AlsoAsked vs Keyword Chef in 2026: A visual PAA tree vs wildcard long-tail discovery
Both tools touch People Also Asked data, but they get there differently. One renders a branching question graph starting at $12 a month. The other bolts a PAA lookup onto a credit-based wildcard search engine starting at $29 a month.
AlsoAsked
Keyword Chef- AlsoAsked renders People Also Asked data as a full branching question tree with visual PNG export. Keyword Chef lists "PAA Keywords" as one data point returned alongside volume and SERP scores, not a dedicated visual tool.
- Keyword Chef's signature feature is wildcard search, filling a placeholder like "best * for small kitchens" with real search variants. AlsoAsked has no equivalent pattern-based discovery feature.
- Keyword Chef runs live SERP lookups and returns difficulty scores, search volume estimates, and intent signals. AlsoAsked has no volume, CPC, or difficulty data of any kind.
- AlsoAsked supports city-level targeting across all Google-supported languages. Keyword Chef's geo targeting is country-level, aimed at English-language markets like the UK, Australia, and Canada.
- AlsoAsked bills by monthly credit allotment (100 to 1,000 credits) with no expiry option. Keyword Chef bills per SERP lookup on tiers from 5,000 to 50,000 credits, plus a Pay As You Go option with credits that never expire.
- AlsoAsked gates API access to its $47/month Pro plan. Keyword Chef has no public API on any plan.
AlsoAsked and Keyword Chef overlap more than most pairs in this category because both touch Google's People Also Asked data, but the overlap is thinner than it looks. AlsoAsked builds its entire product around PAA: it renders the full question tree as a visual graph you can hand to a writer, with city-level targeting and no per-lookup credit cost beyond the monthly allotment. Keyword Chef treats PAA as one data point among several inside a broader wildcard-search and SERP-scoring workflow, listing "PAA Keywords" as a line item on its Starter, Plus, and Pro plans rather than the centerpiece of the product. If question-intent research and content briefs are the actual job, AlsoAsked's dedicated tool does it more thoroughly. If the job is finding low-competition long-tail phrases and validating them against a live SERP, Keyword Chef's wildcard engine is built for that and treats PAA as a bonus, not the main feature.
The tools at a glance
AlsoAsked
Live People Also Asked data with intent clustering, bulk exports, and city-level international targeting for content strategy
AlsoAsked is a single-purpose tool that queries Google's live People Also Asked boxes and renders the resulting questions as a branching graph. It is the more thorough of the two tools when the job is specifically PAA research: you see the full tree several levels deep, not just a flat list of PAA phrases, and the PNG export is something a writer can use directly as a content brief.
City-level international targeting is the other real differentiator. AlsoAsked supports it across every language Google covers, at no extra cost on any tier, which matters for teams researching intent across multiple markets rather than relying on a country-level average. Keyword Chef's geo targeting, by comparison, stops at the country level.
The limitation is that AlsoAsked never leaves the PAA lane. There is no volume data, no keyword difficulty, no wildcard pattern search, and no SERP scoring, so it cannot tell you whether any of the questions it surfaces are worth targeting commercially. Credit limits on the Basic and Lite plans (100 and 300 a month) also mean heavy PAA research can run out of runway faster than expected.
| Feature | Basic $12/month | Lite $23/month | Pro $47/month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credits per month | 100 | 300 | 1,000 |
| Unlimited users | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| All regions and languages | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PNG image export | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search history | 24 hours | 1 month | 1 year |
| Deep search | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSV data export | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk searches | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| API access | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pay-as-you-go credits | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Keyword Chef
Credit-based keyword research built for publishers, with wildcard search and real-time SERP analysis that surfaces low-competition long-tail keywords your competitors miss
Keyword Chef's core workflow is wildcard search: type "how to cook * without an oven" and it fills the placeholder with variants pulled from real search data, which surfaces long-tail phrasing a standard seed-and-expand tool, or a PAA-only tool like AlsoAsked, would never generate. Every keyword it returns is scored against a live SERP lookup rather than a cached difficulty number, so the competitive read reflects the current state of page one.
PAA data shows up here too, listed as "PAA Keywords" on the Starter, Plus, and Pro plans, alongside Similar Keywords and a Domains Report with domain age data. It is one line item in a broader keyword set rather than a standalone research mode, so it is useful as a supplementary signal but not a substitute for AlsoAsked's dedicated question-tree view if PAA-specific research is the actual goal.
