Ahrefs pricing in 2026: plans, credits and add-ons explained

Ahrefs costs from $29 a month (about €26) for Starter to $1,499 a month (about €1,335) for Enterprise. The three main plans in between are Lite at $129 (about €115), Standard at $249 (about €222) and Advanced at $449 (about €400). Paying yearly costs ten months' worth instead of twelve. Ahrefs has no free trial, but its free plan covers websites you can prove you own.

Prices below come from ahrefs.com/pricing and the Ahrefs Help Center. Ahrefs lists prices in US dollars, and each one has a euro equivalent at 1 EUR = 1.1225 USD. If you visit from the euro area, Ahrefs shows euro prices instead; on the day we checked they were €27 for Starter, €119 for Lite, €229 for Standard, €419 for Advanced and €1,394 for Enterprise.

Ahrefs plans and prices

Projects you verify as yours are unlimited on every plan; the project limits apply to sites you don't own. Rank Tracker updates keywords weekly on every plan.

What each plan adds

Starter gives one person Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit, Rank Tracker, Web Analytics and the SEO Toolbar, with 200 credits a month. Reports show at most 250 rows, there are no export rows, and you can't add users or buy more credits. It renews monthly only and has no MCP or API access.

Lite is the first plan with API and MCP access. It includes 1,000 credits per user, reports of up to 2,500 rows, 500,000 export rows a month, 100,000 Site Audit crawl credits, 150 AI prompt checks a month and 200,000 API units.

Standard removes the credit limit and adds Content Explorer, Portfolios, Batch Analysis, SERP comparison and Brand Radar's web visibility data. It raises crawl credits to 500,000, AI prompt checks to 300 and API units to 800,000.

Advanced adds a Looker Studio integration and raises crawl credits to 1.5 million, AI prompt checks to 600 and API units to 2 million.

Enterprise includes at least 3 users, uncapped API access with custom endpoints, single sign-on, an audit log and unlimited history. It requires a yearly commitment.

How Ahrefs credits work

Credits only limit Starter and Lite. On those plans:

• Opening a report costs 1 credit, charts included.
• Each follow-up action costs 1 more: applying filters, changing dates, opening the SERP viewer or position history, switching report modes, inspecting a URL, or adding competitors to a chart.
• Site Audit, Rank Tracker and Brand Radar don't use credits; they have their own limits.
• Reopening the same report with the same settings within 30 minutes is free, and so are paging and sorting.
• A bulk lookup of as many as 10,000 keywords in Keywords Explorer costs a single credit, and so does a Batch Analysis of up to 200 URLs.

When Lite credits run out, you can switch on pay-as-you-go credits at $50 per 500 (about €45). They are off by default and last three billing months. You can also prepay $300 a year (about €267) for 500 extra credits every month. Starter can't buy extra credits.

Ahrefs Starter vs Lite

Starter makes sense for checking a handful of keywords and your own rankings now and then. If you research competitors every week or want an AI assistant to use Ahrefs data, Lite is the realistic starting point.

What extra users cost

On Lite, Ahrefs bills extra users by how much they use: nothing for a user who spends 5 credits or fewer in a month, $20 (about €18) for 6 to 100 credits and $40 (about €36) for up to 1,000. Unless you prepay, extra users are charged automatically.

Add-ons

The all-platforms Brand Radar option includes 2,500 custom prompt checks a month. One check is one prompt on one AI platform in one location.

API and MCP pricing

Ahrefs doesn't charge separately for API or MCP access on Lite and above. Each call uses API units from a monthly allowance shared between the API, the MCP server and Ahrefs Connect:

Every call uses 50 units or more, which caps Lite at 4,000 calls a month and fewer when requests are complex. Pay-as-you-go API units last three billing months. Starter and Ahrefs Free include neither the API nor MCP. The Ahrefs MCP server works with Claude, ChatGPT and other clients that support remote MCP; Ahrefs no longer supports a local setup.

Ahrefs Free

Ahrefs Free is the free plan that used to be called Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Most of it works only on sites you verify:

• Site Explorer, showing up to 1,000 of your backlinks and keywords at a time.
• Site Audit, with 5,000 crawl credits a month per project.
• Web Analytics, up to 1 million events per project.
• The SEO Toolbar, Social Media Manager (in beta) and one free AI Content Helper document a month.

It does not include Keywords Explorer or Rank Tracker, and you can't look up sites you don't own.

Free trial, refunds and cancelling

Ahrefs does not offer a free trial or discounts. Its pricing page points website owners to Ahrefs Free.

Refunds are rare. Ahrefs says it does not issue refunds in general; on a monthly plan you can request one if you haven't used the service, and Ahrefs may refuse if it sees real activity on the account.

You can cancel or downgrade at any time in Account Settings. The paid plan keeps working until the end of the billing period, then the account moves to Ahrefs Free. Upgrades take effect immediately. Ahrefs says there are no contracts or setup fees, although Enterprise needs a yearly commitment.

Yearly cost examples

Add-ons and pay-as-you-go credits come on top.

Which Ahrefs plan fits

• Only your own site: Ahrefs Free together with Google Search Console costs nothing.
• Occasional keyword checks, no AI assistant: Starter.
• A freelancer or small business that researches competitors regularly or wants MCP: Lite, as long as 1,000 credits a month is enough.
• Agencies and link builders with more than 5 client sites they don't own: Standard, for unlimited credits and 20 projects.
• Larger teams that need 5 years of history or Looker Studio: Advanced.

How zaDojo compares

We make zaDojo, so treat this section as our view. zaDojo is one plan at €10 a month with €10 of usage credits, every feature, unlimited projects, no seat fees and MCP access from the free trial on. Credits are euros spent on data lookups rather than counts of clicks. Its backlink data comes from DataForSEO with about a year of history, while Ahrefs runs its own crawler and keeps up to 5 years on Advanced, so link builders may still prefer Ahrefs. See zaDojo vs Ahrefs for the full comparison and zaDojo pricing for typical costs.

FAQ

How much does Ahrefs cost per month?

Starter $29 (about €26), Lite $129 (about €115), Standard $249 (about €222), Advanced $449 (about €400) and Enterprise $1,499 (about €1,335).

Is there a free version of Ahrefs?

Yes, Ahrefs Free. It covers sites you verify, with Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics, but no keyword research or rank tracking.

Does Ahrefs have a free trial?

No. The nearest thing is Ahrefs Free, which is limited to sites you have verified.

What is the difference between Ahrefs Starter and Lite?

Starter is $29 (about €26) with 200 credits, 50 tracked keywords and a month of history. Lite is $129 (about €115) with 1,000 credits, 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history, extra users and MCP access.

How much does the Ahrefs API cost?

There is no separate fee. Lite and higher include API and MCP access with a monthly allowance of API units: 200,000 on Lite, 800,000 on Standard and 2 million on Advanced.

Can I get a refund from Ahrefs?

Only in limited cases: a monthly plan you haven't used. Yearly plans and used monthly plans are generally not refunded.

How do I cancel Ahrefs?

Go to Account Settings and cancel. You keep the paid plan until the period ends, then move to Ahrefs Free.

Related pages

• Semrush pricing
• zaDojo vs Ahrefs
• All comparisons