Bulk Keyword Difficulty Checker: KD score and search intent for thousands of keywords

Bulk Keyword Difficulty Checker gives every keyword an SEO keyword difficulty (KD) score from 0 to 100 and its search intent (informational, navigational, commercial or transactional). Paste up to thousands of keywords, pick a country and get a sortable table in seconds. Use it to find easy keywords to rank for before you write.

• 🎯 KD 0-100 plus a plain-English level: very easy, easy, possible, difficult, hard, very hard.
• 🧭 Search intent with confidence so you can match content type to the query.
• ⚡ Fast and bulk: 1,000 keywords per request; a 1,000-keyword list takes a few seconds.
• 💸 $5 per 1,000 keywords, plus a small per-batch fee. Keywords without a score are free.

Workflow: get volume, CPC and keyword ideas first with Keyword Search Volume ($4 per 1,000 keywords), score them here, and see who already ranks with Competitor Keywords.

What data do you get?

Field	What it is
keyword_difficulty	How hard it is to reach Google's top 10, from 0 (easy) to 100 (very hard)
difficulty_level	very easy (0-14), easy (15-29), possible (30-49), difficult (50-69), hard (70-84), very hard (85-100)
search_intent	Main intent: informational, navigational, commercial or transactional
search_intent_probability	Confidence of the main intent (0-1)
secondary_intents	Other likely intents
found	false when there's no difficulty score for the keyword (not charged)

How to check keyword difficulty in bulk

1. Paste your keywords, one per line.
2. Pick the Country and Language.
3. Keep Add search intent on (or turn it off to pay only for KD).
4. Click Start and sort the table by KD to find easy wins.

Tip: pair it with Keyword Search Volume and target keywords with good volume and KD under 30.

Use cases

• Content planning: prioritize topics you can actually rank for.
• Keyword list cleanup: score a big list from a brainstorm, autocomplete or a competitor export.
• Client reporting: add difficulty and intent columns to any keyword sheet.
• Programmatic SEO: score thousands of template keywords at once.

Input example

{
    "keywords": ["keyword research", "seo tools", "how to start a blog", "best running shoes for flat feet", "running shoes"],
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "includeSearchIntent": true
}

Output example

{
    "keyword": "best running shoes for flat feet",
    "keyword_difficulty": 10,
    "difficulty_level": "very easy",
    "search_intent": "commercial",
    "search_intent_probability": 0.9178,
    "secondary_intents": [],
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "found": true,
    "scraped_at": "2026-10-19T00:40:40Z"
}

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Paid Apify plans get automatic volume discounts.

Event	Price
Keyword difficulty (keyword-difficulty)	$0.005 per keyword with a KD score
Search intent (search-intent)	$0.0015 per keyword with intent (only when Add search intent is on)
Keyword batch (keyword-batch)	$0.025 per data request of up to 1,000 keywords (search intent is a second request)

Example run	Cost
10 keywords, KD + intent	$0.115
1,000 keywords, KD only	$5.03
1,000 keywords, KD + intent	$6.55

Set Maximum cost per run in the run options to cap your spend. Free Apify plan: 10 keywords per run.

Use it through the API, on a schedule or with AI agents

One-link MCP setup: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=wrenfield-data/keyword-difficulty-checker (Claude, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client). Set maxTotalChargeUsd on the run to cap what it can charge.

Run it from Python, JavaScript or any HTTP client with the Apify API, schedule it to track changes every week or month, or connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets and other integrations. AI agents can call it through the Apify MCP server.

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/wrenfield-data~keyword-difficulty-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords": ["keyword research", "seo tools"], "location": "United States"}'

FAQ

How is keyword difficulty calculated? It's based on the strength (backlink profiles) of the pages that currently rank in Google's top 10 for the keyword, on a logarithmic 0-100 scale.

Is this the same as Google Ads "competition"? No. Google Ads competition measures advertiser demand. Keyword difficulty measures how hard it is to rank organically.

Why is a keyword returned with found: false? It's too rare or new to have a score yet. You aren't charged the KD fee for it.

Related SEO tools

A complete keyword research and SEO toolkit from the same developer. Every tool exports flat JSON, CSV or Excel, so one dataset feeds the next:

• Keyword Search Volume & Keyword Research: bulk Google Keyword Planner search volume, CPC, competition, trends and keyword ideas
• Competitor Keywords: every keyword a domain ranks for, with position, URL, volume and traffic
• Google Autocomplete Keyword Expander: hundreds of long-tail ideas from Google and YouTube autocomplete
• People Also Ask Scraper: Google PAA questions, related searches and AI Overviews
• Domain Authority & Traffic Checker: bulk domain authority, backlinks and organic traffic
• AI Search Visibility Tracker: check if ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews mention your brand
• Google Trends Scraper: interest over time, by region, related queries and Trending Now

Feedback and support

Missing a field, hit an error, or need another country or option? Open an issue on the Issues tab and include the run ID. We read every issue and reply there.

Acceptable use

• This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google or DataForSEO.
• Don't use the data to build a competing search engine, or otherwise to compete with or harm Google or the other search engines the data comes from.
• The Actor may not be used from, or for people or organizations in, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, Crimea or the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
• You are responsible for using the results lawfully, including privacy laws such as GDPR for any personal data they contain.