Google Trends API: Interest, Related & Trending Now

Get Google Trends data for any keyword, country, category and time range: interest over time, interest by region, share of search and related queries (top and rising). Compare more than 5 terms on one scale, which Google Trends itself cannot do, filter by category, and pull the searches trending now in any country. You pay only per keyword that returns data. Terms with no data and failed terms are free.

This Actor works as a Google Trends API: call it from Python or JavaScript, a schedule, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, n8n or an AI agent through MCP. It is a fast alternative to browser-based Google Trends scrapers: no browser, automatic retries and proxy escalation.

What this Google Trends scraper does

• Compare unlimited terms on one scale. Google Trends compares at most 5 terms at a time. With Compare terms on and more than 5 terms, the Actor adds an anchor term to every batch and rescales all values to one common 0-100 scale in the field valueComparable. Compare 10, 50 or 500 keywords in one run.
• Category filter. Narrow any search to one Google Trends category, for example 71 (Food & Drink) or 7 (Finance). The ID is checked against Google's own category list before the run, so a wrong ID never returns unfiltered data silently.
• Trending now. The searches trending in a country or region right now, with search volume, growth, start and end time, categories and related searches, from the Google Trends Trending now page.
• All data types in one run. Interest over time, interest by region, share of search between compared terms and related queries.
• Any country or region. ISO codes such as US, GB, KR, TW, ID, CO, or subregions such as US-CA. Leave empty for worldwide.
• Search properties. Web, image, news, Google Shopping and YouTube search.
• Correct dates. Full timestamps, data granularity (minute, hour, day, week or month) and your own timezone, so values match the Google Trends website.
• Reliable by design. Each blocked request is retried with exponential backoff and a fresh session. If Google keeps blocking, the Actor switches from datacenter to residential proxies in the same country.

Use cases

• Market research and demand forecasting. Track seasonality and demand by region before launching a product.
• SEO and content planning. Find rising queries and compare topic demand across many keywords on one scale.
• E-commerce and retail. Compare product categories, brands or models, and plan stock around seasonal peaks.
• Brand and competitor monitoring. Schedule weekly runs to follow your brand against competitors.
• Newsrooms and social media teams. Pull the searches trending now every hour, filtered by category.
• Academic and economic research with consistent, comparable time series.

How to use it

Explore mode (default)

1. Enter one or more search terms.
2. Set a country or region code or leave it empty for worldwide.
3. Choose a time range, from the past hour to 2004-present, or a custom range (2024-01-01 2024-12-31).
4. Optional: turn on Compare terms, set a category ID, a timezone or a search property.
5. Choose the data types: interest over time, interest by region and related queries.

{
  "searchTerms": ["coffee", "tea", "beer", "wine", "water", "juice", "soda"],
  "compare": true,
  "anchorTerm": "coffee",
  "geo": "US",
  "timeRange": "today 12-m",
  "category": 71
}

Trending now mode

Set Mode to Trending now, enter a country or region code, and optionally a time window (4, 24 or 48 hours, or 7 days), a category and whether to keep only active trends.

{
  "mode": "trendingNow",
  "geo": "US",
  "trendingHours": 24,
  "trendingCategory": 17,
  "trendingActiveOnly": true,
  "maxTrendingSearches": 50
}

Comparing more than 5 terms

Values in Google Trends are relative within each request, so two separate requests cannot be compared directly. The Actor puts the anchor term (by default the first term) in every batch of up to 5 terms, measures how the anchor scores in each batch, and rescales every batch to the anchor's scale. The result is valueComparable: one 0-100 scale for all terms, where 100 is the highest weekly (or daily) interest of any term. Choose a popular anchor term. If the anchor has very low interest in some batch, rows are flagged lowPrecision: true and the factors are stored in the ANCHOR_SCALING record.

Category IDs

Use these IDs in Category ID (explore mode). They come from Google's category list, which has more than 1,400 subcategories; any valid subcategory ID also works, for example 277 (Alcoholic Beverages).

ID	Category	ID	Category
0	All categories	13	Internet & Telecom
3	Arts & Entertainment	958	Jobs & Education
47	Autos & Vehicles	19	Law & Government
44	Beauty & Fitness	16	News
22	Books & Literature	299	Online Communities
12	Business & Industrial	14	People & Society
5	Computers & Electronics	66	Pets & Animals
7	Finance	29	Real Estate
71	Food & Drink	533	Reference
8	Games	174	Science
45	Health	18	Shopping
65	Hobbies & Leisure	20	Sports
11	Home & Garden	67	Travel

Trending now uses a separate set of categories, selectable in the input: All categories (0), Autos and Vehicles (1), Beauty and Fashion (2), Business and Finance (3), Climate (20), Entertainment (4), Food and Drink (5), Games (6), Health (7), Hobbies and Leisure (8), Jobs and Education (9), Law and Government (10), Other (11), Pets and Animals (13), Politics (14), Science (15), Shopping (16), Sports (17), Technology (18) and Travel and Transportation (19).

