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

Get the Google search volume of any list of keywords: average monthly searches, the 12-month history, CPC, competition (level and 0-100 index) and the top-of-page bid range, for any country. Add seed keywords and get keyword ideas with the same data. This is the data of Google Keyword Planner (Google Ads), without a Google Ads account.

Send thousands of keywords in one run: they go out in batches of 1,000, and you get one row per keyword.

What you get

Per keyword:

Field	Meaning
searchVolume	Average monthly searches (Keyword Planner estimate)
monthlySearches	The last 12 months (or your period), oldest first: year, month, searchVolume
cpc	Average cost per click, US dollars
competition, competitionIndex	Advertiser competition: LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH and 0-100
lowTopOfPageBid, highTopOfPageBid	Top-of-page bid range, US dollars
source	input (your keyword), idea (a keyword idea) or seed
status	ok, noData, invalid, notProcessed

Example (real run, country US):

{
  "type": "keyword",
  "status": "ok",
  "keyword": "ergonomic chair",
  "source": "input",
  "searchVolume": 60500,
  "monthlySearches": [{ "year": 2025, "month": 10, "searchVolume": 60500 }, "... 11 more months"],
  "cpc": 2.99,
  "competition": "HIGH",
  "competitionIndex": 100,
  "lowTopOfPageBid": 0.72,
  "highTopOfPageBid": 4.35,
  "country": "US"
}

Why this Actor

• Every run ends with a clear answer. A keyword with no data is returned with a note and is never charged. A keyword Google does not accept (a symbol such as ! or %, an emoji, more than 80 characters or 10 words) is listed as not accepted, free, before anything is sent, so one bad keyword never costs you the whole batch.
• Fair billing. You pay for the keywords that come back with data, plus one fixed fee per request (up to 1,000 keywords). No per-keyword charge for duplicates, errors or keywords without data. The request fee is charged when the request is sent, so it applies even when Google has no data for any keyword of the batch, or when the data service then refuses the request, is busy or does not answer: the run summary says so. Your "maximum charge per run" is never exceeded: the Actor stops and tells you how many keywords were left.
• Big lists. 10,000 keywords are 10 requests. Duplicates (any capitalisation or spacing) are removed. Match-type syntax ([keyword], "keyword") is removed with a note: Keyword Planner volumes do not depend on match type.
• Keyword ideas. Give seed keywords, a maximum number of ideas and an order (most relevant, or highest volume).
• Any period. The last 12 months by default, or any months of the last four years.

Input

Field	What it does
keywords	Keywords to look up (thousands are fine)
ideaSeeds	Optional. Seeds for keyword ideas (sent 20 per request)
maxIdeas	Most ideas returned in the whole run (default 100)
ideasSort	relevance or search_volume
country	US, GB, FR, DE, IN... a country or territory name (Hong Kong, Taiwan, Puerto Rico...), or WORLDWIDE
searchPartners	Also count Google's search partners
dateFrom, dateTo	Optional history period (YYYY-MM-DD; whole months, up to last month)
maxItems	Optional. Stop after this many keywords with data

Keyword Planner volumes depend on the country, not on the language you type in.

Price

Pay per event. You pay for what comes back:

Event	FREE / BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD and above
Actor start	$0.005	$0.005	$0.005
Request (one per 1,000 keywords, or per 20 idea seeds)	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15
Keyword with data	$0.005	$0.004	$0.0035

Examples at the FREE / BRONZE price: 100 keywords $0.66, 1,000 keywords $5.16, 10,000 keywords $51.51. Keywords without data, keywords Google does not accept and duplicates have no per-keyword charge; the request fee is charged for each request sent, even when no keyword in it has data. The start fee is per GB of memory (256 MB: one start).

Output and run summary

The dataset has one row per keyword. Rows with no per-keyword charge say why: noData (Google has no data for it), invalid (not accepted by Keyword Planner), notProcessed (a limit or a temporary problem stopped the run before it; run it again later). The OUTPUT record of the run lists the counts, the request fees charged and the reason a run stopped.

Limits, said plainly

• Volumes are Google Keyword Planner estimates (rounded ranges for small keywords), updated monthly by Google, usually in the middle of the month. The latest month available is last month.
• Google Ads gives no data for some categories (weapons, tobacco, drugs, violence...) and for very rare keywords.
• Keyword Planner can group near-identical variants (singular/plural). If you need each variant's own number, check them in separate runs.
• CPC and bids are in US dollars, as Google Ads reports them.
• One request is 1,000 keywords at most. A request usually takes 5 to 25 seconds, rarely up to a few minutes: the Actor only starts a request if the run has about 5 minutes left, so keep the default run timeout (1 hour) for big lists.
• Another run may share the same service limit: when it is busy the Actor waits and tries again, and tells you if it could not finish. A request that was sent but got no answer in time is never sent again in the same run (it may already have been counted): its keywords are returned as notProcessed.

FAQ

Do I need a Google Ads account? No.

Is anything different on Apify's free plan? Yes: live lookups need a paid Apify plan. On the free plan, the prefilled example (keyword research tool, seo audit, standing desk, country US) returns a stored sample result, marked sample: true with the date of the data; only the start fee is charged. Any other input returns one row explaining that a paid plan is needed.

What happens if I set a low maximum charge? The Actor only sends a request if its fee and at least one keyword fit in your limit. Keywords without data do not use your limit. Keywords with data beyond the limit are returned as notProcessed rows (free) and the run summary says how many.

Does the Actor send anything to Quarra? Only when a run fails or runs out of time: the Actor name, build, kind of problem and the place in our code. Never your input, your results or your account.

Can I run it from the API or on a schedule? Yes, like any Apify Actor. The output schema and dataset views are ready for the Apify API, Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets.

Something looks wrong. Open an issue on the Actor page with the run link: issues are answered within 14 days.