Does Ahrefs Have a Free Trial?
Last verified: 2026-08-05
The short answer
No. Ahrefs does not offer a free trial, and its own help centre answers the question directly: it does not provide free trials, and points you at its free account instead. There is no time-limited version of Lite, Standard, or Advanced.
What exists is Ahrefs Free, a permanently free tier rather than a trial. It only works on websites whose ownership you verify, so it cannot be used to research a competitor or size up a market. Within that limit it gives you Site Explorer showing 1,000 backlinks and keywords at a time, 5,000 Site Audit crawl credits a month per project, and one AI Content Helper document a month.
If you want full access, the cheapest way in is the $29 Starter plan rather than a trial. Ahrefs also states in its pricing FAQ that it never runs discounts, so waiting for an offer does not help. Annual billing is the only published reduction, shown as up to 17% off.
Ahrefs trial terms
| Free trial | None. Ahrefs states it does not provide free trials |
| Free tier | Ahrefs Free, no time limit |
| Requirement | Verified ownership of the website you analyze |
| Site Explorer | 1,000 backlinks and keywords visible at once |
| Site Audit | 5,000 crawl credits a month per project |
| AI Content Helper | 1 document a month |
| Cheapest paid plan | $29 a month (Starter), with 200 credits and 50 tracked keywords |
| Discounts | None. Annual billing saves up to 17% |
Ahrefs's pricing and features change; check their official site for the latest. Visit Ahrefs
What Ahrefs costs after that
Ahrefs's current plans, verified against its official pricing page.
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $29/mo | No articles. Keyword and competitor research only: 200 credits a month, 250 rows per report, 50 tracked keywords. You write everything. |
| Lite | $108/mo billed yearly ($129/mo monthly) | No articles. Research and monitoring for 5 projects and 750 tracked keywords. Writing help is the AI Content Helper add-on, from $99 a month for 50 documents you write yourself. |
| Standard | $208/mo billed yearly ($249/mo monthly) | No articles. Same job, wider limits: 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, plus Content Explorer and keyword clusters. The articles still come from you or your writer. |
| Advanced | $374/mo billed yearly ($449/mo monthly) | No articles. 50 projects, 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history. The step up is data depth, not content. |
Growth Calendar pricing
Plans are sized in finished SEO articles per month, with research, planning, writing, images, and screenshots included. The trial is 3 days.
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Compare plans
The numbers behind each plan, side by side.
Free $0/mo | Starter $29/mo | Pro $59/mo | Max $99/mo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Credits | ||||
Monthly credits Reset at the start of each billing cycle | Not included | 4,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
Buy extra credits Purchased credits never expire | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Scale monthly credits | Not included | Not included | Not included | Up to 5x |
Free trial First subscription only. Card required. | Not included | Not included | 3 days | 3 days |
Growth CalendarPaid plans | ||||
AI SEO articles 600 credits each, including research and images | Not included | 1 articles/wk | 4 articles/wk | 8 articles/wk |
Topic cluster planning | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Run it from chat with an AI agent | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
MCP connection Drive it from Claude Code, Codex, and other MCP clients | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Scheduled publishing runs | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Keyword ResearchPaid plans | ||||
Keyword searches 50 credits each | Not included | 80 searches/mo | 200 searches/mo | 400 searches/mo |
Related keywords Up to 700 per search | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Search volume, CPC, and competition | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
12-month search trend | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
SERP results for the seed keyword | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Country and language targeting | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Image and video generationPaid plans | ||||
Image generation From 16 credits per image | Not included | 250 images/mo | 625 images/mo | 1,250 images/mo |
Video generation From 200 credits per 5-second 720p clip | Not included | 20 videos/mo | 50 videos/mo | 100 videos/mo |
Premium image and video models | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Image editing | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
Everything else | ||||
Free tools that cost no credits No usage limits | Included | Included | Included | Included |
Team members | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Security controls and audit log Rolling out | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
Support | Community | Chat | Chat | Priority |