# Semrush

> SEO suite for keyword research, rank tracking and AI search visibility

Semrush is a web-based search marketing suite. Its SEO plans cover keyword research, competitor and backlink analysis, daily rank tracking and site audits, and from the Starter plan up they also track how a brand appears in AI chat answers. Local, content, social, advertising and PR tools are sold as separate toolkits.

- **Category:** SEO Tools
- **Made by:** Semrush Holdings
- **Website:** https://www.semrush.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 17, 2026

## Pricing

Semrush has a free plan. Paid plans start at $117.33 per month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Free account: 1 project, 10 analytics reports a day across the main tools and 10 keywords in Position Tracking. No credit card needed.
- **Free trial:** 7-day free trial of paid plans; a card is checked with a small charge that is refunded at once.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 1 project, 10 analytics reports a day and 10 tracked keywords, for trying the tools. |
| SEO | $117.33 per month, billed annually ($139 billed monthly) | 1 user, 5 websites, 500 keywords tracked daily, basic keyword and competitor research, and Site Audit. No AI search tracking. |
| Starter | $165.17 per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly) | 5 websites and 500 keywords, full keyword research tools, MCP access, 50 AI prompts tracked daily and 300 AI visibility reports a day. |
| Pro+ | $248.17 per month, billed annually ($299 billed monthly) | 15 websites, 1,500 keywords, historical data, content optimization, cannibalization checks, multi-location tracking and 100 AI prompts. |
| Advanced | Custom | 40+ websites, 5,000+ keywords, share of voice, API access, team users, reporting and unlimited AI prompts. Sold after a demo. |

Read from https://www.semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/ on Oct 17, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Semrush before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Save up to 17% with annual billing** (Annual discount): Semrush's pricing page lists annual billing at up to 17% less: Starter is $165.17 a month billed annually instead of $199 billed monthly. Source: https://www.semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/

## Key features

- **Keyword research:** Look up search volume, difficulty and intent from a database Semrush puts at 29 billion keywords across 142 country databases.
- **Competitor and backlink analysis:** See which keywords and pages bring a rival site its traffic, and inspect any domain's backlink profile.
- **Position Tracking:** Track daily rankings for 500 to 5,000+ keywords depending on the plan; Pro+ adds tracking by location and device.
- **Site Audit:** Crawl your sites for technical SEO problems. From the Starter plan the audit also checks how ready a site is for AI search.
- **AI visibility tracking:** Starter and above track daily whether set prompts in AI chat tools mention your brand, with sentiment monitoring. The SEO plan has none of this.
- **MCP and API access:** Starter and above can query Semrush data from AI assistants through MCP; the API itself comes with the Advanced plan.

## Good for

- Freelancers and in-house marketers who want research, tracking and audits in one account
- Agencies comparing many client sites against their competitors
- Brands that want to watch their visibility in AI chat answers alongside Google rankings

## Worth knowing

- Each plan includes one user; extra users start at $45 a month each, priced by plan level.
- Scheduled PDF reports are an add-on at $10 a month, or $20 with white-labeling; Advanced includes reporting.
- API access and share of voice come only with the custom-priced Advanced plan.
- Local, content, social, advertising, AI PR and traffic tools are separate toolkits with their own prices.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 17, 2026. Semrush is the SEO suite that tries to do everything: keyword research from a huge database, competitor and backlink checks, daily rank tracking, site audits, and AI answer tracking from Starter up. The catch is the price. The SEO plan it pitches at small businesses is $117.33 a month on yearly billing, for one user, and it leaves the AI tracking out.

- **Value for money: D.** The SEO plan, the one Semrush aims at freelancers and small businesses, is $117.33 a month billed yearly ($139 monthly). That's in this category's dearest tenth, for one user. AI search tracking needs Starter at $165.17, and each extra person is from $45 a month.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** A free account with no card: 1 project, 10 reports a day and 10 tracked keywords. Fine for a look around, but you'll hit the wall in an afternoon. The 7-day trial of the paid plans checks your card with a small charge that's refunded at once.
- **Features: B.** Keyword research from a database it puts at 29 billion keywords across 142 countries, competitor and backlink analysis, daily rank tracking and Site Audit. It covers the whole job, though the SEO plan only gets the basic research tools and no AI visibility.
- **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. It's a big suite with a lot of reports, and there are projects to set up and plenty to learn before it all makes sense.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, Wix, Yoast, AIOSEO, Supermetrics and Monday.com, has MCP from Starter, and the API comes with the custom-priced Advanced plan.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Semrush's own pages on 17 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among SEO tools

- Semrush's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 6 of the 21 other SEO tools we grade, and level with 5.
- It stands best on features (B, above 14 of 21) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $117.33 a month, against a middle price of $34.45 for the category: 19 of the 21 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.7 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Semrush you would be making search volumes for millions of keywords, gathered and kept up to date. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 10 of the 21 other SEO tools grade higher. It costs $1,407.96 a year.

- You could make: Reports: an app builder makes this well.
- You could not: Search volumes for millions of keywords, gathered and kept up to date.
- You could not: An index of the links between billions of web pages.
- You could not: Daily checks of where your pages rank in search results.
- You could not: A crawler that checks every page of a site.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Wix among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Wix, Yoast, AIOSEO, Storyblok, Supermetrics, Monday.com

**Tags:** Keyword research, Backlink analysis, Rank tracking, Site audit, Reports, AI features, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Ahrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ahrefs): SEO toolset for backlinks, keyword research, audits and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ahrefs-vs-semrush)
- [SE Ranking](https://toolgpa.com/tools/se-ranking): SEO platform for rank tracking, audits, research and AI visibility. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/se-ranking-vs-semrush)
- [Moz Pro](https://toolgpa.com/tools/moz-pro): SEO toolkit for keyword and link research, site crawls and rankings. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/moz-pro-vs-semrush)
- [Serpstat](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpstat): All-in-one SEO platform for research, rank tracking and site audits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/semrush-vs-serpstat)
- [Similarweb](https://toolgpa.com/tools/similarweb): Traffic estimates, keyword research and competitor data for any site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/semrush-vs-similarweb)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 17, 2026:

- https://www.semrush.com/pricing/seo-ai-search/
- https://www.semrush.com/
- https://www.semrush.com/company/partner-integrations/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/semrush
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).