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SEO platform vs pay-per-lookup APIAhrefs API Alternative: Link and Keyword Data by the Call
Ahrefs runs one of the industry's best link indexes, sold as a research platform with API access reserved for its top tiers. If you need programmatic numbers rather than the full research UI, per-lookup pricing changes the math.
Ahrefs sells subscription plans built around its research platform, with API access positioned at the enterprise level rather than as a self-serve pay-per-call product. 1Lookup returns the same classes of data as individually priced API lookups on universal credits shared with its validation products: backlink profiles with referring domains and follow ratios, domain authority scores, and keyword volume and difficulty metrics.
The Ahrefs data jobs, priced per lookup
Each product below answers a question you'd normally open Site Explorer or Keywords Explorer for, delivered as an API call that also runs in bulk CSV.
Site Explorer link data
Backlink Overview API
Authority Score, total backlinks, referring domains and IPs, and the follow/nofollow split with a computed ratio, in one call.
13 credits per domain
Domain Rating & traffic estimates
Domain Authority API
A 0-100 authority score plus organic and paid keyword counts, estimated monthly traffic, and traffic value.
10 credits per domain
Domain age in Site Explorer
Domain Age API
The registration date on its own, from the registry, without buying a full backlink suite to get at it.
2 credits per domain
Keywords Explorer metrics
Keyword Metrics API
Volume, CPC, 0-100 difficulty with a plain-language band, intent, 12-month trend, and SERP features including AI Overviews.
6 credits per keyword
Aggregated authority checks
Domain SEO Intelligence API
Moz DA, Ahrefs DR, and Majestic-style metrics side by side, for teams that read authority across vendors.
10 credits per domain
1Lookup vs Ahrefs: the same criteria, side by side
Both products measured on identical criteria, with Ahrefs’s numbers taken from its own published pricing.
1lookup1lookup.ioMulti-channel validation
ahrefs.comSEO platform- Ahrefs · Starts at
- $29/mo Starter plan (limited: 200 in-app credits/mo, 1 unverified project, 50 tracked keywords, 1 month historical data, no exports, no API-unit allowance, and additional users or credits cannot be purchased on it); the cheapest plan with API v3 access is Lite at $129/mo, which includes 100,000 API units/mo and the full core toolset
- 1Lookup: $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise)
- Ahrefs · Cheapest published per 1,000
- $22.45 at their largest published tier
- 1Lookup: $2.00 per 1,000 at 1,000,000 lookups/mo
- Ahrefs · Free trial
- None. Pricing-page FAQ answers "Do you offer discounts or free trials?" with "We never run discounts" and points website owners to Ahrefs Free instead; the free account (own/verified sites only) is the de facto trial path
- 1Lookup: 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front)
- Ahrefs · Do credits expire?
- Not sold as standalone credit packs - API units, crawl credits, and in-app report credits are monthly subscription allowances that reset each billing month. Pay-as-you-go top-ups of every kind expire: the pricing FAQ states PAYG purchases "such as report credits, export rows, crawl credits, and API units" last three billing months including the current one, with prepaid limits always used first. Report-credit top-ups on credit-based plans cost $50 per 500 credits. Ahrefs "does not issue refunds in general"
- 1Lookup: Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year
| Criteria | 1Lookup | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Monthly plans with universal credits; core phone, email and IP lookups cost 1 credit, enrichment and intelligence products cost more | Seat-based monthly SaaS subscriptions for the full SEO suite - Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, Enterprise $1,499/mo (annual commitment required) - each bundling monthly usage allowances (API units, Site Audit crawl credits, in-app report credits on Starter/Lite) with optional pay-as-you-go overages; a limited $29/mo Starter plan and a free tier (Ahrefs Free / Webmaster Tools) sit below; annual billing saves up to 17% (specific annual prices are behind a page toggle, not statically published) |
| Starting price | $99/mo for 20,000 credits ($4.95 per 1,000, down to $2.00 on Enterprise) | $29/mo Starter plan (limited: 200 in-app credits/mo, 1 unverified project, 50 tracked keywords, 1 month historical data, no exports, no API-unit allowance, and additional users or credits cannot be purchased on it); the cheapest plan with API v3 access is Lite at $129/mo, which includes 100,000 API units/mo and the full core toolset |
| Free option | Free single lookups via the online tools at 1lookup.io/tools, no account required | Ahrefs Free (Webmaster Tools): free Site Explorer + Site Audit for websites you verify ownership of (1,000 backlinks & keywords visible at once; 5,000 crawl credits/mo per verified project; all 170+ audit issues), Web Analytics up to 1M events/project/mo, Social Media Manager (unlimited while in beta), AI Content Helper (1 document/mo), SEO Toolbar (DR & UR metrics only). Also a free public Domain Rating API endpoint (subject to terms of use) and Firehose, a free real-time web-mentions API; the API's free test queries require a paid plan, not a free account |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial on every plan: $5 of credits on Starter, $20 on Growth, Professional, and Enterprise (card required, nothing charged up front) | None. Pricing-page FAQ answers "Do you offer discounts or free trials?" with "We never run discounts" and points website owners to Ahrefs Free instead; the free account (own/verified sites only) is the de facto trial path |
| Do credits expire? | Unused monthly credits roll over for 3 months; separately purchased credits last 1 year | Not sold as standalone credit packs - API units, crawl credits, and in-app report credits are monthly subscription allowances that reset each billing month. Pay-as-you-go top-ups of every kind expire: the pricing FAQ states PAYG purchases "such as report credits, export rows, crawl credits, and API units" last three billing months including the current one, with prepaid limits always used first. Report-credit top-ups on credit-based plans cost $50 per 500 credits. Ahrefs "does not issue refunds in general" |
Cost per 1,000: Ahrefs and 1Lookup
Published rates only, drawn on one shared scale that starts at $0.
