Ahrefs Pricing
- SEO pricing
- $29/mo at the smallest
- Free plan
Ahrefs pricing starts at $29 a month, which is $348 over twelve months. There is a free plan. Every figure below was read from the vendor's pricing page on 18 August 2026, and 2 charges that the headline price does not include are set out below.
Opens the vendor's own pricing page. Figures here were read from it on 18 August 2026.
Ahrefs ranking and coverage
- In SEO
- #5 of 13
- Overall
- #60 of 122 tied
- Terms score
- 5.6 /10
- Referenced here
- 13 pages
Cost position 6.7 · Portability 4 · Subscription flexibility 6 - Ranked on published terms only: entry price against category peers, portability and subscription flexibility, equally weighted. This is not a quality score.How the rank is calculated.
Ahrefs pricing at a glance
| Entry price | Free plan available; paid from $29/month (Starter) |
|---|---|
| Smallest invoice | $29 a month, or $348 a year |
| How that is reached | Starter at $29 a month |
| Seat minimum | None on the entry plan |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | No trial offered |
| How it charges | subscription |
| Priced plans published | 12 rows on the vendor's page |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Prices read from | The vendor's own pricing page |
| Last checked | 18 August 2026 |
Every Ahrefs plan and what it costs
Read from the vendor's own pricing page on 18 August 2026. Charged as subscription. No free trial is offered.
| Plan | Price | Billing | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Free | $0 | per month | Webmaster Tools, limited to sites you verify ownership of |
| Starter | $29 | per month | Keyword and competitor research, credit metered |
| Lite | $129 | per month | 1 user - Extra users $40/month each |
| Standard | $249 | per month | 1 user - Adds Content Gap and historical data; extra users $60/month each |
| Advanced | $449 | per month | 3 users - Extra users $80/month each |
| Enterprise | $1,499 | per month | API access and directory listings; extra users $100/month each |
| Brand Radar AI Add-on | From $199 | per month | Add-on for tracking brand mentions in AI answers, across seven named platforms |
| Custom prompts, Basic Add-on | $50 | per month | 2,500 checks a month on top of a plan; the page's own example is 80 prompts daily on one platform. Overage $0.020 per check |
| Custom prompts, Growth Add-on | $100 | per month | 7,000 checks a month; the page's example is 100 prompts daily on two platforms. Overage $0.015 per check |
| Custom prompts, Scale Add-on | $250 | per month | 25,000 checks a month, overage $0.010 per check |
| Content Kit Add-on | From $99 | per month | AI Content Helper, AI Content Grader and AI Content Inventory |
| Report Builder Add-on | $99 | per month | 50 reports, 500 widgets and scheduled delivery |
What Ahrefs costs beyond the advertised price
Each of these is a figure you can check on the vendor's own page. The arithmetic is shown so you can redo it rather than take our word for it.
- Charged on top of a plan$3,000 a year
Custom prompts, Scale is charged on top of a plan rather than instead of one: $250 a month, which is $3,000 a year on top of whichever tier you hold.
Working$250 a month x 12 = $3,000 a year, added to a tier price rather than replacing it.
Computed from the plan table on Ahrefs pricing page , read 18 August 2026
- Charged on top of a plan$2,388 a year
Brand Radar AI is charged on top of a plan rather than instead of one: $199 a month, which is $2,388 a year on top of whichever tier you hold.
Working$199 a month x 12 = $2,388 a year, added to a tier price rather than replacing it.
Computed from the plan table on Ahrefs pricing page , read 18 August 2026
Fixed mechanics above add $5,388 a year to the advertised price. Usage-dependent charges are listed but not summed, because a figure that depends on how much you use cannot be added to one that does not.
What Ahrefs actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above resolved both ways, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way. Where a vendor quotes only a yearly figure it is divided by twelve rather than left out, and the Quoted column says which figure the vendor actually publishes.
| Plan | Quoted | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | per month | $29 | $348 |
| Lite1 user | per month | $129 | $1,548 |
| Standard1 user | per month | $249 | $2,988 |
| Advanced3 users | per month | $449 | $5,388 |
| Enterprise | per month | $1,499 | $17,988 |
| Brand Radar AI add-on | per month | $199 | $2,388 |
| Custom prompts, Basic add-on | per month | $50 | $600 |
| Custom prompts, Growth add-on | per month | $100 | $1,200 |
| Custom prompts, Scale add-on | per month | $250 | $3,000 |
| Content Kit add-on | per month | $99 | $1,188 |
| Report Builder add-on | per month | $99 | $1,188 |
Ahrefs pricing over time
Read from 19 archived captures of the vendor's pricing page , spanning December 2015 to September 2026. Every figure below links to the capture it came from, so you can check it against the page as it stood on the day.
- Lite changed 2 times between 27 December 2015 and 1 September 2026, from $79 to $129, up 63.3% overall.
