Ahrefs vs Google Keyword Planner (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Ahrefs if

• Fits if most of your SEO time goes on backlinks and what's ranking for rivals
• Works for site owners who only need data on their own verified site, which Ahrefs Free covers

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want daily rankings, as Rank Tracker updates weekly on every plan
• Pricey if you're a small business, at about $107.50 a month for Lite even paid yearly
• Tight if you research a lot on Lite, where each user gets 1,000 credits a month; Starter gets 200
• Pricey if you add people: each plan has one user, and extras cost $40 to $80 a month, capped at 2, 5 or 10
• Watch out: AI writing tools start at $99 a month on top, and there's no trial of any paid plan

Pick Google Keyword Planner if

• Fits if you're planning Google search ads and need a budget
• Works for getting volumes for a list of keywords without paying, if you have an Ads account

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want SEO difficulty or a rival's rankings, as it shows neither
• Not for you if you'd rather not enter billing details just to research keywords
• Tight if your niche is tiny or in health or finance, as those keywords may return nothing
• Watch out: volumes are rounded 12-month averages, and each keyword is capped at 80 characters and 10 words
• Watch out: the Ads account must be in Expert Mode, and the screens are made for ad campaigns

Ahrefs

• Rank Tracker updates rankings weekly on every plan the pricing page lists.
• Lite caps each user at 1,000 credits a month for reports; Starter has 200 and cannot add users or add-ons.
• Each plan includes one user; extra users cost $40, $60 or $80 a month and are capped at 2, 5 or 10.
• AI writing tools (Content Kit) start at $99 a month, and Project Boosts cost $20 or $200 a month per project.

Google Keyword Planner

• Needs a Google Ads account with billing details entered and setup complete, and accounts in Smart Mode must switch to Expert Mode.
• Built for ad planning: it shows bid estimates and ad forecasts, not organic difficulty scores or competitor rankings.
• Keywords with very low volume or in sensitive areas such as health or finance may return no results.
• Each keyword is limited to 80 characters and 10 words.

Ahrefs

Site Explorer

See the backlinks, organic keywords and top pages of any website, with history going back 6 months to 5 years by plan.

Keywords Explorer

Find keyword ideas with volume and difficulty; Standard and above add AI suggestions, clusters, search intents and translations.

Site Audit

Crawl your sites for 170+ technical and on-page SEO issues, using 100,000 to 1.5 million crawl credits a month by plan.

Rank Tracker

Track 750 to 5,000 keywords on the self-serve plans, with rankings updated weekly.

Brand Radar and AI prompts

Plans track 5 to 20 of your own prompts in AI chat tools daily. Brand Radar AI, for researching any brand's AI mentions, starts at $199 a month.

API and MCP server

Every plan from Lite includes API and MCP access, capped at 100 to 500 rows per request below Enterprise.

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword ideas from words or a site

Enter phrases about a product or service, or any website, and get a list of related keyword ideas to filter, group by theme and save to a plan.

Average monthly searches

Shows how often a keyword and its close variants are searched, averaged over 12 months by default, by location and network. Volumes are rounded and exact-match only.

Top-of-page bid ranges

Low and high bid estimates, roughly the 20th and 80th percentile of what advertisers paid for a top-of-page ad over the last 30 days.

Forecasts by budget

A saved plan forecasts clicks, impressions, cost and conversions for a chosen budget and bid strategy, refreshed daily from the last 7 to 10 days of data.

Volumes for your own list

Paste or upload a CSV of keywords to get search volumes and forecasts for them, then turn the plan into a Search campaign.

Google Ads API access

Developers can request keyword ideas, historical metrics and forecasts through KeywordPlanIdeaService in the Google Ads API.

Ahrefs

• Ahrefs Free$0

  Limited Site Explorer and Site Audit for websites you verify as yours. No Keywords Explorer or Rank Tracker.

• Starter$29

  per month, billed monthly

  200 report credits a month, with Keywords Explorer, Rank Tracker and Site Audit. Monthly only; no extra users or add-ons.

• Lite$129

  per month, billed monthly

  1 user, 5 projects, 750 tracked keywords, 6 months of history, 1,000 credits a month, 100,000 crawl credits, API and MCP access.

• Standard$249

  per month, billed monthly

  1 user, 20 projects, 2,000 tracked keywords, 2 years of history, unlimited credits, Content Explorer and keyword clusters.

• Advanced$449

  per month, billed monthly

  1 user, 50 projects, 5,000 tracked keywords, 5 years of history, 1.5 million crawl credits and Looker Studio integration.

• Enterprise$1,499

  per month, annual commitment required

  From 3 users, 100 projects, unlimited history, uncapped API, SSO and audit log. Sold through sales.

Google Keyword Planner

• Free$0

  Keyword ideas, monthly search volumes, top-of-page bid ranges and forecasts, for anyone with a Google Ads account.

Ahrefs

• Annual discount

  Save up to 17% by paying annually

  Ahrefs' pricing page offers up to 17% off for annual billing on Lite, Standard and Advanced. Existing monthly customers switch by contacting support.

Google Keyword Planner

No public discounts listed.