Users are people who you can invite to join and access your workspace. Users are always free to invite, but they become chargeable when they start using Ahrefs tools.
Chargeable users
When a user views data in any Ahrefs tool except Site Audit and Rank Tracker, they consume credits. 1 credit is consumed whenever they open a report, apply filters or request additional data.
Invited users remain free as long as they do not consume more than 5 credits each month. If they consume more than 5 credits, the user becomes chargeable that month. The amount you’re charged for a user depends on their usage level.
Usage levels and fees
Usage level | Credits consumption | Fee per user | If prepaid annually |
Inactive | 0–5 | $0 | $0 |
Casual | 6–100 | $20 /mo | $200 /year |
Power | 101–500 | $50 /mo | $500 /year |
Note that each plan comes with 1 prepaid Power user. So if you’re the only active user in your workspace, you're already covered for 500 credits a month with your plan subscription fee.
Shared pool of additional credits
Up until 500 credits, each user spends individual credits. These credits cannot be used by other users.
As soon as a Power user consumes more than 500 credits, they start consuming additional credits from a pool shared by all workspace users. These additional credits are not included in your subscription plan. They’re added on a pay-as-you-go basis in blocks of 500, or can be prepaid for.
Usage level | Credits consumption | Fee per 500 credits in the shared pool | If prepaid annually |
Power+ | 501+ | $35 /mo | $350 /year |
When charges occur
Unless prepaid for, additional users and credits are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.
The usage cycle always looks like this:
At the beginning of a billing month, each user starts as Inactive with their usage reset to 0.
If a user consumes more than 5 credits, they become a Casual user and a $20 charge is added.
If a user consumes more than 100 credits, they become a Power user and another $30 charge is added.
If a Power user consumes more than 500 credits, they start consuming additional credits from a pool shared by all workspace users. If there are credits available in the pool, the user will be able to consume them. Otherwise, 500 credits at $35 will be added on a pay-as-you-go basis.
These charges are automatically added to your account balance.
Your payment method will be charged either on the next subscription renewal date, or when enough charges are accumulated.
How to monitor credits usage
You can always check your current usage level in the credits usage counter on the right side of the main header. For more details, go to Account settings > Limits & usage. You’ll also be able to check the credits usage of all other users in your workspace.
How to control credits usage
You have a few options to control the credits usage in your workspace:
Limit additional pay-as-you-go credits
Disable additional pay-as-you-go credits altogether
Limit individual users
Learn exactly what each option does and how to do it in How to control credits usage.