- 1Lookup rate card
- Ahrefs published tiers
Ahrefs, per published tier
2,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (e.g. Domain Rating lookups; every billable request costs at least 50 units, 100,000 units included)
$64.50As published: $64.50 per 1,000 requests ($1.29 per 1,000 API units)
8,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (400,000 units included)
$31.13As published: $31.13 per 1,000 requests ($0.62 per 1,000 API units)
20,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (1,000,000 units included)
$22.45As published: $22.45 per 1,000 requests ($0.45 per 1,000 API units)
40,000+ minimum-cost API requests/mo (2,000,000 units, marketed as 'Uncapped API access' with personalized higher limits)
$37.48As published: $37.48 per 1,000 requests at the listed 2M-unit allowance
1Lookup, reference band (a range, not a bar from $0)
All 4 plans, 20,000 lookups/mo to 1,000,000 lookups/mo
Cost per 1,000
| Product | Volume tier | Price | Cost per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs | 2,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (e.g. Domain Rating lookups; every billable request costs at least 50 units, 100,000 units included) | $129/mo (Lite plan; effective rate assumes the plan is used solely for API - it also includes the full SEO suite) | $64.50 per 1,000 requests ($1.29 per 1,000 API units) |
| Ahrefs | 8,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (400,000 units included) | $249/mo (Standard plan) | $31.13 per 1,000 requests ($0.62 per 1,000 API units) |
| Ahrefs | 20,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (1,000,000 units included) | $449/mo (Advanced plan) | $22.45 per 1,000 requests ($0.45 per 1,000 API units) |
| Ahrefs | 40,000+ minimum-cost API requests/mo (2,000,000 units, marketed as 'Uncapped API access' with personalized higher limits) | $1,499/mo (Enterprise, annual commitment required) | $37.48 per 1,000 requests at the listed 2M-unit allowance |
| 1Lookup | 20,000 lookups/mo | $99/mo (Starter) | $4.95 |
| 1Lookup | 85,000 lookups/mo | $299/mo (Growth) | $3.52 |
| 1Lookup | 250,000 lookups/mo | $799/mo (Professional) | $3.20 |
| 1Lookup | 1,000,000 lookups/mo | $1,999/mo (Enterprise) | $2.00 |
What Ahrefs costs at volume
| Volume | Ahrefs price | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 2,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (e.g. Domain Rating lookups; every billable request costs at least 50 units, 100,000 units included) | $129/mo (Lite plan; effective rate assumes the plan is used solely for API - it also includes the full SEO suite) | $64.50 per 1,000 requests ($1.29 per 1,000 API units) |
| 8,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (400,000 units included) | $249/mo (Standard plan) | $31.13 per 1,000 requests ($0.62 per 1,000 API units) |
| 20,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (1,000,000 units included) | $449/mo (Advanced plan) | $22.45 per 1,000 requests ($0.45 per 1,000 API units) |
| 40,000+ minimum-cost API requests/mo (2,000,000 units, marketed as 'Uncapped API access' with personalized higher limits) | $1,499/mo (Enterprise, annual commitment required) | $37.48 per 1,000 requests at the listed 2M-unit allowance |
Ahrefs is priced as platform subscriptions with API access at the top of the range; 1Lookup is priced per lookup (13 credits per backlink profile, 10 per authority score, 6 per keyword). For data-pull workloads, compare your real monthly lookup volume against a platform bill.
The same month, priced both ways
Pick one of Ahrefs’s own published volumes. Their figure is their published price at that tier; ours is the cheapest plan on our rate card that covers it. Nothing here is interpolated.
1Lookup
$99/mo
The Starter plan, 20,000 credits a month at $4.95 per 1,000.
