SemrushPricing, features & deals

What is Semrush?

Semrush is a web-based toolkit for getting found online. It answers three questions: what people type into Google, who already ranks for those searches, and what is holding your own site back. Behind the reports sit large datasets. Semrush cites 29 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks and 808 million domain profiles across 142 country databases.

The product is run by Semrush Inc., which its terms place in Boston, and its homepage states that Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush. It has grown well beyond SEO. Separate toolkits now cover AI visibility, local listings, content, paid ads, PR, social media and competitor traffic. Most buyers start with the SEO toolkit and add others later.

What sets it apart now is that it tracks AI search next to Google. Semrush monitors prompts in assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini to show whether your brand gets mentioned in AI answers, and how you compare with rivals. That matters if your buyers ask a chatbot before they search. The trade-off is cost: this is a professional tool, priced like one.

How it works

1. 1Add your websiteOr any competitor's domain
2. 2Research keywordsVolume, difficulty and rival rankings
3. 3Track and fixDaily rankings and site health

Key features

• Keyword Magic Tool

  Type in a seed word and get a long list of related keywords, with total volume and average difficulty worked out for the table. A questions-only filter surfaces the queries people phrase as questions. It is where most content plans start: you see real demand before you write a word.

• Domain Overview

  Enter any domain, yours or a competitor's, to see estimated organic and paid traffic, backlink counts, top keywords and main competitors. It is the quickest way to size up a rival. You see where their search traffic comes from before you decide where to compete.

• Site Audit

  Crawls your site and runs more than 140 on-page and technical checks, from broken links and duplicate content to HTTPS, hreflang and indexability. A crawler is a bot that reads your pages the way Google does. The audit turns problems you can't see into a fix list.

• Position Tracking

  Position tracking means checking where your pages rank for chosen keywords every day. You pick the search engine, device and location, then add or import keywords from Google Search Console, Google Analytics or a CSV file. Competitor positions sit alongside yours, so you see who is gaining.

• Backlink analysis

  Backlinks are links from other sites to yours, and they still weigh heavily in rankings. Semrush shows who links to you and to rivals, flags harmful links and suggests link-building prospects. Backlink Gap shows sites that link to competitors but not to you.

• AI Visibility

  Tracks prompts in AI assistants to see if, and how, your brand appears in their answers, and compares your AI share and sentiment with competitors. The Starter plan tracks 50 prompts a day. This is newer ground than classic SEO, so treat it as an early signal rather than gospel.

• Content toolkit

  Suggests topic ideas built around search demand, drafts articles and scores your copy for SEO as you write. Pro+ adds content optimisation and keyword cannibalisation checks, which catch two of your own pages competing for the same search. Useful if you publish often and need a repeatable brief.

• Reports and integrations

  Paid report add-ons pull data from 20+ Semrush tools plus Google Analytics and Search Console into scheduled PDF reports. The Pro Report add-on adds white-labelling, so agencies can send reports under their own brand. Semrush also connects to Looker Studio, WordPress, Zapier and more.

What people use Semrush for

• 01

  Plan a blog around real searches

  Pull keyword ideas, sort by volume and difficulty, and turn the realistic ones into a content calendar.

• 02

  Benchmark a competitor

  Run their domain through Domain Overview to see their top keywords, traffic sources and who links to them.

• 03

  Fix a site that's slipping

  Run Site Audit to find crawl and indexing errors, then watch Position Tracking to confirm rankings recover.

• 04

  Track local rankings

  Set Position Tracking to a city and device to see how you rank for local searches, including the map pack.

• 05

  Check your brand in AI answers

  On Starter and above, track prompts in tools like ChatGPT to see whether AI assistants recommend you or a rival.

• 06

  Report to clients

  Agencies can schedule branded PDF reports with the Pro Report add-on instead of building spreadsheets by hand.

How to get started with Semrush

1. 1

   Start the free plan or trial

   Sign up free with no card, or start the 7-day trial of a paid plan to unlock full limits.

2. 2

   Create a project for your site

   Add your domain as a project. On your first project, Position Tracking is set up for you.

3. 3

   Run a Site Audit

   Semrush's own getting-started guide puts the audit first: it shows technical issues and how to fix them.

4. 4

   Research keywords

   Use the Keyword Magic Tool to find terms worth targeting, then add the best ones to Position Tracking.

5. 5

   Check your competitors

   Open Domain Overview or Organic Rankings for rival domains to see the keywords and pages that bring them traffic.

Does it track ChatGPT?

Yes. From Starter, it tracks daily prompts to see how your brand shows up in AI answers like ChatGPT and Gemini.

SEO and AI visibility in one dashboard.

Semrush pricing explained

Extra users are a paid add-on, from $45 a month.

Semrush is sold as toolkits, and the SEO + AI Search plans are the main ones. Billed monthly, SEO costs $139, Starter $199 and Pro+ $299 a month. Advanced and Enterprise are quoted after a demo. The plans differ mostly in limits: how many websites you can monitor (5, 5, 15, then 40+) and how many keywords are tracked daily (500, 500, 1,500, then 5,000+). Starter is the cheapest plan with a stated AI prompt allowance, at 50 prompts a day.

Each plan is for one person. The terms say every user needs their own login and accounts can't be shared, so extra users are an add-on from $45 a month. Report add-ons cost $10 (Base) or $20 (Pro) a month. Paying yearly saves up to 17%, which brings SEO down to $117.33 a month.

The free plan gives one demo project and 10 reports a day across core tools, with no card needed. Paid plans have a 7-day free trial. You can cancel, downgrade or upgrade at any time unless you signed custom terms. Semrush's terms state that fees paid are non-refundable, with exceptions set out in its separate cancellation and refund policy, so cancel before the trial ends if you aren't sure.

Monthly prices in US dollars. Paying yearly saves up to 17% (SEO works out at $117.33 a month).

Apps and integrations

Commercial use, ownership and privacy

Semrush's terms say any content you upload stays yours. The reports and insights it produces belong to Semrush, and you may use the service only for your own internal business purposes. You can't resell or sublicense the data, scrape it, or feed it into AI models.

Each account is for one named person, and the terms prohibit sharing a login. Semrush may suspend accounts it sees being used from many locations beyond the plan's limits. Agencies wanting to brand client reports should use the Pro Report add-on, which is built for white-labelling.

Who it's for

• SEO specialistsKeyword and backlink research
• AgenciesClient tracking and white-label reports
• Content marketersTopics that people search for
• Small businessesLocal and organic visibility

The catches

• Priced for professionalsPaid plans start at $139 a month.
• Free plan is a tasterOne demo project, 10 reports a day.
• Add-ons add upExtra users from $45, reports from $10.

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