# Keyword volume checker: expand a seed, price the demand, read the seasonality

Give your agent a seed keyword and get back the related terms, their monthly volume, CPC, competition and a 12-month trend, plus a spend split by volume share. 3 steps through one treg.to key, with the price printed before each.

## Try it

Setup line (paste into any agent): `set up treg — https://treg.to/llms.txt`

Then ask: "Using treg, expand 'protein powder' into 50 related keywords, then get Google search volume, CPC and competition for all of them in one batch, and the 12-month trend for the top 5. Show me the price before each call. Give me a CSV with keyword, monthly_volume, cpc_usd, competition, q4_vs_rest_pct and suggested_spend_pct by volume share."

- **Expand first, then price** One ideas call turns a seed into a list; one volume call prices the whole list. Two calls, not fifty.
- **Batch the volume lookup** The volume route bills per request, not per keyword, so 50 keywords cost the same as one.
- **Ask for the trend on the head terms only** The trend route takes five keywords per call. Spend it on the terms that carry the volume.
- **Own-asset note** If you connect a Google Ads account, the same volume and ideas calls run on your own quota at no metered cost.

## The steps

| # | Step | What the agent asks | Provider used | Price | Success rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expand the seed | related keywords with volume, CPC and difficulty | DataForSEO (`dataforseo.google.keywords.ideas`, 6 providers, https://treg.to/agents/chatgpt#search-rankings) | $0.012 per call | 100% over 2746 calls, 639ms median |
| 2 | Price the list in one batch | monthly volume, CPC, competition and 12 monthly figures per keyword | DataForSEO (`dataforseo.google.keywords.volume`, 5 providers, https://treg.to/use-cases/keyword-volume-cpc-and-competition) | $0.09 per call | 100% over 4140 calls, 2.7s median |
| 3 | Read the trend | interest over time for up to five keywords | DataForSEO (`dataforseo.x.keywords-data-dataforseo-trends-explore-live`, 2 providers, https://treg.to/agents/chatgpt) | $0.0012 per call | 99% over 598 calls, 7.3s median |

- Expand the seed: Billed per request plus a small amount per keyword returned. Set the limit; the default is 100.
- Price the list in one batch: One flat request covers up to 1,000 keywords. Never loop this route.
- Read the trend: The run asked treg's routed trends endpoint, which picks the cheapest provider with your own keys first; this is the child that served.

At the rates above, 50 rows where every call hits comes to $0.10. The receipt below is what it actually cost, and why it differs.

## What it actually cost

Run on 2026-09-14.

- Seed expanded: 'protein powder' to 50 related keywords, one call, depth 2
- Volume priced: 50 of 50 keywords returned volume in one batch call
- Demand found: 742,970 monthly searches across the list; the head term is 368,000
- Trend read: top 5 keywords, served by DataForSEO Trends
- Total metered: $0.11: $0.018 ideas, $0.09 volume, $0.0012 trend

Three calls, three receipts. The ideas call billed its request fee plus a fraction of a cent per keyword returned; the volume call billed one flat fee for the whole batch, which is why the table's per-row price is misleading for it; the trend call was routed and settled at the child's rate. The head term's Q4 volume runs 29% below the rest of the year, so the seasonality column matters for this niche.

Download the CSV of this run: https://treg.to/workflows/keyword-demand-to-ad-budget.csv

## Why go through treg.to

- **One key, not 9 accounts** treg.to holds the provider keys. Neither you nor the agent sees them.
- **Price before the call** The provider's own rate, $0.000 markup, from a prepaid balance.
- **No subscription, no seats** Charged per call. $1.00 free per new team, no card to start.
- **Your own keys are free** Already pay Hunter? Register it and those calls are never metered.
- **Switch by changing a word** Another provider is a different word in the prompt, not a new integration.
- **Nothing to integrate** No SDK, no OAuth dance per vendor, no seats.

## Where it goes wrong

**Keyword returns no volume** Google reports nothing for very low-volume terms. The batch is still billed as one request.

**Bucketed volumes** A connected Google Ads account with little spend sees bucketed ranges instead of exact numbers. That is Google's limit, not the API's.

**Trend call capped at five** The trend route takes at most five keywords per call. Send the head terms, not the list.

**CPC is a national average** Local or tightly targeted campaigns see different auction prices.

## Before you start

**What does a 50-keyword run cost?** The receipt above is the answer for this run. The volume call is a flat fee per request, so the list length barely moves the bill.

**Can I use my own Google Ads account?** Yes. Connect it and the ideas and volume calls route through the Keyword Planner API on your own quota.

**What about Bing?** DataForSEO has Bing volume routes with the same shape. Ask for both and merge on keyword.

**How current is the trend data?** The trend series is weekly for the past twelve months and reflects past demand, not a forecast.

## Related

- Keyword volume, CPC and competition: https://treg.to/use-cases/keyword-volume-cpc-and-competition
- Keywords a domain ranks for: https://treg.to/use-cases/keywords-a-domain-ranks-for
- Keywords a domain bids on: https://treg.to/use-cases/keywords-a-domain-bids-on
- Your own campaign performance: https://treg.to/use-cases/your-own-campaign-performance

HTML version: https://treg.to/workflows/keyword-demand-to-ad-budget