Semrush Review 2026: Prices, Plans and Where It Falls Short

Semrush is the largest SEO research suite on the market, and since the acquisition announced on its own homepage it is "an Adobe company". Its homepage, read on November 11, 2026, counts 29 billion keywords, 43 trillion backlinks, 808 million domain profiles, 142 geo databases and more than 317 million LLM prompts in its indexes. That scale is the reason agencies and in-house teams buy it, and the reason the bill grows so quickly: every job is a separate toolkit with its own price, and every colleague is an extra seat.

This Semrush review goes through what the suite actually does in 2026, what each plan costs and includes, where it beats everything else, and where it leaves the work undone. Every Semrush number below comes from Semrush's own pricing and product pages read on November 11, 2026. Prices appear in euros because that is what the pricing page shows from Portugal; Semrush shows local currency by location.

TLDR: Semrush is the best place to research keywords, competitors and backlinks, and from the Starter plan it tracks prompts in AI answers daily. It measures; it does not do the work. If what you need is articles researched, written and published, backlinks built and your brand tracked in AI answers under one price, Arvow does that from $39 a month billed yearly, and that is the comparison this review ends on.

8/10 our rating as a research suite

€112.52 a month for the SEO plan, billed annually (€134 monthly)

€43 a month and up for each extra user on the SEO plans

11 entries in the pricing page's toolkit menu, each with its own price

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At a glance

Best for	Agencies and in-house teams that need keyword, competitor, backlink and AI visibility research at scale, plus PPC and market data in the same account
Pricing	SEO €112.52, Starter €158.40, Pro+ €238 a month billed annually (€134, €190 and €286 monthly); Advanced on request; a free account with 10 reports a day
Strongest feature	The databases: 29 billion keywords and 43 trillion backlinks, and AI visibility tracking on the Starter plan and up
Biggest weakness	Nothing in the SEO plans writes, publishes or builds anything; content is a separate toolkit, users and white label reports are add-ons
Free plan	Yes, with one demo project, 10 reports a day and 10 tracked keywords; paid plans start with a trial that validates your card with a refunded charge
Our rating	8 / 10 as a research suite, 5 / 10 as a way to get SEO work done
Best alternatives	Arvow for content, backlinks and AI visibility in one plan; Ahrefs for link data; SE Ranking for a cheaper rank tracker

What Semrush actually does

The pricing page lists eleven entries in its toolkit menu: SEO + AI Search, AI Visibility, Traffic & Market, Local, Content, Social, Advertising, AI PR, Enterprise, Data Products and an App center. Each has its own pricing page, so "Semrush" is really a family of products that share one login and one data warehouse. The one most people mean is SEO + AI Search, and this review is mostly about that.

Inside SEO + AI Search, four jobs are bundled:

1. Research. Keyword research and competitor analysis on the SEO plan, "keyword research and optimization tools" and "competitors insights tools" from Starter, historical data from Pro+. This is where the 29 billion keyword database and the 808 million domain profiles are used.
2. Monitoring. Position Tracking of 500 keywords a day on the two entry plans (1,500 on Pro+, 5,000 and up on Advanced) and a Site Audit crawler, for 5, 5, 15 and 40 or more websites respectively.
3. AI visibility. From Starter up: prompts tracked daily in AI answers (50 on Starter, 100 on Pro+, unlimited on Advanced), one domain for AI brand performance, 300 AI visibility reports a day and an "AI-ready Site Audit". The SEO plan does not track AI search at all; the page marks those rows with a cross.
4. Access. MCP access from Starter, so Claude or ChatGPT can query your Semrush data ("Ask AI. Get Semrush data." is the homepage's wording), and "advanced API data integration" on Advanced only. Arvow's MCP server exposes 49 tools and its API is on every plan; the setup is on arvow.com/mcp.

Content is not in that bundle. The Content toolkit is a separate purchase at €57.54 a month billed annually, listing "data-driven content ideas", 10,000 articles a month, 5 SEO content boosts a month, AI and SEO content optimization and brand voice. Backlinks are data, not links: Semrush reports who links to whom, and its Link Building Tool manages outreach, but it does not place a link for you. That split, measure here and do the work somewhere else, is the single most important thing to understand before buying.

Pricing: what each plan costs and includes

All figures are from the SEO + AI Search pricing page as shown on November 11, 2026, in euros, per month, with the Annually toggle on; billed monthly the three listed plans are €134, €190 and €286 (the page says annual billing saves up to 17%). What each tier adds beyond the counts: SEO has basic keyword research, Position Tracking and Site Audit and no AI search tracking; Starter adds competitor insights, MCP access, one AI brand domain and 300 AI visibility reports a day; Pro+ adds historical data, content optimization, cannibalization analysis and multi-location tracking; Advanced adds share of voice, API data integration, team users and reporting.

