Keyword Search Volume & Keyword Research Tool (Google Keyword Planner data)

Keyword Search Volume is a bulk keyword research tool for SEO and PPC. Paste a list of keywords and get real Google Keyword Planner numbers from the Google Ads API: average monthly search volume, a 12-month search trend, CPC, competition and low/high top-of-page bids. Turn on keyword ideas to discover new keywords from seed keywords. It works for any country, region, city and language.

• ✅ No Google Ads account, no ad spend. You get exact Keyword Planner averages, not the "1K–10K" ranges Google shows to accounts without active campaigns.
• 💸 $4 per 1,000 keywords, and keywords without data are free. Many keyword volume tools charge $10–12 per 1,000.
• ⚡ Fast and reliable. 1,000 keywords per Google Ads request, typically 20–40 seconds per run. 99% of runs in the last 30 days succeeded.

Sample output

Keyword	Monthly searches	CPC (USD)	Competition	Top-of-page bid (high)
keyword research	135,000	16.68	LOW	26.33
seo tools	165,000	24.39	LOW	29.08
ai seo	6,600	41.45	MEDIUM	34.42

What data do you get?

One clean row per keyword:

Field	What it is
📈 search_volume	Average monthly Google searches, as reported by Google Ads Keyword Planner
📅 monthly_searches	Month-by-month search volume (last 12 months, or up to 4 years with a date range)
📊 trend	% change vs. last month, last quarter and last year (when that much history is available)
💰 cpc	Average cost per click in USD
🎯 low_top_of_page_bid / high_top_of_page_bid	The bid range advertisers pay to show at the top of the page
🥊 competition / competition_index	Google Ads competition: LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH and 0–100
🧠 keyword_difficulty / search_intent	SEO keyword difficulty (0–100) and search intent, with the keyword database data source
💡 type: "idea" + seed_keyword	Keyword ideas generated from your seed keywords

Download the results as Excel, CSV, JSON or HTML, or get them through the API.

How to do keyword research with this tool

1. Paste your keywords, one per line, into Keywords. Lists of thousands of keywords work fine.
2. Set Location (United States, GB, 2840 or California,United States) and Language (English).
3. Under What to get, pick Search volume, Keyword ideas or Both.
4. Click Start. A typical run finishes in under a minute.

Tip: to find new keywords, use Keyword ideas with 1–20 seed keywords and set Minimum search volume for ideas (for example 100) to skip tiny long-tail phrases.

Use cases

• SEO keyword research: size topics before you write, and prioritize pages by search demand and difficulty.
• PPC and Google Ads planning: estimate CPC and top-of-page bids before you launch campaigns.
• Content calendars: spot seasonal peaks in the monthly history.
• Market research: compare demand for products, brands or features across countries and cities.
• Agencies, SaaS and AI agents: enrich keyword lists in bulk on a schedule through the API, Make, Zapier, n8n or MCP.

Input example

{
    "keywords": ["keyword research", "seo tools", "ai seo", "content marketing", "running shoes"],
    "location": "United States",
    "language": "English",
    "mode": "search_volume",
    "includeMonthlySearches": true
}

Field	Description
keywords	Keywords to check, or seed keywords for ideas. Normalized and de-duplicated automatically. Max 80 characters and 10 words each.
location	Country name, 2-letter code or Google Ads location code. For regions and cities, use the Google Ads name, e.g. London,England,United Kingdom. Default: United States.
language	Language name or code (English, es). Empty = main language of the location.
mode	search_volume (default), keyword_ideas or both.
includeMonthlySearches	Add the month-by-month history (default true).
dateFrom / dateTo	Optional history range as YYYY-MM, up to 4 years back. Default: last 12 months.
maxIdeas	Max keyword ideas per run (default 100).
minSearchVolume	Skip ideas below this monthly volume.
dataSource	google_ads (default, live Google Ads API), keyword_database (monthly-refreshed Keyword Planner data with keyword difficulty and search intent, countries only, no request fee) or auto.
ideasMethod	Keyword database only: keyword_ideas, keyword_suggestions (long-tail) or related_keywords.
googleAdsMode	live (default, seconds) or queued (cheaper request fee, usually takes minutes).

