Google Trends is free, and it answers one question well: is interest in a search term rising or falling compared with its own peak? Most people looking for Google Trends alternatives want something it was never built to give: real search volume, trends that start on TikTok or Reddit before anyone searches, what AI assistants recommend, or an API an agent can call. This guide compares eight tools by the job each one does best, using the vendors' own pages on the dates shown.
TrendsFast is our product; we list where others are better.
TL;DR
- Best for search volume: Glimpse.
- Best curated trend database: Exploding Topics.
- Cheapest Google Trends API: DataForSEO Google Trends API.
- Best multi-engine search results API: SerpApi Google Trends API.
- Best for social, search and AI answers, for an agent: TrendsFast (our product).
- The official option, if you are accepted: Google Trends API (official).
Google Trends alternatives compared
Every fact below comes from the vendor's own site on the date in the last column. Where a vendor does not publish something, the table says so.
| Tool | Best for | Data | API | MCP | Entry price | Free | Watch out | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glimpse | Turning Google Trends' relative index into search volume and forecasts. | Google search data, with a channel breakdown in the app. | Yes, REST endpoints for search interest and enriched volume; weekly, daily or monthly series. | No; its FAQ asks you to email about MCP. | Paid app access from $99 a month (stated on its own guide page); API pricing not published. | Up to 10 searches a month in the app. | Search demand only; social posts are not its data. | |
| Exploding Topics | Analysts and investors looking for long-horizon market and product trends. | Described generally as social media, search engines, forums, news, e-commerce and podcasts; individual platforms are not named. | Yes, as an add-on to the Business plan: 1,000 requests a month for $1,000, 5,000 for $2,000, 25,000 for $4,000. Use inside your own product needs custom pricing. | None found on its site. | App plans $39, $99 and $249 a month; the API requires the $249 Business plan. | 7-day trial on app plans. | The API offers no custom keyword or geo lookups, and its cost suits research teams more than agents making many small calls. | |
| DataForSEO Google Trends API | Bulk Google Trends and SEO data at low unit cost. | Google Search, News, Images, Shopping and YouTube search interest. | Yes, REST; up to five keywords per task, standard or live mode. | Yes, an open-source MCP server. | $0.0027 per standard task, $0.011 live; pay as you go from a $50 top-up. | $1 trial credit. | Relative search interest, not social posts and not search volume. | |
| SerpApi Google Trends API | Search-results data across engines, with Trends as one of them. | Google Trends interest over time, by region, related topics and queries; separate Trending Now and autocomplete APIs. | Yes, REST; searches are shared across all engines. | Yes. | $25 a month for 1,000 searches; $75 for 5,000; $150 for 15,000. | 250 searches a month. | Search only; social trends are outside its scope. | |
| Google Trends API (official) | First-party, consistently scaled Google data, if you are accepted. | Google search interest by region and sub-region. | Alpha only, for accepted testers. | None. | Not published. | Not published. | Not generally available, and search interest only. | |
| TrendsFast | Agents and products that need what a brand’s customers discuss, search and watch across social and search, with evidence they can show. | X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Google Search, Hacker News; Search also asks AI assistants the brand’s category question. | Yes, REST (V3) with an OpenAPI contract. A product call costs 10 to 35 credits; a plain read of the shared index 1 credit (global) or 3 credits (niche); rereading a saved result is free. | Yes, authenticated, at https://trendsfast.com/api/mcp/v3, on the same credits as REST. | $10 once for 500 credits; plans from $29 a month for 2,000 credits. | 100 credits once per verified account, then 50 every month, no card. | A young index: coverage varies by channel and day, video is read from metadata and its opening transcript rather than frames, and growth is shown only after two comparable readings. | |
| Pinterest Trends | Categories whose buyers plan on Pinterest, seen up to two years back. | Pinterest searches, saves and shopping activity. | None mentioned on its help page. | None found. | Not published on its help page. | Not stated; some features need a Pinterest business account. | Pinterest only. Some features are in testing for certain regions, and advertiser features need a business account. | |
| Keyword Tool | Long-tail keyword ideas across platforms, with volumes on the paid plans. | Autocomplete from Google and other platforms (17 on the paid plans); Google and Bing volumes from their keyword planners. | Yes, REST, on every Pro plan, including a Google Trends suggestions endpoint for top and rising queries. | Yes, on every Pro plan. | Pro from $88 a month, or $68 a month billed annually (Starter, 50 requests a day), up to $788 (Agency). | The free version generates up to 750+ keywords from Google autocomplete and may show volume for some. | Autocomplete and volume, not trends read from posts; the daily request limit is shared by the web app, API and MCP. |
What Google Trends does well, and what it misses
Google Trends shows relative interest. Each curve is scaled from 0 to 100 against the highest point in the period and place you picked, which makes it excellent for comparing terms and spotting seasonality, and no help in knowing how many people searched. A term at 100 can stand for a few hundred searches or for millions.
