Last Updated on August 27, 2025 by Ewen Finser
If you’ve ever tried to make sense of Semrush pricing plans, you’ve probably experienced all five stages of marketing tool grief.
First comes denial where you look at the three main tiers and think, “Looks simple enough.” Then confusion hits: “Wait, what’s a Traffic & Market Plan? And why are there separate plans for SEO, AI, and content?”
Anger usually follows when you realize you might be paying $90 a month for something called Lead Generation that sounds like it should be free. Bargaining creeps in as you convince yourself you can probably live without local SEO tools. And finally, there’s acceptance: “…Fine. Just take my credit card.”
Semrush’s pricing isn’t a trap so much as it is a very layered cake. There are base subscription tiers, specialty toolkits, and then a sprinkle of add-ons for specific needs. It’s powerful, but if you don’t know what you’re looking at, it’s easy to overpay or, worse, miss out on features you actually need.
I’ve picked through every current 2025 plan, add-on, and trial option, tested most of them in the wild, and compared them to the other big-name tools. Here’s the breakdown, minus the sugar-coating.
How Semrush Pricing Works
Think of Semrush like a massive all-you-can-eat buffet, except you pay for your plate size and some specialty dishes à la carte.
Here’s the gist:
- Specialized plans: Toolkits for specific goals, such as content marketing, local SEO, AI, social media, advertising, and traffic/market research.
- Base plans: The classic Base, Pro, and Business tiers most people start with.
- Add-ons: Extra users, reporting upgrades, lead gen tools, and more.
- Free tools: A surprising number of handy SEO tools that don’t require a paid plan at all.
- Trial periods: Most toolkits offer a 7-day free trial (some add-ons have 14 days).
Why the complexity?
Because not everyone uses Semrush the same way.
A solo content creator might only need the Pro SEO plan, while a digital agency could run SEO, social, local, content, and advertising plans side-by-side.
So the question isn’t “Which plan is cheapest?”—it’s “Which combination actually makes sense for the work I need to do?”
Also read: Semrush Review: Is Semrush Still Good in 2025?
I use a LOT of tools. Probably more than I need to. There are a few that are truly indispensable. I have a Semrush tab open EVERY day as I work. Keyword searches, technical audits, competitor analysis? It does it all. Try it out for free.
How Much Does Semrush Cost?
Here’s how much Semrush costs, depending on the toolkit you need:
SEO Plans
These are the core Semrush subscriptions.
Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Best For |
Pro | $139.95/mo | $117.33/mo | Beginners, freelancers, or single-site projects |
Guru | $249.95/mo | $208.33/mo | Small businesses, growing sites, advanced tools |
Business | $499.95/mo | $416.66/mo | Agencies, enterprise-level SEO, heavy data use |
Pro gets you the essentials:
- Up to 5 projects
- Keyword research & competitor analysis tools
- Position tracking for 500 keywords/day
- Backlink analytics
- Site Audit
Guru adds:
- Up to 15 projects
- Historical data
- Multi-location/device tracking
- Content marketing tools
- ChatGPT search tracking
Business piles on:
- Up to 40 projects
- Share of Voice reporting
- Extended limits & API access
- Migration support from other tools
Traffic & Market Plans
Semrush’s market‑intel toolkit focuses on competitive traffic data, audience trends, and category benchmarking. Pricing is monthly (annual billing available), and there are two tiers.
Plan | Monthly Price | Best for |
Pro | $289/mo | Analysts, growth marketers, and agencies that need reliable competitor and market snapshots |
Business | TBA (coming soon) | Larger teams that need collaborative, always‑on monitoring and customized reporting |
Pro
- Includes: Traffic Overview, Daily Trends, Market Overview, traffic distribution tools, competitor monitoring tools, regional trends tools.
- Why upgrade from nothing: You move from “educated guesses” to defensible market sizing and channel benchmarking.
Business (coming soon)
- Includes: Everything in Pro plus Industry Overview, Page Groups, advanced notification center, custom dashboards, custom competitor monitoring.
- What you gain: Deeper segmentation, proactive alerts, and dashboarding built for stakeholders (pricing/details to be announced).
Local Plans
Semrush’s Local plans help businesses stay visible in maps, directories, and local search while managing reviews and reputation. Pricing is monthly (annual billing available).
Plan | Monthly Price | Best for |
Base | $30/mo | Single-location businesses that need accurate, consistent online listings |
Pro | $60/mo | Businesses that want more control over local performance and customer sentiment |
Business | Custom pricing | Multi-location brands or agencies managing local SEO at scale |
Base
- Includes: Listing management, directory sync, and basic data correction.
- Why choose it: Ensures your core business info is correct across the web, which is essential for local SEO visibility.
Pro
- Includes: Everything in Base plus review monitoring, local rankings, and heatmap reports.
- What you gain: Clear insight into how you appear in local search and tools to respond to reviews.
Business
- Includes: Everything in Pro plus advanced reporting, bulk location management, and dedicated support.
