Google Keyword Planner is free and its data comes from Google: ideas, volumes, top of page bid ranges and forecasts. Should I Bid doesn't replace it for volumes. It fills the gap Keyword Planner leaves: by reading the results page, it tells you whether each keyword is worth bidding on for your offer (Bid, Test or Skip).
| Should I Bid | Google Keyword Planner | |
|---|---|---|
| Free to use | ✗ Credit-based (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed), with free analyses to try, no credit card. | ✓ Free with a Google Ads account. |
| Search volumes and CPC | ✗ No volumes or CPC of its own: that's not its job. | ✓ Volumes and CPC ranges. Exact volumes with active spend, ranges otherwise. |
| Campaign forecasts | ✗ No click or cost forecasts. | ✓ Campaign forecasts for the keywords in your plan. |
| Reading the results page | ✓ Reads the live Google SERP, ads and organic results. | ✗ Doesn't read the real results page. |
| Per-keyword verdict for your offer | ✓ Bid, Test or Skip, with a score out of 100, based on what you sell. | ✗ No intent verdict per keyword. |
| Keyword ideas | ✓ Vision generates ideas from a product or a URL, then runs the analysis. | ✓ Keyword ideas from words or a website. |
Should I Bid sorts a keyword list before you pay for a single click. It reads today's Google results page, compares it with your offer and labels each keyword Bid, Test or Skip. It gives no volumes and no CPC.
Google Keyword Planner finds keywords and puts numbers on them: ideas, volumes, CPC ranges and forecasts. It's free with a Google Ads account and remains the reference source for Google's own data.
People have two recurring complaints about Google Keyword Planner. It requires a Google Ads account. And without active spend, it shows volume ranges instead of exact numbers. Many tools sold as alternatives answer those two points: they give volumes without going through Google Ads.
There's a third reason, mentioned less often. Keyword Planner measures demand, but it doesn't tell you whether the person typing a keyword wants to buy what you sell. A keyword can have solid volume and a reasonable CPC and still bring in nothing but browsers. That's where budgets leak.
So before switching tools, ask the right question. Short on numbers? Another volume source will do. Not sure which keywords to buy? You need a decision tool on top of Keyword Planner.
Let's be clear: on numbers, Keyword Planner wins. It's free with a Google Ads account, its data comes from Google, and it covers ideas, volumes, CPC ranges and campaign forecasts. Should I Bid provides none of that.
Its CPC range deserves a closer look. Google Ads Help describes it as the top of page bid, with a low and a high value based on what advertisers have paid in the past to appear among the top ads. It's a good benchmark for sizing a budget. Its forecasts also show how many clicks your keywords might get, and at what cost, depending on your spend.
If all you need is volumes and forecasts, stick with Keyword Planner. Should I Bid doesn't replace it there, and doesn't claim to.
Should I Bid picks up where Keyword Planner stops. For each keyword, it reads the live Google results page, ads and organic results, then an AI reads the pages that rank and matches it all against your company context. It returns a score out of 100 and a verdict: Bid at 70 or above, Test from 50 to 69, Skip below 50.
The score combines four signals: intent fit (40%), buying maturity (30%), competitive signal (15%) and the commercial signal of the results page (15%), plus an alignment bonus of up to 15 points. The details are on the page for keyword intent analysis.
Take a US payroll software company weighing three keywords: ‘payroll software for small business’, ‘free payroll software’ and ‘how to do payroll’. In Keyword Planner, each one has a volume and a CPC range. The results page tells a different story. If ‘how to do payroll’ shows mostly tutorials and templates, the searcher wants to run payroll by hand: that keyword is a Skip. If ‘payroll software for small business’ shows vendor comparisons and several ads, it's a buying keyword worth bidding on. ‘Free’ depends on your offer: if you have a free trial, a test with a capped budget makes sense. This example shows the reasoning; it is not the output of a real analysis.
That's the whole point: pay only for clicks that can convert. And it's easy, because an AI reads the pages that rank for each keyword so you don't have to.
If numbers really are what you're missing, other tools give you volumes. None of them returns a bid verdict, but each has its use.
WordStream Free Keyword Tool is free. It returns ideas from a keyword or a URL, with volume, competition and a top-of-page bid range, plus industry and location filters. The full list comes as a CSV you can import into Google Ads, in exchange for an email address. It doesn't read the results page.
Keyword Tool pulls its suggestions from Google autocomplete and 15 other platforms. Its free version needs no account; volume, CPC and Google Ads competition come with Pro.
Semrush's free keyword tool shows volume, difficulty and search intent. The full suite is paid, with a limited free plan and a 7-day trial.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that shows volume, CPC and competition right inside Google, with related keywords and data export. It runs on annual credit subscriptions; Gold and Platinum plans add a purchase-intent filter through Keyword Keg, with no bid verdict.
