Keyword Research Tool: Ideas, Volume, KD & Intent

Turn 1–20 seed keywords into hundreds of keyword ideas, long-tail suggestions or related searches, each with Google monthly search volume, CPC, keyword difficulty (0–100), search intent, SERP features and a 12-month trend. Built for SEO freelancers, content teams, agencies and PPC managers who want Semrush-style keyword research without a $130/month subscription. Pay only for what you get: $0.003 per keyword, plus $0.02 per run and $0.02 per keyword-database request (1,000 keyword ideas = $3.04).

No Semrush, Ahrefs or Google Ads account, no scraping, no blocked runs: the data comes from a licensed keyword database (DataForSEO Labs, updated monthly).

What it does

Mode	You get
Keyword ideas (default)	The widest list for your topic. All seed keywords are researched together, so 3 seeds about coffee give one coffee keyword list, ranked by relevance (or by volume).
Long-tail suggestions	Longer phrases that contain each seed, like coffee grinder for espresso, best coffee grinder under 100. Sorted by search volume.
Related searches	Keywords Google shows as "searches related to" each seed, and their related searches (up to 4 levels deep). Great for topic clusters.

Every keyword comes with:

• Monthly search volume (Google, chosen country and language) and the last 12 months month by month
• Trend: change vs last month, 3 months ago and 1 year ago (%)
• CPC and top-of-page bid range (USD), Google Ads competition
• Keyword difficulty 0–100 (how hard it is to reach Google's top 10)
• Search intent: informational, navigational, commercial or transactional (plus secondary intents)
• SERP features on the results page: featured snippet, People Also Ask, local pack, images, videos, shopping...
• Word count and whether it is a question

Filters run before you are charged: min/max search volume, max (or min) keyword difficulty, search intent, must contain / must not contain words, questions only, and other-language keywords. Duplicates across seeds are removed and never charged.

Use cases

• Plan a content calendar: one run with 3–5 seeds, max keyword difficulty 30 and min volume 50 gives a list of low-competition topics you can rank for.
• Find FAQ and blog questions: turn on Questions only to get every "how/what/why/can" query people type about your product.
• Build topic clusters: Related searches mode groups keywords around each seed for pillar pages.
• PPC keyword lists: filter on commercial and transactional intent and sort by CPC in the dataset to find buyer keywords.
• Local or international SEO: run the same seeds for the UK, Germany or Brazil in their own language.
• Feed AI agents and spreadsheets: call it from the API, Make, Zapier, n8n or an MCP client and get clean JSON/CSV.

Input example

{
  "seedKeywords": ["coffee grinder", "espresso machine"],
  "mode": "ideas",
  "limitPerSeed": 200,
  "location": "United States",
  "language": "English",
  "minSearchVolume": 50,
  "maxKeywordDifficulty": 40,
  "excludeWords": ["repair"]
}

Only seedKeywords is required. Countries: any Google country (name or 2-letter code, like UK, DE, BR). Languages: name or code (English, es, German).

Output example

Real rows from a test run (United States, English, October 2026 data):

keyword	searchVolume	cpc	keywordDifficulty	searchIntent	trendYearlyPct	serpFeatures
burr coffee grinder	18100	0.96	7	transactional	-76	ai_overview, popular_products, people_also_ask
best coffee grinder	14800	1.10	20	commercial	0	ai_overview, people_also_ask, popular_products
manual coffee grinder	12100	0.62	4	transactional	-45	popular_products, people_also_ask, images
how to clean a coffee grinder	1300	0.34	2	informational	85	ai_overview, people_also_ask, video

One dataset row (JSON):

{
  "keyword": "best coffee grinder",
  "seedKeyword": "coffee grinder",
  "mode": "related",
  "searchVolume": 14800,
  "cpc": 1.1,
  "competition": "HIGH",
  "competitionIndex": 1,
  "lowTopOfPageBid": 0.39,
  "highTopOfPageBid": 0.8,
  "keywordDifficulty": 20,
  "searchIntent": "commercial",
  "secondaryIntents": [],
  "serpFeatures": ["ai_overview", "people_also_ask", "popular_products", "perspectives", "related_searches", "images"],
  "trend12Months": [{"month": "2025-10", "searchVolume": 12100}, {"month": "2025-11", "searchVolume": 22200}],
  "trendMonthlyPct": 0,
  "trendQuarterlyPct": 22,
  "trendYearlyPct": 0,
  "wordCount": 3,
  "isQuestion": false,
  "location": "United States",
  "language": "English",
  "dataUpdatedAt": "2026-10-15",
  "relatedDepth": 2
}

(trend12Months is shortened here; you get 12 months.) The run summary (key-value store record OUTPUT) lists each seed, how many keywords it returned and how many were removed by your filters.

Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription:

Event	Price
Run with results	$0.02 (once per run, only when at least one keyword is returned)
Keyword	$0.003 per keyword in your dataset
Keyword database request	$0.02 per request that returned keywords (see below)

Price per keyword: $0.003 on the Apify Free plan, $0.0027 on Starter (Bronze), $0.0024 on Scale (Silver), $0.00225 on Business (Gold) and above. The discount is applied automatically. The run fee and the keyword database request fee are the same on every plan.

What counts as a keyword database request: each lookup the Actor makes in the keyword database, returning up to 1,000 keywords. Keyword ideas researches all your seeds together in one request; long-tail suggestions and related searches make one request per seed (all related depth levels come back in that one request). Every extra 1,000 keywords for the same seed or ideas list is one more request. Seeds that return nothing, or whose keywords are all removed by your filters, are not charged.

Worked examples

• 100 keyword ideas for one seed: $0.02 + $0.02 + 100 × $0.003 = $0.34
• 1,000 keyword ideas from 5 seeds: $0.02 + $0.02 + $3.00 = $3.04
• Long-tail suggestions, 5 seeds × 200 keywords: $0.02 + 5 × $0.02 + $3.00 = $3.12
• 5,000 keyword ideas: $0.02 + 5 × $0.02 + $15.00 = $15.12

You are never charged for runs without results, seeds that return nothing, provider errors, keywords removed by your filters or duplicates. Set Maximum cost per run in the run options and the Actor stops at that budget.

Apify Free plan: up to 3 seed keywords and 100 keywords per run, so you can try it on your own topic. Paid Apify plans get the full 20 seeds and 1,000 keywords per seed.

How it compares

	This Actor	SEO suite subscription	Free keyword planners
Price	~$3.04 per 1,000 keywords, no monthly fee	$100–$250 per month	Free, but ranges or a few rows
Keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features	Yes	Yes	Rarely
12-month trend	Yes	Yes	Sometimes
API / automation	Built in (Apify API, webhooks, integrations)	Extra plan	No
Login or Google Ads account	Not needed	Needed	Usually needed

FAQ

Where does the data come from? From DataForSEO Labs, a licensed database built from Google Ads keyword data and Google results, refreshed monthly. It is the same type of data SEO suites show.

Why do numbers differ from Google Keyword Planner? Keyword Planner shows ranges unless you spend on ads, and groups close variants. Here you get one exact monthly average per keyword. Expect the same order of magnitude, not identical numbers.

What is keyword difficulty? A 0–100 score of how hard it is to reach Google's top 10, based on the strength of the pages already ranking. Under 30 is usually realistic for newer sites.

Ideas vs suggestions vs related? Ideas = broad topic list (can include keywords without your seed words). Suggestions = phrases that contain the seed. Related = Google's related searches, good for clusters.

Some seeds returned nothing. Very new or very niche terms may not be in the database yet, or your filters removed everything. Those seeds cost nothing; try a broader seed or loosen the filters.

Can I get more than 1,000 keywords per seed? Use several seeds or several runs. In ideas mode 20 seeds × 1,000 = up to 20,000 keywords.

Does it support other countries and languages? Yes, every Google Ads country and language.

Do I need an API key? No. Everything is included in the per-keyword price.

Integrations

• Schedule it monthly from the Apify console to refresh volumes and trends.
• API: start a run with POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/steady-scrape~keyword-research-explorer/runs and read the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel.
• Make, Zapier, n8n: use the Apify app/node to send keywords to Google Sheets, Airtable or Notion.
• AI agents: works with the Apify MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor agents can run keyword research for you.

More from SteadyScrape

• Keyword Search Volume API: Bulk Volume & CPC: already have your keyword list? Get volume, CPC and trends for up to thousands of keywords per run.
• AI Search Visibility Tracker: ChatGPT & Perplexity: see whether ChatGPT and Perplexity mention, rank and cite your brand versus your competitors.
• Competitor Keyword Gap: Missing & Ranked Keywords: the keywords your competitors rank for and you don't, with search volume, CPC, difficulty and their positions.
• Bulk Domain Checker: Rank, Backlinks & Traffic: organic and paid traffic estimates, ranked keywords and backlinks for a list of domains.

See every SteadyScrape (steady-scrape) Actor on our Apify profile.

Need something else?

Open an issue in the Issues tab. SteadyScrape usually replies within a day.

Acceptable use

You may not use results from this service to build or operate a search engine, or any product or service that competes with or harms the business of search engine providers.

— SteadyScrape