- What you gain: Streamlined multi-location control, deeper analytics, and enterprise-level oversight.
Content Plans
Semrush’s Content plan unlocks its full content marketing platform, from topic research to optimization, without requiring you to subscribe to the full SEO toolkit.
Pricing is monthly, with annual billing available.
Plan | Monthly Price | Best for |
Base | $60/mo | Content marketers, writers, and small teams who need structured content workflows without committing to higher SEO tiers |
Base
- Includes: AI-generated articles, SEO boosts, brand voice tools, brief generator, readability checks, and WP/Docs integrations.
- Why choose it: Gives you all of Semrush’s content creation and optimization tools in one plan, ideal if content is your main focus but you don’t need the broader SEO suite.
AI Plans
Semrush’s AI plan integrates generative AI into your workflow, helping you create, optimize, and repurpose content faster. Pricing is monthly (annual billing available).
Plan | Monthly Price | Best for |
Base | $99/mo | Marketers, agencies, or small teams looking to speed up research and drafting without replacing human editing |
Base
- Includes: AI brand visibility tracking across SearchGPT, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, brand sentiment analysis, and AI-driven marketing recommendations.
- Why choose it: Cuts down drafting time while keeping your content aligned with SEO goals, making it easier to scale production.
Social Plans
Semrush’s Social plans is your all-in-one social scheduler and analytics hub.
Plan | Monthly Price | Best For |
Pro | $20/mo | Solo marketers or small businesses managing a few profiles |
Guru | $40/mo | Growing teams that need deeper analytics and collaboration |
Business | $250/mo | Agencies or large teams managing multiple brands and profiles |
Pro
- Includes: Manage 5 profiles, track 10, limited AI post generation.
- Why choose it: Covers the essentials for keeping your profiles active and tracking basic engagement without overcomplicating your workflow.
Guru
- Includes: Doubles capacity, removes post/AI caps.
- Why choose it: Adds data depth and collaboration tools so teams can manage campaigns together efficiently.
Business
- Includes: Influencer analytics and media monitoring.
- Why choose it: Built for agencies and enterprise teams that need high-capacity scheduling, flexible reporting, and multiple brand management in one place.
Advertising Plans
Semrush’s Advertising plans focus on PPC research, competitor ad tracking, and campaign optimization.
Plan | Monthly Price | Best For |
Base | $99/mo | Businesses running small to mid-sized PPC campaigns |
Pro | $220/mo | Agencies or brands managing large-scale, multi-channel ad spend |
Base
- Includes: AI ad copy (Google/Meta), keyword targeting, PLA research.
- Why choose it: Gives you the core PPC tools to identify positions and competitors and refine ad performance without paying for enterprise extras.
Pro
- Includes: Adds AdClarity insights, competitor landing page views, and advanced ad analysis.
- Why choose it: Ideal for large advertisers or agencies managing multiple accounts that need deeper insights and competitive tracking.
Add-Ons and Extras
The optional add-ons available depend on the toolkits you need:
- Additional Users: $20/month/seat for the Local, Content, AI, Social, and Advertising plans, and $45/month/seat for the SEO plan. Reach out to Semrush for pricing for the Traffic & Market plan.
- Lead Generation: $90/month across all plans
- Base Report: $10/month across all plans
- Pro Report: $20/month across all plans
Enterprise Plan
Custom pricing for massive teams that need:
- API access
- AI-powered SEO automation
- Advanced collaboration tools
- Scalable data integrations
Think “call us when you have a 12-person SEO team and need API hooks into everything.”
What’s Free With Semrush
You can do quite a bit on Semrush without paying a dime:
For SEO:
- SEO Checker
- Website Authority Checker
- AI Search Visibility Checker
- Keyword Tool
- Keyword Search Volume Checker
- Keyword Rank Checker
- Keyword Checker
- Backlink Checker
- SERP Checker
- Website Traffic Checker
- Plagiarism Checker
- Google SERP Simulator
- Sitemap Generator
- Competitor Finder
For content writing:
- AI Text Generator
- Paragraph Rewriter
- AI Title Generator Paraphrasing Tool
- Sentence Rewriter
- Proofreading Tool
- Word Counter Tool
- Summary Generator
For local SEO:
- Google Business Profile Description Generator
- Google Review LInk Generator
- Google Review Template and QR Code Generator
- SERP checker
- Backlink checker
- Website traffic checker
- Plagiarism checker
- Sitemap generator
Semrush Free Trial
If you’re on the fence about committing, Semrush gives you a decent free trial. Most toolkits let you explore the full feature set before you start paying, and that’s just enough time to see if it fits your workflow.
- 7 days for most toolkits (SEO, content, social, local, traffic/market, advertising)
- 14 days for some add-ons (e.g., reporting, lead gen)
- No trial for AI plans, but you can view a demo report
Pro tip: Activate multiple toolkit trials at once so you can really stress-test all the tools.
Semrush has generously offered our readers a double extended fully featured FREE TRIAL. Play around with the suite for 2 full weeks to see if it's what you need!
