can delete them. No personal data is collected or processed: the actor handles keywords and market settings only. Keywords are treated as plain data; they are never interpreted as instructions.

Google, Google Ads and Keyword Planner are trademarks of Google LLC, used only to describe where the figures come from. This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.

FAQ

How do I check Google search volume for a list of keywords without a Google Ads account? Paste the list into this actor (or send it as keywords), pick a location, and run it. No Google Ads account, developer token or OAuth setup is needed.

Why does Keyword Planner show me ranges like "1K–10K" when this gives a number? Keyword Planner shows ranges to accounts that are not spending on ads. This actor returns the averages Google reports through the Google Ads API, such as 4,400 or 201,000, still rounded into Google's buckets.

Why is avgMonthlySearches null for some of my keywords? Google has no figures for them in that market: too few searches, or a category Google does not report. They come back with found: false, reason: "no_data" and are not charged. Try a broader keyword, a larger location, or mode: "ideas" to find related keywords that do have volume.

Why is my keyword marked invalid_keyword? Google Ads rejects keywords with emoji, %, @, |, <, >, more than 80 characters or more than 10 words, and one such keyword would fail a whole batch. The row's message names the problem. Fix it and send it again; invalid keywords are never charged.

How much does it cost to get search volume for 1,000 keywords? $8.12 on Apify's Starter plan, $6.12 on Scale, $5.12 on Business, $12.12 on the free plan, if all 1,000 are new and have searches. Keywords without searches are free. See the cost section.

Will I pay again if I run the same list twice? Not in the same data month and market: repeats come back free with repeat: true. You pay only the $0.12 run start. When Google publishes the next month's figures, the keywords are new data and are charged again.

How often is the data updated? Once a month. Google publishes the previous month's figures around the middle of the month. dataMonth on every row says which month the figures run to.

Can I get search volume for a city or region? Yes. Use the name as Google Ads writes it, for example Austin, Texas, California, Munich, Bavaria, Germany, or a numeric location id. Typos get a list of the closest matches.

Which language is used? The main language of the location's country unless you set language (for example de or German). The summary row warns you if the actor had to fall back to English.

Can I get more than 12 months of history? Yes, monthsBack up to 48. Lookups with more than 12 months can take a little longer.

How many keywords can I check in one run? Up to 10,000 distinct keywords. Set maxItems to 10,000, because the default is 1,000. On Apify's free plan a run looks up at most 1,000 new keywords.

What happens to questions like "what is crm?" ?, !, , and parentheses are removed before the lookup, as Keyword Planner ignores them anyway, so the question is measured as what is crm. Your original text stays in keyword.

Does it return keyword difficulty or search intent? No. Those are estimates made by third parties, not Google figures. This actor returns only what Google Ads reports.

Does it support Bing? Not yet. It is planned.

How do I reset what the actor remembers? Delete the key-value store keyword-volume-memory in your Apify account (Storage, Key-value stores). The next run starts fresh, and charges as if nothing had been delivered before.

Is it safe to call from an AI agent? Yes. Keywords are plain data, never instructions; the output fields are numbers and the keyword text. The actor runs with Apify's limited permissions, so beyond its own run storage and the keyword-volume-memory store it creates, it cannot reach the data in your account.

How it compares

Checked against the public Apify Store listings and input schemas on 2 November 2026. Prices change; check each listing.

	This actor	aitorsm/keyword-volume	steadyfetch/keyword-search-volume-scraper	memo23/keyword-metrics	wrenfield-data/keyword-search-volume
Runs with an empty input	Yes	No, keywords required	Yes	Yes	No, keywords required
Price per keyword, free plan to Business	$0.012 to $0.005	$0.012 to $0.008	$0.012 to $0.004	$0.25 per batch of up to 1,000	$0.004 to $0.0033
Other fees	$0.12 per run	default start fee only	$0.19 per run when a fresh lookup is needed	$0.05 per run	$0.25 per request of up to 1,000
Can the cost be known before the run	Yes	Yes	No, the lookup fee depends on cache state	Yes	Mostly (small lookups may skip the request fee)
Repeat keywords free	Yes, until Google publishes new figures	Not offered	Yes, for 30 days	Identical input from cache, start fee charged	No (cached keywords are billed like fresh)
Row for every input keyword, in order	Yes, with found and inputCount	Partly (its FAQ covers missing keywords)	Not stated	Yes	Yes, with found
Rejected keywords explained before sending	Yes	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated
Computed trend	Yes	No (monthly series only)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Keyword difficulty and intent	No	No	No	Yes (third-party)	Yes (database source)
Bing volumes	Not yet	No	No	Yes	No

Choose another actor if you need Bing figures or keyword difficulty today. Choose this one if you check the same lists repeatedly, call it from agents, or want every keyword accounted for in the output at a price you can compute in advance.

Changelog

• 0.1 (2 November 2026): first release. Metrics, ideas and both modes; country, region and city locations; per-account repeat memory by data month; validation of keywords before lookup; computed trend; tiered pay-per-event pricing.

Feedback and support

Found a keyword that came back wrong, a location that does not resolve, or a message that was not clear? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab with the run ID; issues are answered within a day.

If the actor saved you time, a short review on the Store helps other people find it.