Why Bing, not Google?
Google does not offer free search volume data outside of Google Ads. Bing Webmaster Tools provides a free API with monthly search volume by keyword and country.
Is Bing volume a good proxy? — Not perfect, but sufficient for relative comparison. If a keyword has near-zero volume on Bing, it almost certainly has very little on Google too. Use it to filter, not to get exact numbers.
Getting a Bing API key
Go to Bing Webmaster Tools and sign in with a Microsoft account.
Click your profile → API access (or Settings → API access).
Copy your API key — it’s a 32-character hex string. No application process, no approval wait.
Basic usage
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_volume --keywords "ai tools,seo software,content marketing" --apikey YOUR_KEY| Keyword | Monthly Volume | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| ai tools | 148,000 | ↗ |
| seo software | 22,100 | → |
| content marketing | 49,500 | ↗ |
Bulk queries from a file
Feed it a file of keywords (one per line):
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_volume --file my_keywords.txt --apikey YOUR_KEYChain it with keyword_research — Pipe the output of keyword discovery directly into volume lookup:
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_research "ai tools" --expand | \
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_volume --file - --apikey YOUR_KEYCountry targeting
Add --country to get localized volume:
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_volume --keywords "seo services" --country US
python3 -m zens_ink keyword_volume --keywords "seo services" --country CNSupported codes: US, CN, GB, JP, DE, FR, and more (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).
Reading the trend arrow
The trend column shows whether volume is rising, stable, or falling:
| Arrow | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ↗ | Rising | Growing interest — good timing |
| → | Stable | Evergreen demand |
| ↘ | Falling | Waning interest — lower priority |
What’s next?
You have keywords and their search volume. Now you need to know which ones are worth targeting — where competition is low enough that you can actually rank.
Head to Ranking Data to see your own performance, or Competitor Analysis to find gaps.