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Best keyword research API in 2026

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DataForSEO, Bing Webmaster Tools and Mangools are the best keyword research API providers in our benchmark. We benchmarked 4 providers and rank all 4 by score. For the three we score highest, we show each one's top scoring plan, each part of the plan's score and what 1,000 keywords cost. We rank 45 plans by price. Mangools's $15 monthly plan is the cheapest paid plan per 1,000 keywords: as little as $0.0001. Mangools's $15 monthly plan covers up to 5,000,000 keywords a day.

Every keyword research API provider we score, ranked

  1. DataForSEO, top-up from $50, Pay as you go: Overall score 69.2, Data score 63, $0.12 per 1,000 keywords
  2. Bing Webmaster Tools, free: Overall score 56.7, Data score 6, $0.00 per 1,000 keywords
  3. Mangools, $15 monthly: Overall score 55.7, Data score 23, $0.0001 per 1,000 keywords
  4. SE Ranking, $29 monthly: Overall score 52.3, Data score 19, $0.0039 per 1,000 keywords

  1. #1 DataForSEO: Keyword research API

    DataForSEO, top-up from $50, Pay as you go

    It returns all 6 key fields we check: Search volume, Monthly trend, Cost per click, Competition, Keyword difficulty, Search intent.

    Overall score
    69.2
    $ per 1,000
    $0.12
    Price score
    58
    • $ per 1,000 keywords the provider has no data for: the provider's pages don't say
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 45
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 keywords than this plan: 15
    Data score
    63
    Cost to get started score
    82
    • How you pay: a top-up you pay first
    • Least to pay before your first result: $50
    Bundle score
    92
    • Also pays for, from the same budget: SERP API · AI Optimization API · Backlinks API · Content Analysis API · DataForSEO Labs API and 7 more
    Performance score
    100
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 0.105 s
    • DataForSEO, Keyword Overview, the fastest provider we benchmarked that answers from a copy: 0.105 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 keywords as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.6346 out of 1 on those 20 keywords. That gives this plan a Data score of 63 out of 100.

  2. #2 Bing Webmaster Tools: Keyword research API

    Bing Webmaster Tools, free

    It returns 2 of the 6 key fields we check: Search volume, Monthly trend.

    Overall score
    56.7
    $ per 1,000
    $0.00
    Price score
    100
    • $ per 1,000 keywords the provider has no data for: $0
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 45
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 keywords than this plan: 0
    Data score
    6
    Cost to get started score
    100
    • How you pay: free
    • Least to pay before your first result: $0
    Bundle score
    0
    • Also pays for: nothing else
    Performance score
    100
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 0.213 s
    • Bing Webmaster Tools, GetKeywordStats, the fastest live provider we benchmarked: 0.213 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 keywords as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.0597 out of 1 on those 20 keywords. That gives this plan a Data score of 6 out of 100.

  3. #3 Mangools: Keyword research API

    Mangools, $15 monthly

    It returns 5 of the 6 key fields we check: Search volume, Monthly trend, Cost per click, Competition, Keyword difficulty.

    Overall score
    55.7
    $ per 1,000
    $0.0001
    Price score
    84
    • $ per 1,000 keywords the provider has no data for: the provider's pages don't say
    • Plans of this API we rank by price: 45
    • Plans cheaper per 1,000 keywords than this plan: 2
    Data score
    23
    Cost to get started score
    87
    • How you pay: monthly
    • Least to pay before your first result: $15
    Bundle score
    88
    • Also pays for: Get keyword details · Get SERP results w. all metrics + snapshot and 1 more
    • Also pays for, from the same budget: Get related keywords list · Get list of keywords for domain or URL · Get suggested keywords for URL and 1 more
    Performance score
    10
    • This call's median time on 30 October 2026, minus the baseline: 2.069 s
    • Bing Webmaster Tools, GetKeywordStats, the fastest live provider we benchmarked: 0.213 s
    • On 30 October 2026, we sent this provider the same 20 keywords as every other provider in our benchmark.
    • This plan scored 0.2333 out of 1 on those 20 keywords. That gives this plan a Data score of 23 out of 100.

The Data score on keyword research APIs

This score, out of 100, shows how much of a keyword's data a provider's call returns. We send each keyword to the provider's call, with the United States as the country and English as the language. For each keyword, we count the fields the answer held, such as the search volume and the cost per click. We divide that count by the fields we count for the keyword. We count a field when a live call that offers the field returned that field for the keyword. On a keyword where fewer than two live calls offer the field and return data, we count the field when any call returned that field. Then we average the results over all keywords. Each keyword counts the same. When a provider didn't find a keyword, we count that keyword as 0. We compare a provider that ran on fewer keywords with the other providers on those same keywords. A provider can't score higher by running only on easy keywords. We lower the score when we test the call on fewer keywords than the benchmark has.

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