Semrush API 2026: Pricing, API Units and How to Get Started

The Semrush API isn’t one product with one price. It’s four API families, two key versions and a unit system that bills by the row, and the plan you need depends on which data you want. This guide reads Semrush’s own developer documentation so you can work out the real cost before you talk to sales.

Semrush API in Brief: What It Gives You and What It Costs

The Semrush API lets you pull raw Semrush data into your own tools “without manually logging into the platform,” and every option needs a paid plan, according to the Semrush API overview. The official Semrush API documentation is the source for almost every fact on this page.

Here’s the short version. Semrush groups its APIs into four families:

• SEO API: domain, keyword and backlink reports, the same data behind tools such as Domain Overview, Keyword Magic Tool and Backlink Analytics.
• Projects API: data from your own Position Tracking and Site Audit campaigns.
• Trends API: website traffic and market data from the Traffic & Market toolkit.
• Local API: listings, reviews, Google Business Profile data and map rankings.

The SEO and Projects APIs together are called the Standard API. That’s what most people mean by “the Semrush API,” and it’s the expensive part: you need the top SEO plan, and then you buy API units on top.

Why so many moving parts? Because each family belongs to a different Semrush toolkit, and each toolkit has its own subscription. Semrush says so plainly on its access page: each API option comes “with its own subscription, authentication method, and access requirements.”

A word on what this guide is not. We haven’t called the Semrush API ourselves: Semrush’s docs say every API option needs a paid plan, and our account is a free one with no API units. Every request example below is Semrush’s own, copied from its documentation and labeled that way. If you’re still deciding whether Semrush fits at all, our look at what a free Semrush account includes is a better place to start.

Key Takeaways

Direct access to the Standard API starts at zero units after you upgrade, and units come in packages of 2,000,000, 5,000,000, 10,000,000 or 20,000,000, per the Semrush API knowledge base article. Unused units expire at renewal. The Trends API, the Local API and Semrush MCP each follow different rules, so check which one you actually need before you buy anything.

Which Semrush Plans Include API Access

The Standard API “is available as an add-on to a Business subscription,” and API units are “purchased separately,” according to the Semrush API overview. On today’s pricing page, the only plan with API access in the comparison table is Advanced.

That naming gap confuses a lot of buyers. Semrush’s developer docs still say “SEO Business plan,” while the public pricing page sells SEO, Starter, Pro+ and Advanced. Our Semrush pricing guide lines the old and new names up: Business has the same limits as Advanced, and Advanced is the only plan with API access in the comparison table. The public page shows Advanced as “Custom” with a demo button; inside our free account, the same plan was listed at $549 a month.

So what does that mean for your budget? The Standard API costs the top plan plus a unit package. Semrush doesn’t publish unit package prices on the API pages we read. You buy them on the Subscription info page or through sales, so ask for a written quote.

There are exceptions, and they matter:

• Map Rank Tracker API: “available for all Semrush users,” with no API units and no special subscription needed (Semrush API access).
• Listing Management API: for Semrush Local Pro and Business users, and “You don’t need to buy API units to use it.”
• Review Management and Google Business Profile Tool APIs: Local Pro and Business users with locations connected to Google Business Profile, no units needed.
• Trends API: a separate subscription with its own monthly request limit.
• Semrush MCP: some mid-tier plans include a smaller unit allowance for AI assistants.

Does a free account get any API access? Semrush’s own FAQ asks whether you need a paid subscription and answers “Yes,” adding that “All Semrush API options require an eligible subscription.” The Map Rank Tracker wording sounds looser than that, so confirm it with Semrush before you plan around it.

How API Units Work: Packages, Costs per Request and Expiry

One line of the Domain Organic Search Keywords report costs 10 API units for live data and 50 for historical data, per Semrush’s API access guide. That five-to-one ratio is the most important number in Semrush API costs.

Units work like a prepaid balance. After you upgrade, “the number of units will still be zero.” You buy a package, and every request draws it down. The knowledge base article adds the renewal rule: “The purchased units are included in your recurring subscription and renew on the same day as your plan. Unused units will expire instead of being added to the renewed amount.”

