What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is a free tool that analyzes search query popularity on Google.
How does Google Trends work?
Google Trends is like a popularity tracker for what people are searching on Google. It doesn’t tell you exactly how many people searched for something, but shows how popular a topic is over time compared to other topics or times.
Here’s how it works:
1. Tracks Searches: Every time someone searches on Google or YouTube, it keeps track of what they’re looking for (anonymously). For example, searches for “pumpkin spice latte” are counted.
2. Compares Popularity: It compares how many people are searching for one thing versus everything else being searched. So if “pumpkin spice latte” gets a lot of searches in the fall, you’ll see a big spike during that time.
3. Scores Popularity: Instead of showing exact numbers, Google Trends gives a score between 0 and 100 for how “trendy” something is at a specific time. A score of 100 means it was searched a lot compared to other times, and 0 means very little interest.
4. Shows Where It’s Popular: It can also tell you which areas (countries, states, or cities) are searching for something the most.
5. Compares Multiple Topics: You can put two or more topics side by side to see which one is searched more. For example, “pumpkin spice latte” vs. “hot chocolate.”
In summary, Google Trends data shows when, where, and how much people care about specific topics by analyzing Google searches and comparing their popularity over time. It’s super helpful for spotting trends, seasonality, or regional interests.
You can view our complete guide for more examples of Google Trends use cases.
How to understand the data in Google Trends
Understanding the data in Google Trends is easy once you understand how it works. Google Trends numbers don't show exactly how many people searched for something (also known as "absolute search volume"). Rather, it shows how popular a topic is over time compared to other topics or times using relative search interest.
Here's how it works: Over the given time frame, Google finds the period with the most searches and assigns it a score of "100". Then, they calculate the interest during other periods relative to that peak. For example, a score of 50 would be half of the peak, and 25, a quarter.
You can learn more about relative search interest in our dedicated article.
To view the real search volume, you'll need to use a tool like Glimpse, a Chrome extension that adds absolute search volume to Google Trends.
What do the numbers in Google Trends mean?
The numbers in Google Trends represent search interest on a scale of 0 to 100, measured relative to the peak popularity of that term (100) during the selected time frame. Learn more about relative search interest.
To see actual search volumes, you'd need to use a tool like Glimpse, a Chrome extension that enhances Google Trends with absolute search volume.
What does Google Trends measure?
What does Google Trends measure and what is the unit of measurement? It uses a 0-100 ranking to measure units of relative search interest, showing the current popularity of a given term relative to its peak popularity during the selected time frame. 100 represents the peak, while 50 represents half of that peak, and 0 indicates insufficient data. Learn more about relative search interest.
To see actual search volumes, you'd need to use a tool like Glimpse, a Chrome extension that enhances Google Trends with absolute search volume.
What does the search volume index mean in Google Trends?
The search volume index in Google Trends indicates search interest on a relative, 0 to 100 scale. It calculates interest relative to the peak popularity of that term (100) during the selected time frame. Learn more about relative search interest.
To see actual search volumes, you'd need to use a tool like Glimpse, a Chrome extension that enhances Google Trends with absolute search volume.
How to read and interpret Google Trends
Google Trends' data should be understood and interpreted as an indicator of the trajectory of interest in a particular keyword or phrase. It does not show absolute volume, that is, how many times a keyword was actually searched for. Instead, it shows whether it is more or less popular.
The X axis shows time, while the Y-axis shows relative search interest on a 0-100 scale. 100 represents the peak interest in a given term during that time period, while 50 represents half of that peak, and 0, insufficient data. Learn more about the definition of relative search interest.
How is Google Trends data adjusted?
Google Trends uses a methodology called normalization to adjust the raw search data, turning it into an interest ranking from 0-100, with 100 representing a keyword's peak popularity during the selected time frame, 50 representing half of that peak, and 0, insufficient data.
Learn how this normalized scale works in our full guide.
What does “breakout” mean in Google Trends?
"Breakout" in Google Trends means there’s a significant growth in searches for a query in a short period. It often appears when a term goes from very low or no search volume to a significant level, for example, jumping from 0 to 10,000 in a month. Google uses this term because calculating the exact growth percentage, in these cases, would involve dividing by zero, which is mathematically undefined.
