# Google Autocomplete & People Also Ask Questions Scraper (`plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions`) Actor

Get Google autocomplete suggestions, People Also Ask questions and related searches for any keyword in 20 countries. Question, comparison and A-Z expansions for content ideas, FAQs and SEO. Fast API results, no browser, no proxies. Pay only per result.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions.md
- **Developed by:** [PlainRows](https://apify.com/plainrows) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Marketing, For creators
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.30 / 1,000 suggestions

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Google Autocomplete & People Also Ask Questions Scraper

Get **Google autocomplete suggestions**, **"People also ask" questions** and **related searches** for any keyword, in 20 countries and their languages. Expand each seed with **question words** ("how / what / why ..."), **comparisons** ("vs / for / near ...") and **A to Z** (alphabet soup) to find hundreds of long-tail keywords and real questions people type into Google.

A search suggestions and questions tool without a subscription: results in seconds from a commercial search data API, no browser, no proxies, no blocked runs. **You pay per result returned** plus a small fee per Google lookup; duplicates and off-topic suggestions are never billed.

### Typical uses

- **Content ideas and FAQ sections**: the questions Google shows in "People also ask" for your topic, ready to answer in your articles and FAQ pages.
- **Long-tail keyword research**: autocomplete with A to Z and question expansions (the "alphabet soup" method), as clean JSON.
- **SEO briefs**: one run gives the suggestions, the questions and the related searches around a topic.
- **Local and international markets**: 20 countries, with question words localized for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish and Japanese.
- **Automations and AI agents**: feed n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, an LLM content pipeline or an MCP client.

### What you get for each result

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `type` | `autocomplete` (Google suggestion while typing), `paa` ("People also ask" question) or `related` ("Related searches" at the bottom of the page) |
| `text` | The suggestion, question or related search |
| `isQuestion` | `true` when the text ends with "?" or starts with a question word: filter questions in one click |
| `seed`, `expansion`, `query` | Your seed, the word or letter added to it (`how`, `vs`, `b`, or `null` for the seed itself) and the exact text sent to Google |
| `position` | Position in the autocomplete list, the "People also ask" box or the related searches |
| `relevance`, `suggestionType` | Google's autocomplete relevance score and suggestion type (autocomplete only) |
| `parentQuestion` | For a "People also ask" question that appeared after opening another one: that question |
| `answer`, `sourceTitle`, `sourceUrl`, `sourceDomain` | The answer under a question and its source page, **when the page contains one** (see "What this is not") |
| `country`, `languageCode`, `observedAt` | Market and when the data was fetched (UTC) |

Missing values are always `null`, never guessed. Each text appears once per run: a suggestion already returned for another expansion or seed is skipped and not billed.

### Input

```json
{
  "seedKeywords": ["running shoes", "trail running"],
  "mode": "both",
  "country": "US",
  "maxResultsPerSeed": 300,
  "expandQuestions": true,
  "expandComparisons": false,
  "expandAlphabet": false,
  "customExpansions": ["best {seed}"],
  "onlyWithSeedWords": true,
  "paaClickDepth": 4,
  "includeRelatedSearches": true
}
```

- **seedKeywords**: up to 500 per run.
- **mode**: `both` (default), `autocomplete` or `questions` ("People also ask" + related searches only, one results page per seed).
- **country**: US, GB, CA, AU, IE, IN, DE, AT, CH, FR, BE, ES, MX, IT, NL, PT, BR, PL, SE, JP. **languageCode** (optional) overrides the country's main language; question and comparison words follow it.
- **Expansions** (autocomplete): `expandQuestions` (on by default, about 10 to 12 lookups, skipped when the seed is already a question), `expandComparisons` (8 to 9 lookups), `expandAlphabet` (26 lookups), `customExpansions` (your own patterns, `{seed}` marks where the seed goes). Each expansion is one Google lookup.
- **maxResultsPerSeed**: 1 to 2,000 (default 300). Expansions stop being looked up once a seed has enough results.
- **onlyWithSeedWords** (default on): drops autocomplete suggestions that do not contain every word of your seed. Google sometimes fills its list with unrelated popular queries; they are dropped for free.
- **paaClickDepth**: 0 to 4 (default 4). Google reveals more questions each time one is opened: about 4 questions at 0, up to about 15 at 4.

