There are several advertisers complaining that the Google Keyword Planner is showing higher search volumes now than in the past. It seems Google has dropped the ability to see exact match search volume and now lumps all variations in the same search volume metric.

In short, the search volume figures for keywords last month are way higher now this month.

It is unclear if this is a bug or if this is a change going forward for the tool.

There are two threads in the Google Advertising Help Forums with complaints.

Here is one that shows the key issue:

It seems some suspect the keyword planner tool changes but others are not too sure. They may think it is a bug.

I am currently not sure which it is.

Forum discussion at Google Advertising Help Forums.