Google Keyword Planner: How to Use It and Where It Lies

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool inside Google Ads that shows search volume, competition and bid estimates for keywords. You do not need to spend money to use it, but you do need a Google Ads account, and until you spend something it will show you volume as a wide range rather than a number.

That last part is the thing nobody mentions until you have already opened it and found “1K to 10K” where you expected a figure. This guide covers how to use it properly, how to get real numbers out of it, what it is bad at, and when to use something else.

Is Google Keyword Planner free?

Yes. There is no charge for the tool and no minimum spend to access it.

What you need is a Google Ads account. You can create one without running a campaign, though Google’s signup flow pushes hard toward launching one. The way through: during setup, look for the option to switch to Expert Mode, then choose to create an account without a campaign. It is deliberately not the obvious path.

Once inside, Keyword Planner sits under Tools, then Planning.

What does Keyword Planner do?

Two functions, and they do different jobs.

Discover new keywords. Enter a term, a list of terms, or a website URL, and it returns related keywords with volume, competition and bid estimates. This is the one most people use.

Get search volume and forecasts. Paste a list of keywords you already have and it returns volume and projected performance. Use this when you have a list and want the numbers, not when you want ideas.

The output includes average monthly searches, three-month and year-on-year change, competition rated low, medium or high, and the bid range advertisers pay.

One thing to understand before you trust any of it: the competition column measures advertising competition, not SEO difficulty. A keyword marked “low” competition can be impossible to rank for organically, because nobody is bidding on it while five established sites own the organic results. These are different things and the tool does not measure the second one.

The ranges problem, and how to get real numbers

This is the single biggest practical complaint, and it is worth being specific about.

If your account has never spent money, Keyword Planner shows volume as a bucket: 0 to 10, 10 to 100, 100 to 1K, 1K to 10K, 10K to 100K. A bucket of “1K to 10K” is not usable for a decision. The difference between 1,000 and 9,000 monthly searches is the difference between a page worth writing and one that is not.

Three ways around it:

Spend a small amount. Running any active campaign, even a few dollars, unlocks exact figures. For most businesses this is the practical answer, because you probably want some paid search anyway. Our Google Ads strategy guide covers doing it deliberately rather than burning budget to unlock a tool.

Read the forecast tab instead. Add keywords to a plan and open Forecasts. The impression estimates there are given as numbers rather than buckets, which gets you closer to a real figure even on an unfunded account.

Use a different tool for volume and keep Keyword Planner for what it is uniquely good at, covered below.

How to use it, step by step

1. Set your location and language first. Default is often too broad. For a Singapore business, set Singapore specifically. Volume for “web design” worldwide tells you nothing about demand here.
2. Start with Discover new keywords. Enter three to five seed terms describing what you sell, in the words a customer would use rather than your internal terms.
3. Try the URL option too. Enter a competitor’s page and it returns the terms Google associates with it. This is one of the things Keyword Planner does better than most paid tools, because the association comes from Google itself.
4. Filter aggressively. Exclude branded terms unless you want them. Set a minimum volume. Remove anything with obviously wrong intent.
5. Read the bid column as an intent signal. High bids mean advertisers are making money on that term. A keyword with modest volume and a high bid is usually worth more than a high-volume term nobody pays for.
6. Group by intent, not by volume. Separate informational terms from commercial ones before you plan content against them.
7. Export and verify. Download the CSV and sanity-check the top terms against what you actually see in the search results.

That last step matters more than it sounds. Keyword Planner groups close variants together, so a reported figure can be the combined volume of several phrasings rather than the one you typed.

What Keyword Planner is bad at

Being clear about this saves a lot of wasted planning.

That last row is the one that misleads most often. A term reported as zero can still bring customers. Zero in Keyword Planner means below the reporting threshold, not nobody searches it.

When to use something else

Keyword Planner is the right tool for bid data and for Google’s own keyword associations. It is the wrong tool for SEO difficulty, competitor rankings and question discovery.

The underused one on that list is Search Console. It shows the queries that already bring you impressions, including terms you never targeted. Those are the cheapest wins available because Google has already decided you are relevant. See our guide to reading website insights in Google Analytics and the SEO audit checklist for how to work through them systematically.

A practical approach for a Singapore business

Four steps that use the free tools in the right order:

1. Search Console first. Pull 90 days of queries. Anything with impressions and no clicks is a page you already have that is nearly working.
2. Keyword Planner for expansion. Use the URL feature on two or three competitors to find terms you have missed.
3. Google Trends to check direction. A term with falling interest is not worth a page, whatever the average says.
4. Verify the top ten manually. Search each in an incognito window, set to Singapore. Look at who ranks, whether there is an AI Overview, and whether the results match the intent you assumed.

That fourth step is the one professionals do and tools cannot replace. A keyword’s volume tells you how many people search it. Only the results page tells you what they expect to find, and whether you can realistically compete.

Frequently asked questions

Is Google Keyword Planner free?

Yes. The tool is free and there is no minimum spend to access it. You need a Google Ads account, which you can create without launching a campaign by switching to Expert Mode during setup and choosing to create an account without a campaign.

Is there a free Keyword Planner available without a Google Ads account?

Not from Google. Keyword Planner lives inside Google Ads and requires an account. Free alternatives that need no Google Ads account include Google Search Console for queries you already rank for, Google Trends for relative interest over time, and Google’s own autocomplete for suggestions.

What does Keyword Planner do?

It does two things: discovers new keyword ideas from seed terms or a website URL, and returns search volume and forecasts for keywords you supply. The output covers average monthly searches, change over time, advertising competition and the bid range advertisers pay.

Why does Keyword Planner only show ranges instead of exact numbers?

Google restricts exact volume to accounts with active ad spend. Without it you see buckets such as “1K to 10K”. Running even a small campaign unlocks exact figures. The Forecasts tab also gives numeric impression estimates rather than buckets.

How do I check how many times something was googled?

Keyword Planner gives average monthly searches for a term, in ranges unless your account has ad spend. Google Trends shows relative interest over time rather than absolute numbers. For terms your own site already appears for, Search Console gives exact impression counts, which is the most reliable free source.

Does Keyword Planner show SEO difficulty?

No. The competition column measures how many advertisers bid on a keyword, not how hard it is to rank organically. A term marked low competition can be very difficult to rank for. For organic difficulty you need a dedicated SEO tool.

Is Keyword Planner accurate?

The direction is reliable; the precision is not. Volume is grouped across close variants, averaged across the year, and shown in ranges without ad spend. Treat it as a guide to relative scale rather than a precise count, and verify important terms against the actual search results.

What is the best free keyword research tool?

There is no single one, because they do different jobs. Search Console is best for terms you already rank for, Keyword Planner for bid data and Google’s own keyword associations, Google Trends for direction over time, and AlsoAsked or AnswerThePublic for questions. Using three free tools together beats any one of them.

Can I use Keyword Planner for SEO rather than ads?

Partly. It is useful for discovering terms and for reading commercial intent from bid values. It is not built for SEO and gives you no ranking data, no difficulty score and no view of who currently ranks. Use it as one input, not as your keyword research process.

Where this fits in actual SEO work

Keyword research is the easy part. Deciding which terms you can realistically win, and which ones are worth winning, is the part that takes judgement and the part tools do not do for you.

If you want that done properly, it is the starting point of our SEO work in Singapore. For the broader picture, see technical SEO explained, semantic SEO for optimising around meaning rather than exact terms, and competitor analysis for SEO for finding what others rank for that you do not.

If your keywords are mainly for paid campaigns rather than content, start with Google Ads strategy and SEO vs PPC.