Plan	Per month, billed annually	Websites, keywords tracked and AI prompts tracked, per day
SEO	€112.52	5 websites, 500 keywords, no AI prompts
Starter	€158.40	5 websites, 500 keywords, 50 AI prompts
Pro+	€238	15 websites, 1,500 keywords, 100 AI prompts
Advanced	Custom	40 or more websites, 5,000 or more keywords, unlimited AI prompts
Free	0	1 demo project, 10 keywords, no AI prompts

The add-ons matter as much as the tiers. From the same page: additional users from €43 a month each, a Base Report add-on at €9.59 a month (PDF export, scheduling, Google Analytics and Search Console data), a Pro Report add-on at €19.18 a month that is where "branding and white-labeling" lives, and a Lead Generation listing at €86.31 a month. The FAQ confirms you can cancel, upgrade or downgrade at any time, that a free account is limited to 10 report requests a day, one website and 10 tracked keywords, and that a paid trial starts with a nominal card charge that is refunded, with no charge until the trial ends.

Three things the table hides:

• The real agency bill is Starter plus seats. AI visibility and MCP both start at Starter. A three-person team on Starter is €158.40 plus two users at €43, so €244.40 a month billed annually, before a single article is written or a report is white-labeled.
• Content is a second subscription. The Content toolkit's Base plan is another €57.54 a month billed annually, with its own extra-user price of €19.18. A team that wants research and writing in Semrush pays for both toolkits.
• Prompt counts are per day, on one domain. 50 prompts on Starter covers one brand on one domain. Tracking a client portfolio in AI answers means Pro+ or Advanced, and the page does not say what unlimited costs.

Key features, evaluated

Keyword and competitor research

This is the product. The homepage's "stats and facts" block puts 29 billion keywords across 142 geo databases and 808 million domain profiles behind the keyword and competitor tools, and no entry plan elsewhere has access to a database of that size. The SEO plan gets the basic versions; Starter unlocks the full keyword research and optimization tools and competitor insights; Pro+ adds historical data and cannibalization analysis. For an agency that lives in keyword gap reports and competitor traffic estimates, this is the part of Semrush that nothing else in this review replaces.

Position Tracking and Site Audit

500 keywords tracked daily on the two entry plans, with mobile data on every plan, and a Site Audit crawler for 5 websites. Both are solid, and both are measurement. The audit tells you what to fix on the page; a person or another tool fixes it. Arvow's Site Optimizer, by contrast, scans a site and proposes seven kinds of change (meta titles, meta descriptions, canonical URLs, image alt text, FAQ schema, Article schema and internal links) that you apply with a click, at 2 credits per crawled page, per its help center.

AI visibility

Semrush's AI visibility tracking is a prompt-level view: prompts tracked daily, AI sentiment, AI visibility reports for any domain, an index of more than 317 million LLM prompts, and a public AI Visibility Index of brand mentions by industry. The limits are the ones in the table: it starts at Starter, it counts 50 or 100 prompts a day, and it covers one domain for brand performance on Starter. We compared it with Arvow's LLM Brand Monitor in detail in Arvow vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit and against eight other tools in AI visibility tools compared. Arvow's monitor checks your prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok every 3 days at 6 credits per prompt per run, so it is a slower cadence than daily and a far smaller index, but it is included from the Business plan and sits next to the content that changes the answers.

Content toolkit

The Content toolkit's Base plan at €57.54 a month billed annually lists topic ideas, an SEO Brief Generator, AI and SEO content optimization and brand voice, with 10,000 articles a month on the allowance. It is a writing desk, not a publishing pipeline: the page lists no connection to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or Wix and no scheduling. The older SEO Writing Assistant is covered in our SEO Writing Assistant alternatives post.

Where Semrush genuinely wins

Research at any scale. The 29 billion keyword, 43 trillion backlink and 808 million domain index is available on the SEO plan at €112.52 a month billed annually. If your work is finding gaps, sizing markets and auditing competitors, this is the tool.

Everything under one login. SEO, PPC, Traffic & Market, Local, Social and AI PR share one account and one reporting layer.

AI visibility depth. Daily prompt tracking, sentiment and a public index of who is winning AI answers across industries. For a brand that wants to know what ChatGPT says about it every morning, Semrush's index of more than 317 million prompts is second only to Ahrefs Brand Radar's 551 million among the tools we have reviewed.

Enterprise controls. Advanced and Enterprise add share of voice, team users, SSO, audit logs, custom prompt tracking and multi-million-page crawling.

Where it falls short

It measures; it does not do. No SEO plan writes an article, publishes it, builds an internal link or places a backlink. The Site Audit lists issues; the keyword tool lists opportunities; the backlink reports list other people's links. The work that moves rankings is yours, or a second tool's.

The bill stacks. Toolkits are sold separately, users are €43 a month each on the SEO plans, white label reports need the €19.18 Pro Report add-on, and the Content toolkit is its own €57.54. A small agency with three people, research, the Content toolkit and branded reports is at about €321 a month billed annually (€158.40 plus two users at €43, plus €57.54, plus €19.18) before extra Content seats.

AI visibility is gated and metered. The cheapest plan has none. Starter has 50 prompts a day on one domain, which is one client. Multi-client AI tracking lives on plans whose price the page does not state.

