Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a research tool inside Google Ads that gives you keyword ideas from words or a website you enter, with rough monthly searches and what an ad on each might cost. Google built it to plan Search ad campaigns, and you have to finish setting up a Google Ads account, billing details included, to use it.
Source: Google Ads Help, Use Keyword Planner, checked October 29, 2026
What Google Keyword Planner means for your business
Keyword Planner was made for people buying ads. Bid ranges and click forecasts are there to plan ad spend. The Competition column measures how many advertisers showed ads on a phrase compared with other phrases, so a "high" there says nothing about how hard it is to rank without paying.
The part we'd use most for unpaid search is the website box. Google says you can enter any website, a competitor's included, and it will look for keywords related to that site's pages. That's a quick way to see which phrases a rival's pages are built around that yours never mention.
Google also says its ad and privacy policies often hold back results for keywords in sensitive areas like health and finance. If you run a clinic or a financial practice and Keyword Planner comes back thin, we'd look at the searches Search Console says already bring up your pages.
If you've pulled search counts from Keyword Planner and still can't tell which searches bring customers, every report we send leads with who called and booked.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview cited Google's pages, Semrush, course sites and keywordplanner.net, a separate tool with a similar name, and it left out Google's note that billing details are required. ChatGPT gave a similar summary and linked only to Google's tool page.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
Related terms in measurement
Find out where your brand stands.
Tell us what you're trying to figure out. We'll get back to you within one business day with a time to talk.