The credit system ($29/month for 5,000 credits up to $119/month for 50,000, or Pay As You Go at a higher per-credit rate) rewards disciplined research and penalizes open-ended exploration. There is no rank tracking, no backlink analysis module, and no public API, which means Keyword Chef stays a discovery tool you pair with something else rather than a full research-to-tracking platform.
| Feature | Starter $29/month | Plus $69/month | Pro $119/month | Pay As You Go Per credit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly credits | 5,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 | Lifetime, no expiry |
| Cost per credit | $0.0058 | $0.0034 | $0.0024 | Higher rate |
| PAA Keywords | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Similar Keywords | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Get All SERPs | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Domains Report | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Domain Age data | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Full Keyword Preview | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| First queue priority | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Niche Insights | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Head-to-head feature comparison
| Feature | AlsoAsked | Keyword Chef |
|---|---|---|
| People Also Asked data | Yes, full visual question tree | Yes, listed as "PAA Keywords" line item |
| Search volume estimates | No | Yes |
| Keyword difficulty / SERP scoring | No | Yes, live per-query SERP score |
| Wildcard / long-tail pattern search | No | Yes, signature feature |
| Competitor analysis | No | No dedicated module |
| Rank tracking | No | No |
| Domain age / domains report | No | Yes (Domains Report, Domain Age) |
| International geo targeting | Yes, city-level, all languages | Yes, country-level |
| Bulk keyword processing | Yes, on Pro plan | Yes (Bulk SERP Analyzer) |
| Saved / shareable reports | No (PNG/CSV export only) | Yes, via shareable link |
| API access | Yes, on Pro plan | No |
| Free trial | No (3 free searches/day, non-registered) | Yes, terms vary |
| Starting price | $12/mo | $29/mo (5,000 credits) |
Which should you choose?
AlsoAskedKeyword ChefAlsoAskedKeyword ChefKeyword ChefAlsoAskedThe two tools look like closer competitors than they are because both touch PAA data. In practice, AlsoAsked is the specialist: the question tree is the entire product, and it goes deeper and further (city-level, multiple branch levels, visual export) than Keyword Chef's PAA Keywords line item ever will. Keyword Chef is the specialist in the opposite direction: wildcard pattern search and live SERP scoring are the real product, and PAA data is a convenience feature bundled in. Pick based on which single capability is your actual bottleneck, not on the fact that both mention PAA in their marketing.
Bottom line
Choose AlsoAsked at $12 to $23/month if content briefs and question-intent mapping are the job, especially across multiple cities or languages. Choose Keyword Chef at $29/month if you are hunting long-tail phrases with real ranking potential and want live SERP validation before you commit to writing. The two are narrow enough in different directions that running both is a reasonable setup for a publisher doing serious content planning, since combined they still cost less than a single mid-tier Ahrefs seat.
Frequently asked questions
Do AlsoAsked and Keyword Chef both provide People Also Asked data?
Both tools return People Also Asked data, but at very different depths. AlsoAsked builds its entire product around live PAA data and renders the full branching question tree as a visual graph. Keyword Chef lists "PAA Keywords" as one data point on its Starter, Plus, and Pro plans, returned alongside volume estimates and SERP scores rather than as a dedicated visual research mode.
Which tool is better for finding long-tail keywords with low competition?
Keyword Chef is purpose-built for finding low-competition long-tail keywords through its wildcard search syntax and live per-query SERP scoring, which together surface long-tail phrases and tell you how competitive the current results page looks. AlsoAsked has no wildcard feature and no SERP or difficulty data at all, so it cannot answer the competition question on its own.
Does either tool have search volume or keyword difficulty data?
Keyword Chef has both: its Bulk SERP Analyzer and standard search return search volume estimates and a live SERP-based difficulty score. AlsoAsked has none of this; it returns questions only, with no volume, CPC, or difficulty metric attached to any result.
Is AlsoAsked or Keyword Chef better for international keyword research?
AlsoAsked goes further internationally, with city-level targeting across every language Google supports at no extra cost on any tier. Keyword Chef's Country Geo Targeting stops at the country level, aimed primarily at English-language markets like the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Can I get an API for either AlsoAsked or Keyword Chef?
AlsoAsked offers API access on its $47/month Pro plan, letting you schedule recurring PAA searches and monitor intent shift over time. Keyword Chef has no public API on any plan, which rules it out for teams that want to pipe keyword data into a custom dashboard or BI tool.
Should a niche site publisher use AlsoAsked, Keyword Chef, or both?
Running both is worth it if the budget allows, since they cover different parts of the workflow. Keyword Chef's wildcard search and live SERP scoring find long-tail keywords worth targeting, while AlsoAsked's question tree scopes what a page needs to cover once a topic is chosen. Combined, the two cost around $41/month at their entry tiers, still well under what a single all-in-one suite charges for comparable depth.