Content is a draft, not a page. Even on the Content toolkit the output is text in Semrush. Getting it onto a site, with images, internal links and schema, on a schedule, is the part Semrush leaves out, and the part that decides whether anything ranks.

Best Semrush alternatives

Which alternative fits depends on which of Semrush's jobs you were buying it for.

Arvow is on this list because it starts where Semrush stops. AutoBlog researches keywords, writes the article and publishes it to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix or any site through the API, with review-before-publish or auto-publish; an article costs 15 credits, so the 1,000, 3,000 and 9,000 monthly credits on Solo, Business and Ultimate are about 66, 200 and 600 articles. The Business plan adds Automatic Backlinks, placements earned inside other members' articles, and the LLM Brand Monitor across five assistants. Site Optimizer and the AI SEO editor fix the pages you already have. How the credits add up is in Arvow credits, explained.

	Semrush (SEO + AI Search)	Arvow
Entry price	€112.52 a month billed annually, €134 monthly	$39 a month billed yearly, $69 monthly
Websites	5 on SEO and Starter, 15 on Pro+	1 on Solo, 5 on Business, unlimited on Ultimate
Articles written and published	Not in the SEO plans; drafts in the separate Content toolkit (€57.54 a month)	Included: about 66, 200 or 600 a month at 15 credits each, published to your CMS
Backlinks	Data on existing links	Automatic Backlinks placed in other members' articles, from Business
AI visibility	From Starter: 50 prompts a day on 1 domain, daily	From Business: five assistants, every 3 days, 6 credits per prompt per run
On-page fixes	Site Audit lists them	Site Optimizer proposes seven kinds of change, applied on click
Extra users	From €43 a month each	Sub-accounts unlimited on Ultimate
White label reports	Pro Report add-on, €19.18 a month	Included on Ultimate
MCP and API	MCP from Starter; API data integration on Advanced	MCP (49 tools) and API on every plan
Free plan	Yes, 10 reports a day	No; a card is required and plans can be cancelled anytime

Who should buy Semrush?

Your situation	Verdict
Agency selling research, audits and PPC to many clients	Pro+ or Advanced. The databases and the shared toolkits are the point.
In-house team that needs daily AI answer tracking on one brand	Starter. 50 prompts a day and sentiment on your own domain.
Freelancer who needs keyword data and a rank tracker	SEO plan, or the free account while you test it.
Small business or agency that needs articles published every week	Skip. No Semrush plan publishes. Arvow's Solo or Business does, at a lower price.
Anyone who needs links built, not listed	Skip. Semrush reports links; Arvow's Business plan places them.
Team of three that wants research, writing and branded reports	Model the bill first. Starter plus two seats plus the Content toolkit plus the Pro Report add-on is about €321 a month billed annually; compare with Arvow Business at $69 a month billed yearly.

Verdict

8 / 10 as a research suite. 5 / 10 as a way to get SEO work done.

Semrush earns its reputation. The keyword, competitor and backlink databases are the largest you can buy at the entry price, the AI visibility toolkit tracks prompts daily with sentiment on an index of more than 317 million prompts, and Advanced scales to accounts nobody else can hold. If your job is to know, Semrush is the better choice; our Semrush vs Surfer comparison covers the content side of that choice.

If your job is to rank, the review ends differently. Everything Semrush finds still has to be written, published, linked and fixed by someone, and every one of those steps is either a second toolkit, a seat or a second vendor. Arvow is the better choice for a business or an agency that wants the work done: articles researched, written and published to the site, backlinks placed, on-page fixes applied, and AI answers tracked, in one plan from $39 a month billed yearly, with MCP and API access on every tier. Keep a Semrush free account for the occasional deep research pull; put the budget into the tool that ships the pages.

FAQ

Is Semrush worth it in 2026?

For research, yes: no comparable database is sold at €112.52 a month billed annually. For getting content and links produced, no plan does that, so the money is better spent on a tool that publishes, with the free Semrush account kept for research.

How much does Semrush cost?

On November 11, 2026 the SEO + AI Search page showed SEO at €112.52, Starter at €158.40 and Pro+ at €238 a month billed annually, or €134, €190 and €286 billed monthly, with Advanced on request. Extra users are from €43 a month, and the Content toolkit is a separate €57.54 a month billed annually. Prices are shown in your local currency.

Does Semrush have a free plan?

Yes. The pricing page lists a free account with one demo project, 10 reports a day and 10 tracked keywords, and no card required. Paid plans start with a trial in which a nominal card charge is made and refunded.

Does Semrush write and publish articles?

The SEO plans do not. The separate Content toolkit generates and optimizes drafts inside Semrush; the page does not list publishing to a CMS. Arvow writes and publishes to WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix or any site through its API, with review before publishing if you want it.

Semrush or Arvow?

Semrush to research and measure, Arvow to produce and publish. A team that needs both can run Arvow for content, backlinks and brand monitoring and keep a Semrush free account for deep keyword and competitor data.