Output

Each row has a type. The output tab has separate views for each data type. Download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the API.

Interest over time, comparing 7 terms with an anchor:

{
  "type": "interestOverTime",
  "searchTerm": "juice",
  "comparedWith": ["coffee", "soda"],
  "timestamp": "2025-10-26T00:00:00.000Z",
  "date": "2025-10-26",
  "granularity": "week",
  "value": 16,
  "valueComparable": 7.2,
  "anchorTerm": "coffee",
  "lowPrecision": false,
  "isPartial": false,
  "geo": "US",
  "timeRange": "today 12-m",
  "category": 0,
  "categoryName": "All categories"
}

Trending now:

{
  "type": "trendingSearch",
  "rank": 1,
  "searchTerm": "cardinals vs cowboys",
  "searchVolume": 200000,
  "searchVolumeLabel": "200,000+",
  "increasePercent": 1000,
  "startedAt": "2026-11-01T13:50:00.000Z",
  "endedAt": null,
  "isActive": true,
  "categoryNames": ["Sports"],
  "relatedSearches": ["jacoby brissett", "gardner minshew", "gardner minshew ii"],
  "newsArticleCount": 16,
  "geo": "US",
  "timeWindowHours": 24
}

Field dictionary

Field	Type	Meaning	When it is null or empty
type	string	interestOverTime, interestByRegion, shareOfSearchByRegion, relatedQuery or trendingSearch.	Never
searchTerm	string	The term the row belongs to, or the trending search.	Never
value	number	Google Trends score from 0 to 100; for rising queries, the growth percentage.	When Google reports no value
formattedValue	string	The value as Google displays it, for example <1, +250% or Breakout.	When not provided
valueComparable	number	Score on one common 0-100 scale when more than 5 terms are compared.	Outside anchor mode
anchorTerm, lowPrecision	string, boolean	Anchor used for rescaling, and whether its interest was too low for precise rescaling.	Outside anchor mode
comparedWith	array	The other terms in the same request.	Single-term requests
timestamp, date, dateLabel, granularity	mixed	Start of the period (UTC), its date, Google's label and the period length.	Outside time series
isPartial	boolean	true when the period is not complete yet.	Outside time series
region, regionCode	string	Region name and ISO code.	Outside regional data
sharePercent	number	Share of search between compared terms in a region (sums to 100).	Outside compare mode
ranking, query	string	top or rising, and the related query.	Outside related queries
geo, timeRange, timezone, property	string	The filters used.	Never
category, categoryName	number, string	Category ID and its name from Google's list.	categoryName if the list could not be loaded
rank, searchVolume, searchVolumeLabel	mixed	Trending now: position, approximate searches and the label Google shows.	Outside Trending now
increasePercent	number	Trending now: growth in search interest, in percent.	Outside Trending now
startedAt, endedAt, isActive	mixed	Trending now: when the trend started and ended (null while active).	Outside Trending now
categoryIds, categoryNames	array	Trending now: categories of the trend.	Outside Trending now
relatedSearches, newsArticleCount	mixed	Trending now: related searches and number of news articles Google links.	Outside Trending now
exploreUrl, sourceUrl	string	The same data in Google Trends, to check it yourself.	Never
scrapedAt	ISO 8601	When the data was collected (UTC).	Never

Pricing and cost calculator

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay only for the events below. All data types for a term are included in its price. Terms with no data, failed terms and repeated terms are never charged. Your maximum cost per run is respected: the Actor checks the remaining budget before saving each term and stops when it is reached; terms it could not process are marked NOT_PROCESSED.

Event	Price	When it is charged
keyword	USD 0.01	Each search term that returns data, with every data type selected.
trending-search	USD 0.002	Trending now mode: each trending search saved.

Scenario	Units	Approximate cost
Weekly check of 10 keywords	10 keywords	USD 0.10
Compare 50 keywords on one scale	50 keywords	USD 0.50
1,000 keywords	1,000 keywords	USD 10.00
Top 50 trending searches in one country, daily for 30 days	1,500 trending searches	USD 3.00

Formula: keywords with data × 0.01 + trending searches saved × 0.002.

Integrations: schedules, API, webhooks, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make and AI agents

• Schedules. In Apify Console, open Schedules, create a schedule (for example every Monday, or every hour for Trending now) and add this Actor with your saved input.

