Is cheap SEO data worse data?

No. Authority metrics are fetched from the Ahrefs API; traffic estimates come from third-party Similarweb-style datasets. Every field names its provider and fetch date, so you can audit exactly what you received. What's cheaper is the packaging, not the sources.

The affordable SEO API

Q: What does a credit cost?

On the Starter plan, $20 buys 20,000 credits — $0.001 per credit, where one credit is one billed provider call. A domain lookup spends 1 to 4 credits depending on the field groups requested. Requests answered from cache cost 0 credits. The free tier includes 100 credits every month.

Q: What are the rate limits?

30 requests/minute on Free, 120 on Starter, 300 on Growth, 600 on Scale — with cache hits charged at a tenth of the weight, so cached traffic is effectively unthrottled.

Q: How do upgrades work?

Start free, then email support@seometricsapi.com to move plans or add a prepaid credit pack; changes are activated the same day. Monthly plans cancel any time and lapse back to Free.

The checklist

What a complete SEO API needs

An authority score — Domain Rating (0–100) + Ahrefs Rank, via the Ahrefs API
Two traffic estimates — Similarweb-style total visits and Ahrefs organic, cross-checkable in one response
Audience context — engagement, channel mix, top countries, popularity ranks

Keyword numbers — volume, difficulty, CPC with currency
SERP & index checks — positions per query, presence in Google
Provenance — provider + fetch date on every field, null never faked as zero

We serve all six. One key, one envelope, one documented contract.

	SEO Metrics API	Similarweb	Ahrefs	Semrush
Entry price	$0 · paid from $5/mo	$149/mo	$129/mo	$139.95/mo
API included at entry	Yes — every tier	No — separate sales process	No — higher tiers	No — Business ($449.95/mo)
Authority + traffic + keywords in one call/key	Yes	Traffic focus	Authority/organic focus	Broad, but unit-metered

Published entry list prices as of August 2026; check each vendor's site for current figures. Each of those platforms does far more than serve metrics — this comparison is strictly about getting numbers by API.

The per-credit math

Starter is $20 for 20,000 credits — $0.001 per credit, where a credit is one call we pay a data provider for. A domain lookup spends one credit per field group it fetches fresh (1 for fields=rating, 4 for the default scope), so a full profile costs about four tenths of a cent. Anything answered from cache costs nothing at all, and popular domains are usually cached, so real-world cost per lookup lands below the list rate. Growth works out to ~$0.00084 and Scale to ~$0.00086 per credit, with the bigger plans buying rate (300–600 requests a minute) as much as volume. There is no overage billing to be surprised by: an exhausted quota answers 429 quota_exceeded until you upgrade or the month resets.

$ curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  "https://seometricsapi.com/v1/domains/shopify.com?fields=rating,traffic,countries"

{
  "data": {
    "domain": "shopify.com",
    "domain_rating": 96,
    "monthly_visits": 68900000,
    "organic_monthly_visits": 31200000,
    "top_countries": [ { "country_code": "US", "share": 0.34 } ],
    "sources": { "domain_rating": { "provider": "ahrefs", "status": "ok" } }
  },
  "meta": { "cache": "hit", "cost_units": 0 },
  "error": null
}

Plans

Pick a volume, keep every feature

Free $0 — 100 credits/mo · Basic $5 — 4,000 · Starter $20 — 20,000 · Growth $80 — 95,000 · Scale $180 — 210,000. Prefer no subscription? Prepaid packs: $10 → 5,000 · $40 → 25,000 · $120 → 100,000 credits, valid 12 months.

Full pricing

FAQ

The affordability questions

What does a credit cost?

From $0.001 (Starter) per credit — one credit being one billed provider call. A domain lookup spends 1 to 4 of them depending on the field groups you request; cache hits are free, and the first 100 credits every month are free on any account.

Is cheap data worse data?

The sources are the point: authority metrics come from the Ahrefs API, traffic from third-party Similarweb-style datasets — and every field says which, with a fetch date. What's cheaper is the packaging: no dashboard you don't use, no seat you don't need, shared caching instead of everyone paying for the same fetch.

What are the rate limits?

30/120/300/600 requests per minute by plan, with cache hits charged at a tenth of the weight. Limits travel in X-RateLimit-* headers. Details in the docs.

How do upgrades work?

Start free, email support to change plans or add a pack — activated same day, cancel any time, lapse back to Free.

Run the numbers on us

100 free credits a month says more than this page can.

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SEO Metrics API is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Ahrefs, Similarweb or Semrush. Authority and organic-traffic metrics are retrieved from the Ahrefs API under our own subscription; visit estimates come from third-party Similarweb-style datasets. All traffic figures are estimates, not analytics.