### Output example

Real rows from runs on 2026-10-07 (seed `running shoes`, mode `both`, and seed `how to learn python`, mode `questions`, US): an autocomplete suggestion and a "People also ask" question revealed by opening another one.

```json
[
  {
    "seed": "running shoes",
    "found": true,
    "type": "autocomplete",
    "text": "running shoes for women",
    "isQuestion": false,
    "expansion": null,
    "query": "running shoes",
    "position": 1,
    "relevance": 603,
    "suggestionType": "query",
    "parentQuestion": null,
    "answer": null,
    "sourceTitle": null,
    "sourceUrl": null,
    "sourceDomain": null,
    "country": "US",
    "languageCode": "en",
    "observedAt": "2026-10-07T14:51:01.384Z",
    "schemaVersion": "1.0"
  },
  {
    "seed": "how to learn python",
    "found": true,
    "type": "paa",
    "text": "Are Python still in demand in 2026?",
    "isQuestion": true,
    "expansion": null,
    "query": "how to learn python",
    "position": 5,
    "relevance": null,
    "suggestionType": null,
    "parentQuestion": "Can ChatGPT teach you Python?",
    "answer": null,
    "sourceTitle": null,
    "sourceUrl": null,
    "sourceDomain": null,
    "country": "US",
    "languageCode": "en",
    "observedAt": "2026-10-07T14:52:34.695Z",
    "schemaVersion": "1.0"
  }
]
```

### Pricing

Pay as you go, no subscription, no start fee. See the **Pricing** tab for current prices. Two events:

- **Suggestion or question returned**: one per row (autocomplete suggestion, "People also ask" question or related search). Cheaper on higher Apify plans.
- **Google lookup**: one per lookup sent to Google: the seed, each expansion, and the results page read for questions. The data source bills every lookup, even one that finds nothing new, so this fee keeps the per-result price low. With default settings a seed costs about 14 lookups.

Duplicates, suggestions without your seed words, seeds with no result and input mistakes are not billed as results. A failed lookup is not charged. The run never spends more than the maximum cost you set: when the budget runs low, fewer expansions are looked up.

**Free Apify plan:** each run handles up to 2 seeds, 3 Google lookups and 20 results per seed, so you can check the output. A paid Apify plan removes these limits.