Unfortunately, Google's breakout algorithm is often misleading and recommends search terms or topics (what's the difference?) that stem from errors as opposed to meaningful changes in search behavior.
For example, "connect" is highlighted as a breakout topic related to "printer", yet clicking into it shows that not only does its jump in interest stem from a classification change in 2021, but that interest has actually decreased.
If you want to actually discover emerging, high-growth trends in any category, then install the Glimpse Chrome extension and use the Discover Trends feature.
What does "rising" mean in Google Trends?
In Google Trends, “rising” is a filter to show only "breakout" or high-growth terms in the Related Queries and Topics sections. Learn more about breakout terms in Google Trends.
Hot Searches in Google Trends
Google Trends' "Hot searches" is a real-time visualization of the fastest-growing searches over the past hour across all major countries. Results can be narrowed to any particular country, and clicking on a result leads to a Google search for that term.
Can you see searches by demographic on Google Trends?
Currently, Google Trends doesn't allow filtering by age, gender, or specific demographics. However, you can see trends by geography under "Interest by region" either worldwide or by country, region, city, or metro area. Remember, these are relative rankings based on search activity per capita.
Google Trends Interest by Region results for "coffee", US.
How to see Google Trends by age
Currently, Google Trends does not provide demographic data like age. However, there are a few creative ways to gain insight into which age range might be behind a trend.
Social data: The Glimpse extension shows you which social platform a term is most popular on, which can be used as an indicator for which age range is most interested in a topic (e.g. younger people use TikTok while older use Facebook).
You can also search the term across platforms and gauge the relevant age range based on who the most popular creators on that topic are.
Reviews: If researching a product, then search it on Amazon or a related storefront and read the product reviews. If it is popular among a particular age group, then those details will often surface.
Long-tails: If a search query is heavily age-skewed, then this will often emerge in what people search alongside a given term. For example, Glimpse shows that people searching "life insurance" are likely to follow it with qualifiers like, "for seniors over 60" or "for parents".
What is the dotted line in Google Trends?
The dotted line shows incomplete data, essentially Google's forecast for the next datapoint in the graph. For example, in a weekly graph, the last data point might be incomplete if the week hasn’t yet ended.
Why does Google Trends data change?
Google Trends data changes because it is being continuously updated. When you see historical data changing, it's because Google Trends uses a sample dataset (a subset of data representing the whole) rather than the entire dataset, a decision explained in its documentation. This leads to faster loading times and keeps costs down.
However, this also means that sometimes when you revisit a keyword’s Google Trends graph, or even refresh the page, the data may look very slightly different. This difference – and variance in general – is more visible with lower volume search queries (see the Law of Large Numbers).
See how the variance scales by volume below. The blue line is the original graph, and the red line is the same keyword, only refreshed.
High-Volume Keyword
Medium-Volume Keyword
Low-Volume Keyword
Practically speaking though, there isn’t much cause for concern. The differences between the data are generally in-line with how statistically significant those signals would be.
For example, with the low volume keyword chart above, the data is coming from only a few dozen searches. With such a small sample size, even though the data is drastically different, it doesn't represents a meaningful difference that you should allow it to inform decision-making.
What time zone is Google Trends in?
Google Trends displays data based in your local time zone.
For example, if a U.S. presidential candidate announces their candidacy at 2 p.m. EST (Eastern Time, US) and there’s a resulting spike in searches, Google Trends users in New York and Paris will both see the same graph, but the former will show it as having occurred at 2 p.m., while the latter will show 8 p.m.
How to see Google Trends data before 2004
Google Trends data isn’t available before 2004. While Google Search began in 1998, Google only started collecting data to be analyzed in what became Google Trends from 2004 onwards.
However, there is another Google tool called Google Ngram which shows the popularity of any keyword in physical books over the past 200+ years. It's like Google Trends but, instead of looking at searches, it looks at books.
Does Google Trends include YouTube searches?
On its default setting, Google Trends does not include YouTube searches. It instead shows searches on Google's primary engine, referred to as a “Web Search” in Google Trends.
However, we can view searches on YouTube by selecting "YouTube Search" in the "search type" dropdown. We can also separately view Google News, Images, and Shopping search activity.
How to see weekly data in Google Trends
To see Google Trends data at a weekly frequency, select any of these timeframes:
Past 12 months
Past 5 years
Custom time range: any period of time between 9 months and 5 years
How to see daily data in Google Trends
To see daily data in Google Trends, select any of these timeframes:
Past 7 days
Past 30 days
Past 90 days
Custom time range: any period of 269 days or less.