Microsoft Advertising Keyword Planner is free with a Microsoft Advertising account. It gives ideas, volumes, trends and click, impression and cost estimates for the Microsoft network, not for Google. It's mostly useful if you also run ads on Bing.
To see these tools side by side, scored on the same criteria, read our Google Ads keyword tools comparison. Verified prices for each tool are further down this page.
The most effective setup runs the two tools one after the other. Keyword Planner finds and sizes, Should I Bid sorts, then Keyword Planner comes back for forecasts on the final list. If you don't have a list yet, Vision, our idea generator, builds one from your product or a URL.
To do the sorting by hand, see the five-check method. Your first analyses are free, no credit card: details are on our credit-based pricing.
Should I Bid gives no search volumes, no CPC and no forecasts, and it doesn't set your bid amounts. For all of that, Keyword Planner is still the tool to open.
It doesn't do SEO either: no backlinks, no organic rank tracking, no technical audit. If you want a Keyword Planner alternative for organic search, an SEO suite will suit you better. Semrush, for example, covers keyword research, backlinks, site audits and rank tracking; we compare it with Should I Bid on our Semrush page for Google Ads.
Choose Should I Bid if your question is ‘does this keyword deserve my budget?’. You keep Keyword Planner for the numbers, and Should I Bid reads the results page to decide, keyword by keyword, before you pay for the first click.
Stick with Google Keyword Planner if you mainly need volumes, CPC ranges and forecasts from Google, for free. For that data, it remains the reference.
| Tool | Starting price | Details | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Bid | Per credit (see Pricing page) | Per credit (1 credit = 1 keyword analyzed), free analyses to try, no credit card. Plans described on the Pricing page. | Source |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Google Ads account. Exact volumes require an account with active spend, otherwise ranges. | Source |
| WordStream Free Keyword Tool | Free | Free: first 25 keywords on screen, full list as a CSV in exchange for an email address, unlimited searches. | Source |
| Keyword Tool (keywordtool.io) | from $88/mo ($68/mo billed annually) | Keyword Tool Pro “Starter”: $88 per month billed monthly, $68 per month billed annually. Growth $188, Scale $388, Agency $788 per month. Free version without an account. 30-day money-back guarantee. | Source |
| Keywords Everywhere | from $84/yr | Annual subscriptions: Bronze $84 per year (100,000 credits), Silver $168, Gold $480, Platinum $1,440. 1 credit = 1 keyword, credits valid one year. | Source |
| Microsoft Advertising Keyword Planner | Free | Free with a Microsoft Advertising account. | Source |
| Semrush | from $139/mo ($117.33/mo billed annually) | Entry “SEO” plan: $139 per month billed monthly, $117.33 per month billed annually. 7-day trial, limited free plan. Separate “Advertising” toolkit: Base plan at $99 per month. | Source |
Prices verified on . Public prices observed on the vendors’ websites on the date shown. They may have changed since: the source prevails.
For another free source of volumes, WordStream Free Keyword Tool gives volume, competition and a top-of-page bid range. Keyword Tool's free version provides suggestions with no account, and Semrush's free keyword tool shows volume, difficulty and intent. Microsoft's planner is free for its own network. Should I Bid includes free analyses, no credit card: it gives no volumes, but it tells you which keywords deserve a bid.
Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account, but exact volumes are reserved for accounts with active spend. Without spend, it shows ranges. To rank ideas against each other, those ranges are often enough. If you want a second opinion on volumes, WordStream and Keywords Everywhere show them as well.
No. Should I Bid provides no volumes, no CPC and no forecasts. It reads the live Google results page, compares it with your offer and returns a Bid, Test or Skip verdict with a score out of 100. For volumes, keep Keyword Planner or another source; Should I Bid comes in afterward, to decide which keywords to buy.
Not directly. It gives a top of page bid range and click and cost forecasts, which help you set a budget. It doesn't read the real results page and gives no intent verdict per keyword. So a keyword can look profitable in its columns and still attract only people who have no plan to buy.
Yes, and that's the setup we recommend. Keyword Planner finds ideas and sizes them. Should I Bid then analyzes the list and labels each keyword Bid, Test or Skip. You export the keywords you keep as an exact-match CSV, with the negative keyword list, then go back to Keyword Planner for forecasts on the final list.
Not entirely. It runs on credits: one credit covers one keyword analyzed. Free analyses let you try it, with no credit card and no commitment, and the Competitors module is available without credits. The plans are described on the pricing page. Keyword Planner, on the other hand, is free with a Google Ads account: on price, it wins.