Skip the install. Get this working in under 2 minutes.
Start a free trial on cloud.anythingmcp.com, add the Ahrefs in one click, then point your AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or Cursor) at the generated MCP endpoint. No Docker, no git clone, zero engineering experience required.
AnythingMCP is listed in Claude's connector directory: add it to Claude in one click (opens in a new tab), then sign in and choose which MCP servers Claude may use.
Summary
Give your AI Ahrefs SEO data: Domain Rating, backlinks, referring domains, organic keywords, top pages, competitors, keyword volume, difficulty and ideas, SERP overview and batch comparisons, with the API unit cost of each request.
Try asking
Example prompts for Ahrefs
Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.
Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Ahrefs, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
Ahrefs + Claude
Give your AI Ahrefs SEO data: Domain Rating, backlinks, referring domains, organic keywords, top pages, competitors, keyword volume, difficulty and ideas, SERP overview and batch comparisons, with the API unit cost of each request.
Prerequisites
See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:
AHREFS_API_KEY
Step 1 — Get credentials
- API access comes with eligible paid Ahrefs plans, each with a monthly API unit allowance (see
https://ahrefs.com/pricing); other plans can only run the free test queries. Only workspace owners and admins can create keys. - Open Account settings → API keys (
https://app.ahrefs.com/account/api-keys), create a key and consider giving it a monthly unit limit. - Paste it into
AHREFS_API_KEYand install the connector. The key is stored encrypted and sent as a Bearer token only to api.ahrefs.com. - Start with
ahrefs_get_limits_and_usage: it is free and shows your plan, the API units used and allowed this month, and the reset date.
Paid from your own Ahrefs API units: every request spends API units from your Ahrefs workspace. A request costs at least 50 units; above that, it is the unit cost of every column it asks for (1 unit by default, 5 or 10 for metrics such as traffic, volume, difficulty and referring domains) times the rows returned. With their default columns, backlinks cost 8 units per row, referring domains 6, anchors 10, organic keywords 34, top pages 24, keyword metrics 33 per keyword and a SERP overview 25 per position. Requests start at 10 rows, and the AI asks only for the columns the answer needs. Requests Ahrefs serves from its cache are free.
Free test queries: Site Explorer requests on ahrefs.com, yep.com or firehose.com and Keywords Explorer or SERP Overview requests for the keywords ahrefs, yep or firehose alone cost nothing (up to 100 rows). Use them to try a tool before you spend units.
What it does: Site Explorer (Domain Rating and Ahrefs Rank, backlink totals, organic and paid search metrics, traffic and Domain Rating history, backlinks, referring domains, anchor texts, organic keywords, top pages and organic competitors), Keywords Explorer (volume, Keyword Difficulty, CPC, traffic potential and parent topic, matching terms and questions, related terms, monthly volume history), the SERP Overview Ahrefs recorded for a keyword, and Batch Analysis of up to 100 domains or URLs in one call. Every tool only reads; Batch Analysis uses POST but changes nothing.
Parameters: most Site Explorer tools need a date (today's date for current data). country is a lower-case two-letter code. mode sets the scope of the target: subdomains (the default), domain, prefix or exact. CPC and traffic value come in USD cents.
Common errors: 401: the API key is wrong, expired or was deleted; create a new one under Account settings → API keys. 403: the plan has no API access, the key or workspace has used its unit limit, or the request is outside the plan (for example more rows than the plan allows per request). 400: a parameter is invalid, and the reason names it. 429: more than 60 requests a minute; wait and retry.
The connector does not cover Rank Tracker, Site Audit, Brand Radar, Web Analytics, GSC Insights, Social Media, Content Helper or the management endpoints (projects, keyword lists).
Step 2 — Install the adapter
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Step 3 — Add the connector in Claude
Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (
https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide showsYOUR_SERVER_ID.
Recommended path: works on claude.ai web without editing any config file.
- In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
- Click +, then Add custom connector.
- Enter a name, e.g.
Ahrefs, and the remote MCP server URLhttps://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID, then click Add. - Click Connect and sign in to AnythingMCP (OAuth) to allow access.
All tools below appear in your chat: start typing prompts.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
ahrefs_get_limits_and_usage | Show the Ahrefs plan, the API units used and allowed this month for the key and the workspace, the reset date and the key's expiry |
ahrefs_domain_rating | Domain Rating (0 to 100, strength of the backlink profile) and Ahrefs Rank of a domain on a date |
ahrefs_backlinks_stats | Backlink totals of a domain or URL on a date: live and all-time backlinks and referring domains |
ahrefs_site_metrics | Organic and paid search metrics of a domain or URL on a date: organic keywords (all and top 3), organic traffic and its value, paid… |
ahrefs_metrics_history | History of a domain's organic (and optionally paid) traffic and traffic value, grouped by month, week or day |
ahrefs_domain_rating_history | History of a domain's Domain Rating, grouped by month, week or day |
ahrefs_backlinks | Backlinks of a domain or URL: linking page, target, anchor, Domain Rating of the source, dofollow, first and last seen |
ahrefs_referring_domains | Domains linking to a domain or URL: Domain Rating, links to the target, dofollow links, first and last seen |
ahrefs_anchors | Anchor texts of the links to a domain or URL with referring domains and link counts |
ahrefs_organic_keywords | Keywords a domain or URL ranks for in Google on a date: best position and ranking URL, volume, traffic, difficulty, CPC |
ahrefs_top_pages | Pages of a domain that bring the most organic traffic on a date, with traffic value, keyword count and top keyword |
ahrefs_organic_competitors | Domains competing with a target in organic search in one country: common keywords, their keywords, share and traffic |
ahrefs_keywords_overview | Metrics of one or more keywords in a country: search volume, Keyword Difficulty, CPC, traffic potential and parent topic |
ahrefs_matching_terms | Keyword ideas that contain the words of the seed keywords (or questions with terms=questions), with volume, difficulty, CPC and traffic… |
ahrefs_related_terms | Related keywords: terms the top-ranking pages also rank for or also mention, with volume, difficulty, CPC and traffic potential |
ahrefs_volume_history | Monthly search volume history of one keyword in a country |
ahrefs_serp_overview | The Google results page Ahrefs recorded for a keyword in a country: position, URL, title, type, Domain Rating, URL Rating, backlinks… |
ahrefs_batch_analysis | Compare up to 100 domains or URLs in one call: Domain Rating, backlinks, referring domains, organic keywords and traffic for each |
Example prompts
- "What are the Domain Rating, live referring domains and organic traffic of example.com today?"
- "List the 20 dofollow referring domains of competitor.com with the highest Domain Rating, and the anchor texts its links use most."
- "Find the organic competitors of example.com in Germany and the pages that bring them the most traffic."
- "Give me keyword ideas for 'running shoes' in the US with a volume above 1,000 and a difficulty below 30, with their traffic potential."
- "How many Ahrefs API units have we used this month, and when does the allowance reset?"
FAQ
Does it work with Claude Code as well as Claude Desktop? Yes, point both at https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID.
Next steps
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