Ahrefs

Name: Ahrefs MCP Server
Availability: InStock
Author: Ahrefs

Sales & CRM61 tools

Query Ahrefs SEO and AI-search data in plain language — backlinks, keywords, rankings, site audits and Brand Radar AI visibility. 61 tools, a Lite plan or higher, and metered API units the agent spends by choosing which tool to call.

Verified connector

Listed by Anthropic as a partner connector in its Connectors Directory.

Connection checked by Agentman on 19 August 2026.

Anthropic states this reflects the level of review a connector received, not a security audit.

Connect Ahrefs via MCP

https://api.ahrefs.com/mcp/mcp

Works in any MCP-compatible client. In Agentman Studio it is one click — no config file to edit.

Ahrefs Tools & Capabilities (61)

Tool names from Anthropic's directory listing. This server requires sign-in, so we could not read tool descriptions or parameter schemas.

Limits

A Lite plan or higher is required. Ahrefs states the hosted MCP is available on paid plans from Lite, listed at $129 per month. No free tier, no anonymous mode.
Every billable call costs at least 50 units. The floor applies even to a single-row lookup.
Cost scales with rows times fields, and the agent chooses both. Ahrefs' own example reaches 6,000 units on one 500-row call selecting a 10-unit field.
46 of the 61 tools bill units; 12 are free. Two site-explorer-best-by-* names we could not resolve to a spec path and left out of both counts.
Per-plan unit allowances are not published. Ahrefs' pricing page names plan prices but no monthly unit figure per tier. The per-plan maximum rows per request is likewise unpublished.
Set a per-key unit cap before running an agent unattended. Workspace admins can cap monthly units on the MCP key, and separately cap or disable pay-as-you-go units.
The listing covers 11 of 19 documented tool groups. Web Analytics, GSC Insights and Social Media have documented API surfaces and no tool name in the snapshot.
The tool surface is configurable. A tools URL parameter selects groups, so the 61 names are one configuration observed on 2026-08-16, not a fixed capability list.
Brand Radar data is a monthly snapshot on a 90-day window, collected through public web interfaces rather than official engine APIs. Nothing queries an engine live.
Ahrefs states hallucinated and malformed links are not filtered out of Brand Radar data, and that coverage is strongest in English with long-tail queries possibly excluded. Carried unsoftened.
Ahrefs states Brand Radar is not a substitute for audience measurement or traffic analytics.
Claude coverage in Brand Radar is custom-prompts-only, per the data_source parameter, so it is not comparable with the other six platforms.
The impressions basis is changing. A search_volume_type parameter is documented as deprecating on 2026-08-31 as reports move to an AI-adjusted volume.
No writes are exposed, but no permissions label backs that up. The finding is our own mapping of 61 tool names onto Ahrefs' OpenAPI document, not a declaration by Anthropic or Ahrefs.
Four management-* tools sit on paths that also serve write verbs. The names bind to the GET operations, but the read-only property depends on that binding, which we could not inspect.
We could not verify tool behaviour ourselves. The endpoint returns 401 to an anonymous handshake, so no schemas and no safety annotations were readable.
Prompts are unconfirmed. Anthropic's snapshot lists no prompt names and the gated endpoint blocked our own check.
Ahrefs restricts non-client use of the endpoint. Its MCP documentation states that using the external endpoint via custom scripts, bridges or standalone HTTP clients is unsupported and not permitted, directing programmatic use to the REST API instead.

Frequently asked questions

Which Ahrefs plan do you need to use the Ahrefs MCP server?

A Lite plan or higher. Ahrefs states the hosted MCP server is available on paid plans starting from Lite, which lists at $129 per month. There is no free tier and no anonymous mode. Each plan sets both a monthly API unit allowance and a maximum number of rows an agent can pull per request, so plan tier caps how much an assistant can read.

Can the Ahrefs MCP server change anything in my Ahrefs account?

No write tool is exposed, but the directory record carries no permissions label, so this rests on structure rather than a declaration. Ahrefs' OpenAPI spec defines 30 write operations across projects, keyword lists, competitors and Brand Radar prompts. None of the 61 listed tool names corresponds to one; every name matches a bare GET operation only.

How much do Ahrefs MCP tool calls cost in API units?

Ahrefs documents the formula as the greater of a 50-unit base cost or the per-row cost times the row count. Per-row cost is the sum of the requested fields, at 1 unit each by default, with some metrics costing 5 or 10. A 500-row backlinks pull selecting a 10-unit field reaches 6,000 units in Ahrefs' own worked example.

Does Ahrefs publish how Brand Radar measures AI visibility?

Yes, in unusual detail. Ahrefs publishes a Brand Radar methodology page naming seven AI platforms, per-platform monthly query volumes, the People Also Ask and Fanout prompt sources, and a monthly refresh with a 90-day window. It also states prompts run through public web interfaces rather than official engine APIs, and admits it does not filter hallucinated links.

