Backlink API: 8 Backlink Checker APIs Compared by Price and Data (2026)

A backlink API returns link data as JSON instead of a dashboard: who links to a domain, with which anchor text, and how that changes over time. This page compares eight backlink APIs, from full backlink checker APIs built on their own crawl of the web to Arvow's two narrower endpoints, with what each one returns and what it costs. Every price was read on the vendor's own page on November 9, 2026.

Which backlink API to use: the short answer

• Every backlink row for any domain, paid per call: DataForSEO.
• You already pay for Ahrefs or SE Ranking: both include API access in their regular plans.
• The cheapest start: Moz has a free plan of 50 rows a month and paid plans from $20 a month.
• Large volume: Majestic's API plan includes 100 million analysis units a month, and Semrush sells units in packages of 2 million and up.
• Links to your own site only: Bing Webmaster Tools has a free API for that. Google Search Console's API has no links endpoint.
• Backlink totals inside an agent workflow, or the links your site gained through Arvow: Arvow's API.

Backlink checker APIs compared

API	Backlink data	How you get access	Stated cost
Arvow	Totals, top referring domains, and the links your project gained	From the Solo plan	3 credits per overview call
DataForSEO	Backlinks, anchors, referring domains, history, bulk	Pay as you go, $50 minimum top-up	$0.024 per request plus $0.000036 per row
Ahrefs	Backlinks and overview stats	Lite plan and above	API units, at least 50 per request
Semrush	Overview, backlinks, referring domains, history	Add-on to the Business tier	40 to 45 units per request or line
Moz	Links, linking root domains, anchor text	Free plan (50 rows a month) or paid	From $20 a month for 3,000 rows
Majestic	Full API on Majestic's link data	API plan only	€379.99 a month, 100 million analysis units
SE Ranking	New and lost links, anchors, referring domains	Every plan, or pay as you go	€45 for 250,000 credits
Bing Webmaster Tools	Inbound links to your own verified sites	Free account, verified site	Free

Ahrefs, Majestic and SE Ranking showed euro prices from our location in Europe, so they are quoted in euros. The other prices were shown in US dollars.

The eight backlink APIs

1. Arvow API: backlink overview and earned links

Arvow is first because this is our blog, and it is the narrowest API on this list: it is not a backlink index. It has two backlink endpoints. One returns backlink totals and the top referring domains for any domain and costs 3 credits a call. The other lists the links your project gained through Arvow's Automatic Backlinks, newest first, with the source article, the page that received the link, the anchor text and a cached Ahrefs Domain Rating for the source domain.

There are no per-link rows for other people's sites, no anchor report and no new and lost history. API and MCP access are listed from the Solo plan on arvow.com/pricing: $39 a month billed yearly, or $69 billed monthly, with 1,000 credits a month. Automatic Backlinks is listed from the Business plan, $69 a month billed yearly or $169 billed monthly. Pick Arvow when backlink numbers are one step in a larger job an agent is doing, such as checking a competitor's totals before writing, or reporting the links a site earned this month.

2. DataForSEO Backlinks API

DataForSEO sells backlink data with no subscription. Every Backlinks API endpoint costs $0.024 per request plus $0.000036 per row, with up to 1,000 rows per request, so its own example of one request with 1,000 rows comes to $0.06. The minimum account top-up is $50. The company says its index holds roughly 2 trillion live backlinks, with link history back to 2019. Endpoints cover a summary, backlinks, anchors, referring domains, history, domain and page intersection, and bulk versions for many targets at once.

3. Ahrefs API

Ahrefs lists "API and MCP access" on its Lite, Standard and Advanced plans and uncapped API access on Enterprise. From Europe, its pricing page showed €119, €229 and €419 a month for the three plans, with up to 17% off for paying annually. Each plan includes a monthly allowance of API units. According to the API docs, the cost of a request depends on the rows and fields you ask for, the minimum is 50 units, and the default rate limit is 60 requests a minute. Site Explorer endpoints cover backlinks and overview stats. Any paid plan can run free test queries against ahrefs.com, yep.com and firehose.com, and Ahrefs hosts an MCP server for Lite and above.