Per line or per request

There are two pricing shapes. Most reports charge per line of data returned, so a request for 100 rows costs 100 times the line price. A few charge a fixed amount per request, whatever comes back. Here’s a sample from Semrush’s v3 reference pages:

Report	Live data	Historical data
Domain Organic Search Keywords	10 units per line	50 units per line
Domain Paid Search Keywords	20 units per line	100 units per line
Competitors in Organic Search	40 units per line	200 units per line
Domain vs. Domain	80 units per line	400 units per line
Keyword Overview (one database)	10 units per line	50 units per line
Related Keywords	40 units per line	Not listed
Keyword Difficulty	50 units per line	Not listed
Backlinks overview	40 units per request	Not listed
Backlinks	40 units per line	Not listed
Authority Score profile	100 units per request	Not listed

Sources: Semrush’s Domain reports, Keyword reports and Backlinks reference pages. Each method page lists its own price, so check the one you plan to call. Want to see what a single Keyword Overview line holds before you pay for thousands? Our Semrush keyword research review on the free plan walks through one lookup.

Semrush’s own worked examples

Semrush gives two examples, and they show how fast historical data adds up:

1. On the access page: 1,000 organic keywords for 100 domains costs 1,000,000 units with live data and 5,000,000 units with historical data.
2. On the API unit balance page: 500 keywords for 50 domains, current plus 12-month-old rankings, costs 250,000 units for the live pull and 1,250,000 for the historical one, 1,500,000 in total.

Here’s our own arithmetic on the smallest package. At 10 units per line, 2,000,000 units buy about 200,000 rows of live keyword data. Switch the same pull to historical data and you get about 40,000 rows. Which of those fits your project? Work it out before you pick a package.

Ways to spend fewer units

Semrush’s balance page lists a few habits that save units:

• Use display_limit (v3) or limit (v4) to cap the rows you get back. Adding a limit of 10 returns only the top 10 results.
• Request only the columns you need, and filter on the server.
• Estimate the cost before you send a big batch.

Two rules work in your favor. “Requests that return no data don’t consume API units,” per the balance page’s FAQ. And Listing Management and Map Rank Tracker requests “don’t use up API units” at all.

Standard API, Trends API and Projects API Compared

The Trends API includes 10,000 requests a month by default and “doesn’t use Standard API units,” per Semrush’s API access guide. That’s the biggest practical difference: the Standard API meters rows, while the Trends API meters requests against a monthly quota.

	SEO API	Projects API	Trends API	Local API
Toolkit	SEO	SEO	Traffic & Market	Local
Data	Domain, keyword and backlink reports	Position Tracking and Site Audit campaigns	Website traffic and market data	Listings, reviews, Google Business Profile, map rankings
Versions	v3 and v4	v3 and v4	v3 only	v4 only
Access	Business (Advanced) plan plus units	Business (Advanced) plan plus units	Trends Basic or Premium subscription	Mostly Local Pro or Business; Map Rank Tracker for all users
Billing	API units	API units	Monthly request quota	No units
Response format	CSV and JSON	JSON	CSV	JSON

Source: Semrush’s API overview and API versions pages.

Trends Basic vs Trends Premium

Trends Basic covers broad traffic summaries: monthly visits, unique visits, pages per visit, average visit duration, mobile vs. desktop and bounce rates. Trends Premium adds 16 more data types, including daily and weekly traffic, traffic sources, top pages, geographic distribution and audience insights (Trends API overview).

How do you buy it? Semrush’s pages don’t fully agree. The developer docs say you can buy Trends API access “directly from the Traffic & Market page—no Semrush subscription required.” The knowledge base says “you will need a paid Semrush account.” Premium is quoted by sales in both. There’s no free Trends API trial, per the same FAQ, so confirm the buying path with Semrush before you plan a test.

Is the Trends API the same as the Traffic & Market toolkit? It’s the same data, delivered raw. Semrush says the data in the Traffic & Market interface “is also available through the Trends API.”

Projects API

The Projects API reads and manages the campaigns you’ve already set up in Semrush. With it you can pull rankings, visibility and competitors from Position Tracking, or start an audit and read the issues from Site Audit. It needs “the SEO Business subscription and available API units” (Projects API overview). For a picture of what those campaigns hold, see our walkthrough of Semrush Position Tracking setup and limits.

Getting Your API Key and Making a First Request

Your Semrush API key lives in the API Keys section of your profile, and v4 accounts can create “up to 100 v4 API keys, each with its own permissions and expiration settings,” according to Semrush’s API versions page. Here’s the path, step by step, as the docs describe it.

