App Store keyword popularity checker
Enter a keyword to see how often it's searched, how hard it is to rank for, and which apps hold the top spots. Free, no account needed.
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How to read the scores
Popularity (5–100)
Apple doesn't publish App Store search volume. Popularity is a relative score of how often a term is searched in the selected store: higher means more searches. 5 is the floor: most long-tail terms show it, whether they get a few searches or a steady stream. Terms above 50 are searched a lot. Compare keywords against each other rather than reading the number as a count of searches. More on what popularity scores mean in practice.
Difficulty (0–100)
How competitive the search results are. High difficulty means strong, established apps fill the top results. For a new or small app, keywords with decent popularity and lower difficulty are usually the fastest wins.
Top ranking apps
The apps currently ranking first for the keyword on iPhone. Read their names and subtitles: the words they use are often the keywords worth testing next.
Picking App Store keywords: a quick method
- List 20–30 phrases people would type to find an app like yours. Think problems, not features. The most searched keywords in your category are a good place to start.
- Check each one here. Drop terms with near-zero popularity.
- From what's left, favor lower difficulty and phrases that describe your app accurately.
- Put the strongest terms in your app name, subtitle and keyword field, then track where you rank each day.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good App Store keyword popularity score?
As a rule of thumb: 5 is the lowest value shown and covers everything below what Apple reports, so check autocomplete before dropping it; 20–40 is solid traffic for a focused app, and above 50 is searched a lot and usually crowded. For a new or small app, the best targets are often keywords between 20 and 40 with low difficulty, because big apps already hold the top spots for the most popular terms.
Is popularity the same as search volume?
No. Apple doesn't publish App Store search volume. Popularity is a relative 5–100 score based on Apple Search Ads data: a higher score means more searches, but the number is not a count of searches. Use it to compare keywords with each other in the same store.
What is a good keyword difficulty score?
Lower is easier. Difficulty measures how strong the apps in the top results are. A new app should look for keywords where difficulty is clearly lower than popularity; very high difficulty usually means established apps with many ratings dominate the results.
Why does the same keyword have different popularity in different countries?
Each App Store storefront has its own search behavior, so popularity is measured per store. A term can be popular in the United States and rarely searched in Germany, where people search in German. Check keywords in every store you localize for.
Limits
The free checker allows 10 checks a day, iPhone results only. A free account gives you 25 research calls a month, rankings on iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Vision Pro, keyword suggestions for any app, and daily tracking of 10 keywords. See also the keyword rank tracker.
Found a good keyword?
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