The 7 Best People Also Ask Tools for Question Keyword Research

Google's People Also Ask (PAA) boxes have been sitting in search results since 2015, quietly telling content creators exactly what their audiences want to know.

But there’s a problem: manually extracting PAA data means clicking through endless question chains, copying and pasting into spreadsheets, and somehow keeping track of which questions branch from where. 

It's tedious work that eats up valuable hours. And while you're clicking away, your competitors are using automated tools to identify content gaps and improve their rankings.

Of all the People Also Ask tools I’ve tried, Answer Socrates is the best for extracting PAA questions and discovering broader question keywords for your content.

It delivers comprehensive question discovery, visual mapping, and actionable data exports for content planning - all with a very reasonable price tag.

But you may prefer another tool, depending on how you want to access your data and whether you need wider SEO functionality. This guide breaks down seven PAA tools that are worth considering. Read on to see which one best suits your budget and workflow.

1. Answer Socrates: Best Overall for PAA & Question Discovery

Answer Socrates is the best PAA tool because it extracts two levels of questions from Google (up to 60 per search) and displays them in a branching “tree” diagram so you can easily explore them.

More importantly, it lets you download all that data as both a PNG image and a CSV spreadsheet - even on the free plan. Most other PAA tools make you pay for CSV exports, which is annoying if you need to be able to copy and paste that data elsewhere.

The CSV export also includes the current ranking answer snippets and their source URLs. This means you can see exactly what Google considers a good answer for each question, which beats guessing about how to structure your content.

Beyond basic PAA extraction, Answer Socrates includes several features that help you build content around questions people are actually asking.

The main search feature discovers hundreds of questions (not just from PAA) about practically any topic:

You can also use it to find:

• Recursive questions (the things people search for after your seed keyword)

• Long-tail keywords

• Semantic keyword

• LSI keywords

And once you have all of those, the keyword clustering tool automatically groups them into topical themes, which saves hours of manual organization when planning content hubs or pillar pages.

One other feature that deserves a mention is the trending topics feature. It monitors rising search volume across any country and language combination, letting you spot emerging opportunities before saturation hits.

All of this is available on a free plan, with 3 searches per day included. Even on paid plans, pricing stays reasonable (starting at $9/month) and delivers great value for bloggers, startups, and content agencies targeting question keywords.

Pros:

• Full CSV exports of PAA questions on free plan

• Deep question discovery through recursive search

• Keyword metrics (search volume and difficulty) available on paid plans

• Keyword clustering simplifies content planning

Cons:

• No SERP analysis for ranking difficulty assessment

• Limited to Google data (no Bing or social platforms)

• Large result sets can overwhelm beginners unfamiliar with question-based research

2. AnswerThePublic: Best for Multi-Platform Question Discovery

AnswerThePublic pioneered visual keyword research back when most SEO tools looked like accounting spreadsheets. The signature "wheel" visualization became iconic in content marketing circles, and the tool still offers value - just not primarily for PAA extraction anymore.

You can use AnswerThePublic to extract PAA questions, but it displays just 6 second-level results for each main question - less than half of what Answer Socrates finds from crawling Google live.

If you’re on the free plan, you get 3 searches per day. CSV exports are limited to paid plans, so you can only extract the results as an image.

AnswerThePublic is still good for general question research, although it can struggle to find the same depth of results as Answer Socrates. My search for ‘schema seo’ delivered 559 results with Answer Socrates, and only 82 with AnswerThePublic.

One standout feature of AnswerThePublic is multi-platform coverage. It lets you pull question data from Bing, YouTube, TikTok, and Amazon, as well as Google. 

If you're optimizing for platforms beyond traditional search, this is really helpful: An e-commerce brand optimizing Amazon listings or a video creator planning YouTube content can extract questions specific to those platforms rather than relying solely on Google data.

At $11/month for 100 daily searches, I recommend AnswerThePublic if you need multi-platform data as well as People Also Ask research. Otherwise, Answer Socrates is a better alternative with more to offer.

