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Video: How Ahrefs' usage-based pricing works
Note: the prices in the above video are outdated. Please check our pricing page for the latest prices.
How Ahrefs’ usage-based pricing works
Ahrefs has usage-based pricing. This means that it mostly depends on how much you use our tools.
We track usage with something called credits, and this system applies to all tools except Site Audit and Rank Tracker. For the tools using the credit system, 1 credit is consumed whenever you open a report, apply filters, or request additional data. Learn more about what actions consume credits.
Plan and user limits
We have two types of limits: plan limits and user limits.
Plan limits depend on whether you're on a Lite, Standard, Advanced, or Enterprise plan. Each plan is detailed on our pricing page.
As for user limits, these are charged based on the amount of credits a user consumes on a monthly basis. A user starts out as Inactive and becomes a Casual or Power user as they use the Ahrefs toolset.
User | Credits consumption | Charge per user | If prepaid annually |
Inactive | 0–5 | $0 | $0 |
Casual | 6–100 | $20 /mo | $200 /year |
Power | Lite: 101–500 Standard: 101-600 Advanced & Enterprise: 101-750 | Lite: $50 /mo | Lite: $500 /yr |
*Note that each plan comes with one Power user included. So if you’re the only active user in your workspace, you're already covered for 500 (Lite plans), 600 (Standard plans), or 750 (Advanced & Enterprise plans) credits each month with your plan subscription fee.
If you need more credits, you can purchase a package of pay-as-you-go additional credits at $35 per 500 credits.
Additional credits are shared by all Power users after they hit their user limit, and pay-as-you-go purchases last for three billing months including the current one. So if your usage reset date is October 20 and you purchased additional credits on October 15, they will expire on December 20.
Based on the usage patterns of all of Ahrefs’ paid users, only 20% of users needed additional monthly credits. So it’s likely that you won’t need to purchase more credits.
In fact, pay-as-you go additional credits are disabled by default in your Account settings, so you won't incur any unexpected charges unless you manually enable this.
Managing your workspace’s usage
All users can always check their current usage level in the credits usage counter on the right side of the main header.
Workspace admins can go to the Limits & usage section in Account settings to take full control over every user’s limits.
Admins can also:
Limit credit usage by individual users by hovering over their name and setting a maximum amount of credits to be consumed
Activate pay-as-you-go additional credits (disabled by default). This means that additional credits will be automatically added to your workspace and charged
Limit additional pay-as-you-go credits by setting a limit for the number of additional pay-as-you-go credits that can be added and charged each month
Charges for usage
Users and credits are charged according to this usage cycle:
At the beginning of a billing month, each user starts as Inactive with their credit 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 charge is added ($20-$60 depending on your current subscription plan).
If a Power user consumes more than 500 (Lite plan), 600 (Standard plan) or 750 (Advanced & Enterprise plans) credits and you enable additional pay-as-you-go 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.
Pre-paid vs pay-as-you-go charges
When you purchase pre-paid add-ons, they are pro-rated according to your subscription plan.
When your pay-as-you-go charges accumulate, an invoice is generated and sent to you. Pay-as-you-go charges can also be added to upcoming invoices – for example, when your subscription is renewed or upgraded.
NOTE: Consumable usages such as credits are reset every month on the date of subscription renewal for all plans at 00:00 UTC timezone.
User pay-as-you-go charges last until the next usage reset. Other pay-as-you-go purchases (report credits, export rows, crawl credits and API units) last for 3 billing months since the date they were accrued, but pre-paid limits are always used first.
NOTE: Pay-as-you-go credits are valid for 3 billing months only if the subscription runs without interruptions and is renewed on time.
Prices for additional users on legacy subscriptions
⚠️ The following section refers to any plan purchased before 18th March 2022. You can reach out to [email protected] for further questions.
In case of a monthly legacy subscription, you’ll be charged an additional $30 USD/month for each member that exceeds the user seats available on your subscription plan.
In case of an annual legacy subscription, this charge will be an additional $300 USD/year for each member.
Please note that if you’re on a Lite or Standard plan, this means that you will be charged as long as you invite another member.
This charge is automatic. Once you send an invite (or invites), the additional charges will be billed to your subscription right away.