Keyword Search Volume & Difficulty: Ahrefs Alternative

An Ahrefs and Semrush alternative without a subscription: Google search volume, CPC, competition, keyword difficulty, intent and monthly history for up to 10,000 keywords per run, or keyword ideas from seed keywords, in 94 countries. You only pay for keywords with data.

Try it on Apify  

Typical uses

• Prioritise a content plan: volume, difficulty and intent for every keyword idea in one table.
• Estimate ad budgets with CPC and top-of-page bid ranges per country.
• Spot seasonality and rising topics with up to 8 years of monthly history.
• Enrich keyword lists in Google Sheets, n8n / Make workflows or AI agents.

Pricing

Pay per use, no subscription, no monthly fee. The price depends on your Apify plan. Apify's free plan includes $5 of usage every month.

Run it from your code

Get an API token in the Apify Console (Settings → Integrations), then:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plainrows~keyword-search-volume/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "keywords": [
    "coffee maker",
    "espresso machine",
    "french press"
  ],
  "mode": "volume",
  "country": "US"
}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("plainrows/keyword-search-volume").call(run_input={'keywords': ['coffee maker', 'espresso machine', 'french press'],
 'mode': 'volume',
 'country': 'US'})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

Use it in automations and AI agents

• n8n, Make, Zapier: use the official Apify integration and pick the Actor plainrows/keyword-search-volume.
• Enrich a Google Sheets keyword list with search volume, CPC and difficulty (n8n workflow JSON)
• MCP (Claude, Cursor, other AI agents): https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plainrows/keyword-search-volume

Full documentation, input options and output fields: https://apify.com/plainrows/keyword-search-volume