Ahrefs SEO API
One SEO API to rule all apps, agents, and workflows
Get access to Ahrefs’ world-class SEO & AEO API. Power reporting, dashboards, and workflows through four ways: API, MCP, App, and Ask Ahrefs.
Ahrefs API in numbers
35T
Ahrefs API features
SEO and AEO in one integration
The only API combining SEO and AEO data: Brand Radar endpoints return real AI prompts and citations alongside rankings and backlinks. One vendor covers Google and AI answers.
One index behind every endpoint
Every response comes from the same web index Ahrefs builds and maintains itself. No stitched-together third-party feeds, no metric mismatches between endpoints.
Fresh data, measured in minutes
The backlink index updates with fresh data every 15 to 30 minutes. Your dashboards reflect the live web, not last week’s crawl.
Predictable unit economics
The minimum cost for any request is 50 units. Rank Tracker, Management, and Public endpoints consume no API units at all.
Ahrefs SEO API use cases
Measure brand presence in AI answers alongside Google
Combine Brand Radar citations and prompts with organic ranking data in one pipeline. Good for teams reporting search visibility across both classic SERPs and AI agents.
Feed live SEO data to your AI agents
Connect through MCP so assistants can fetch keyword volumes, backlink profiles, and AI visibility during a conversation. Good for internal copilots and agentic SEO workflows.
Automate SEO reporting for every client and product line
Pull traffic, backlinks, and ranking data on a schedule into your reporting stack via REST API or Data Studio. Ideal for teams replacing manual exports.
Monitor rankings and SERPs at production scale
Query the top 100 SERP results and pull Rank Tracker project reports, which do not consume API units. Good for rank monitoring products and internal position dashboards.
Audit thousands of domains in batches
Batch Analysis handles up to 100 targets per request, returning metrics for entire portfolios in a few calls. Good for prospecting, link vetting, and competitive sweeps.
Ahrefs SEO API for different teams and workflows
1/ SEO & AEO tool builders
Embed backlink, keyword, rank, or AI-visibility data into your own product instead of building and maintaining a crawler.
2/ Agencies at scale
Automate client reporting across dozens of accounts: rank tracking, backlink audits, and AI visibility on a schedule instead of exported by hand.
3/ In-house SEO & data teams
Pipe DR, backlink counts, or keyword rankings into Looker Studio, BigQuery, or an internal warehouse alongside first-party analytics.
4/ Enterprise marketing teams
Standardize SEO reporting across brands or regions. One team queries via API, another works in the GUI, against the same numbers.
5/ AI-assisted workflows
Use Ahrefs MCP or Ask Ahrefs to pull live SEO and AEO context into an LLM-driven research or content process, no manual lookups.
6/ No-code teams
Skip the API entirely with Letaido, Ahrefs’ AI marketing platform for finished reports and automations built on the same index.
One API, four ways to pull it in
Call the API programmatically from your own code. Full developer reference covers every endpoint, parameter, and response.
Explore and pull the same data directly inside the Ahrefs app. Build and preview a request visually before writing a line of code.
Connect Ahrefs data to AI-native workflows through MCP. Let agents and assistants like Claude query the index directly, mid-conversation.
Ask questions in plain language to the in-app chat assistant. Get data-backed answers drawn from the same index, no query building at all.
One API, four ways to pull it in
Call the API programmatically from your own code. Full developer reference covers every endpoint, parameter, and response.
Explore and pull the same data directly inside the Ahrefs app. Build and preview a request visually before writing a line of code.
Connect Ahrefs data to AI-native workflows through MCP. Let agents and assistants like Claude query the index directly, mid-conversation.
Ask questions in plain language to the in-app chat assistant. Get data-backed answers drawn from the same index, no query building at all.
Data you can pull from Ahrefs API
13 endpoint groups, all under one key. The reach goes well past backlinks and keywords.
Site Explorer | Backlinks, referring domains, DR/UR, organic & paid traffic reports, historical charts. |
Keywords Explorer | Volume, difficulty, clickstream data, parent topics, keyword ideas for a single term or list. |
Rank Tracker | Project overviews, competitor rank comparisons, SERP position history. |
Site Audit | Health scores, full technical issue reports, crawled page content. |
SERP Overview | Top 100 results for any keyword and location. |
Batch Analysis | Core metrics for up to 100 domains or URLs in a single request. |
Brand Radar (AEO) | Mentions, citations, and share of voice across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity. |
Web Analytics | First-party traffic data covering sources, pages, devices, and geography. |
GSC Insights | Search Console performance data queried alongside third-party SEO metrics. |
Social Media Management | Channels, posts, activity history, and metrics for connected accounts. |
Management | Create and manage Rank Tracker projects and Keywords Explorer lists programmatically. |
Subscription Info | Your current API unit limits and usage. |
Public | AhrefsBot’s crawler IP addresses and ranges. Free, no key required. |
Try it for free before you commit
Any paid Ahrefs plan can run a limited set of free test queries. You still need an API key, but the calls below cost zero units.
Free when the target is ahrefs.com, yep.com, or firehose.com
Point the target parameter at any of these domains (or a URL under them) and the request is free. Point it at any other domain and normal unit cost applies.
Free when the keyword is “ahrefs”, “yep”, or “firehose”
Use only one of those three words in the keywords or keyword parameter and the call is free. Mixing in any other keyword, or passing a keyword_list_id, charges the usual units. Free calls are capped at 100 results.
Used by 3,000+ companies
The Ahrefs Enterprise plan was a gamechanger for us because it provides our favourite SEO tools for the whole team, and reporting is much easier with the API and Looker Studio.
SEO API Pricing
API access runs on usage-based units, not a flat per-endpoint fee, so light lookups and high-volume pulls both pay a fair price.
Frequently asked questions
What data can I get from the Ahrefs API?
Backlinks, keyword and search volume data, rank tracking, site audit issues, SERP results, organic and paid traffic estimates, AI visibility (Brand Radar), Web Analytics, GSC performance, topics in AI Content Helper, and social media metrics, all from the same index behind the Ahrefs app.Is this only for Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and Rank Tracker?
No. Those are the most-used endpoints, but the API also covers Site Audit, SERP Overview, Batch Analysis, Brand Radar, Web Analytics, GSC Insights, AI Content Helper, and Social Media Manager. See the full reference.Does the SEO API cover AEO, not just SEO?
Yes. The Brand Radar endpoint returns mentions, citations, and share of voice across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity, which most SEO-only APIs don’t offer.How is Ahrefs API pricing structured?
Usage-based, via API units consumed per request, tied to your Ahrefs plan. See the pricing page and limits & consumption docs for current unit costs.Can I use Ahrefs data without writing code?
Yes. The app itself requires no code, Ask Ahrefs lets you query the same data conversationally, and Letaido handles automated, no-code reporting built on the same index.How does Ahrefs MCP differ from the SEO API?
Ahrefs MCP lets AI assistants like Claude query Ahrefs data directly inside a conversation, without custom integration code. The REST API is for developers building that integration themselves, calling endpoints directly from their own code. Both hit the same index; MCP is the no-code, agent-facing door in, the API is the developer-facing one.Is there a free tier or test queries?
Yes, on any paid plan, as described above. Full production access at scale requires an eligible plan.