# SpyFu review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Competitor research for SEO and Google Ads keywords and ad history Checked Oct 23, 2026 ยท graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA. SpyFu is a web-based research tool for seeing which keywords a competing site ranks for and buys on Google Ads, with ad copy and ranking history going back years. Paid plans add unlimited searches, weekly rank tracking, backlink research, branded reports and an AI site audit that writes fixes for on-page issues. - **Category:** SEO Tools - **Made by:** SpyFu, Inc. - **Website:** https://www.spyfu.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you want to try before you pay, as there's no trial, only a 30-day money-back guarantee. - **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026 ## Pricing As of Oct 23, 2026, SpyFu has a free plan, and paid plans start at $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Free version with no time limit: search any domain or keyword and see a limited set of results. Full results, exports and keyword tracking need a paid plan. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Basic | $29 per month, billed yearly ($39 billed monthly) | 10,000 rows per search and export, 1 tracking project, 5,000 weekly tracked rankings, 50,000 audit pages a month, 1 user. No API credit included. | | Pro + AI | $89 per month, billed yearly ($119 monthly after a $59 first month) | Unlimited results and exports, 10 projects, 15,000 tracked rankings, 500,000 audit pages, RivalFlow for 1 site, $40 of API credit. Extra users $30. | | Team/Agency | $187 per month, billed yearly ($249 billed monthly) | 5 users, unlimited projects, 50,000 tracked rankings, 2 million audit pages, daily audits, RivalFlow for 5 sites and $100 of API credit. | Read from https://www.spyfu.com/pricing on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with SpyFu before buying. ## Key features - **Competitor PPC research:** See the Google Ads keywords a domain buys, estimated clicks and cost per keyword, and the ad tests it has run over time. - **Competitor SEO research:** List the keywords a site ranks for, its top pages and its ranking history, and compare several domains to find keywords you are missing. - **Keyword research and grouping:** Generate keyword ideas filtered by volume, CPC and difficulty, and paste in a list to have it grouped with volume and CPC added. - **Rank tracking and projects:** Save keywords to a project per site to track rankings weekly, with labels, keyword groups and a daily summary dashboard. - **AI site audit:** Crawls a site for technical, metadata, content and linking issues and writes fixes for titles, descriptions and headings; plans include monthly AI credits. - **API and SpyFu GPT:** Pro plans and up include API access billed per rows returned, with a monthly credit; SpyFu GPT brings its data into ChatGPT. ## Good for - Google Ads buyers who want to see what competitors bid on and how their ads changed - Marketers researching a rival's SEO keywords and top pages - Agencies building branded competitor reports for clients ## Worth knowing - Pro + AI is $59 for the first month only, then $119 a month on monthly billing; yearly billing is $89 a month. - There is no free trial; SpyFu offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, and refunds are requested through chat or email. - Basic caps search results and exports at 10,000 rows, and its site audit stops at 500 pages a crawl. - API use beyond the monthly credit ($40 on Pro + AI, $100 on Team/Agency) is charged to the card on file. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 23, 2026. SpyFu shows the Google Ads keywords a rival buys, the ad tests they've run and the keywords they rank for, with years of history. Basic is $29 a month on yearly billing, but caps results at 10,000 rows and has one user and no API credit. There's no trial, rankings update weekly, Pro + AI's $59 first month becomes $119, and API use past the monthly credit goes on your card. - **Value for money: C.** Basic is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly), between the cheaper quarter of SEO tools at $21.75 and the middle at $39. It has 1 user and no API credit, and Pro + AI is $89 a month yearly or $119 monthly after a $59 first month. - **Free plan and trial: C.** A free version with no time limit: search any domain or keyword and you see a limited set of results. Full results, exports and tracking are paid. There's no trial, just a 30-day money-back guarantee, which isn't the same thing. - **Features: C.** Competitor PPC and SEO research, keyword ideas and grouping, rank tracking, backlinks, an AI site audit that writes fixes, and an API. Rankings update weekly, and Basic caps results and exports at 10,000 rows and its audit at 500 pages a crawl. - **Ease of use: C.** No rating on record. You start by typing in a competitor's domain, but there are a lot of reports, and projects to set up before the tracking side tells you much. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, with SpyFu GPT for ChatGPT, Google Sheets, Google Tag Manager and RivalFlow AI, plus an API from the Pro plans, billed by rows returned. No desktop or phone app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from SpyFu's own pages on 23 October 2026, with its prices read from its pricing page in a browser on 24 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among SEO tools - SpyFu's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 20 of the 64 other SEO tools we grade, and level with 21. - It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 15 of 64) and worst on features (C, above 0). - Its paid plans start at $29 a month, against a middle price of $39 for the category: 16 of the 56 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 6 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/seo ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace SpyFu 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: 23 of the 64 other SEO tools grade higher. It costs $348 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, ChatGPT, Google Sheets and Google Tag Manager among them, and has an API. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with ChatGPT, Google Sheets, Google Tag Manager, RivalFlow AI **Tags:** Keyword research, Backlink analysis, Rank tracking, Site audit, Reports, AI features, Public API ## Alternatives - [Semrush](https://toolgpa.com/tools/semrush): SEO suite for keyword research, rank tracking and AI search visibility. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/semrush-vs-spyfu) - [Ahrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ahrefs): SEO toolset for backlinks, keyword research, audits and rank tracking. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ahrefs-vs-spyfu) - [Serpstat](https://toolgpa.com/tools/serpstat): All-in-one SEO platform for research, rank tracking and site audits. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/serpstat-vs-spyfu) - [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-spyfu) - [Similarweb](https://toolgpa.com/tools/similarweb): Traffic estimates, keyword research and competitor data for any site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/similarweb-vs-spyfu) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026: - https://www.spyfu.com/pricing - https://www.spyfu.com/ - https://www.spyfu.com/semrush-alternative - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/5569689-more-answers-about-our-pricing-and-plans - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/3047918-is-there-a-free-trial-for-spyfu - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/2968669-quick-introduction-to-spyfu - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/2968627-how-does-the-30-day-money-back-guarantee-work - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/13016108-how-are-api-charges-calculated - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/16112706-spyfu-site-audit-overview - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/16379930-what-are-ai-credits-for-in-a-site-audit - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/5640863-what-s-new-on-spyfu - https://help.spyfu.com/en/articles/11473287-what-is-rivalflow-ai - https://help.spyfu.com/en/collections/19702339-spyfu-site-audit Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/spyfu Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).