Ahrefs review: our take
Ahrefs is strongest at backlink and competitor research, built on its own crawler, with keyword research, rank tracking and site audits beside it. Brand Radar adds tracking of how AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention a brand. Site owners get Site Explorer and Site Audit for their own verified sites free.
Starter costs $29 a month and Lite $129, with 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords and 1 user; extra users and add-ons such as Brand Radar from $199 and AI Content Helper at $99 push the bill up. Ahrefs offers no free trial and no discounts, so the free plan is the only test. For a 7-day trial before paying, compare Semrush; for writing articles against the ranking pages, Surfer SEO.
By the Prompt Hackers team · facts checked 4 Oct 2026
What Ahrefs does
Ahrefs covers competitor and backlink research in Site Explorer, keyword research in Keywords Explorer, rank tracking and site audits, built on its own crawler. Brand Radar tracks how AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and AI Mode mention a brand, and AI Content Helper drafts and optimizes articles for search and AI answers. Lite and higher plans include API and MCP access.
Who Ahrefs is for
Best for
- SEO specialists researching backlinks and competitors
- site owners auditing their own site on the free plan
- brands tracking mentions in AI answers
Not for
- anyone who wants to try paid tools first: Ahrefs says it never runs discounts and offers no free trial, and it does not issue refunds in general
- teams on Lite: 1 user is included and up to 2 more cost $40 a month each
Ahrefs features
- F1Site Explorer
- backlinks and competitor traffic
- F2Keywords Explorer
- F3Rank Tracker
- F4Site Audit
- F5Brand Radar
- AI visibility
- F6AI Content Helper
- F7Web Analytics
- F8API and MCP
- Lite and up
Ahrefs pricing and plans
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly, per month | What it includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Free | $0 | — | for your own verified sites: Site Explorer, Site Audit with 5,000 crawl credits a month per project, Web Analytics, 1 AI Content Helper document a month |
| Starter | $29 | — | entry plan for keyword and competitor research |
| Lite | $129 | — | 5 projects, 6 months of history, 750 tracked keywords, 5 tracked AI prompts, 100,000 crawl credits, 1,000 credits per user, 1 user, API and MCP access |
| Standard | $249 | — | 20 projects, 2 years of history, 2,000 tracked keywords, 10 AI prompts, 500,000 crawl credits, unlimited credits per user, Content Explorer |
| Advanced | $449 | — | 50 projects, 5 years of history, 5,000 tracked keywords, 20 AI prompts, 1,500,000 crawl credits, Looker Studio integration |
| Enterprise | $1499 | — | annual commitment required; uncapped API access, SSO, unlimited historical data |
| Brand Radar AI | $199 | — | from $199 a month, sold on its own; research any brand across 475M+ prompts in the Ahrefs database and track your own |
| AI Content Helper | $99 | — | add-on, 50 documents a month; the $299 Content Kit adds AI Content Grader and 250 documents |
Free plan: yes. Prices as listed by the vendor in USD, before tax; they change, so check the pricing page before you buy.
Ahrefs FAQ
- How much does Ahrefs cost?
- Paid plans start at $29/mo. Prices checked on 4 Oct 2026.
- Does Ahrefs have a free plan?
- Yes, Ahrefs has a free plan.
- What are the alternatives to Ahrefs?
- Tools that cover the same jobs include Semrush, Surfer SEO, Perplexity.