Pros:

• Multi-platform coverage beyond just Google

• Iconic wheel visualization aids initial brainstorming

• Affordable entry point at $11/month

• Search listening alerts for trend monitoring

Cons:

• Free plan hides results and blocks CSV exports

• Displays fewer PAA results than other tools

• No clustering or recursive search features

3. KeywordsPeopleUse: Best for Forum Question Searches

Keywords People Use is another tool for generating People Also Ask questions, with a couple of other features added in. 

The platform scrapes PAA data and presents it in branching diagrams similar to the other tools on this list. It also gives you the option to view the data in list format, which I do appreciate because not everybody can interpret data from diagrams easily.

Like AnswerThePublic, though, it restricts access to the data. You have to sign up for a paid plan, starting at $15/month, if you want to export the results in a CSV file.

One thing that sets KeywordsPeopleUse apart is the option to pull questions from Reddit and Quora, too - very helpful if Reddit SEO is part of your strategy.

It’s interesting to see how these questions differ from Google’s PAA, and they can give you new angles to write about.

KeywordsPeopleUse offers a free trial with 15 credits. Once they’re gone, you’ll need to subscribe to continue using the tool. 

Paid plans start at $15/month for 150 credits. Credits are used for keyword searches, deep search (similar to Answer Socrates’ recursive search), and clustering. It’s not great value compared to Answer Socrates’ $9/month plan, but it does give you the flexibility to use your credits however you like.

Pros:

• Clean visual interface for PAA exploration

• Additional Reddit and Quora question search

• Keyword clustering

Cons:

• Free trial offers only 15 total credits (no monthly refresh)

• Credit system doesn’t offer great value compared to other tools

4. AlsoAsked: Best for Finding PAA Questions in Bulk

AlsoAsked is popular for its clean visualizations and reliable data extraction. Like Answer Socrates, it scrapes data live from Google and presents it in an intuitive diagram.

It also offers city-level searches, which is valuable for local service businesses wanting to target a specific area.

However, AlsoAsked takes a similar approach to AnswerThePublic with its pricing structure, with CSV exports only available to users on a $29/month Lite plan. Even if you subscribe to the $15/month Basic plan, you only get PNG exports.

One other benefit that comes at this price level is bulk search capability - something that no other tool has. This allows you to upload a file containing multiple keywords and process them simultaneously.

AlsoAsked doesn’t have any advanced question research or clustering capabilities, so it’s only really worth paying for if you’ll benefit from the bulk PAA search.

Pros:

• Clean, modern visual interface

• Bulk search for processing multiple keywords

• Deep search captures three question levels

• City-level search

Cons:

• CSV exports require $29/month subscription

• Pricing steep compared to feature set

• No advanced question exploration or clustering

5. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer: Best All-in-One SEO Tool with Question Data

Ahrefs is not a dedicated People Also Ask tool, nor does it display this specific data. However, it does have a huge keyword database that often finds more question keywords than any other tool.

What’s great about Ahrefs is it doesn’t just give you a list of questions; it lets you explore the SERPs for each one and view the keyword difficulty, volume, parent topic, and lots of other data that’s helpful for content planning.

I also like the fact that it displays search intent (informational/navigational/transactional/commercial) against each keyword and has two built-in clustering options.

Priced at $129/month, it isn’t right for everyone - but it’s my go-to SEO platform for in-depth keyword research, rank tracking, competitor analysis, and more. 

Paired with PageRadar, you have all you need to plan, execute, and monitor a killer SEO strategy.

Pros:

• Industry-leading SEO suite

• Massive keyword database for question discovery

• Includes keyword difficulty and traffic estimates

• Surrounding features justify platform investment

Cons:

• Not a dedicated PAA tool

• Data-heavy interface is less visually appealing than branching diagrams

6. KeywordTool.io: Best for Multi-Platform Autocomplete Data

KeywordTool.io approaches question discovery differently by focusing on autocomplete suggestions across multiple platforms rather than specifically targeting PAA boxes. 

Run a quick search, and you can view results split into Keyword Suggestions, Questions, and Prepositions.

The keyword suggestions are pretty good, but you don’t get any additional data with them unless you upgrade.