Output example

Real output for running shoes, United States, October 2026 (monthly_searches shortened):

{
    "keyword": "running shoes",
    "type": "keyword",
    "seed_keyword": null,
    "location": "United States",
    "location_code": 2840,
    "language": "English",
    "language_code": "en",
    "search_volume": 301000,
    "cpc": 1.09,
    "competition": "HIGH",
    "competition_index": 100,
    "low_top_of_page_bid": 0.48,
    "high_top_of_page_bid": 2.07,
    "keyword_difficulty": null,
    "search_intent": null,
    "trend": { "monthly": -18, "quarterly": 22, "yearly": null },
    "monthly_searches": [
        { "date": "2025-10", "year": 2025, "month": 10, "search_volume": 368000 },
        { "date": "2025-11", "year": 2025, "month": 11, "search_volume": 301000 },
        { "date": "2026-09", "year": 2026, "month": 9, "search_volume": 246000 }
    ],
    "found": true,
    "source": "google_ads_live",
    "data_updated_at": null,
    "scraped_at": "2026-10-19T00:33:26Z"
}

monthly_searches lists every month, oldest first. Keyword ideas have "type": "idea" and the seed_keyword they came from. If Google has no data for a keyword, it's still listed with "found": false and a short note, and you aren't charged for it. The dataset has an Overview table and a Monthly trends view. The SUMMARY record in the key-value store lists skipped or invalid keywords and run statistics.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Keywords without data are free. Paid Apify plans get automatic volume discounts on keyword results.

Event	Price
Keyword result (keyword-result)	$0.004 per keyword or keyword idea with data
Google Ads live request (google-ads-live-request)	$0.15 per request (up to 1,000 keywords, or up to 20 seeds for ideas)
Google Ads queued request (google-ads-queued-request)	$0.08 per request (googleAdsMode: queued)

Upcoming change: from October 23, 2026, the Google Ads live request will cost $0.25 and the queued request $0.15. The keyword-result price does not change. The example costs below use the current prices.

Example run	Cost
5 keywords, United States	$0.17
1,000 keywords, Germany	$4.15
5,000 keywords	$20.75
1,000 keywords with dataSource: keyword_database (no request fee)	$4.00

To cap your spend, set Maximum cost per run in the run options. The Actor checks the limit before each Google Ads request and stops cleanly when it's reached.

Free Apify plan: runs from free-plan accounts use the keyword database and are limited to 10 keywords and 10 ideas per run, at country level only. Any paid Apify plan removes these limits.

Search volume API: use it from code, on a schedule or with AI agents

Call it from Python, JavaScript or any HTTP client with the Apify API, run it on a schedule to track demand every 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-search-volume/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"keywords": ["keyword research", "seo tools"], "location": "United States"}'

Related SEO tools

A full SEO toolkit from the same developer: keyword demand → competitor authority and traffic → AI search visibility.

• 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
• Google Ads Transparency Scraper: see competitors' Google, YouTube and Shopping ads

All of them export flat JSON, CSV or Excel, so you can feed one tool's dataset into the next.

FAQ

Is there a free keyword research tool or free trial? Every Apify account, including the free plan, gets $5 of platform credit each month with no credit card. That's enough to try this Actor. Free-plan runs use the keyword database and are limited to 10 keywords and 10 ideas per run (country level). Any paid Apify plan removes the limits and adds volume discounts.

Is this a Google Keyword Planner alternative without an Ads account? Yes. Keyword Planner hides exact volumes (it shows ranges like "1K–10K") unless you run ads. This Actor returns the exact Keyword Planner averages, monthly history and CPC with no Google Ads account and no ad spend.

Is there a search volume API? Yes. Every Apify Actor is an API. Call the run-sync-get-dataset-items endpoint shown above from any language, or use the official Python and JavaScript clients, Make, Zapier, n8n or the Apify MCP server.

Where does the data come from? From the Google Ads API, which is the same data you see in Google Keyword Planner. With dataSource: keyword_database, the Actor reads a database built from Google Ads data and refreshed every month instead. It's cheaper for small runs and adds keyword difficulty and search intent.

Can I use it as a cheaper alternative to big SEO suites for search volume? Yes, for search volume, CPC, competition, trends and keyword ideas. You pay only for keywords that return data, with no monthly subscription. (This Actor isn't affiliated with any SEO suite.)

Why is a keyword returned with found: false? Google has no measurable search volume for it, usually because the phrase is very rare or new. You aren't charged for it.

Why do similar keywords show identical numbers? Google Ads groups close variants (plurals, misspellings, word order) and reports the same volume for all of them. Google also rounds volumes into buckets such as 90,500 or 110,000.

Why do some months jump a lot? The monthly numbers are what Google Ads reports, including its rounding buckets. Use the 12-month average (search_volume) for planning and the monthly history for seasonality.

Can I get search volume for a city or state? Yes. Use the Google Ads location name, e.g. New York,New York,United States, California,United States or Bavaria,Germany.

How many keywords can I check at once? Thousands per run. They're sent in batches of 1,000 per Google Ads request. Google Ads allows about 12 live requests per minute, so 10,000 keywords (10 requests) usually take 1–3 minutes.

Is this an official Google product? No. This Actor isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Google, Google Ads and Keyword Planner are trademarks of Google LLC.

Found a problem? Open an issue on the Issues tab with your run ID.

Acceptable use

• This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google, Google Ads 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.