How much does the Ahrefs API cost?
The Ahrefs API costs as much as the plan you are on, starting at 129 USD a month on Lite, plus pay-as-you-go units once your usage passes the plan limits. Each billable request uses at least 50 units, and expensive fields such as traffic cost 10 units per row, so the monthly bill follows your request volume.
The figures below come from the Ahrefs pricing page and API documentation as checked in October 2026. Ahrefs changes plans often, so confirm them before you budget.
| Ahrefs plan | Monthly price | Max rows per API request | Credits per user | Ahrefs Connect units per month | Extra user |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | 129 USD | 100 | 1,000 | 200,000 | 40 USD, up to 2 |
| Standard | 249 USD | 250 | Unlimited | 800,000 | 60 USD, up to 5 |
| Advanced | 449 USD | 500 | Unlimited | 2M | 80 USD, up to 10 |
| Enterprise | 1,499 USD, annual commitment | Unlimited | Unlimited | 4M or custom | 100 USD |
Enterprise is the only tier listed with uncapped API access and custom API endpoints. Ahrefs Connect is the program for third-party integrations, and its unit figures are the only unit numbers printed on the pricing page. For direct API use, the Subscription Information endpoint in the API returns your current limit and usage, so check it on your own account before you plan a workload. The old API v2 was switched off on November 1, 2025, so any budget built on v2 prices is out of date.
How Ahrefs API units are calculated per request
Ahrefs documents one formula. A request costs the larger of two numbers, the base cost or the per-row cost multiplied by the rows returned.
- The base cost of every billable request is 50 units
- Each unique field in select, where or order_by adds 1 unit per row by default
- Some metrics cost 5 or 10 units per row, and each endpoint's field notes say which
- A field used in several parameters is counted once
- Requests served from cache cost nothing, and Rank Tracker, Management, Public and a few other endpoints are free
Two examples from the Ahrefs documentation show how far apart the costs can be.
| Request | Per-row cost | Rows | Units used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain rating for one domain | 2 units (domain_rating, ahrefs_rank) | 1 | 50, the base cost applies |
| All backlinks with title, refdomains_source and traffic | 12 units (1 + 1 + 10) | 500 | 6,000 |
The second line is the one that surprises people. Adding a single traffic column to a backlinks pull multiplied its cost six times over a version with two cheap fields. Every response carries headers such as x-api-units-cost-total and x-api-cache, and Ahrefs offers free test queries against fixed targets, so run your real queries there first and read the headers before you commit to a dashboard design.
What 20 client dashboards cost in Ahrefs API units
Here is a weekly pull an agency might run for each client dashboard. The volume field is treated as a 10 unit metric for this example, so confirm it in the keyword endpoint's field notes.
| Weekly pull per client | Calculation | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Domain rating for the client and 4 competitors | 5 requests x 50 base cost | 250 |
| 200 newest backlinks with title, refdomains_source and traffic | 200 rows x 12 units | 2,400 |
| 100 organic keywords with keyword, position and volume | 100 rows x 12 units | 1,200 |
| Total per client per week | 3,850 |
For 20 clients that is 77,000 units a week. Over an average month of 4.33 weeks it comes to about 333,400 units.
Plan limits change the shape of the requests too. On Lite the 100 row cap splits the 200 backlink pull into two requests. The unit total stays at 2,400 because both halves are above the base cost, but your code has to page through results, and each extra competitor or keyword set adds more calls. Caching helps when several dashboards request the same domain in the same period.
The part you cannot calculate from public pages is the dollar cost of usage above your plan. Ahrefs bills pay-as-you-go units automatically once you enable them and consumption passes the plan limits. Those units last three billing months, including the current one, and annual customers can prepay at a discount, but the price per unit is not printed on the pricing page. Ask Ahrefs for a written quote for your expected monthly units before you promise clients a fixed dashboard price.
Once the data is flowing, many agency teams also connect the API output to their CRM and BI tools so account managers see link and ranking changes next to deal and billing data. Budget that integration work alongside the units.
Is the Ahrefs API worth it for agencies
Yes, when your strategy depends on the Ahrefs link index and you already pay for Advanced or Enterprise for research. The data is strong, the documentation is clear, and the free test queries make it easy to price a request before you ship it.
It is a harder sell when the API is the main reason you subscribe. Field-based pricing means a small change in a dashboard, one extra column or one more competitor, changes the bill for every client at once. Agencies that resell dashboards at a fixed monthly fee carry that risk themselves. If you also weigh the full research subscription, our Ahrefs vs Semrush pricing comparison for small agencies adds up seats and projects for a 3 person team.
A flat row quota for agencies that need a forecastable API bill
SeoData counts API usage in rows. One backlink, one keyword or one domain overview is one row, no matter how many fields it has. The same workload from the example above looks like this.
| Weekly pull per client | SeoData rows |
|---|---|
| Domain overview for the client and 4 competitors | 5 |
| 200 newest backlinks | 200 |
| 100 organic keywords | 100 |
| Total per client per week | 305 |
For 20 clients that is 6,100 rows a week, or about 26,400 rows a month. SeoData Agency includes 100,000 API rows a month for 299 USD, or 149 USD per month billed yearly, together with 10 seats, 25 projects and white label reports. Enterprise raises the quota to 1,000,000 rows. Starter and Pro use the app only.
The meta block of every response shows the rows used and the rows left in the period, so the forecast is a multiplication, not a guess. Read the Ahrefs API alternative with row-based pricing for an endpoint by endpoint mapping, the backlink API with a flat row quota for link data specifically, and the SEO API reference for request and response formats.