KeywordTool.io also lets you search autocomplete data from Google, YouTube, Bing, Amazon, eBay, Google Play Store, Instagram, Twitter, and even Etsy.

This broad coverage matters for ecommerce brands optimizing product listings across multiple marketplaces or content creators planning cross-platform strategies. 

If you need precise PAA data to target featured snippets, though, you'll need a different tool.

The Pro Basic plan at $89/month includes search volume data, longer keyword lists, and bulk search capability. For me, the features don’t justify the price tag - but if you’re an eCommerce brand needing quick data for multiple platforms, it might be worth it.

Pros:

• Extensive platform coverage beyond just Google

• Autocomplete insights reveal search behavior patterns

• Includes keyword metrics for paid users

Cons:

• Doesn't extract actual PAA boxes from Google

• Expensive at $89/month entry point

• Question generation rather than true PAA scraping

7. Keyword Profiler: Best for Additional Free Searches

Keyword Profiler is another tool that extracts live PAA data and displays it in a branching tree diagram. 

It doesn’t do much beyond this, and the results seem shallow compared to other tools.

Still, you get 3 free searches per day so it’s useful enough if you need easy access to PAA questions without spending anything.

Pros:

• Scrapes live PAA data

• 3 free searches per day

Cons:

• Shallow or incomplete results

• Dated interface

• Paid plans are poor value compared to other tools

How to Optimize for People Also Ask Boxes

Now you have the best tools for extracting People Also Ask questions, what are you going to do with that data?

Google is most likely to feature content that uses these questions in headers; either H2s or H3s. Use the exact question you want to rank for, and follow it with 40-60 words of text that provides a concise and direct answer.

You may use lists and tables in your answer, if appropriate, since these can also appear in PAA boxes.

If you use Answer Socrates for your PAA research, it actually shows you the answers currently ranking for each of the questions you want to target. You should aim to match the format (paragraph, list, table, etc.) and improve on the information currently being featured.

Be careful not to cram your article full of questions though, or start including questions that are not relevant to the topic.

If you can’t fit a question naturally into a header in your article, a good alternative is to add an FAQs section at the end and use that to cover any miscellaneous questions.

Finally, a slightly more technical optimization step is to use schema markup. FAQ schema and Q&A schema create structured data that helps Google understand your content's question-answer pairs.

If your site uses WordPress,plugins like Yoast and Rank Math can helo simplify FAQ schema implementation.

Final Verdict: Choosing the Best People Also Ask Tool for Your Workflow

PAA question optimization is part of a comprehensive SEO strategy, but it’s by no means the only way to optimize your content for question keywords.

That’s why I recommend using a tool like Answer Socrates that shows you the PAA data you need in a usable format, but includes broader question research and clustering for a comprehensive content strategy.

It’s affordable for beginners but can scale to higher volume for larger teams and agencies.

Teams optimizing across multiple platforms -YouTube, TikTok, Amazon - should consider AnswerThePublic, while Ahrefs is the best all-in-one SEO tool that includes question research (although not PAA data specifically).

Ultimately, any of the tools I’ve mentioned here will save you the tedious task of manually clicking through search results and copy-pasting the questions you find, so don’t delay in trying them out.

FAQs

What is a People Also Ask tool?

A People Also Ask tool extracts and organizes the questions displayed in Google's PAA boxes, helping content creators identify user intent and discover topics that searchers care about.

Do People Also Ask tools help with SEO?

Yes, PAA tools help discover question-based content opportunities that competitors often miss, leading to faster rankings and more targeted traffic from users with specific informational needs.

Do People Also Ask boxes improve website rankings?

PAA boxes don't improve rankings directly, but optimizing for PAA questions creates more comprehensive content that matches search intent better, which improves overall visibility.

Can I get PAA data for free?

Answer Socrates, AlsoAsked, and AnswerThePublic all offer free plans with daily search limits, though Answer Socrates provides the most complete free access with full CSV exports included.

How often should I check People Also Ask questions?

Check PAA questions weekly for high-volume content topics and monthly for broader planning, as questions evolve with search trends and seasonal user behavior patterns.