Step 1: Buy units and find your keys

After you buy a unit package, open your profile, choose API Keys, and you’ll see your autogenerated v3 and v4 keys. Keys are tied to a version: “An API key created for one version cannot be used with another version.”

The two versions behave differently:

• v3 key: one per account, generated automatically, and it “can’t be revoked or deleted.” It works with the Trends API, the domain, keyword, overview, subdomain, subfolder, URL and backlinks reports, and Projects.
• v4 keys: you create them yourself, name them, set permissions and an optional expiration date, and revoke them when you’re done. They cover Backlinks, Keyword reports, Projects and the Local APIs.

One warning applies to both. “The full API key value is shown only once when the key is created,” so copy it somewhere safe right away. Lost a v3 key? Semrush’s FAQ says to contact Tech Support. For a v4 key, create a new one, update your integrations and revoke the old one.

Step 2: Check your balance for free

Before your first real call, check the balance. This request is free, per the API unit balance page:

http://www.semrush.com/users/countapiunits.html?key=YOUR_API_KEY

Step 3: Send Semrush’s example request

We haven’t sent these ourselves. They’re copied from Semrush’s quick start guides. The v3 quick start builds a Domain Overview request as one URL, with the key as a parameter:

https://api.semrush.com/?key=API_KEY&type=domain_ranks&export_columns=Db,Dn,Rk,Or,Ot,Oc,Ad,At,Ac,Sh,Sv&domain=apple.com&database=us

The v4 quick start sends the key in a header instead and asks for 10 backlinks:

curl -H 'Authorization: Apikey YOUR_API_KEY' "https://api.semrush.com/apis/v4/backlinks/v1/links?url=example.com&scope=ROOT_DOMAIN&fields=anchor,domain_score,page_score&order_by=page_score&direction=DESC&limit=10"

Read the v3 example from left to right and it makes sense: the report type, the columns you want, the domain and the country database. Why does that matter? Because every extra column and every extra row is something you pay for.

Two more notes from the docs. Test calls aren’t free: “test calls to the Semrush API will consume your API units.” And v4 methods answer in JSON by default, or CSV if you ask, while v3 SEO reports return CSV.

What People Build With the Semrush API

Semrush says its API can feed “almost any platform, application, or service that supports HTTPS requests,” and its own FAQ names automation tools, BI dashboards, data warehouses and CRMs (Semrush API overview). In practice, the projects fall into a few groups.

Here’s what Semrush’s docs suggest:

• Client and leadership dashboards. Load Semrush data into Looker Studio, Tableau, Power BI or Google Sheets so reports refresh without anyone exporting a CSV.
• A data warehouse feed. Store results in BigQuery or Snowflake next to your analytics and revenue data, so rankings and traffic sit in one place.
• CRM enrichment. Push domain traffic or keyword data into Salesforce or HubSpot to qualify leads. The Trends API docs list lead qualification as a use case.
• No-code automations. Semrush names Zapier, Make and n8n, plus connectors such as Supermetrics and Workato, for teams that don’t want to write scripts.
• Scheduled pulls. The quick start suggests cron on Linux and macOS, or Task Scheduler on Windows, to run a script on a timetable.
• Local SEO monitoring. Map Rank Tracker methods such as GetHeatmap and GetTopCompetitors feed local ranking alerts, per the use cases page. For how map and city-level tracking works across tools, see our guide to local rank tracking by city and ZIP code.

Building something for paying customers? The developer portal’s home page says: “For tool with external users, please contact our sales.” Read that as a hint that resale and client-facing tools get their own terms.

Agencies are the classic buyers here. If you’re comparing tools for client work rather than building your own, our guide to SEO tools for agencies compares client limits and pricing across suites.

Rate Limits, Errors and Data Freshness

Every Semrush API method allows up to 10 requests per second and 10 simultaneous requests per account, and you can’t cache API data for more than one month without written consent, per Semrush’s API usage restrictions. Plan your scripts around those three numbers.

Some APIs add their own limits on top. The Trends API dropped its old hourly and daily limits; you can use your whole monthly quota “at any pace within the 10 RPS limit.” Listing Management methods have per-method limits, for example 10 requests per minute for Get Categories.

