# Google Keyword Planner review (2026): is it any good? > Free keyword ideas, search volumes and bid estimates inside Google Ads Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool built into Google Ads. It suggests keywords from a phrase or a website, shows average monthly searches and the range advertisers have paid for top-of-page placement, and forecasts clicks and cost for a list of keywords. It is free, but it lives inside a Google Ads account and is designed around planning Search ad campaigns. - **Category:** Keyword Research Tools - **Made by:** Google - **Website:** https://business.google.com/us/ad-tools/keyword-planner/ - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want SEO difficulty or a rival's rankings, as it shows neither. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, Google Keyword Planner is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** Free with a Google Ads account. Billing details must be entered and account setup finished before keyword ideas can be used. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Free | $0 | Keyword ideas, monthly search volumes, top-of-page bid ranges and forecasts, for anyone with a Google Ads account. | Read from https://business.google.com/us/ad-tools/keyword-planner/ on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Google Keyword Planner before buying. ## Key features - **Keyword ideas from words or a site:** Enter phrases about a product or service, or any website, and get a list of related keyword ideas to filter, group by theme and save to a plan. - **Average monthly searches:** Shows how often a keyword and its close variants are searched, averaged over 12 months by default, by location and network. Volumes are rounded and exact-match only. - **Top-of-page bid ranges:** Low and high bid estimates, roughly the 20th and 80th percentile of what advertisers paid for a top-of-page ad over the last 30 days. - **Forecasts by budget:** A saved plan forecasts clicks, impressions, cost and conversions for a chosen budget and bid strategy, refreshed daily from the last 7 to 10 days of data. - **Volumes for your own list:** Paste or upload a CSV of keywords to get search volumes and forecasts for them, then turn the plan into a Search campaign. - **Google Ads API access:** Developers can request keyword ideas, historical metrics and forecasts through KeywordPlanIdeaService in the Google Ads API. ## Good for - Advertisers planning Google Search ad campaigns and budgets - Checking search volume and ad cost for a keyword list at no charge - Developers pulling keyword data through the Google Ads API ## Worth knowing - Needs a Google Ads account with billing details entered and setup complete, and accounts in Smart Mode must switch to Expert Mode. - Built for ad planning: it shows bid estimates and ad forecasts, not organic difficulty scores or competitor rankings. - Keywords with very low volume or in sensitive areas such as health or finance may return no results. - Each keyword is limited to 80 characters and 10 words. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. Google Keyword Planner is Google's own keyword tool, free inside Google Ads: ideas from a phrase or a website, monthly searches, what advertisers pay for the top spot, and forecasts for a budget. It's built for planning ads, not SEO, so there's no difficulty score and no look at who ranks. You need billing details in a Google Ads account first, and volumes come rounded. - **Value for money: A.** Free, from Google itself, with keyword ideas, monthly volumes, bid ranges and forecasts, and an API for developers. Nothing in it costs money; the catch is the Ads account it needs. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Free with no cap, but you need a Google Ads account with billing details entered and setup finished before ideas show, and Smart Mode accounts have to switch to Expert Mode. - **Features: C.** Ideas from words or a site, volumes for your own list, top-of-page bid ranges and budget forecasts. It's built for ads, though: no organic difficulty, no competitor rankings, and low-volume or sensitive keywords may show nothing. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. The tool itself is simple, but getting to it means a Google Ads account, billing details and Expert Mode, and the screens are made for ad campaigns. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, inside Google Ads, with keyword ideas, historical volumes and forecasts also available through the Google Ads API. No desktop or phone version on record. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Google's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among keyword research tools - Google Keyword Planner's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 44 of the 51 other keyword research tools we grade, and level with 3. - It stands best on value for money (A, above 37 of 51) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0). - Google Keyword Planner has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/keyword-research ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Google Keyword Planner is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 44 of the 51 other keyword research tools we grade. - You could not: Search volumes for millions of keywords, gathered and kept up to date. - You could not: It plugs into other products, Google Ads and Google Ads API among them, and has an API. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Google Ads, Google Ads API **Tags:** Keyword research, Public API ## Alternatives - [Semrush](https://toolgpa.com/tools/semrush): SEO suite for keyword research, rank tracking and AI search visibility. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-keyword-planner-vs-semrush) - [Ahrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ahrefs): SEO toolset for backlinks, keyword research, audits and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ahrefs-vs-google-keyword-planner) - [Ubersuggest](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ubersuggest): Low-cost SEO tool for keyword ideas, site audits and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-keyword-planner-vs-ubersuggest) - [KeywordTool.io](https://toolgpa.com/tools/keywordtool-io): Autocomplete keyword ideas from Google and 16 other search platforms. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-keyword-planner-vs-keywordtool-io) - [Mangools](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mangools): Bundle of five SEO tools led by the KWFinder keyword research app. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/google-keyword-planner-vs-mangools) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://business.google.com/us/ad-tools/keyword-planner/ - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243?hl=en - https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3022575?hl=en - https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/keyword-planning/overview Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/google-keyword-planner Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).