Connect Ahrefs to Microsoft Copilot via MCP

💡 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 + Microsoft Copilot

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

1. 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.
2. Open Account settings → API keys (https://app.ahrefs.com/account/api-keys), create a key and consider giving it a monthly unit limit.
3. Paste it into AHREFS_API_KEY and install the connector. The key is stored encrypted and sent as a Bearer token only to api.ahrefs.com.
4. 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 Microsoft Copilot

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 shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Microsoft Copilot uses MCP servers through agents built in Copilot Studio: you add AnythingMCP to an agent as a tool, then publish the agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud over Streamable HTTP, which AnythingMCP supports.

1. In Copilot Studio, open your agent (or create one), go to Tools and choose Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol.
2. Enter a Server name (for example AnythingMCP), a Server description that says what the connector does, and the Server URL https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID. Copilot Studio uses the description to decide when to call the server.
3. Under authentication, choose API key, set Type to Header and the header name to X-API-Key, then select Create.
4. In Add tool, choose Create a new connection, paste an MCP API key from AnythingMCP (MCP Servers → your server → API keys) and select Add to agent.
5. Try it in the agent's Test pane: ask for something that needs the Ahrefs tools.
6. Select Publish, then Channels → Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, keep Make agent available in Microsoft Copilot selected and choose Add channel. See agent in Teams installs it for you; in Microsoft 365 Copilot, type @ and pick the agent.

Prefer per-user sign-in? Choose OAuth 2.0 → Dynamic discovery instead of an API key: each user then signs in to AnythingMCP the first time the agent calls it.

Self-hosting? Use your instance's public HTTPS address instead of https://cloud.anythingmcp.com. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud, so localhost does not work.

Available tools

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

Which Copilot is this for? Microsoft 365 Copilot at work, through agents built in Copilot Studio. The Microsoft Copilot app for personal accounts has no option to add your own MCP server.

What do I need? A work account with access to Copilot Studio (a license or a trial) to build the agent. People who use it in Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams need access to the agent: share it with them, or ask an admin to publish it to the organization. If your organization applies data policies to Power Platform connectors, they cover MCP servers too.

The agent doesn't call the tools. Check that the header name is exactly X-API-Key and that the key belongs to the same MCP server as the URL, and make the server description specific: Copilot Studio uses it to decide when to call the server. Publish the agent again after each change; in an open chat, type "start over" to get the new version.

Next steps

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