The errors you’re most likely to see

Semrush’s v3 SEO API returns errors as numbered messages. These are the ones a new integration hits first (SEO API overview):

Error	What it means	What to do
ERROR 50 :: NOTHING FOUND	No data matched your request	Check the domain, keyword and database
ERROR 120 :: WRONG KEY - ID PAIR	Unknown API key	Copy the key again from your profile
ERROR 130 :: API DISABLED	Your plan has no API access	Upgrade the plan
ERROR 132 :: API UNITS BALANCE IS ZERO	You ran out of units	Buy more units
ERROR 133 :: DB ACCESS DENIED	Your plan can’t read that database	Ask sales about more databases
ERROR 429 :: Too Many Requests	You passed the rate limit	Slow down and retry

Running low on units behaves differently by API. The SEO, Trends, Position Tracking and Site Audit APIs return ERROR 132, while the Projects and Local APIs return a 403 error. For per-line reports, the SEO and Trends APIs may hand back only as many lines as your balance covers, so a short answer can mean an empty wallet, not missing data.

How do you see where units went? Semrush keeps a log under My Profile, Query log, API Queries, with the report type, rows requested and units spent per request. It covers the SEO API and Projects API (v4) only, and exports up to 50,000 records.

How fresh is the data?

Semrush’s Available data page says its SEO data goes back to 2012 and its Traffic & Market data to 2017, across more than 140 countries and regions. For the Trends API, “Each week, Semrush provides data for the previous week,” and a full month is ready “by the 10th day of the current month.”

Why might API numbers differ from what you see in Semrush? The troubleshooting page lists the usual causes: different filters, a subfolder in the app versus a root domain in the API, and traffic shown monthly in the app but daily in the API. It also says the API can pull fresh data while the app still shows a cached version.

Semrush MCP: Using API Data Inside AI Assistants

Semrush MCP connects AI assistants to Semrush’s APIs, and requests through it “use the same API units as direct API requests,” with no extra MCP fee, per the Semrush MCP overview. It’s the easiest way to use Semrush API data without writing code.

MCP, short for Model Context Protocol, is a standard way for an AI assistant to call outside tools. Semrush lists setup steps for Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor, VS Code, Perplexity, Lovable, Notion and Google’s Antigravity tools. The server address is https://mcp.semrush.com/v2/mcp, and most assistants sign in with OAuth, so you log in to Semrush once and approve access. Assistants that don’t support OAuth can send your API key in a header.

Which plans work? This is where MCP differs from the Standard API. The MCP page lists Semrush One Starter, Semrush One Pro+, SEO Classic Pro and SEO Classic Guru, and says “These plans include 50,000 API units, which refresh on your subscription renewal date.” SEO Classic Business and Semrush One Advanced work too, “+ an API units package.” Any Trends API plan includes MCP access for traffic data.

What does 50,000 units buy? By our arithmetic, at 10 units per line that’s about 5,000 rows of live keyword data per billing period, enough for regular questions but not for bulk pulls.

What can an assistant reach? All SEO API methods, all Trends API methods your plan allows, and the read-only Projects API methods. It can read your projects but can’t “create new projects, modify settings, or perform other actions.” Semrush also adds a fair warning: “AI responses may be incomplete or inaccurate, so always verify them.”

Can a free account use MCP? Not according to Semrush’s MCP page, which says “No, Semrush MCP isn’t free” and lists the same eligible plans. For the AI tools Semrush builds into its own app, see our tour of Copilot, ContentShake and AI Search Health.

Cheaper Ways to Get Semrush Data Without the API

You can pull Semrush data into Looker Studio without API units: Semrush says its connectors don’t charge units and need only “a Guru or Business tier of the SEO toolkit subscription,” per its Looker Studio connector guide. For many reporting jobs, that’s the API you actually need.

The help page still uses the older name, Data Studio, and the older tier names. Our pricing guide maps Guru to today’s Pro+ at $299 a month and Business to Advanced. Confirm with Semrush that your current plan includes the connectors before you build on them.

There are three connectors:

• Domain Analytics: domain overview, top 100 organic and paid positions, backlink overview, top referring domains and 12 months of backlink history.
• Position Tracking: positions, visibility and rankings for a campaign, with a display limit of up to 5,000 results.
• Site Audit: issues grouped into crawlability, performance, linking, international SEO and HTTPS.

What’s the catch? Semrush says the only difference from the API is that “you cannot apply filters and sorting to your data source” the way you can in an API request. For a standing client report, that trade is often fine.