Ahrefs
$449
Their published price for “20,000 minimum-cost API requests/mo (1,000,000 units included)”, at $22.45 per 1,000.
At 20,000 a month, 1Lookup is $350 cheaper, and the credits also cover phone, email and IP rather than one of them.
Ahrefs rates as published on ahrefs.com, verified July 2026. Pricing models differ (a monthly plan is not a credit pack), so a like-for-like month depends on your real mix of lookups. Check their pricing page
Ahrefs’s pricing page, as we read it
Every Ahrefs figure above is taken from this page. It is reproduced here so you can check the numbers against the source instead of trusting our transcription of them, and the caption links straight to it. Prices change; the capture date says how fresh this is.
Before you sign: Ahrefs and 1Lookup on the operational terms
The terms that decide what a year actually costs, rather than what the first month does. A blank means we could not verify it on either product’s published pages, not that the answer is nothing.
| Term | 1Lookup | Ahrefs |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum commitment | None. Monthly plans with no contract and no minimum volume; cancel any time | "There are no contracts or setup fees" on Lite, Standard and Advanced; you can switch or cancel any time, with downgrades and cancellations taking effect at the end of the current billing period. Enterprise at $1,499/mo states "Annual commitment required". |
| Cost per extra seat | — | 1 user included on Lite, Standard and Advanced (Enterprise starts from 3). Extra users cost $40/mo each on Lite (up to 2 more), $60/mo each on Standard (up to 5 more), $80/mo each on Advanced (up to 10 more) and $100/mo each on Enterprise (unlimited). |
| Going over your quota | — | Pay-as-you-go. "Eligible paid plans include a monthly API unit allowance. On plans that support pay-as-you-go usage, additional units are automatically charged once the included limit is exceeded." The same applies to credits and data generally: "if you enable additional pay-as-you-go credits and data, you'll be automatically charged when consumption exceeds your plan's limits." Custom prompt packages have explicit overage rates of $0.020/check (Basic), $0.015/check (Growth) and $0.010/check (Scale), billed at the end of the billing month. |
| API access | Included on every plan and during the free trial; there is no tier that unlocks it | API access is listed as included on Lite ($129/mo), Standard ($249/mo) and Advanced ($449/mo), but the max rows per API request is capped by tier: 100 (Lite), 250 (Standard), 500 (Advanced), Unlimited (Enterprise). Enterprise at $1,499/mo is the only tier with "Uncapped API access". Ahrefs Connect integration units per month are 100,000 / 400,000 / 1M / 2M across the four tiers. The docs add: "Ahrefs API is available on eligible paid plans. On all other plans, you'll still have access to a limited set of free test queries." Minimum cost of any billable request is 50 units. |
| Rate limit | 1,000 requests per minute on standard accounts, with higher limits available on request | 60 requests per minute by default; exceeding it returns HTTP 429. Requests may also be throttled dynamically with the same 429 based on system load. Source: https://docs.ahrefs.com/en/api/docs/introduction |
| Compliance | — | "ISO27001 certified" stated on https://ahrefs.com/enterprise, alongside SSO, two-factor authentication and access management / audit log on Enterprise. No SOC 2, HIPAA or published DPA claim found on their own pages. |
| Support | Starter: Email Support; Growth: Priority Email & Chat Support; Professional: Chat + Live Meeting; Enterprise: Dedicated CSM | Help Center at help.ahrefs.com and email support@ahrefs.com, both linked from the pricing page for all plans. Enterprise adds a dedicated Ahrefs account manager, tailored onboarding, 24/7 multilingual chat support, and access to monthly webinars and workshops (https://ahrefs.com/enterprise). |
Ahrefs fine print worth reading twice
Published terms that change what Ahrefs costs or what you can do with it. Each one links to the Ahrefs page it was read on, because a claim about somebody else’s contract should be checkable in one click.
Only 1 user is included on Lite, Standard and Advanced; extra seats cost $40/mo, $60/mo and $80/mo per user respectively, and $100/mo per user on Enterprise.
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteAdditional users and extra credits are billed automatically without a separate purchase step: "If not prepaid for, additional users are automatically charged on a pay-as-you-go basis" and "you'll be automatically charged when consumption exceeds your plan's limits."
Read it on Ahrefs’s sitePay-as-you-go purchases expire: "PAYG purchases such as report credits, export rows, crawl credits, and API units, last for three billing months, including the current one."
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteThe Enterprise plan at $1,499/mo states "Annual commitment required".
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteSwitching an existing subscription to the cheaper annual billing is not self-service: "How can I switch to annual billing? Please contact our support team." The pricing page itself does carry a monthly/annual toggle advertising "Pay annually, save up to 17%".
Read it on Ahrefs’s site"Ahrefs does not issue refunds in general. For monthly subscriptions, you can request for a refund if you haven't used the service, but we may decline your request if we see any material activity in your account."
