The best free keyword research tools are mostly Google’s own. Keyword Planner gives search volume estimates once you’ve set up a Google Ads account with billing details. Search Console shows the queries your site already appears for. Google Trends shows how interest in a term rises and falls. For ideas, add a free generator such as Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator. The SEO MCP isn’t a free tool, and I’d rather say so up front: you get 1,000 credits once you verify your email, one time, and after that plans start at $99/mo.
Last updated: October 2026
Every free tool charges something
Everyone knows free keyword tools exist. What’s less understood is that each one makes you pay in a different currency, and the currency decides whether it fits your job.
- Keyword Planner costs you an account setup. Google’s help page says you must finish setting up your Google Ads account, including billing information, before you can use basic features like “Get ideas for new keywords.”
- Search Console costs you ownership. It shows the search queries bringing traffic to your own site, so it can’t tell you anything about a keyword you don’t already appear for.
- Google Trends costs you absolute numbers. It shows how interest moves over time and across regions, not how many searches a term gets.
- Free generators usually cost you depth. They’re front doors to paid plans, so expect a sample, not the full dataset.
None of that is a complaint. That’s why people who lean on a single free tool get stuck: each one covers one job. Once you know what each tool charges, you can stack them and cover a lot of ground for nothing.
The free options worth your time
Google Keyword Planner. Built for advertisers, but it’s the most direct free source of Google search volume estimates. Enter words or a website and it suggests related keywords with average monthly searches. Google notes that keywords with very low volume or sensitive topics can’t be looked up.
Google Search Console. The Performance report lists the queries your site shows up for. It’s the best free source for one specific job: finding terms you already rank for on page two and could push higher.
Google Trends. Use it to check seasonality before you plan a calendar, and to compare two phrasings of the same idea.
Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator. Enter up to ten words or phrases and it returns keyword ideas for Google, Bing, YouTube or Amazon. Good for widening a seed list fast.
ChatGPT or Claude, for brainstorming only. An assistant is a fine idea generator and an even better grouper. The numbers it attaches on its own are guesses, though. Our post on ChatGPT keyword research with real data covers how to tell the difference and how to fix it.
For a site owner planning a handful of posts a quarter, Keyword Planner plus Search Console plus Trends is honestly enough. You don’t need a paid tool to plan a handful of posts. I’d start there.
Where The SEO MCP fits (and where it doesn’t)
The SEO MCP is a hosted MCP server. You connect it to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor with one URL and a browser sign-in, and the assistant calls live keyword tools while you chat. It isn’t a free keyword tool in the way the ones above are. If you’re weighing paid options, our ai keyword research tool post has five checks to run on any of them.
Here’s the honest version:
| Plan | Price | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,000 once you verify your email, one time, no card |
| Local Dominator | $99/mo | 50,000 per month |
| Growth Engine | $199/mo | 200,000 per month |
| Full Stack | $399/mo | 1,000,000 per month |
Every plan, including Free, gets all 93 tools. Paid credits reset monthly and don’t roll over, and there are no SEO credit top-ups. If you run out, you upgrade, and the new plan’s credits are added straight away. Prices are from our pricing page.
So the starting credits are a trial, not a free tier you can live on. They’re enough to see whether asking for keyword data in chat beats juggling four free tools. If you need keyword research that stays free indefinitely, use the Google stack above.
What the starting credits buy
Our tools page lists per-call costs at Growth Engine rates. Local Dominator uses fewer credits per call and Full Stack uses more. Once connected, ask your assistant to read the server’s pricing resource for exact costs on your plan.
At Growth Engine rates:
- Google Ads search volume: 130 credits per call, for up to 1,000 keywords
- Google Autocomplete suggestions: 3 credits
- Keyword ideas from a seed: 35 credits per 100 results
- Bulk keyword difficulty: 35 credits per 100 keywords
- Search intent classification: 35 credits per 100 keywords
- AI search volume for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity: 29 credits per 100 keywords
The pattern to notice: batching is cheap and one-at-a-time is expensive. A single volume call covers a whole list, so check 200 keywords at once rather than asking about them one by one.
The other thing free tools don’t do is chain. In a free stack, you copy ideas from one tool, paste them into another for volume, and look up the SERP somewhere else. With an MCP server connected, one prompt can run idea generation, volume, difficulty and intent in sequence. Our MCP server for keyword research post shows three prompts that do this.
Keywords are only one category, too. The same credits cover live SERPs, backlinks and page checks; our AI SEO audit tool post shows what a page audit looks like in chat.
How to decide
Ask yourself how often keyword questions come up.
A few times a quarter? Stay free. The Google tools plus a generator will do the job, and you’ll learn a lot doing it by hand.
Every week, and you already work in an AI assistant? Try the starting credits and see if it saves you time. If it does, Local Dominator at $99/mo is the next step. If it doesn’t, you’ve lost nothing but a sign-up.
Either way, remember that every keyword volume is an estimate. Different sources won’t agree exactly, so use volumes to compare keywords with each other and don’t treat them as traffic promises.
For a broader map of what assistants can do for SEO, see our guide to AI SEO tools.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free keyword research tool?
For most people it’s Google Keyword Planner, which shows search volume estimates once your Google Ads account setup is complete, including billing details. Pair it with Search Console for queries your site already appears for and Google Trends for seasonality. A free generator such as Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator helps widen a seed list.
Is The SEO MCP free?
Only to start. You get 1,000 credits once you sign up and verify your email, one time, with no credit card, and every tool is included. After that, paid plans start at $99/mo for 50,000 credits a month. There are no SEO credit top-ups, so if you need more you move to a larger plan.
Can ChatGPT replace a free keyword research tool?
For brainstorming and grouping, it does well. For search volume and difficulty, no: on its own ChatGPT has no keyword database, so the numbers it gives are estimates. Use it alongside a data source, either by pasting an export from a keyword tool or by connecting an SEO MCP server that fetches live data.
Do I need to pay for keyword research at all?
Not if you research a handful of topics a quarter. Keyword Planner, Search Console and Google Trends cover volume estimates, your existing queries and seasonality at no cost. Paying makes sense when you check keywords often, need difficulty and intent for long lists, or want the whole process to run inside your AI assistant.