Free Keyword Research Tools: 8 Tested on One Niche

Free keyword research tools can carry a small site a surprisingly long way. As of July 2026 there are eight we would genuinely put in front of a client: Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, the Semrush free plan, Ubersuggest’s free tier, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, manual Google autocomplete mining, and Bing Webmaster Tools. Every one is free right now, not “free trial then pay”. To keep the comparison honest, this guide puts all eight against one niche, roller garage doors, a market we work in for real clients, showing what each returns and where its free tier stops. This post sits in our SEO tools hub.

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How did we compare eight free keyword research tools?

Comparing free keyword research tools fairly means giving every tool the same job. Our protocol is simple: one seed topic (roller garage doors), the location set to the United Kingdom wherever the tool allows it, and searches run in a clean browser session so personal history cannot skew suggestions. For each tool we record what kind of output comes back (keyword lists, questions, or performance data), how it reports search volume, what the free tier lets you export, and where you hit the wall. We quote no volume figures anywhere in this article, deliberately: the free tiers report volume in incompatible ways (broad ranges, Bing-only numbers, or nothing at all), so a side-by-side table of numbers would mislead. Instead, each section describes the structure of what comes back.

What does Google Keyword Planner give you without paying?

Google Keyword Planner is free to use and you do not need to run ads. You need a Google Ads account, and Google may ask for billing details to finish account setup, but nothing is charged unless you actually launch a campaign. The catch, still true as of July 2026: accounts with no ad spend see search volume as broad ranges such as 1K to 10K, so keywords inside one bracket can differ enormously in real demand. For a seed like roller garage doors, Keyword Planner returns a long list of commercial variants and brand terms mixed together, each with a volume range and a competition column. That competition score measures advertiser bidding, not SEO difficulty. Treat Keyword Planner as a strong free idea generator with directional volume, and never read the ranges as precise facts.

How do you mine keywords from Google Search Console?

Google Search Console is completely free and it is the only tool on this list built from your own data. The Performance report shows every query your site already appeared for, with clicks, impressions, and average position. That makes it useless for a brand new site but a goldmine for an existing one. On a garage door client site, filtering queries containing “roller” surfaces long-tail phrases the site ranks for in positions 8 to 20: real demand, already partially won, and invisible in every other free tool. The workflow is simple: sort by impressions, find queries with a poor average position, then strengthen or create the page that should own them. We cover this angle in more depth in how to check your Google rankings, and our dedicated guide to Search Console keyword research sets out the filters and query recipes we use.

What can the Semrush free plan do each day?

The Semrush free plan is a permanent free account, not a trial. As of July 2026, Semrush’s own help centre lists the limits as 10 searches per day across Domain and Keyword Analytics, 10 tracked keywords in Position Tracking, and a site audit capped at 100 pages per month. Those 10 daily lookups run against the same Keyword Magic Tool paid users get, so a seed like roller garage doors returns the richest per-row data of the eight: volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, and SERP features from the UK database. Reports are trimmed on the free plan (third-party write-ups describe roughly the first 10 rows per report), so spend your ten lookups on shortlisted keywords rather than open-ended browsing. Our Semrush keyword research guide walks through the full workflow, and most of it works in miniature on the free plan.

Is Ubersuggest still free in 2026?

Ubersuggest still has a genuinely free tier as of July 2026: 3 searches or reports per day per its help centre, with no time limit on the account, plus one domain project. For a roller garage doors seed, Ubersuggest returns a keyword overview plus tabs for suggestions, related terms, and questions, though free accounts see a trimmed suggestion list rather than the full set. The interface is the friendliest on this list. Three searches a day is the real constraint: one seed, one competitor domain, one follow-up, and you are done until tomorrow. The free Chrome extension is the quiet workaround, allowing 40 searches per day overlaid directly on Google results, per Ubersuggest’s help centre. Paid plans start at $29 (about £21) per month (vendor pricing page, July 2026) if the meter starts to pinch.

What questions does AnswerThePublic surface for free?

AnswerThePublic offers 3 free searches per day as of July 2026, per its own help centre, and refreshing an existing report counts against the limit. The tool visualises autocomplete data as a wheel of questions (who, what, why, how), prepositions (for, with, near), and comparisons (vs, or). For roller garage doors, the question wheel is where the informational content ideas live: repair questions, sizing questions, cost questions, all phrased the way real people type them. Volume and cost-per-click data appear on only two branches per report, and free exports cap at 30 keywords, so treat it as a content brief generator rather than a prioritisation tool. The strongest move is to cross-reference: if a question theme also shows up in your Search Console impressions, you have demand and proof in one afternoon.

How does AlsoAsked map People Also Ask questions?

AlsoAsked pulls live People Also Ask data from Google and arranges it as a branching tree, showing how one question leads to the next two or three levels deep. As of July 2026 the free allowance is 3 searches per day with no account needed, refreshed daily. The trade-offs, per the AlsoAsked pricing page: free searches export as a PNG only, paid plans start at $12 (about £9) per month, and CSV export needs the $23 (about £17) Lite plan or above. For roller garage doors, the tree structure is the value: it groups questions by intent branch, showing which questions belong together on one page and which deserve a page of their own. We use the free tier for one-off page planning and only suggest paying when mapping questions across a whole site.

How do you mine Google autocomplete by hand?

