Google Keyword Planner Alternative - Ideas, Bids & Volume

What does Google Keyword Planner do?

Google Keyword Planner is an unofficial tool that gets you keyword ideas from Google Keyword Planner without a Google Ads account. Enter seed keywords or a website URL, the same two ways you start in Keyword Planner itself, and get back new keyword ideas with monthly search volume, CPC, competition, top-of-page bid ranges and 12 months of search history. This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google. Google Ads and Keyword Planner are trademarks of Google LLC.

One Keyword Planner request returns about 1,000 to 5,000 keyword ideas. You choose how many you keep (up to 5,000 per run), filter them by minimum search volume and sort them by relevance or volume. It works like a keyword ideas API: run it from the Apify Console, the API, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent through MCP, and download the ideas as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Why use it?

• No Google Ads account, no billing setup. Keyword Planner shows search volume ranges ("1K-10K") unless you run paid ads. Here you get exact average monthly searches.
• Keyword research for SEO: find long-tail keywords and questions around a topic before writing content.
• PPC planning: see top-of-page bid ranges and competition before you launch a Google Ads campaign.
• Competitor research: put in a competitor's domain or a single page and see which keywords Google associates with it.
• Bulk and automated: up to 200 seed keywords per run, in 94 countries and their languages, scheduled or called from code.
• Simple pricing: $3 per 1,000 ideas plus $0.12 per request, with every idea as its own dataset row. Ideas without search volume are free.

What data can it extract?

Field	Example	What it is
keyword	trail running shoes women	The keyword idea
searchVolume	14800	Average monthly Google searches (last 12 months)
cpc	1.17	Average cost per click in USD
competition	HIGH	Google Ads competition: LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH
competitionIndex	100	Competition as a number from 0 to 100
lowTopOfPageBid	0.38	Top-of-page bid, low range, USD
highTopOfPageBid	1.81	Top-of-page bid, high range, USD
monthlySearches	[{ "month": "2026-08", "searchVolume": 9900 }, ...]	Last 12 months, newest first (seasonality)
seed	running shoes, trail running shoes	The seeds or URL that produced the idea
location, language	United States, English	Country and language of the data
source	google_ads	google_ads = Keyword Planner; labs_preview = free-plan preview

How to get keyword ideas from Google Keyword Planner

1. Click Try for free (or Start) on this page.
2. Enter one or more seed keywords, for example running shoes, and/or a website or page URL, for example semrush.com.
3. Pick the country and language (United States and English by default).
4. Set Max keyword ideas (500 by default) and, if you want, a minimum monthly search volume and sort by search volume.
5. Click Start. A run takes about 10-30 seconds per request.
6. Download the keyword ideas as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

Already have a keyword list and only need the numbers? Use Keyword Search Volume, CPC & Difficulty Checker: generate ideas here, check volume and keyword difficulty there.

How much does it cost?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing, so you pay only for what you get:

Event	Price
Keyword idea with search volume	$0.003 ($3 per 1,000 ideas)
Keyword Planner request (up to 20 seed keywords, or one website)	$0.12
Ideas without search volume, empty requests, errors, skipped seeds	free

Example: 2 seed keywords, 500 ideas = $0.12 + 500 x $0.003 = $1.62. 1,000 ideas for a competitor's website = $3.12.

The request fee covers the data provider's fixed fee for each Keyword Planner request. A request that returns no ideas is not charged. Set a maximum cost per run and the Actor never starts a request you cannot pay for.

Free Apify plan: each run gets a free preview of 10 keyword ideas from a related keyword database (source: "labs_preview"), not the full Keyword Planner list, because every Keyword Planner request costs the developer a data fee. Any paid Apify plan gets the full list (up to 5,000 ideas per run).

Input

{
    "seedKeywords": ["running shoes", "trail running shoes"],
    "url": "",
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "maxIdeas": 500,
    "minSearchVolume": 0,
    "sortBy": "relevance",
    "includeAdultKeywords": false
}

• seedKeywords: every 20 seeds make one Keyword Planner request (max 200 seeds per run). Seeds are lowercased and deduplicated, and symbols Google rejects (, ! @ % ^ ( ) = { } ; ~ < > ? \ |) are removed.
• url: a domain (semrush.com) uses the whole site; a URL with a path uses that page only. You can combine it with seeds (one extra request).
• location and language accept names or codes: "US", "GB", "Germany", "en", "de".
• maxIdeas is shared across all requests in the run. Ideas are filtered and sorted before the cut, so sortBy: "search_volume" with maxIdeas: 100 gives you the 100 biggest ideas.

Output

{
    "keyword": "hoka trail running shoes",
    "seed": "running shoes, trail running shoes",
    "searchVolume": 9900,
    "competition": "HIGH",
    "competitionIndex": 100,
    "cpc": 1.17,
    "lowTopOfPageBid": 0.38,
    "highTopOfPageBid": 1.81,
    "monthlySearches": [
        { "month": "2026-08", "searchVolume": 9900 },
        { "month": "2026-07", "searchVolume": 9900 }
    ],
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "source": "google_ads",
    "error": null
}

Rows with an error field (a seed that was too long, a request that returned nothing) are free. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or fetch it with the Apify API.

Tips

• Broad seeds give more ideas. running shoes returns thousands of ideas; a 6-word seed returns far fewer.
• Group related seeds. Keyword Planner combines all seeds in a request, so put up to 20 seeds about the same topic together.
• Use minSearchVolume (for example 100) to skip tiny long-tail ideas and pay only for keywords worth targeting.
• Competitor pages: a single blog post URL returns ideas for that topic; a bare domain returns ideas for the whole site.
• Seasonality: monthlySearches shows when demand peaks, so you can publish or bid before it.

FAQ

Do I need a Google Ads account?

No. The Actor gets Keyword Planner data through the DataForSEO API, so you need neither a Google Ads account nor an active campaign.

Where does the data come from?

From Google Ads Keyword Planner (keyword ideas for keywords and for sites), through the DataForSEO API. The search volume is Google's average monthly searches over the last 12 months.

Why are search volumes rounded, like 9,900 or 14,800?

Google Keyword Planner rounds volumes into buckets. This Actor returns exactly what Google returns.

How is this different from the Keyword Search Volume Checker?

This Actor finds new keywords from your seeds or a website. Keyword Search Volume Checker checks a list you already have and adds keyword difficulty and search intent.

Can I use it in Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent?

Yes. Call it through the Apify API, the Apify integrations for Make, Zapier and n8n, or the Apify MCP server, which lets AI agents such as Claude run it as a tool.

Why did my free-plan run return only 10 ideas?

Every Keyword Planner request costs the developer a fee, so free-plan runs get a 10-idea preview from a related keyword database. Any paid Apify plan returns the full Keyword Planner list.

Support

Found a problem or need a feature? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab and we'll answer quickly.

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google. Google Ads and Keyword Planner are trademarks of Google LLC. It returns aggregated, public keyword statistics and no personal data.

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