# Keyword difficulty checker | SERP analysis · Vaneform

Check keyword difficulty, monthly searches, search intent and Google SERP results for a term.

## What the keyword difficulty checker returns

- Monthly searches with a 12-month trend for one market and language.
- Keyword difficulty from 0 to 100, search intent, ad competition and CPC range.
- The top 30 Google results, each with its page and the ranking site’s estimated monthly visits when a report has them.

## Example: “ai” in the United States

The example on this page is a saved September 2026 snapshot for “ai” (United States, English): about 5M monthly searches, difficulty 100, informational intent, low ad competition and a $2.15 CPC. The first results are Wikipedia, Google, Google Cloud, Britannica and IBM.

Difficulty 100 with reference sites and large brands on page one tells a new site to target a narrower, longer query instead. Monthly searches and difficulty are provider estimates for that market and date.

## Questions

### What is a good keyword difficulty score?

It depends on your site. A newer site usually starts with terms below about 30 where page one includes smaller sites; check the SERP list to see who you would compete with.

### Which market does the data use?

Each result names its market and language, for example United States · English, and the month the data describes.

### Is keyword research free?

Live keyword lookups are part of Pro and cost 60 credits each from the 10,000 monthly Pro points. The saved example above is visible to everyone.

## Related tools and guides

- [Competitor keywords](https://vaneform.com/sitekw)
- [Website traffic checker](https://vaneform.com/)
- [How to find low competition keywords](https://vaneform.com/guides/find-low-competition-keywords)
- [Keyword research methods](https://vaneform.com/guides/keyword-research-methods)
- [Search intent](https://vaneform.com/guides/search-intent)
- [Keyword difficulty vs search volume](https://vaneform.com/guides/keyword-difficulty-vs-search-volume)

Canonical: https://vaneform.com/keyword