# Free Google Trends API — Interest Over Time + Related (`s-r/free-google-trends-scraper`) Actor - **URL**: https://apify.com/s-r/free-google-trends-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [SR](https://apify.com/s-r) (community) - **Categories:** Marketing, Business - **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per usage This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. Actors are written with capital "A". ## 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. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Free Google Trends API Scraper — Interest Over Time, Related Queries, Regional Breakdown A free Google Trends API alternative that pulls keyword interest over time, related queries, related topics, and regional interest for any search term in any country. Hosted Apify Actor — no captchas to solve, no IPs to rotate, no pytrends rate limits to debug. Pay only for the trend queries you run. ### What you get For every keyword you submit: - **Interest over time** — full timeseries, 0-100 normalized, with `is_partial` flag so you can drop the unfinished current period - **Related queries (top + rising)** — the queries Google associates with your keyword, ranked by search interest plus a `rising` list with `extracted_value` percentages - **Related topics (top + rising)** — entity-level associations (Knowledge Graph topics), useful for topical clustering and content strategy - **Regional breakdown** — interest by country/region (`geo_code`, `geo_name`, `value`, `formatted_value`, `has_data`) when you toggle the flag on - **Configurable timeframe** — pytrends-format strings (`today 12-m`, `today 5-y`, `now 7-d`) or explicit `YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD` ranges - **50+ countries and languages** — pass `geo=NL`, `hl=nl-NL`, etc.; leave geo blank for worldwide - **Built-in retry-on-429** — rotates a fresh Google session from the cookie pool on every rate-limited widget call (up to 8 retries) - **Optional Apify residential proxy** — opt-in for the related-topics widget which is consistently rate-limited from datacenter IPs ### Why scrape Google Trends instead of using pytrends The obvious free alternative is `pytrends`, the unofficial Python library that's been the de-facto Google Trends client since 2016. It works — until it doesn't. **Rate limits.** Google's `/trends/api/widgetdata/*` endpoints throttle per (cookie, IP) pair. A bare pytrends client starts eating 429s within a few dozen requests. The fix is maintaining a pool of fresh Google sessions, rotating proxies, and implementing backoff — and then updating that infrastructure every time Google tweaks the protocol. A side project, not a weekend script. **The related-topics widget specifically.** `RELATED_TOPICS` is the strictest of all the Trends widgets and most pytrends installs get empty data on the first call. This Actor handles it: synthetic GA/utm cookies, Chrome 131 TLS impersonation via curl_cffi, optional Apify residential proxy for the hardest queries. The Apify cloud also frees you from running a long-lived scraper on your laptop. Submit 100 keywords, walk away, come back to a clean JSON dataset. No Heroku worker, no cron tab, no captcha-solving service. ### Input | Field | Default | Description | |---|---|---| | `keywords` | required | Array of search terms — one trend query per keyword | | `geo` | `US` | Two-letter country code (`US`, `GB`, `NL`, `DE`); empty = worldwide | | `hl` | `en-US` | Language code (`en-US`, `nl-NL`, `de-DE`) | | `timeframe` | `today 12-m` | pytrends format: `today 12-m`, `today 5-y`, `now 7-d`, or `YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD` | | `include_related_queries` | `true` | Top + rising related search terms | | `include_related_topics` | `true` | Top + rising related topics (entities) | | `include_regional_interest` | `false` | Country/region breakdown (slower) | | `use_cookies` | `true` | Rotate a fresh session per widget call | | `use_proxy` | `false` | Route through the Tim IPv6 proxy (default off — direct usually works better) | | `use_residential_proxy` | `false` | Use Apify residential proxy for the hardest related-topics calls (incurs Apify proxy CUs) | ### Output ```json { "keyword": "pizza", "geo": "US", "hl": "en-US", "timeframe": "today 12-m", "interest_over_time": [ {"date": "May 5, 2025", "value": 78, "is_partial": false}, {"date": "May 12, 2025", "value": 81, "is_partial": false} ], "related_queries_top": [ {"query": "pizza near me", "value": 100, "extracted_value": 100, "link": "/trends/explore?q=pizza+near+me", "formatted_value": "100"} ], "related_queries_rising": [ {"query": "detroit style pizza", "value": 250, "extracted_value": 250, "link": "/trends/explore?q=detroit+style+pizza", "formatted_value": "+250%"} ], "related_topics_top": [...], "related_topics_rising": [...], "interest_by_region": [ {"geo_code": "US-NY", "geo_name": "New York", "value": 100, "formatted_value": "100", "has_data": true} ] } ```` ### Use cases **SEO content strategy** — pull rising related queries