• API. Run the Actor and get the rows in one call:

  curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ocius-data~google-trends-reliable/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"searchTerms":["heat pump"],"geo":"US","timeRange":"today 5-y"}'
  

  Python, with the official apify-client package:

  from apify_client import ApifyClient
  
  client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
  run = client.actor("ocius-data/google-trends-reliable").call(
      run_input={"searchTerms": ["heat pump", "air conditioner"], "compare": True, "geo": "US"}
  )
  rows = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())
  

• Webhooks. In the Actor's Integrations tab, add a webhook for the event ACTOR.RUN.SUCCEEDED. Your endpoint receives the run, and the rows are at /v2/datasets/{defaultDatasetId}/items.

• Google Sheets. Use the Google Sheets integration in the Integrations tab to append each run to a sheet, for example to build a weekly demand dashboard.

• Zapier, Make and n8n. Use the official Apify app in each tool: trigger on "Actor run finished" and read the dataset items, or start a run from your workflow.

• MCP and AI agents. The input is flat (a list of terms and simple options, no nested flags), so the Actor works through the Apify MCP server (mcp.apify.com) and in Zapier or Apify steps. Ask Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP client to run ocius-data/google-trends-reliable for your keywords.

Related Actor from the same developer: Google Ads Transparency Scraper, to see which ads the brands behind a trend are running.

Statuses and errors

Every term (or, in Trending now, the country) ends with one status in the RUN_SUMMARY record (Storage, key-value store). The run message shows the counts.

Status	Meaning	Charged	What to do
OK	Data returned.	Yes	Nothing
NO_DATA	Not enough search volume for the term with these filters.	No	Use a broader region, longer period or another term.
BLOCKED	Google kept rate-limiting after all retries and proxy escalation.	No	Run again later or select residential proxies.
ERROR	The request was rejected, for example an invalid time range.	No	Check the input.
INVALID_INPUT	Trending now is not available for this country or region code.	No	Use a code such as US, GB, CO or US-CA.
NOT_PROCESSED	Your maximum cost per run was reached first.	No	Raise the cost limit or split the list.

Invalid input (time range format, region code, category ID) stops the run within seconds with a message that explains how to fix it. If more than 20% of terms fail, the run is marked as failed so you notice.

Known limits

• Google Trends values are relative and sampled; repeated runs can differ slightly, as on the website.
• Rescaled values (valueComparable) are as precise as the anchor term allows. Pick an anchor with steady, high interest.
• In anchor mode, interest by region and related queries are reported per batch, not rescaled.
• Related topics are not included because Google currently returns them empty (checked November 2026).
• Trending now returns what Google shows on its Trending now page for the selected window; search volumes are approximate ranges.

FAQ

Can I use this as a Google Trends API? Yes. The Actor returns the data you see on the Google Trends website through a simple, documented API with pay-per-use pricing.

Can I compare more than 5 keywords? Yes. Turn on Compare terms and use valueComparable.

How do I filter by category? Enter the category ID from the table above in Category ID.

How do I get daily trending searches? Use Trending now mode with a 24-hour window and schedule it daily, or hourly with the 4-hour window.

Why do my numbers differ from the website? Set the same timezone, region, period, category and property. Google samples data, so small differences are normal.

Is it legal? The Actor collects publicly available, aggregated search data. No personal data is involved.

Do you offer volume pricing? For more than one million rows per month, open an issue on the Actor page.

Related Actors from ocius-data

Built to the same standard: a status for every input in RUN_SUMMARY, actionable error messages and list-based inputs, so they chain well in one workflow:

• Bulk Keyword Search Volume & CPC - Keyword Planner: absolute monthly search volume, cost per click (CPC) and competition from Google Ads data, no Ads account needed.
• Google Autocomplete API: Keyword Ideas & Questions: hundreds of long-tail keyword ideas and questions from Google, YouTube and Shopping autocomplete.
• Google News API: Real URLs, Pay per Article: news coverage for any keyword or topic, with the real publisher URL of each article.
• Google Ads Transparency Center API - Competitor Ads: the Google Ads your competitors are running, with full creatives, and alerts when ads start or stop.

Changelog

• 0.3 (November 2026) Trending now mode (event trending-search). Category IDs checked against Google's list and categoryName on every row. Budget checked before each term is saved, with NOT_PROCESSED for terms beyond the cost limit. Rows of terms without data are no longer saved in anchor mode. Run summary kept across platform restarts.
• 0.2 Pay per keyword, proxy escalation, anchor comparison for more than 5 terms, timezones, full timestamps, per-term statuses and run summary.
• 0.1 First version.

Support

Open an issue on the Actor page. Issues are reviewed every day and fixes are released quickly.