Why does the Ahrefs connector list 61 tools when the docs describe more groups?

Ahrefs documents 19 tool groups, and the 61 names in Anthropic's snapshot cover only 11 of them. Web Analytics, GSC Insights and Social Media appear in Ahrefs' documentation with no matching tool name in the listing. The server also accepts a URL parameter selecting groups, so the surface an agent sees is configurable rather than fixed.

Can an AI agent burn through my Ahrefs API units without supervision?

Yes, and the connector's shape makes it likelier. The agent picks among 61 tools of very different cost, and 46 of them bill units while 12 are free. Ahrefs' mitigation is per-key spend control: workspace admins can set a monthly unit cap on each API key, and MCP connections appear as their own tagged key.

How does the Ahrefs MCP server authenticate?

OAuth 2.0 with PKCE, verified live on 2026-08-19. An anonymous request returns HTTP 401 naming a resource metadata document, which advertises exactly one scope. Ahrefs also supports a manually generated MCP key passed as a bearer token, which is a long-lived account-wide credential rather than a per-user grant and needs rotation discipline.

Sources

What is Ahrefs MCP — https://docs.ahrefs.com/mcp/docs/introduction.md (fetched 2026-08-19; plan gating, unit consumption, MCP-tagged keys, endpoint URLs, terms restricting non-client use) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs MCP Tool Categories — https://docs.ahrefs.com/mcp/docs/tool-categories.md (fetched 2026-08-19; the 19 documented tool groups, the tools= parameter, and the statement that documentation helper tools are always included) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs MCP setup for Claude Desktop/Web — https://docs.ahrefs.com/mcp/docs/claude-desktop-web.md (fetched 2026-08-19; OAuth flow and manual key configuration) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs MCP setup for Claude Code — https://docs.ahrefs.com/mcp/docs/claude-code.md (fetched 2026-08-19) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs API limits consumption — https://docs.ahrefs.com/api/docs/limits-consumption.md (fetched 2026-08-19; the cost formula, 50-unit base, 1/5/10-unit field costs, and both worked examples) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs API keys creation and management — https://docs.ahrefs.com/api/docs/api-keys-creation-and-management.md (fetched 2026-08-19; per-key monthly unit caps, one-year key lifetime, 1,000-key limit, pay-as-you-go controls) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs free test queries — https://docs.ahrefs.com/api/docs/free-test-queries.md (fetched 2026-08-19) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs complete OpenAPI specification — https://docs.ahrefs.com/openapi.json (fetched 2026-08-19; 148 operations, 118 GET and 30 writes, and the per-endpoint free-endpoint markings used for the 46/12 split) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs Brand Radar OpenAPI specification — https://docs.ahrefs.com/reference/brand-radar.json (fetched 2026-08-19; the data_source platform list, the prompts free-vs-billed rule, and the search_volume_type deprecation date) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs Brand Radar Methodology — https://ahrefs.com/blog/brand-radar-methodology/ (fetched 2026-08-19; platforms, per-platform monthly query volumes, PAA and Fanout prompt sourcing, public-web-interface collection, monthly refresh and 90-day window, metric definitions, and the stated limitations) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs Brand Radar fields reference — https://docs.ahrefs.com/looker-studio/docs/brand-radar-fields.md (fetched 2026-08-19) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs pricing — https://ahrefs.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-19; Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449, Enterprise $1,499 per month with annual commitment; no per-plan unit figure published) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Ahrefs docs machine index — https://docs.ahrefs.com/llms.txt (fetched 2026-08-19; the per-tool OpenAPI spec list confirming Web Analytics, GSC Insights and Social Media as real API surfaces). docs.ahrefs.com/robots.txt allows all user agents apart from a build path and names one sitemap; appending .md to a docs URL returns Markdown, which is how these pages were read. ahrefs.com/robots.txt carries no Content-Signal line on any axis and ahrefs.com/llms.txt returns 404 — notable only because Ahrefs is itself an SEO vendor · retrieved 2026-08-19
Live RFC 9728 protected-resource descriptor — https://api.ahrefs.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource (fetched 2026-08-19; root and path-append forms both return an identical 122-byte body declaring scopes_provided of apiv3-mcp; the path-insert form 404s) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Live RFC 8414 authorization-server metadata — https://api.ahrefs.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server (fetched 2026-08-19; issuer, registration and authorize endpoints, S256, and the three grant types) · retrieved 2026-08-19
Live anonymous probe — 2026-08-19: an anonymous POST request to https://api.ahrefs.com/mcp/mcp returns HTTP 401 with www-authenticate: Bearer resource_metadata="https://api.ahrefs.com/.well-known/oauth-protected-resource" and a 21-byte body. The bare /mcp path returns 301 · retrieved 2026-08-19
Anthropic connector directory — https://claude.ai/directory/098cb32a-ba21-4770-97dd-78bb54655419 (snapshot 2026-08-16; 61 tool names, no permissions field, no prompt names, auth_required posture) · retrieved 2026-08-16