for your money keywords, sort by `extracted_value`, and build a content calendar around gaining queries before competitors notice. Cheaper than Ahrefs Trending Topics and updates daily. **Ecommerce demand forecasting** — track interest over time for product categories across countries to time inventory buys and plan launch windows. Combine `interest_over_time` with regional breakdown to spot the country where a product is taking off 12-16 weeks before peak. **Content strategist** — feed `related_topics_rising` into a topical-cluster brief so writers cover the entities Google's Knowledge Graph associates with the seed keyword. The 5-year timeframe doubles as a seasonality detector. **Marketing analyst / agency** — run nightly trend tracking across a 50-200 keyword client portfolio and surface anomalies. The cookie pool - residential-proxy fallback makes batch jobs pytrends can't sustain actually feasible. ### How it compares | Tool | Pricing model | Maintenance | Hosted? | |---|---|---|---| | `pytrends` (Python lib) | Free | You debug rate limits, captchas, cookie expiry | No — runs on your box | | Google Trends API Alpha | Closed alpha, application-gated | Google manages | Yes | | DataForSEO Trends API | $0.0006-$0.002/req minimums + plan | Vendor handles | Yes | | Bright Data SERP / Trends | $1.50-$3.50/1k requests + proxy | Vendor handles | Yes | | SerpApi Google Trends | $50-$250/mo plans | Vendor handles | Yes | | **This Actor** | **$0.005/trend\_query, no plan** | **Apify handles** | **Yes** | DataForSEO, Bright Data, and SerpApi all work — they're just on subscription plans that don't suit ad-hoc use. This Actor is pay-per-event on Apify: pay for the queries you run, walk away when you stop. ### Pricing **$0.005 per trend\_query** (one keyword = one event). Includes interest over time, related queries, related topics, and optional regional breakdown in the same charge. No actor-start fee. No compute units billed separately. The optional residential proxy adds Apify proxy compute units at $1.20/GB only when you explicitly toggle `use_residential_proxy=true`. ### Limits and gotchas - **Timeframe normalization** — values are normalized 0-100 within the timeframe. Two timeframes for the same keyword aren't directly comparable; use a fixed window when benchmarking - **Sparse keywords return zeros** — under ~50 monthly searches in your geo, Trends returns all-zero timeseries (Google policy, not a scraper bug) - **Related topics can be flaky** — toggle `use_residential_proxy=true` for highest reliability on the topics widget specifically - **Regional breakdown adds latency** — each country pull is a separate widget call; expect ~3-5x runtime when enabled - **`is_partial: true` rows** — the most recent period is provisional; drop or annotate for analysis - **One keyword per request** — Google's `/explore` accepts up to 5 keywords per comparisonItem but the values rescale; we send one keyword per request for consistent cross-keyword scaling - **No sub-7-day granularity beyond `now` ranges** — Google returns hourly data only for `now` timeframes; older ranges get weekly/monthly buckets ### FAQ **Does this use the official Google Trends API Alpha?** No — that API is in closed alpha and gated behind an application. This Actor scrapes the same `/trends/api/widgetdata/*` endpoints that the trends.google.com web UI uses, with Chrome 131 TLS impersonation and a rotating cookie pool to avoid rate limits. **Can I get hourly trend data?** Yes, for the `now 7-d`, `now 4-H`, and `now 1-H` timeframes. Anything older than 7 days returns weekly buckets (timeframes up to 5 years) or monthly buckets (`all` and longer ranges) — that's a Google constraint, not a scraper limitation. **How do I compare interest across multiple countries?** Run the same keyword with different `geo` codes in separate calls. Each result is normalized 0-100 within its own geo, so for true cross-country comparison either (a) use the regional breakdown of one global call, or (b) check the `extracted_value` fields rather than the raw `value`. **Why does the related-topics widget sometimes return empty?** The topics widget has the strictest rate limits on Trends. We retry up to 8 times with fresh cookies, but if your keyword has very low volume or Trends is heavily throttling that day, the array will be empty. Toggle `use_residential_proxy=true` for the highest success rate. **Is the data the same as what trends.google.com shows?** Yes — same widget endpoints, same `req` payloads. The only difference is that this scraper bundles all four widgets (timeseries, related queries, related topics, regional) into a single result object per keyword. ### Related Actors - **[Free Keyword Research Tool](https://apify.com/s-r/google-keywords)** — monthly search volume, CPC, SEO difficulty, and intent for any seed keyword across 50+ countries. Pair with this Actor: use Trends to spot rising queries, then keyword-research them for volume + difficulty. - **[Free Google News API](https://apify.com/s-r/google-news)** — pull news articles for any keyword. Pair with Trends to correlate news cycles with search interest spikes. - **[Free Google AI Overview Scraper](https://apify.com/s-r/free-google-ai-overview-scraper)** — track which queries surface AI Overviews and which domains Google's AI cites. Combine with Trends to find rising queries where AI Overview cannibalisation is most acute. # Actor input Schema ## `keywords` (type: `array`): Search terms to pull trends for (e.g. 