4. Semrush API

Semrush's standard API is an add-on to the Business tier of its SEO Toolkit. After upgrading you buy API units in packages of 2, 5, 10 or 20 million, and the help page gives no price for them. In the current Backlinks API docs, an overview costs 45 units per request, the backlinks report costs 45 units per line, and the referring domains report costs 40 units per line. A 1,000-row backlink list therefore uses 45,000 units.

5. Moz API

Moz prices its API by rows of data a month: a free plan with 50 rows, Starter at $20 for 3,000 rows or $75 for 15,000, and Growth at $125, $250 or $500 for 50,000, 120,000 or 500,000 rows. On the larger Starter tier, extra rows cost $5 per 1,000. Every plan includes the same calls, among them Links, Linking Root Domains, Anchor Text, Link Intersect and Link Status. Moz marks MCP access as a beta feature.

6. Majestic API

Majestic keeps its API for its top plan. On its pricing page, Lite and Pro have no API access of their own, though they can use third-party OpenApps. The API plan includes the full API with 100 million analysis units a month and showed €379.99 a month from Europe, or €316.66 a month when billed annually.

7. SE Ranking API

SE Ranking says API access is included in every plan. Its API pricing page also sells the API on its own: a 14-day trial with 100,000 credits, a pay-as-you-go Wallet at €45 for 250,000 credits that never expire, and a Standalone plan at €155 a month on annual billing. Its Backlinks API covers new and lost links, anchor texts, referring domains, authority scores and historical data. MCP access is included in every option.

8. Bing Webmaster Tools API

Bing Webmaster Tools is free, and its API works for sites you have added and verified. Two methods return link data: GetLinkCounts lists your pages that have inbound links, and GetUrlLinks returns the inbound links for one of your URLs. It tells you nothing about a competitor's site.

Does Google have a backlink API?

No. The Search Console API has four resources: search analytics, sitemaps, sites and URL inspection. None of them returns links. Google's Links report lives in the Search Console interface, so anything automated needs one of the APIs above.

How to call Arvow's backlink endpoints

The full schema is in the API reference. Every request carries your organization API key as a Bearer token. The two backlink paths start with /api/v0.1/projects/{projectId} on api.arvow.com.

1. Find your project. GET /api/v0.1/projects returns your projects and their ids.
2. Get a backlink overview. POST .../seo/domains/backlinks with a body such as {"domain": "example.com"}. Leave the domain out to use the project's own site. The response carries backlinks, referringDomains, rank and a referring list of top referring domains. Each call costs 3 credits.
3. List the links you gained. GET .../backlinks?limit=100 returns up to 100 links a page, each with url, linkedUrl, anchor, domainRank and finishedAt. Pass nextCursor as cursor for the next page.

Both endpoints are also tools on Arvow's MCP server, named seoBacklinksOverview and projectBacklinksList. ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code or Codex can then do the work from a sentence: "Compare our backlink totals with these three competitors", or "List the backlinks we gained this month with their Domain Rating". The same key reaches the rest of the API, including the AI visibility endpoints.

FAQ

What is a backlink API?

An API that returns backlink data for a domain or URL as structured data: the linking pages, their anchor text, the referring domains and authority scores. It is also called a backlinks API, a backlink checker API or a backlink data API. Tools, dashboards and AI agents call it instead of a person opening a backlink checker.

Is there a free backlink API?

Within limits, yes. Moz has a free API plan with 50 rows a month. Bing Webmaster Tools' API is free for your own verified sites. SE Ranking runs a 14-day trial with 100,000 credits, and DataForSEO offers a free account for testing in its playground.

What is the cheapest backlink checker API?

For occasional lookups, Moz's free plan or its $20 Starter tier. For per-call pricing, DataForSEO at $0.024 per request plus $0.000036 per row after a $50 top-up. If you already pay for Ahrefs or SE Ranking, the API is part of your plan.

Does Arvow have a backlink API?

Yes, two endpoints: a backlink overview for any domain at 3 credits a call, and a list of the links a project gained through Automatic Backlinks. It is not a full backlink index.