What Is Semrush? Keyword, Competitor and AI Search Data
By Joris van Huët · Semrush's own site
The short answer: If your team researches keywords and competitors every week, in more than one market, Semrush is the suite built for that job, and its entry SEO plan covers 5 monitored websites and 500 tracked keywords for $139 a month on monthly billing (pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026). If the work is only watching your own site's Search Console data, you would be paying for a research database you rarely open.
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Before you pay for a seat:
- Do the annual sum. The SEO plan is 12 x $139 = $1,668 a year on monthly billing, or 12 x $117.33 = $1,407.96 billed annually, per the pricing page checked on 24 October 2026.
- Let the free account run the test. It allows 10 Analytics requests a day, one website and 10 tracked keywords. If that answers your questions, the plan can wait.
- Decide what the subscription has to move: briefs written from its keyword list, or a Site Audit error count that falls month on month.
What sits inside the subscription
Semrush sells toolkits on one login. Its main plans combine keyword research, competitor and backlink analysis, Position Tracking and Site Audit, with prompt tracking in AI answers from Starter up, according to its subscriptions article. Traffic & Market, Local, Content, Social, Advertising and AI PR are separate toolkits added on top.
The data is the product. The homepage claims 29 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks and 142 geo databases, so one subscription covers several countries. Paid plans can also be queried from ChatGPT or Claude through the read-only Semrush MCP.
Who it fits, and who should skip it
It fits a marketing team or agency that plans content from competitor gaps and tracks rankings in several locations, which needs Pro+.
It fits less well a team that mainly needs alerts on its own sites. Every plan includes one user, so four people on Pro+ pay $299 + 3 x $80 = $539 a month, at the additional-user prices checked on 24 October 2026.
Prices, checked on 24 October 2026
| Tier | Websites | Keywords tracked daily | Billed monthly | Billed annually, per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | 5 | 500 | $139 | $117.33 |
| Starter (SEO + AI Search) | 5 | 500, plus 50 AI prompts | $199 | $165.17 |
| Pro+ (SEO + AI Search) | 15 | 1,500, plus 100 AI prompts | $299 | $248.17 |
| Advanced | 40 | 5,000 | Custom | Custom |
USD, from the Semrush pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026. A pricing page is laid out to sell the tier above the one you need; the right tier is the one whose limits your own keyword list reaches.
Against Ahrefs and Sitechecker
Ahrefs is the other full suite in this price band: Lite costs $129 a month on monthly billing for 750 tracked keywords and one user, with API and MCP access (Ahrefs pricing, checked on 24 October 2026). Test both on the same three competitor domains before you choose.
Sitechecker answers a narrower question: what broke on the sites you already run. It reads their Search Console and GA4 data, and its Standard plan covers 20 sites with unlimited users for $249 a month (Sitechecker pricing, checked on 24 October 2026).
Getting started
How to use Semrush walks through a first project, from competitor gaps to a tracked keyword list.
If the real question is which of several overlapping SEO and analytics tools to keep, that is a stack decision more than a Semrush one, and a one-week review like the Startup Fixer covers it. I sell that review.
FAQ
Can I try Semrush without paying?
Yes. The free account needs no card, and the paid plans have a 7-day trial you can cancel before it ends, per the subscriptions article. Accounts that already had a trial or paid toolkit do not qualify.
Can I export data during the trial?
No. Exporting is disabled during trials, per the subscriptions article, so plan the trial around reading reports in the app.
Who owns Semrush now?
Adobe. Its announcement of 28 April 2026 completed the acquisition and calls the business "Semrush, an Adobe company".