- Standard changed once between 27 December 2015 and 1 September 2026, from $179 to $249, up 39.1% overall.
- Enterprise has been published at $1,499 in every capture we read, from 6 May 2025 to 1 September 2026.
- Starter has been published at $29 in every capture we read, from 6 May 2025 to 1 September 2026.
Lite
Standard
Enterprise
| Published price | Charged | Seen from | Last seen | Capture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,499 | Not stated | 6 May 2025 | 1 September 2026 | Archive |
Starter
| Published price | Charged | Seen from | Last seen | Capture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $29 | Not stated | 6 May 2025 | 1 September 2026 | Archive |
3 archived captures with no price we could read
The capture exists, but the figures on it could not be extracted - usually a page that renders prices in JavaScript, or a currency selector the archive did not record. Listed rather than dropped, because a gap in a price history reads as "nothing changed" and these are not that.
Compiled 18 September 2026 from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Plan names were matched against the archived page text and the first currency-anchored figure within 160 characters was recorded, rejecting any figure with a competing plan name standing between it and the name it was matched to. The currency and the unit were read from each capture rather than assumed: captures served in a currency other than $, and captures where no plan name sat beside a figure, are listed as unread rather than dropped. 1 plan series was read from these captures and then discarded, because the most recent capture did not reproduce the price we verified on the live page. Only plans the extraction demonstrably reads correctly are published here. Archived pages show the price as served to the archive's crawler, which may differ by region from the price you are shown.
Ahrefs pricing against its competitors
Compared on the smallest invoice each vendor will accept, not on the advertised per-seat rate. Where a product has a seat minimum, the figure below is the minimum times the rate, because that is the cheque you would actually write.
| Product | Cheapest paid entry | Free plan | Against Ahrefs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | $29 a month | Yes | This product |
| Moz Pro | $49 a month | No | +$20 a month (+69%) |
| Semrush | $139 a month | Yes | +$110 a month (+379%) |
Which Ahrefs plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want to audit a site you own and nothing more | Ahrefs Free | Webmaster Tools covers verified sites at no cost, which is enough for your own technical audit. |
| You need occasional keyword and competitor research | Starter | $29 a month, credit metered. The cheapest route into Ahrefs data without committing to Lite. |
| You are a working SEO consultant | Lite | $129 covers day-to-day research. Budget $40 a month for each extra user before comparing. |
| You need Content Gap and historical data | Standard | $249, and the historical index is the specific reason most agencies move up from Lite. |
| You need API access | Enterprise | $1,499 a month. The API is gated to the top tier, which surprises teams planning to build reporting on it. |
| You mainly research paid search and competitor ads | Do not buy Ahrefs | Semrush covers PPC properly; Ahrefs is organic-first. |
Verdict by who you are
SEO consultant or agencyYes
The backlink index is the best available, and link research is the job Ahrefs wins outright.
In-house content marketerCompare first
Lite at $129 is a lot for keyword research alone. Compare against Semrush and Moz on the features you would genuinely open weekly.
Site owner doing a one-off auditNo
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is free for sites you verify, so there is no reason to pay.
PPC specialistNo
Paid-search research is not Ahrefs' strength. Semrush is the better tool.
Developer building SEO reportingCompare first
API access requires Enterprise at $1,499 a month, which changes the business case entirely.
Should you buy Ahrefs?
Buy Ahrefs if…
- Link building and backlink analysis
- Keyword research and content gap analysis
- SEO consultants and technical SEOs
Do not buy Ahrefs if…
- Paid-search and PPC competitor research
- Teams wanting unlimited report exports on entry plans
- Anyone expecting a free trial before paying
What leaving Ahrefs would cost
moderate lock-in
Ahrefs scores on public API, documented migration friction averaging 2 of 3. Portability 4/10 , after 1 off for documented migration friction; lock-in is the inverse. How this is calculated.
| What you would move | Friction | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword lists and saved projects | Low | Export as CSV cleanly, so the raw lists move without difficulty. |
| Historical rank tracking data | High | Your accumulated history stays with Ahrefs. A new tool starts from today. |
| Site audit history and crawl comparisons | Moderate | Trend data is lost, so you lose the ability to show progress over past periods. |
| Reporting built on Ahrefs metrics | Moderate | DR and UR have no equivalent elsewhere, so any report quoting them must be reworked. |
The data exports; the history does not. Rank tracking and audit trends are the things you cannot take, which argues for starting your tracking in whichever tool you intend to keep.
Why the index matters more than the feature list
Every SEO platform sells roughly the same seven modules. The difference is what sits underneath them. Ahrefs operates its own crawler and publishes its crawler IP ranges, which means its link data is not licensed from a third party. In practice this shows up when you compare referring domains for the same site across tools: the ordering and the freshness differ, and Ahrefs tends to surface new links sooner.