Exports and the free account

The next cheapest path is the app itself. Paid plans include exports, though “exporting data is disabled during the trial period,” per Semrush’s Subscriptions and Toolkits guide. A monthly CSV export into a spreadsheet covers a lot of small reporting jobs.

And at $0? We opened a free Semrush account on October 21, 2026, pressed “Skip trial” on the Pro+ offer, and worked inside the tools. The limits we saw were small: 100 pages per Site Audit and 10 keywords in Position Tracking. The account’s Subscription info page listed only paid plans, Starter at $199, Pro+ at $299 and Advanced at $549 a month, with no summary of free limits. Semrush’s pricing page describes the free plan as 1 demo project and “10 reports per day across all vital tools” (Semrush pricing).

That’s no API, but it’s enough to see whether the data is worth paying for. Our Semrush Site Audit review shows what the free 100-page audit found on a small marketing website our own team runs.

Who Needs the Semrush API and Who Does Not

You need the Standard API when you pull Semrush data at a scale the app can’t handle, such as 1,000 keywords for 100 domains, which Semrush prices at 1,000,000 units of live data (Semrush API access). Below that scale, the cheaper paths usually win. The rest of this section is our judgment, based on the docs above, not a test.

• Solo creators and bloggers: you don’t need it. The free account or a single paid plan covers keyword checks and a monthly audit.
• Small businesses and in-house marketers: start with the Looker Studio connectors or exports. If you want to ask questions in ChatGPT or Claude, check whether your plan includes MCP units.
• Agencies with client dashboards: the connectors cover standard reports. Move to the API when you need custom filters, many domains or historical pulls.
• Data teams and SaaS builders: the Standard API is built for you, on the top plan with a unit package. If your tool has outside users, talk to sales first.
• Market researchers and investors: look at the Trends API, which meters requests rather than rows and covers traffic and audience data.
• Local businesses: the Map Rank Tracker and Listing Management APIs don’t spend units, so check those before buying a package.

Is the Semrush API overpriced? For a team pulling millions of rows, the top plan plus units can still cost less than building the data yourself. For one website, it’s the wrong tool. If price is what’s stopping you, our list of the best Semrush alternatives covers cheaper SEO suites, and our plain-English explainer on what Semrush does and which teams it suits helps you decide whether you need Semrush at all.

Before You Buy Semrush API Units: A Short Checklist

Before you buy, estimate your monthly unit use from the per-line prices, because a single historical pull can cost five times the live one, per Semrush’s API access guide. A few minutes with a spreadsheet saves a package that runs out mid-month.

Take this list into your sales call:

• Which API do you need: SEO, Projects, Trends or Local? Each has its own subscription.
• Will you pull historical data? Budget five times the live price per line.
• How many rows per month? Multiply rows by the line price, then add a margin.
• Do you need it in an AI assistant only? Check whether your plan already includes MCP units.
• Can Looker Studio do the job? If yes, you may not need API units at all.
• What does a unit package cost? Get the quote in writing, since Semrush doesn’t publish it on the API pages.

Whatever you choose, keep the official Semrush API documentation open while you build. Prices per method, limits and plan names change, and the method page is always the final word.

Further Reading

• Semrush plans, the free account and trials, price by price
• What Semrush’s built-in AI tools do, from Copilot to AI search tracking
• How to set up Semrush Position Tracking and what the limits are
• What a free Semrush account can do on a real site

References

• Semrush API: Semrush API overview
• Semrush API: API access
• Semrush API: API unit balance
• Semrush API: API usage restrictions
• Semrush API: API versions
• Semrush API: Available data
• Semrush API: Use cases
• Semrush API: Quick start (Version 4)
• Semrush API: Quick start (Version 3)
• Semrush API: Troubleshooting
• Semrush API: SEO API overview (Version 3)
• Semrush API: Domain reports
• Semrush API: Keyword reports
• Semrush API: Backlinks
• Semrush API: Trends API overview
• Semrush API: Projects API overview
• Semrush API: Semrush MCP overview
• Semrush: Semrush MCP
• Semrush Knowledge Base: Semrush API
• Semrush Knowledge Base: Subscriptions and Toolkits
• Semrush Knowledge Base: Integrating Semrush with Data Studio
• Semrush: SEO + AI Search Plans and Pricing