### Use it from code, automations or AI agents

**API (one call, results returned directly):**

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plainrows~google-autocomplete-questions/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"seedKeywords": ["running shoes"], "mode": "both", "expandQuestions": true}'
```

**n8n, Make, Zapier:** use the Apify integration, pick `plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions`, and send the rows to Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion or your content pipeline.

**AI agents (MCP):** add `https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions` to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client. The agent gets a typed tool and pays per result.

### Need search volumes too?

- [Keyword Search Volume, CPC & Difficulty](https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-search-volume): paste the suggestions and questions you found to get their monthly Google search volume, CPC and keyword difficulty.
- [Keyword Ideas Generator](https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-ideas-generator): up to 1,000 keyword ideas per seed with search volume, CPC, difficulty and intent already attached.

### What this is not

- **No search volumes** here: suggestions and questions show what people type, not how often. Use the Actors above for volumes.
- **Answers under "People also ask" are often empty.** Google now mostly loads these answers as AI-generated text after the page has loaded, and the data source does not capture that text. `answer` and `sourceUrl` are filled only when the answer is part of the page itself. In our tests on 2026-10-07 (11 results pages with a "People also ask" box, in the US, the UK and France) every answer was of the loaded-later kind, so every `answer` was `null`. The questions themselves are complete.
- Suggestions depend on the country and language chosen, not on a personal search history.
- Not affiliated with Google.

### Run summary

Each run stores a summary in the key-value store (`OUTPUT`): seeds run, seeds with no result, results billed, Google lookups sent and charged, duplicates skipped, suggestions dropped for missing seed words, invalid seeds, and anything skipped because of the free-plan or budget limit.

### FAQ

**How do I get Google autocomplete suggestions for a keyword?**
Enter seed keywords and run in `autocomplete` or `both` mode. Expansions with question words, comparisons and A to Z find hundreds of long-tail suggestions per seed.

**How do I get "People also ask" questions?**
Use `questions` or `both` mode. **paaClickDepth** (0 to 4) opens more questions: about 4 at 0, up to about 15 at 4.

**Does it give search volumes?**
No: suggestions show what people type, not how often. Get volumes with [Keyword Search Volume](https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-search-volume).

**Which countries and languages?**
US, GB, CA, AU, IE, IN, DE, AT, CH, FR, BE, ES, MX, IT, NL, PT, BR, PL, SE, JP; question and comparison words follow the language.

**Why are some answers empty?**
Google now often loads "People also ask" answers as AI-generated text after the page loads, and the data source does not capture it.

### More PlainRows tools

Same pay-per-result pricing, same clean JSON, built to chain together in n8n, Make, Zapier or AI agents.

- **SEO and keywords:** [Keyword Search Volume, CPC & Difficulty](https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-search-volume) · [Keyword Ideas Generator](https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-ideas-generator) · [Google Trends Explorer](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-trends-explorer) · [Website Organic Traffic & Top Keywords](https://apify.com/plainrows/domain-seo-overview) · [Bulk Domain Authority Checker](https://apify.com/plainrows/domain-authority-checker) · [Backlink Checker](https://apify.com/plainrows/backlink-checker) · [Broken Link Checker](https://apify.com/plainrows/broken-link-checker) · [AI Search Visibility Tracker (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode)](https://apify.com/plainrows/ai-search-brand-visibility)
- **Leads and companies:** [Google Maps Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-maps-businesses) · [Website Technology Checker](https://apify.com/plainrows/website-tech-stack) · [ATS Jobs Scraper (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, SmartRecruiters)](https://apify.com/plainrows/ats-job-postings) · [Google Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-jobs-scraper) · [Google Ads Transparency Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-ads-transparency) · [Company Registry Lookup (SIRENE, LEI, Brreg)](https://apify.com/plainrows/company-registry-lookup) · [Public Tenders Search (EU TED & UK)](https://apify.com/plainrows/public-tenders-search)
- **E-commerce and travel:** [Amazon Product Search Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/amazon-product-search) · [Google Shopping Prices Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-shopping-prices) · [Google Hotels Prices Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-hotels-prices)
- **Content and media:** [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-news-scraper) · [YouTube Search Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/youtube-search-scraper) · [Google Images Scraper](https://apify.com/plainrows/google-images-scraper) · [Website Screenshot API](https://apify.com/plainrows/website-screenshot) · [App Reviews Scraper (Google Play & App Store)](https://apify.com/plainrows/app-reviews-scraper)

### Support

Missing a field or found a bug? Open an issue on this page. Issues are read and answered.

# Actor input Schema

## `seedKeywords` (type: `array`):

One topic per line, e.g. "running shoes" or "how to learn python". Up to 500 seeds per run, max 120 characters each.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Autocomplete = what Google suggests while typing (with the expansions below). Questions = the "People also ask" box and the "Related searches" at the bottom of the Google results page for each seed.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Country whose Google suggestions and questions you want.

## `languageCode` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code, e.g. "en" or "fr". Leave empty to use the country's main language (for example German for Switzerland, French for Belgium).

## `maxResultsPerSeed` (type: `integer`):

Stops looking up more expansions for a seed once it has this many results. Each result is billed; see Pricing.

## `expandQuestions` (type: `boolean`):

Also look up the seed with question words in the search language: "how / what / why / can / is ... running shoes" (12 words in English, about 10 in other languages). Skipped for a seed that is already a question. Each expansion is one Google lookup.

## `expandComparisons` (type: `boolean`):

Also look up "running shoes vs / or / for / with / without / near / like / to ..." (8 to 9 words, localized).

## `expandAlphabet` (type: `boolean`):

Also look up "running shoes a" to "running shoes z": 26 more lookups per seed for hundreds of long-tail suggestions.

## `customExpansions` (type: `array`):

Your own patterns, up to 50. Use {seed} to place the seed ("best {seed}", "{seed} for kids"); text without {seed} is added after it.

## `onlyWithSeedWords` (type: `boolean`):

Drop autocomplete suggestions that do not contain every word of the seed (Google sometimes fills the list with unrelated queries). Dropped suggestions are not billed. Does not apply to People Also Ask questions.

## `paaClickDepth` (type: `integer`):

Google reveals more questions each time a question is opened. 0 = only the first 4 questions or so, 4 = up to about 15.

## `includeRelatedSearches` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the "Related searches" shown at the bottom of the results page.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "seedKeywords": [
    "running shoes"
  ],
  "mode": "both",
  "country": "US",
  "maxResultsPerSeed": 300,
  "expandQuestions": true,
  "expandComparisons": false,
  "expandAlphabet": false,
  "onlyWithSeedWords": true,
  "paaClickDepth": 4,
  "includeRelatedSearches": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "seedKeywords": [
        "running shoes"
    ],
    "mode": "both",
    "country": "US",
    "maxResultsPerSeed": 300
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "seedKeywords": ["running shoes"],
    "mode": "both",
    "country": "US",
    "maxResultsPerSeed": 300,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "seedKeywords": [
    "running shoes"
  ],
  "mode": "both",
  "country": "US",
  "maxResultsPerSeed": 300
}' |
apify call plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,plainrows/google-autocomplete-questions"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/1AMvtM61bGQs96aR3/builds/kravdHufXQySeE7u8/openapi.json