# Keyword data sources
> The three stacking tiers for keyword data - what each costs, what it unlocks, and how to switch later.
Source: https://dispatchseo.com/docs/keyword-data
All docs in one file: https://dispatchseo.com/llms-full.txt
DispatchSEO never has just one keyword data source. It has three, and they
stack: everyone starts on the free floor, and you add a key only when you
want a sharper signal than the free tier gives you.
Free mode finds keywords you can win. Paid mode also knows which ones are
worth winning. Neither is wrong - it depends whether you'd rather spend time
or money finding out.
## The three tiers
| Tier | Costs | You get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Search Console only** (default) | $0 | Rankings from GSC, keyword ideas from Google Autocomplete plus your own impression data |
| **+ SerpApi key** | $0 (250 searches/month) | Live SERP checks: real positions weekly, page-1 recon before writing |
| **+ DataForSEO** | pay per call, prepaid | Search volume, keyword difficulty, domain rating |
### Search Console only
This is where every project starts, and it's a real, working mode - not a
crippled trial. Your agent mines keywords two ways: Google Autocomplete
(free, no key, works everywhere) and your own Search Console impressions
(queries Google already shows your pages for, which is the single best
signal that a keyword is reachable).
What you don't get here is a number. No search volume, no difficulty score -
your agent judges a keyword by what it can see in the actual results, not by
a database estimate. That's a real limitation for prioritizing between fifty
candidates, but it's not a limitation for finding good ones.
Nothing to set up. This is simply what happens with no keys connected. See
[Google Search Console](/docs/search-console) for how the GSC connection
itself works.
### + a free SerpApi key
One optional upgrade while staying at $0: a [SerpApi](https://serpapi.com)
key gives your agent a live look at the actual Google results page before it
writes anything. If page 1 is thin forum posts and old listicles, the
keyword is winnable. If it's five major brands and a review site, skip it.
That's a judgment call no autocomplete list can make for you.
The free tier is 250 searches a month, no credit card. It also unlocks real
weekly rank tracking through a live SERP check, instead of relying on Search
Console's impression-weighted average position (which is real data, but
lagged and not a true rank).
Add the key any time in Settings, or during the wizard's keyword-data step -
see
[Step 3 of the setup wizard](/docs/setup-wizard#step-3-pick-a-keyword-data-source).
### + DataForSEO
The paid tier, and the only one with real numbers: monthly search volume,
keyword difficulty (KD), CPC, and domain rating for your own site. This is
what lets your agent rank fifty keyword candidates by how much traffic
they're actually worth and how hard they'll actually be to win, instead of
reasoning from the SERP alone.
A typical site tracking around 30 keywords spends about $2-5/month. New
DataForSEO accounts start with free trial credit, no card required.
Free-tier DIY means exactly that: every project brings its own DataForSEO
account, and every call bills that project's own balance -
`credsForProject()` in `src/lib/dataforseo.ts` is the one place this is
resolved. Only the **default project** (the instance's first site) falls
back to the `DATAFORSEO_LOGIN` / `DATAFORSEO_PASSWORD` environment
variables, if they're set. Every other project needs its own connected
account or its own env fallback doesn't apply. A project with no DataForSEO
connected gets `null` creds and every paid feature (rank checks, keyword
ideas, domain rating) skips gracefully - never an error, never a broken
cron. You'll see this reflected honestly on the dashboard: paid numbers
simply aren't there until a key is connected.
#### Getting the API password (the part that trips people up)
DataForSEO's login is your account email, but the password is **not** your
dashboard login password - it's a separate API password DataForSEO
generates for you.
Sign up at [app.dataforseo.com](https://app.dataforseo.com). New accounts
start with free trial credit, no card needed.
Go to [app.dataforseo.com/api-access](https://app.dataforseo.com/api-access)
and copy the password shown there. This is generated specifically for API
calls - it is not the password you use to log into the DataForSEO dashboard,
and using the wrong one is the single most common reason a connection fails
its first check.
DataForSEO hides it about 24 hours after signup. Click **Send by e-mail** on
the same page and it lands in your inbox.
Login (your account email) and API password go into the wizard's keyword-data
step, or Settings later. Both are checked live against DataForSEO before
saving, so a green check means tonight's rank check will actually work.
Because the API password isn't your dashboard login, it can't be used to
sign into or take over your DataForSEO account - it only makes API calls
against your own prepaid balance, and you can regenerate it any time to cut
DispatchSEO off.
## Watching what it costs
Once DataForSEO is connected, the `get_dataforseo_usage` MCP tool (and the
matching dashboard view) answers three questions:
- **Who's billed** - your own connected account, the platform's bundled plan
(cloud only), or nobody (nothing connected).
- **This month's spend**, when billed to the platform - month-to-date
against the plan's monthly budget.
- **Today's `check_serp` count**, against its daily cap (see below).
On a self-hosted project running its own DataForSEO account, usage isn't
metered here at all - it's your account, your balance, check it directly at
app.dataforseo.com.
If a cloud project's projected month-end spend starts closing in on its
plan's budget, a pacing governor thins the rank-check cadence automatically
(normal, then slowed, then weekly-only) so tracking degrades gracefully
instead of stopping mid-month the moment the budget is hit.
## The cloud version: bundled, capped, not metered
On the hosted product at dispatchseo.com, DataForSEO isn't something you
connect - it's bundled into the subscription (`DATAFORSEO_PLATFORM_LOGIN` /
`DATAFORSEO_PLATFORM_PASSWORD` server-side, never written into your repo,
never returned to a client). You get real search volume and difficulty
without ever touching an API password.
The trade-off is a rate cap, not a spend cap: `check_serp` (the live,
interactive "show me page 1 right now" tool) is capped at **30 calls a day**
per project on the shared plan. That's deliberate - a live SERP lookup is
cheap and meant for interactive research, and the real spend guard is the
monthly budget above, not this cap. Anything worth tracking on an ongoing
basis goes through `track_keywords` instead, which the daily rank cron
checks for you at no extra cost against the cap.
Connecting your own DataForSEO account on a cloud project is also possible,
and once connected it's billed and metered exactly like self-host - your own
account, your own balance, no platform cap.
## Changing your source later
The keyword source is a per-project setting, switchable any time in
Settings - it isn't a one-way decision made during onboarding. See
[Step 3 of the setup wizard](/docs/setup-wizard#step-3-pick-a-keyword-data-source)
for what the wizard itself asks, and the wizard always verifies new
credentials against the real service before saving them.
## Next
The free floor every tier builds on.
Where you pick a tier for the first time.
What using DispatchSEO looks like once it's running.