It covers search only. Many trends show up first as videos, threads and posts, and now in the answers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity give, often before anyone types them into Google. None of that is in a Google Trends curve.
Programmatic access is limited. Google's official Trends API is an alpha for accepted testers, and pytrends, the popular unofficial Python library, was archived on 17 April 2025; its README had warned it was "only good until Google changes their backend again". Teams that need Trends data in code use a paid provider, which is where most of the alternatives below come in.
The 8 alternatives
1. Glimpse
Google Trends with absolute search volumes and forecasts, as a browser extension, web app and API.
Best for: Turning Google Trends' relative index into search volume and forecasts.
Watch out: Search demand only; social posts are not its data.
Price (checked ): Paid app access from $99 a month (stated on its own guide page); API pricing not published. Free: Up to 10 searches a month in the app.
Source: Glimpse
2. Exploding Topics
A curated database of emerging trends, products and startups, combining machine detection with human curation; owned by Semrush.
Best for: Analysts and investors looking for long-horizon market and product trends.
Watch out: The API offers no custom keyword or geo lookups, and its cost suits research teams more than agents making many small calls.
Price (checked ): App plans $39, $99 and $249 a month; the API requires the $249 Business plan. Free: 7-day trial on app plans.
Source: Exploding Topics
3. DataForSEO Google Trends API
An SEO data provider's Google Trends endpoint, billed per task.
Best for: Bulk Google Trends and SEO data at low unit cost.
Watch out: Relative search interest, not social posts and not search volume.
Price (checked ): $0.0027 per standard task, $0.011 live; pay as you go from a $50 top-up. Free: $1 trial credit.
Source: DataForSEO Google Trends API
4. SerpApi Google Trends API
A search-results API with a Google Trends engine among many engines.
Best for: Search-results data across engines, with Trends as one of them.
Watch out: Search only; social trends are outside its scope.
Price (checked ): $25 a month for 1,000 searches; $75 for 5,000; $150 for 15,000. Free: 250 searches a month.
Source: SerpApi Google Trends API
5. Google Trends API (official)
Google's own Trends API, consistently scaled so separate requests can be combined, over a rolling five years.
Best for: First-party, consistently scaled Google data, if you are accepted.
Watch out: Not generally available, and search interest only.
Price (checked ): Not published. Free: Not published.
Source: Google Trends API (official)
6. TrendsFast (our product)
A trends API for AI agents. Five products, Customers, Trending, Competitors, Formats, Search, are one niche call each: it collects a brand’s own sources, then returns trends ranked for that brand, each with its original link, observation time, measured values and coverage.
Best for: Agents and products that need what a brand’s customers discuss, search and watch across social and search, with evidence they can show.
Watch out: A young index: coverage varies by channel and day, video is read from metadata and its opening transcript rather than frames, and growth is shown only after two comparable readings.
Price (checked ): $10 once for 500 credits; plans from $29 a month for 2,000 credits. Free: 100 credits once per verified account, then 50 every month, no card.
Source: TrendsFast
7. Pinterest Trends
Pinterest's own view of what people search, save and shop for on Pinterest, with up to two years of history.
Best for: Categories whose buyers plan on Pinterest, seen up to two years back.
Watch out: Pinterest only. Some features are in testing for certain regions, and advertiser features need a business account.
Price (checked ): Not published on its help page. Free: Not stated; some features need a Pinterest business account.
Source: Pinterest Trends
8. Keyword Tool
Keyword ideas from the autocomplete of Google and other platforms, with search volumes on its paid plans.
Best for: Long-tail keyword ideas across platforms, with volumes on the paid plans.
Watch out: Autocomplete and volume, not trends read from posts; the daily request limit is shared by the web app, API and MCP.