Google autocomplete mining costs nothing and needs no account: type your seed keyword into Google and harvest the suggestions, then repeat with each letter of the alphabet appended (“roller garage doors a”, “roller garage doors b”, and so on). Use a private browsing window with google.co.uk results so your own history does not pollute the suggestions. Then run the People Also Ask loop: expand each PAA box and Google loads more questions the deeper you click. For a local trade niche this method produces the most current phrasing on the list, because autocomplete reflects recent real typing rather than a monthly database refresh. The weakness is zero volume data, so everything harvested this way needs sanity-checking against Keyword Planner ranges or Bing Webmaster Tools numbers before you build pages around it.

Why use Bing Webmaster Tools for keyword research?

Bing Webmaster Tools is entirely free and hides one of the best-kept secrets on this list: a Keyword Research tool showing actual search numbers from Bing (reported as impressions), not ranges, plus related keyword suggestions, filterable by country, with CSV export. It is a free keyword tool UK businesses consistently overlook. Bing’s numbers are much smaller than Google’s, so use them to compare keywords against each other rather than as absolute demand. For a niche like roller garage doors, the related keyword list makes a genuinely useful free cross-check against what the metered tools suggest. Bonus: Bing’s index feeds several AI assistants, so registering here also positions you for AI search visibility, something we cover in optimising for AI Overviews.

What are the limits of each free keyword tool?

The table below summarises what each of the eight free keyword research tools allows as of July 2026, based on vendor pages and help centres checked this month. Limits change without notice, so check the tool’s own pricing page before building a workflow around one. The free tiers fall into three groups: unlimited but shallow (Keyword Planner, autocomplete, Bing Webmaster Tools), your own data only (Search Console), and metered slices of a paid product (Semrush, Ubersuggest, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked). A sensible free stack takes at least one tool from each group.

Tool	Free limit (July 2026)	Volume data	Export
Google Keyword Planner	Unlimited (Ads account, no spend needed)	Broad ranges only	CSV / Sheets
Google Search Console	Unlimited (your own site)	None (impressions instead)	CSV / Sheets
Semrush free plan	10 lookups per day	Full (Google, estimated)	Limited
Ubersuggest free	3 searches per day (40 via extension)	Full (estimated), trimmed lists	Limited
AnswerThePublic	3 searches per day	2 branches per report	30-keyword XLSX
AlsoAsked	3 searches per day, no account needed	None	PNG only
Google autocomplete	Unlimited	None	Manual
Bing Webmaster Tools	Unlimited (verified account)	Actual Bing numbers	CSV

What is a sensible workflow for keyword research without paying?

Keyword research without paying works best as a pipeline, each free tool doing the one job it is good at. This is the sequence we give clients not yet ready for paid tools, the same skeleton as our DIY SEO guide:

1. List 10 to 20 seed topics from your own knowledge of the business.
2. Pull every query you already appear for from Search Console.
3. Expand each seed with autocomplete and Keyword Planner ideas, using the volume ranges and Bing Webmaster Tools numbers as a relative demand check.
4. Harvest questions with AnswerThePublic and AlsoAsked (3 searches each per day, so batch by topic).
5. Spend your 10 daily Semrush free lookups on the final shortlist only, for difficulty and intent.
6. Map one primary keyword per page and log everything in a spreadsheet.

Before acting on the list, run this check:

• Location set to the UK in every tool that allows it
• Searches run in a private window
• Source of every volume figure logged next to the number
• No two pages targeting the same primary keyword

When does free keyword research stop being enough?

Free keyword research tools stop being enough at a predictable point: when the cost of not knowing exceeds the cost of a subscription. The free stack does discovery well and prioritisation badly. It cannot give you exact Google volumes and difficulty at scale, competitor gap analysis (keywords rivals rank for and you do not), rank tracking beyond a handful of terms, or more than the 19 metered lookups a day the free tiers allow combined. If rank tracking is the only gap, the free rank trackers we would still recommend stretch further than the free keyword tools do. When our roller garage door client grew revenue 44% year on year, the campaign was planned on full keyword datasets: free tools found the ideas, paid data set the build order. Hitting the meters daily? See what the 7-day Semrush free trial includes before paying anything; paid plans start at $139 (about £102) per month as of July 2026. On a smaller budget, our SE Ranking review covers the best value alternative we have tested, with a 14-day trial that needs no card. For the wider free stack beyond keywords, our round-up of the best free SEO tools covers audits, backlinks and rank checks.

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FAQ: free keyword research tools

What is the best completely free keyword research tool?

No single tool wins; each covers a different gap. For an existing site, Google Search Console is best: the data is yours and unlimited. For a new site, Keyword Planner plus Bing Webmaster Tools is the strongest free pairing: Bing supplies real numbers where Google supplies ranges.

Are free keyword research tools accurate?

Free keyword research tools are accurate about which keywords exist and roughly how they compare, but weak on absolute numbers. Keyword Planner shows ranges spanning a tenfold gap for non-spending accounts. Use free data to rank keywords against each other, not to forecast traffic.

Can I do keyword research without creating any account?

Yes, two of the eight need no account at all: manual Google autocomplete mining and AlsoAsked, which gives any visitor 3 free searches a day. Everything else needs at least a free sign-up, and Search Console also requires verifying site ownership.

Is the Semrush free plan worth using?

Yes, as a rationed version of the real thing. The 10 daily lookups hit the same Keyword Magic Tool paid users get, with volume, difficulty, and intent included. When you outgrow the meter, the Semrush free trial gives seven days of full access.

How do I track rankings for the keywords I choose?

Google Search Console tracks average positions for free, and the Semrush free plan tracks 10 keywords in Position Tracking. Beyond that you are into paid territory: we compare the options in how to track keyword rankings.