'pizza', 'AI', 'dogecoin'). ## `geo` (type: `string`): Two-letter country code (US, GB, NL, DE…). Leave blank for worldwide. ## `hl` (type: `string`): Language code (en-US, nl-NL, de-DE…). ## `timeframe` (type: `string`): pytrends format: 'today 12-m', 'today 5-y', 'now 7-d', or 'YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD'. ## `include_related_queries` (type: `boolean`): Top + rising related search terms. ## `include_related_topics` (type: `boolean`): Top + rising related topics (entities). ## `include_regional_interest` (type: `boolean`): Interest by country/region (slower). ## `use_cookies` (type: `boolean`): Recommended. Pulls a rotating session from the cookie pool for each widget call to bypass rate limits. ## `use_proxy` (type: `boolean`): Default OFF. Direct connection works for most widgets; the IPv6 proxy can hurt success rates on Trends. ## `use_residential_proxy` (type: `boolean`): Opt-in. Higher reliability for the related\_topics widget which is consistently rate-limited from datacenter IPs. Costs Apify residential proxy compute units (~$1.20/GB). ## Actor input object example ```json { "keywords": [ "pizza", "sushi" ], "geo": "US", "hl": "en-US", "timeframe": "today 12-m", "include_related_queries": true, "include_related_topics": true, "include_regional_interest": false, "use_cookies": true, "use_proxy": false, "use_residential_proxy": false } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "keywords": [ "pizza", "sushi" ] }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("s-r/free-google-trends-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "keywords": [ "pizza", "sushi", ] } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("s-r/free-google-trends-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "keywords": [ "pizza", "sushi" ] }' | apify call s-r/free-google-trends-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=s-r/free-google-trends-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Free Google Trends API — Interest Over Time + Related", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "2ndyN1oOM7sn61jnO" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/s-r~free-google-trends-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-s-r-free-google-trends-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/s-r~free-google-trends-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-s-r-free-google-trends-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/s-r~free-google-trends-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-s-r-free-google-trends-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "keywords" ], "properties": { "keywords": { "title": "Keywords", "type": "array", "description": "Search terms to pull trends for (e.g. 'pizza', 'AI', 'dogecoin').", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "geo": { "title": "Country (ISO)", "type": "string", "description": "Two-letter country code (US, GB, NL, DE…). Leave blank for worldwide.", "default": "US" }, "hl": { "title": "Language", "type": "string", "description": "Language code (en-US, nl-NL, de-DE…).", "default": "en-US" }, "timeframe": { "title": "Timeframe", "type": "string", "description": "pytrends format: 'today 12-m', 'today 5-y', 'now 7-d', or 'YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD'.", "default": "today 12-m" }, "include_related_queries": { "title": "Include related queries", "type": "boolean", "description": "Top + rising related search terms.", "default": true }, "include_related_topics": { "title": "Include related topics", "type": "boolean", "description": "Top + rising related topics (entities).", "default": true }, "include_regional_interest": { "title": "Include regional breakdown", "type": "boolean", "description": "Interest by country/region (slower).", "default": false }, "use_cookies": { "title": "Use fresh Google cookies", "type": "boolean", "description": "Recommended. Pulls a rotating session from the cookie pool for each widget call to bypass rate limits.", "default": true }, "use_proxy": { "title": "Route through PROXY_URL (Tim IPv6)", "type": "boolean", "description": "Default OFF. Direct connection works for most widgets; the IPv6 proxy can hurt success rates on Trends.", "default": false }, "use_residential_proxy": { "title": "Use Apify residential proxy", "type": "boolean", "description": "Opt-in. Higher reliability for the related_topics widget which is consistently rate-limited from datacenter IPs. Costs Apify residential proxy compute units (~$1.20/GB).", "default": false } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```