Apify sells Google Trends as Store actors on mcp.apify.com. Trends MCP sells a hosted multi-source index on api.trendsmcp.ai. Scrape PPE versus a monthly request cap.
Trends MCP versus an Apify Google Trends MCP is hosted index versus Store actor. Apify’s MCP docs send clients to https://mcp.apify.com with OAuth or a Bearer token from Apify Console, and a tools query that names an actor such as k1ra/google-trends-scraper. Trends MCP sends Cursor and Claude Code to https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp with a tmcp_live_ key. Directories cite Apify scraper MCPs for “MCP for Google Trends” (multiple Store listings, including actors with 9-cite Promptwatch notes in this queue). This page is the contract split. SerpAPI’s scrape path is a different vs: Trends MCP vs SerpAPI Trends.
It is a job on Apify infrastructure that pulls the public Google Trends surface (or a “public API, no auth” line some READMEs use). The agent does not get TikTok hashtags from that actor unless a second actor is attached.
red.cars/google-trends-mcp (accessed 26 August 2026) documents five tools: get_daily_trending, get_topic_trends, get_related_queries, get_category_browse, search_trends. PPE on that README: $0.03 or $0.05 per action, plus usage. Created 17 May 2026. Recheck the Pricing tab. Store pages change.
Other actors on the same marketplace quote different units: per keyword delivered, per complete analysis, a start fee plus per-result. There is not one “Apify Google Trends price.” There is the actor the JSON named.
Related queries and geo slices are the usual reason to pick an actor. Trends MCP does not expose those as first-class tools. If the ticket is “people also search for,” the actor may win. If the ticket is “is this phrase moving on Google and TikTok,” the actor is incomplete.
Frontend changes still belong to the actor maintainer. A monthly Trends MCP cap is not a claim of being closer to Google’s internal job. It is a claim of a managed pipeline with a published SKU.
Type Google Trends on get_top_trends: ranked snapshot, default limit 25, as_of_ts. Source google search on get_growth or get_trends: weekly 0-100 series, about five years where points exist. REST mode get_time_series for the series. The source string is not google trends.
get_top_trends(type="Google Trends", limit=25)
get_growth(keyword="ai agents", source="google search, tiktok", percent_growth=["30D", "12M"])
Adding tiktok is a second billed source. An Apify Google Trends actor does not add that field by existing. A second TikTok actor would. Two Apify bills, two auth stories.
MCP query title without Apify in the H1: MCP for Google Trends. API shape: Google Trends API.
Empty Trends MCP series: not_found or data_unavailable. Low-volume keywords: quote both index values. Official Google Trends API Alpha is neither Apify nor Trends MCP.
Trends MCP: Free 100 requests per month. Starter $19 / 1,000. Pro $49 / 5,000. Business $199 / 25,000. Annual 20 percent off. Pricing (accessed 26 August 2026). One board page is one request. One growth source-plus-keyword is one request.
An agent that calls search_trends at $0.05 and get_related_queries at $0.03 on every keyword in a list will outrun a $19 Starter month or undercut it, depending on volume. Do the arithmetic on the actor’s current PPE. Do not treat $0.03 as a Trends MCP price.
Apify platform usage can sit on top of PPE for some actors. The red.cars page says pay per event plus usage. Other actors say usage is included. Read the listing that is actually in mcp.json.
Keep Apify when the team already runs scrapers there, when related queries are the ticket, or when a schedule must write Google Trends HTML-shaped rows into a dataset. Trends MCP will not fill that dataset format.
Keep Trends MCP when the agent must leave Google. npm, Reddit, Amazon, App Store, GitHub boards share the key. An Apify Google Trends actor does not.
A team can run both. Name the product. “Using TrendsMCP, get_top_trends type Google Trends. Using the Apify actor, related queries for the shortlisted phrase.” Mixing the JSON keys (url versus Apify’s type http blob) is how a restart shows the wrong server.
Open-source RapidAPI wrappers are a third path. That vs is open-source Google Trends MCP vs hosted. Do not copy an actor input schema into a Trends MCP call. A location country code on an Apify tool is an actor argument. It is not a Trends MCP get_top_trends field.
One Trends MCP Google Trends page. One actor tool the listing documents, such as daily trending or related queries. Stop. Compare payloads. The actor may win related queries. Trends MCP may win the multi-source follow-up. A bake-off that pages five actors and ten Google categories is a billing test, not a product test.
Standby mode on Apify means the actor is meant to stay up for MCP. That is still Apify compute. Trends MCP’s host is not an Actor. There is no Apify dataset to write. JSON goes back to the model. If the pipeline must land rows in an Apify dataset, keep the actor. If the pipeline must land a 0-100 series next to TikTok, keep Trends MCP.
k1ra, surefetch, orbots, and similar Store scrapers will keep appearing in “Google Trends MCP” searches. Quote the actor id that is actually in config. Do not treat the Store as one product with one price. Recheck PPE on that id the day of the bake-off.
Empty actor results may cost nothing on some listings and still cost a start fee on others. Empty Trends MCP history is not_found or data_unavailable and still counts as a request if the call succeeded. Those are different miss semantics. Do not coerce either to a fake zero index.
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