Price (checked ): Pro from $88 a month, or $68 a month billed annually (Starter, 50 requests a day), up to $788 (Agency). Free: The free version generates up to 750+ keywords from Google autocomplete and may show volume for some.
Source: Keyword Tool
A real example: one topic, three lenses
To show what each kind of tool sees, we ran two TrendsFast product calls on our own brand, a trends API for AI agents, on 3 November 2026. Both read the window from 31 October to 3 November. The Search call cost 35 credits and the Trending call 25.
What Google Trends shows. The Search call returned 60 Google Trends measurements for the niche. "saas content marketing" stood at 55 on the relative scale for the US over the past month, and "claude agents" at 24. Google also listed "saas content marketing services" as a rising related query at +209,600%. That is a single reading, so TrendsFast marks its growth as not comparable until a second reading exists. The same read matched off-topic queries too, such as "best budget smartphone": broad word matches you still have to filter out.
What social shows. The Trending call returned 95 items from TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, X, Instagram, GitHub and Google Trends. The discussions explain what a curve cannot. On r/SEO, a thread titled "Google killed me" drew 70 points and 123 comments; on r/PPC, "Search growth went 19% → 17% → 12% this year" drew 40 points and 21 comments. Also on r/SEO, "Is it still worth restarting a tech blog in 2026, or am I just wasting my time?" was marked as an emerging topic since 29 October.
What AI answers say. The Search call also asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity our category's buyer question, which, judging by the answers, came out as a question about AI tools for small businesses. None of the four named TrendsFast or the competitors we track. Claude listed ten tools, among them Grammarly, Canva Magic Studio and HubSpot AI, and Perplexity cited eight domains, including blog.hubspot.com and fitsmallbusiness.com.
Three lenses, three different answers. The curve tells you that interest exists and how it moves; the threads tell you why marketers are worried about their search traffic; the AI answers show who gets recommended when a buyer asks, and that it is not us yet. No single tool on this list covers all three well, ours included: our search read was noisy, and the question the assistants were asked was broader than our niche.
Which Google Trends alternative should you pick?
- If you need absolute search volume behind a Google Trends curve: Glimpse.
- If you need a curated list of emerging trends and products to browse: Exploding Topics.
- If you need Google Trends data in bulk, at the lowest unit price: DataForSEO.
- If you need search results from several engines through one API: SerpApi.
- If you need what your customers discuss, watch and search, and what AI assistants answer, for an agent: TrendsFast.
- If you need a category whose buyers plan on Pinterest: Pinterest Trends.
- If you need long-tail keyword ideas from autocomplete: Keyword Tool.
- If you need first-party, consistently scaled Google data: Google Trends API (official).
How we picked
We read each vendor's pricing, documentation and API pages on the dates shown in the table, and quote only what they publish. We did not buy paid plans to test them, and we did not measure the accuracy of anyone's data, our own included. Other lists include Similarweb, Ubersuggest and eBay Explore; we left them out because we did not read and date their pages for this comparison. The TrendsFast example uses real results from our own account, which stay rereadable there for free by their IDs.
FAQ
Does Google Trends still work in 2026?
Yes. Google Trends still shows relative search interest, scaled from 0 to 100, for a term, a place and a time range. It does not show search volume, and Google's official Trends API is an alpha open only to accepted testers.
Is Google Trends free to use?
Yes, the Google Trends website costs nothing. Programmatic access is what costs money: DataForSEO charges $0.0027 per standard task, SerpApi starts at $25 a month for 1,000 searches, and Google has published no price for its own API.
Is there a free Google Trends API?
Not an official one for everyone: Google's API is an alpha for accepted testers. SerpApi includes 250 searches a month free and DataForSEO a $1 trial credit. pytrends, the popular unofficial library, was archived on 17 April 2025.
What is the best free alternative to Google Trends?
It depends on the job. Keyword Tool's free version suggests up to 750+ keywords from Google autocomplete, Glimpse allows up to 10 searches a month with search volume, and TrendsFast gives 100 free credits once, then 50 every month.
How do I find trends on TikTok and Reddit before they show up in Google Trends?
Watch the platforms themselves: read new TikTok videos, Reddit threads and X posts in your niche over several days and look for repeats. TrendsFast's Trending product reads those sources for your brand in one call and labels what is rising or emerging, with links.