Keyword metrics: search volume, cost per click and difficulty

Keyword Metrics returns the numbers behind a single search term: how often it is searched, what advertisers pay for it, how hard it is to rank for and what people are actually after when they type it. Use it to choose keywords before you write a page or set a bid.

What it tells you

• The monthly search volume for the keyword.
• The cost per click in dollars, which is what advertisers pay for one click on that term.
• A difficulty score, plus a plain band such as "hard" so you do not have to interpret the number.
• The main intent behind the search, for example informational rather than ready to buy.
• Whether interest in the term is rising or falling.
• Which features appear on the results page, including whether an AI overview shows, and an estimate of the monthly traffic value in dollars.

What you need to provide

• The keyword you want, up to 200 characters.
• Optionally, the country database to query. It defaults to US.

What it costs

6 credits per lookup. Live per-product costs are shown on the Billing page in your dashboard.

How to run it

• In the dashboard: Keyword Metrics
• From your code: POST /v1/keyword-metrics, then see the Developer Hub at app.1lookup.io/developer-hub.

Good to know

• Volume, difficulty and traffic value are estimates drawn from search data. They are a way to compare keywords against each other, not a forecast of your own results.
• One keyword per call, so a keyword list means one lookup per term.
• Results are point-in-time. Search demand is seasonal and results pages change, so re-check a term before you build a campaign on last quarter's figure.
• Set the country to the market you actually sell in. The same keyword can look very different from one country database to another.

Updated on: 24/08/2026