Ahrefs pricing: plans, credits, add-ons and the real cost

Every price below comes from Ahrefs’ official pages, read on October 29, 2026. I didn’t buy an Ahrefs plan. The one tool I tested on a real account is SemChat, and its buttons on this page are affiliate links: I earn a commission if you subscribe, at no extra cost to you.

Ahrefs price as of October 29, 2026: every plan side by side

The pricing page, read from France, shows euros. Prices are before tax: “All prices and charges are exclusive of taxes and fees” (terms of service, article 9.2).

The currency changes with the page. The free account page shows Starter at £23 a month. The blog, FAQ and help center quote US dollars: $29 for Starter, $129 for Lite, $249 for Standard. The pricing page as seen from the United States: missing data (planned source: Ahrefs pricing page read from the US). The terms add that outside US dollars, Ahrefs applies “a fixed conversion rate that is updated from time to time”.

Ahrefs’ pricing page as read from France, with prices in euros. Screenshot of https://ahrefs.com/pricing, taken on October 30, 2026.

Ahrefs plans: Free, Starter, Lite, Standard, Advanced and Enterprise

Each step up opens more projects, more history and more data. Lite gives you 5 unverified projects and 6 months of history. Standard adds Content Explorer, Batch Analysis, keyword clusters and 20 projects. Advanced adds Looker Studio and 50 projects. Enterprise adds SSO, an audit log and an API with no cap.

Users cost extra. Each plan includes 1 user; more cost €37.40 a month on Lite, €56.10 on Standard, €74.80 on Advanced and €93 on Enterprise.

The Starter plan: monthly only, and no assistant

Ahrefs’ FAQ calls Starter “the entry point for small businesses and personal projects”. For €27 a month you get Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Site Audit and Rank Tracker, with tight limits: 200 credits, 1 month of history, 250 rows per report, no exports, 50 tracked keywords.

Two catches. “The Starter plan can only be renewed monthly”, so no yearly saving. And Ask Ahrefs and the MCP server aren’t included. The pages also disagree on add-ons: the blog says none can be bought on Starter, a help article says “All other add-ons are available for the purchase”.

Brand Radar, sold on its own

Brand Radar AI, which tracks your brand in AI answers, also comes alone: “Get started from €179/mo”, with a free Ahrefs account. The Brand Radar page itself shows its AI Visibility Index at $199 a month. The exact price above the entry level isn’t detailed.

How much is Ahrefs for your use: projects, credits and tracked keywords

What drives your bill is less the plan name than three counters: unverified projects (sites you don’t own), credits, and tracked keywords. Your own verified sites are unlimited on every plan.

• One site, a few keyword checks a week: Starter, €27 a month, or €324 a year (27 × 12, monthly only).
• One site, with the assistant: Lite, €119 a month, or €1,190 a year.
• Lite with a second user: €119 + €37.40 = €156.40 a month.
• Several client sites: Standard, €229 a month, for 20 unverified projects and unlimited credits under fair use.

Credits on Starter and Lite: what happens when they run out

Starter comes with 200 credits a month, Lite with 1,000 per user. From Standard up, credits are unlimited under fair use. Ahrefs’ FAQ warns that credit-based usage “can feel restrictive if you run frequent keyword or competitor lookups”.

Past your limits, pay-as-you-go kicks in once you turn it on: it’s billed automatically, and purchased credits last three billing months. The price per credit isn’t shown: missing data (planned source: Ahrefs pricing page).

Ahrefs cost beyond the plan: API units, MCP and the assistant

Several things sit on top of the plan, all monthly and before tax:

• Content Kit (AI Content Helper and Grader): from €89.
• Report Builder: €89 for 50 reports and scheduled sends.
• Project Boost: Pro at €18.70 per project, Max at €180 per project.
• Traffic Analytics: €89.
• Extra AI prompt checks: Basic €46.70, Growth €93, Scale €234.

Ahrefs API pricing and MCP units

The API and the MCP server share one pool of units: 200,000 a month on Lite, 800,000 on Standard, 2 million on Advanced, 4 million or custom on Enterprise. “The minimum cost for any request is 50 units”.

Outside Enterprise, you can’t buy more. Once the limit is hit, “the API stops working until the next cycle”.

What Ask Ahrefs costs: Lite and up, free during the beta

Ask Ahrefs is the assistant built into Ahrefs. Ahrefs’ home page says it’s “Free during beta on Lite+ plans”, and the Ask Ahrefs page adds: “Not available on Free or Starter plans.” So today the assistant costs you a Lite plan, €119 a month. Its price after the beta “will be announced ahead of any change”.

The Ask Ahrefs page: free during its beta, from the Lite plan up. Screenshot of https://ahrefs.com/ask-ahrefs, taken on October 30, 2026.

Ahrefs subscription: no trial, no discount, rare refunds

Ahrefs’ help center is direct: “We don’t provide any free trials, but you can check out our free account”. Its pricing page adds “We never run discounts”, and no promo codes exist. Annual billing is the only saving.

Refunds are rare too: “Ahrefs does not issue refunds in general”. On a monthly plan, you can ask if you didn’t use the account; Ahrefs may refuse after significant activity. Ahrefs accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express and UnionPay. When you cancel, you go back to Ahrefs Free.

Ahrefs Free: what you get without a subscription

Ahrefs Free is “Not a trial”: €0, no card, no end date. For the sites you verify, you get Site Explorer, Site Audit and Web Analytics. Keywords Explorer and Rank Tracker aren’t included. And per the FAQ, “you can’t research competitors’ sites without paying”. The full list is on our Ahrefs free trial page.

The Ahrefs Free page: the free account, for your own verified sites. Screenshot of https://ahrefs.com/free, taken on October 30, 2026.

Ahrefs pricing for a small business: when the subscription pays off

Ahrefs pricing makes sense when you’ll use the data every week. If you track rivals’ links, follow several markets or report to clients, Lite or Standard pays for itself in hours saved. Ahrefs says so itself: Lite is for “small businesses and personal projects”.

If you mostly need to know what to fix on one site, start free. Ahrefs Free audits your own site. Starter at €27 adds keyword research, without the assistant. The jump to the assistant is €119.

What SemChat costs next to Ahrefs: €0, then €20 a month

SemChat prices by usage, not by feature: “Every feature, in every plan. Just pick your monthly usage.” Free is €0 (“Try semchat with no credit card”), Starter €20 a month, Pro 5x €100 and Pro 20x €200. Billed yearly, Starter drops to €16 a month. Prices read as before tax: my first Starter invoice was €24.00 with VAT.

The catch: usage is counted in tokens, with no published equivalent in audits. My one full audit on the Free plan, on October 29, 2026, used the whole monthly quota. Every price is on our SemChat pricing page.

SemChat’s pricing page: the Free plan at €0, then Starter at €20 a month. Screenshot of semchat.io/en/pricing, taken on October 30, 2026.

Ahrefs vs SemChat: the full comparison

Price is one part. Ahrefs has its own link index and data in 217+ locations; SemChat has the assistant from €0, with Haloscan data in France. Our Ahrefs vs SemChat comparison goes feature by feature.

Our SemChat review, based on a real audit

I typed one sentence and got 3 actions for the week in about 3 minutes. Then I checked the Usage screen. The whole test is in our SemChat review, and other options sit in our Ahrefs alternative guide. Bottom line on Ahrefs pricing: pay when you’ll use the data weekly; start free otherwise.

The Usage screen after the audit: the Free plan quota is used up (French interface). Screenshot of the SemChat app (Jérémy’s account, Free plan), October 29, 2026.