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Extracting Google Trends interest over time: what it is and how to get it

Google Trends interest over time is the series of 0–100 values that shows how search interest in a term changes across a time range: weekly points for 5 years, monthly for the full history since 2004 and hourly or daily for short ranges. An API run returns it per keyword with a summary: average, peak, trend per year and year-over-year change.

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Google Trends interest over time for sunscreen, weekly for 5 years, with a rising trend line

Google Trends interest over time is the chart of search interest in a term across a time range, where each point is a share of the term’s peak on a 0–100 scale. For «sunscreen» in the United States, the 5-year series has 261 weekly points, averages 26.75 and rises 21.6% per year, with interest 57% higher in the last 12 months than in the 12 months before, measured on September 30, 2026.

Google Trends interest over time uses a granularity that depends on the time range, and a time zone that depends on its length.

Time rangePointsTime zone
Past hour to past 7 daysHourly or by minutesLocal time of the browser
Past 30 or 90 daysDailyUTC
Past 12 months to 5 yearsWeeklyUTC
2004 to presentMonthlyUTC

The time zone rule comes from Google Trends Help: UTC for ranges of 30 days or longer, local time for 7 days or shorter.

There are 3 steps to extract interest over time via the Google Trends API.

  1. Send the keywords with geo and timeRange, such as today 5-y.
  2. Read the summary fields in each row: averageInterest, latestInterest, peakInterest, peakDate, trendSlopePctPerYear and yoyChangePct.
  3. Switch on includeInterestOverTime when the full series is needed for a chart.
{
  "keyword": "sunscreen",
  "averageInterest": 26.3,
  "peakInterest": 100,
  "trendSlopePctPerYear": 21.6,
  "yoyChangePct": 55.9
}

trendSlopePctPerYear is the linear trend of interest as a percentage of the average per year, and yoyChangePct compares the average of the last 12 months with the 12 months before.

Interest over time vs interest by region

Interest over time answers «when» a term is searched, while Google Trends interest by region answers «where», on the same 0–100 logic for places instead of weeks. A seasonal term shows both: sunscreen peaks from April to June and leads in Wyoming and Hawaii.

How to get interest over time for a keyword list

Interest over time for a list of keywords comes back in one run, one row per keyword, with the trend already computed.

Can Google Trends return daily data for 5 years?

No. A 5-year range comes back as weekly points, and daily or hourly points come with short ranges.

Does interest over time use my time zone?

Yes, for ranges of 7 days or shorter. Ranges of 30 days or longer use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), according to Google Trends Help.

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