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteThere is no free trial and no discounting: "We never run discounts."
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteAPI responses are row-capped per request by plan - 100 rows on Lite, 250 on Standard, 500 on Advanced - and only Enterprise is unlimited.
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteConsumed API units are not refundable: "Please be advised that API units once consumed are non-refundable."
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteSeveral capabilities are separately priced add-ons on top of the plan: Report Builder $99/mo, Content Kit from $99/mo, Project Boost Pro $20/mo per project and Project Boost Max $200/mo per project.
Read it on Ahrefs’s siteCustom prompt tracking overage is billed at $0.020 per check (Basic $50/mo), $0.015 per check (Growth $100/mo) and $0.010 per check (Scale $250/mo).
Read it on Ahrefs’s site
What you actually work in
Ahrefs is a screenshots of the Site Explorer app itself - a Site Structure report table with Path / Organic traffic / Change / Organic keywords columns and real row data and inline bar charts, plus further report screenshots for backlink profile, paid traffic and ad tracking product you log into. 1Lookup is an API and a dashboard you mostly do not log into: you call it from the system that already has the record. Which of those you want is usually the whole decision, so here is theirs.
Ahrefs interface
Ahrefs’s API reference
Their public developer documentation, so you can judge the integration before you start one.
1Lookup
Ahrefs
Where Ahrefs wins
- Backlink and keyword data from what Ahrefs bills as the world's second-most active crawler with 10+ years of web-scale data; its Domain Rating (DR) is a de facto industry-standard authority metric
- API v3 is included on every standard plan from Lite ($129/mo) up - no longer Enterprise-only - with published per-plan unit allowances, an official MCP server, free test queries on paid plans for development, and free cached requests
- Genuinely useful free tier: Site Explorer + Site Audit for verified sites, 1M-event web analytics, plus a free public Domain Rating API endpoint
- Far more than a data API: full SEO suite (Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Brand Radar AI visibility tracking, Web Analytics, Social Media Manager) on one subscription
- Transparent self-serve pricing with no contracts or setup fees; cancel or switch plans anytime (Enterprise excepted)
Where 1Lookup wins
- Flat per-lookup pricing with no platform subscription or enterprise API negotiation
- Backlink, authority, keyword, and audience data alongside validation in one API
- Bulk CSV pipeline with linear pricing for large domain or keyword lists
- Credits shared across every product, rolling over for up to 3 months
Ahrefs pricing and product facts verified against ahrefs.com as of July 2026. Prices change; always confirm on the vendor’s site. 1Lookup numbers come from the live rate card.
Who this is for
A quick, honest read on which tool fits your use case.
Choose 1Lookup if: you want backlink and keyword data as flat-priced API calls on shared credits, for scoring lists of domains or keywords inside your own product or pipeline.
Consider Ahrefs instead if: you want the industry-standard link index with its full research UI: Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer, and crawl-based site audits.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get Ahrefs-style data through an API without an enterprise plan?
1Lookup's Backlink Overview, Domain Authority, and Keyword Metrics products return link-profile and keyword data as flat-priced API calls on universal credits. There is no platform subscription or enterprise negotiation: sign up, start the 7-day trial, and call the API.
Is 1Lookup's link data the same as Ahrefs' index?
No, and the distinction matters. Ahrefs runs its own crawler and link index; 1Lookup's SEO products draw on Semrush's index via a per-call integration (Domain SEO Intelligence additionally reports an Ahrefs-style DR figure among its aggregated metrics). The numbers are the same class (referring domains, authority scores, keyword volumes) but come from a different index, so absolute values differ the way any two SEO vendors' do.
When is Ahrefs clearly the better choice?
When your team lives in SEO research: Site Explorer deep-dives, historical link graphs, content gap analysis, and crawl-based audits. Ahrefs' index and UI are the product. 1Lookup wins when you need the numbers inside your own product, pipeline, or spreadsheet at a per-lookup price.
What about Ahrefs' free tools?
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is genuinely useful free tooling for your own verified sites. The per-lookup gap appears when you need data about arbitrary third-party domains and keywords programmatically: that is what 1Lookup prices per call.
Can I check thousands of domains in bulk?
Yes. Backlink Overview, Domain Authority, and Keyword Metrics all run in the bulk CSV pipeline with linear per-row pricing: upload a column, get every metric back appended.
Is Ahrefs worth it in 2026?
For teams running SEO campaigns daily, Ahrefs is widely considered one of the best suites available and the subscription earns its keep. If you mainly need backlink or keyword data programmatically, note that API v3 requires at least the $129/mo Lite plan and every billable request costs at least 50 units, so light API users end up paying for a full suite they rarely open. That is the gap per-lookup APIs fill.