How Semrush Pricing Compares to Competitors
If you only look at entry prices, Semrush can seem expensive, but that’s not the whole story. Many of its rivals either focus on one channel (just SEO or just content) or require stacking multiple subscriptions to get the same all-in-one coverage. Here’s a quick snapshot:
Tool | Entry Price (Billed Monthly) | Notes |
$139/mo | Pro SEO plan | |
$29/mo | Starter plan for access to the Site Explorer, Keyword Explorer, and Site Audit | |
$49/mo | Starter plan; beginner-friendly SEO 1 user and 1 tracked site | |
$199/mo | Starter plan to optimize your search strategy and understand audience behavior | |
$99/mo | Essential plan with a content optimization focus | |
$12/mo | Individual plan; 1 project and 125 tracked keywords | |
$39/mo | Basic plan; competitive PPC & keyword intel | |
$69/mo | Individual plan; budget all-in-one SEO for freelancers and beginners |
Semrush vs. Ahrefs
Pricing: Starter $29/month, Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, and Enterprise $1,499/month.
Ahrefs wins for backlink depth and historical link data, making it a go-to for link builders. But it doesn’t touch PPC, social, or local SEO, areas where Semrush shines.
If you only care about links and keyword research, Ahrefs might be cheaper. For multi-channel campaigns, Semrush consolidates more tools that you may need.
Semrush vs. Moz Pro
Pricing: Starter $49/mo, Standard $99/mo, Medium $179/mo, Large $299/mo.
Moz is beginner-friendly with a cleaner learning curve and decent link metrics. However, its keyword and backlink databases are smaller, and it lacks integrated PPC/social tools. So I’d say that Semrush offers more depth for growing teams.
Semrush vs. Similarweb
Pricing: Starter $199/mo, Professional $399/month, and custom Team and Enterprise tiers.
Similarweb delivers unmatched traffic and market intelligence but minimal SEO functionality. Many agencies run Similarweb alongside an SEO tool, or they just opt for Semrush’s Traffic & Market toolkit for an all-in-one solution.
Semrush vs. SurferSEO
Pricing: Essential $99/mo, Scale $219/mo, and custom Enterprise plan.
Surfer is a content optimization powerhouse with SERP analysis. But without backlink data, site audit tools, or PPC insights, it’s a complement, not a replacement. Semrush covers content and everything else.
Semrush vs. Ubersuggest
Pricing: Individual $12/mo, Business $20/mo, and Enterprise $40/month.
Ubersuggest is ultra-budget-friendly for basic keyword research and site audits. The trade-off? Smaller databases and slower updates. Semrush’s higher cost reflects far deeper, faster data, and more integrations.
Semrush vs. SpyFu
Pricing: Basic $39/mo and Professional $79/mo.
SpyFu is great for PPC advertisers who want to track competitor ad copy and keyword targeting over time. However, it’s lighter on SEO audits and technical analysis, which is why many users pair it with a separate SEO platform. And it has functionality that Semrush already builds in.
Semrush vs. Serpstat
Pricing: Individual $69/mo, Team $129/mo, and Agency $449/mo.
Serpstat is a budget-friendly all-in-one SEO tool with a strong presence in Europe. It’s competitive for keyword research and rank tracking, but Semrush generally wins on database size, integrations, and speed.
Learn More About Semrush’s Pricing
Question: Does Semrush have a pay-as-you-go option?
Answer: No. All Semrush plans are subscription-based. You can choose monthly or annual billing (with a discount for SEO plans if billed annually), but there’s no credit-based or one-off usage model.
Question: Can I switch Semrush plans at any time?
Answer: Yes. You can upgrade, downgrade, or switch toolkits mid-subscription. Your billing will be prorated so you only pay for what you use.
Question: Are there hidden costs with Semrush?
Answer: Not exactly hidden, but add-ons can sneak up on your budget. Features like additional users, extra projects, or expanded reporting often require extra monthly fees.
Question: How many users are included in a Semrush plan?
Answer: Each plan includes one user seat. You can add extra seats for an additional monthly fee, which varies by plan type.
Question: Is Semrush worth it for small businesses?
Answer: It depends on your needs. If you’re doing SEO, content, and social in-house, it can replace multiple separate tools. But if you only need one function (like keyword research), a more focused, lower-cost tool might be better.
Semrush has generously offered our readers a double extended fully featured FREE TRIAL. Play around with the suite for 2 full weeks to see if it's what you need!
So, Is Semrush Worth It?
Semrush pricing plans can feel like a maze at first, but once you understand the base tiers, specialized toolkits, and add-ons, it’s easier to match your budget to your actual goals.
If you’re brand new to digital marketing, start with the free tools or a free 7-day trial. But if you’re running campaigns across SEO, content, and ads, Guru or Business (plus the right add-ons) is where the real value kicks in. And if you’re a large team? The Enterprise plan’s automation and API access could save you more than it costs.
Bottom line: If you want a single platform that can handle SEO, PPC, social, and competitive analysis without juggling five logins, Semrush is worth the investment.