For daily data beyond 269 days, use the Glimpse API.
How to see Google Trends' hourly data
To see hourly data, choose any of these timeframes from the dropdown:
Past 4 hours
Past day
Past 7 days
Note that hourly data is only available for the most recent 7-day period. Historical hourly data is not available beyond that cutoff.
Can you see Google Trends by day?
To see daily data in Google Trends, select any of these timeframes:
Past 7 days
Past 30 days
Past 90 days
Custom time range: any period of 269 days or less.
For daily data beyond 269 days, use the Glimpse API.
Can you see Google Trends by continent?
Google Trends does not offer geographic breakdown by continent. The closest thing is its country-level breakdown, which does technically list one continent (Antarctica), but good luck pulling too many insights from there!
Can you see Google Trends by country?
To view Google Trends data by country, select the country breakdown in the top left of the Interest over time graph (set to your country via IP address by default).
You can also see the data across multiple countries in the "Interest by region" section when you have "Worldwide" selected as your region.
Can you see Google Trends by state?
To view Google Trends data by state, select a country in the location breakdown menu, then hover and click the ">" arrow that appears on the right side of the row.
You can also see the states in a given country sorted by interest when you have the "Subregion" option selected in the "Interest by region" section.
Can you see Google Trends by city?
To view Google Trends data by city, select a state in the location breakdown menu, then hover and click the ">" arrow that appears on the right side of the row.
You can also see the cities in a given state sorted by interest when you have the "City" option selected in the "Interest by region" section.
Can you see Google Trends by county?
Google Trends does not offer data by county. The closest thing is its metro-level breakdown, which you can view by navigating to the Interest by region section and selecting "Metro" in the dropdown.
Can you see Google Trends by zip code?
Google Trends does not offer data by zip code. The closest thing is its metro-level breakdown, which you can view by navigating to the Interest by region section and selecting "Metro" in the dropdown.
How does Google Trends determine the location a search is made from?
Via IP addresses. Every time a Google search is made, Google stores the IP address of the searcher, which can then be roughly correlated to their geolocation. This is the same data Google Trends uses when segmenting searches by region.
Google Trends dataset
Google Trends provides an anonymized, indexed, and normalized BigQuery dataset that features the Top 25 overall searches and Top 25 rising queries in the US from the past 30 days. An international dataset is also available, which features data from the United States and 50 top countries worldwide. BigQuery offers a free tier allowing up to 1 TB of SQL queries and 10 GB of storage per month, with additional usage priced at standard rates.
You can explore the dataset directly in BigQuery’s SQL UI or connect it to Business Intelligence tools like Looker or Data Studio. If you’re new to BigQuery, you can use the sandbox feature to query data without setting up a Google Cloud account or providing credit card information.
Google Trends certification
There is no official Google Trends certification, however Google does offer some training via written and video tutorials.
You can also check our our Google Trends mega-guide, which teaches you both the tools' ins and outs as well as how to creatively apply it across a range of disciplines.
Is Google Trends free?
Yes, you can use Google Trends for free to analyze search data. Read our complete guide to Google Trends to learn more about how to use it.
Additionally, Glimpse is a free extension that supercharges Google Trends, adding features like absolute search volume, growth rates, trend discovery, tracking, and more.
Does Google Trends cost money?
No, Google Trends is does not cost money to use. However, if you want programmatic access to the data, then you'll need to use a Google Trends API which can cost money.
How to buy Google Trends data
You do not have to pay for Google Trends data if you use its self-service tool. However, if you want programmatic access to the data, then you can use a Google Trends API.
Where does Google Trends data come from?
The source of Google Trends data is the Google Search Engine which is used across Google and YouTube.
Is Google Trends part of Google Analytics?
Google Trends is a separate tool from Google Analytics. While Google Analytics measures traffic on a specific website, Google Trends measures all of the searches that were made on Google.
When did Google Trends start?
Google Trends was launched on May 10th, 2006 with this press release. It evolved from an earlier tool called Google Zeitgeist, which was introduced in 2001 to summarize annual search trends. Google Trends expanded on this concept by allowing users to explore patterns in search data over time and across various regions.