The clicks-versus-volume distinction
Keywords Explorer reports an estimated clicks figure next to search volume. Many high-volume queries are answered directly in the SERP and send almost no traffic anywhere. Choosing keywords on volume alone leads to publishing pages that rank and earn nothing. This one column is a reasonable argument for the subscription on its own.
What it will not do
Ahrefs has no meaningful paid-search product. If you need competitors’ ad copy, budgets or bidding history, you need Semrush or a dedicated ad-intelligence tool.
Credits, in plain terms
Lower tiers meter how many rows and reports you pull per month. A single deep competitor audit can consume a noticeable share of a Lite allowance. If your work is bursty - audits for new clients, then quiet weeks - model your heaviest month, not your average one.
AI prompt tracking is priced separately, and that is the catch
Every plan includes a token allowance of AI prompts - five on Lite, ten on Standard, twenty on Advanced - which is enough to confirm the feature exists and not enough to run a programme. Real tracking is bought two ways, both read from the pricing page on 18 August 2026:
- Brand Radar AI, from $199 a month, which covers seven named platforms: AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, against a database of 474 million organic prompts.
- Custom prompt packages, if you only want your own prompts tracked: $50 a month for 2,500 checks (the page’s example is 80 prompts daily on one platform), $100 for 7,000, $250 for 25,000. A check is one prompt on one platform in one location, and overage runs from $0.020 down to $0.010 per check.
So the cheapest Ahrefs configuration that tracks your own prompts properly is Lite plus Basic, $179 a month for one platform. That is worth comparing with the dedicated trackers before assuming the platform you already pay for is the cheaper route. Their entry prices are listed under AI search visibility.
Ahrefs questions, answered
- Is Ahrefs worth it?
- Ahrefs is the tool most SEO practitioners reach for first, and the reason is data quality rather than feature count.
- How much does Ahrefs cost?
- Free plan available; paid from $29/month (Starter). The cheapest paid tier we recorded is Starter, published at $29 a month, which works out at $29 a month or $348 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Ahrefs have a free plan or free trial?
- Ahrefs has a free plan. No free trial is offered.
- What is the best Ahrefs alternative?
- It depends on the job. Semrush: Broader toolset including paid search; costs more once seats are added. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: The free tier of Ahrefs itself - enough to audit a site you own. Moz Pro: Cheaper entry point with a gentler learning curve and a smaller index.
- Can I self-host Ahrefs?
- No. Ahrefs is a hosted service only, so your data lives on the vendor's infrastructure.
Opens the vendor's own pricing page. Figures here were read from it on 18 August 2026.
What this profile is based on
Every claim below is about our work, not about Ahrefs. A "no" is recorded rather than omitted, because the difference between a tested review and careful desk research is the reader's to weigh. How we research a profile.
-
Prices read from the vendor : yes
Read from Ahrefs's own pricing page on 18 August 2026
-
Plans and terms recorded : yes
12 rows, each with its billing period
-
Original screenshots : yes
2 captured by us: pricing page, homepage
-
Sources cited and dated : yes
3 primary sources, each with the date it was read
-
Product used first-hand : no
Not tested. This profile is desk research from primary sources
-
Alternatives used first-hand : no
None, so comparisons here rest on published facts rather than use
-
Vendor contacted : no
Not contacted for this profile
Where Ahrefs appears on this site
13 other pages here reference Ahrefs. Every one is listed below, so the figure can be checked rather than taken.
- Price guide When to Use a SaaS Free Trial vs a Free Plan listed as related
- Deal record Black Friday 2026 deal tracker tracked as no deal
- Another profile Clearscope names it as a competitor
- Another profile Frase picks it for keyword, backlink and technical research
- Another profile Google Search Console names it as a competitor
- Another profile Moz Pro names it as a competitor
- Another profile Otterly.ai names it as a competitor
- Another profile Peec AI names it as a competitor
- Another profile Profound names it as a competitor
- Another profile Screaming Frog SEO Spider names it as a competitor
- Another profile Scrunch names it as a competitor
- Another profile Semrush names it as a competitor
- Another profile Surfer names it as a competitor
Counts pages on this site that name the product by choice - price guides, pricing question pages, deal records and other profiles. Category and directory indexes list everything automatically and are not counted.
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Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features ·
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Prices re-read for the AI SEO tools guide; every plan rate unchanged
- Recorded the custom prompt packages, Content Kit and Report Builder add-ons
- Named the seven platforms Brand Radar tracks
-
August 2026
- Pricing re-verified, including per-seat costs above the included user counts
- Added plan picker, verdicts and switching-cost breakdown
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Ahrefs pricing page - checked 18 August 2026
- Ahrefs Brand Radar - checked 18 August 2026
- Ahrefs API v3 documentation - checked 9 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.