Yes it's free, but also yes you have to spend money to get more accurate results. It's free to generate keyword ideas and get a range for search volume, but the more accurate numbers are given to accounts that are spending with them. For example, I just looked up the same keyword in both our manager account and in my non-spending personal account. The non-spending account told me the average monthly searches for this keyword was "1k - 10k" but in the manager account, it says it's 1,600. It's great for generating keyword ideas - I think much better than the paid tools; more variety and keywords I'd never expect. But if you're only seeing a wide range for search volume, it isn't very helpful in making your final decision on what to target. In the example above, I might pursue that keyword thinking it has potential, not knowing it's actually on the very low end of their range. Answer from interactually on reddit.com