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I won’t keep you guessing for too long. Let’s just say these free Semrush tools are definitely worth bookmarking. But they share one flaw, because each tool answers a single question once. I call that output Snapshot Data. It shows today’s numbers without any history, so last Tuesday stays invisible.
Adobe acquired Semrush on April 28, 2026, for roughly $1.9 billion. I covered the acquisition in a previous article. But that is really just a side note, and this article isn’t actually about that at all. What’s even more interesting, though, is that Semrush also offers a range of free digital marketing tools. And three of the 16 SEO tools on the Semrush free tools hub measure AI search, not Google rankings. So the free tier doubles as a preview of Semrush’s direction.
I wrote this guide to cover every one of the free Semrush tools and the limits that bite. Then it prices the paid plans. Every limit below comes from Semrush’s own pages, checked on October 2, 2026.
What Are the Free Semrush Tools, and Do They Really Cost Nothing?
Nineteen standalone checkers and generators make up the free Semrush tools on one hub page. Semrush splits them into 16 SEO and AI visibility tools plus 3 local SEO tools. The hub headline says you don’t need to sign up, but reality is messier.
That promise holds for most tools. It breaks on the AI Overviews Visibility Checker. For a visitor without an account, the main button opens a signup flow instead of a result. The tool costs nothing, yet it still sits behind a form.
How Does a Gate Rating Sort the Free Tools?
A Gate Rating measures the friction between you and a result. So I use four levels.
- Open tools run without an account and advertise no cap. The Sitemap Generator claims unlimited uses.
- Metered tools run without an account but count your runs. The AI Visibility Checker allows three per day.
- Linked tools send you into the main Semrush app, where free account limits apply.
- Gated tools need an account before they show anything.
However, a free account isn’t a loophole. Semrush’s pricing page lists it at one demo project and 10 reports per day. I call that the 10-Report Ceiling.
How Do the Free Semrush Tools for AI Search Visibility Work?
Three AI tools sit on the hub. They overlap a little, but they answer different questions. One counts mentions and one counts visits. The third watches Google’s AI Overviews.
AI Search Visibility Checker
Enter a domain and the AI Search Visibility Checker returns an AI Visibility Score from 0 to 100. The report also lists mentions, citations, audience reach, and a competitor comparison.
It covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Semrush says its database holds more than 26 million prompts and responses. The data also updates daily and spans more than 220 countries and regions.
The best field is Top Cited Pages. It names the URLs that AI platforms already trust enough to link. Study those first, because they show what AI systems actually quote.
Three runs per day is the cap, but you need no registration. The only input is a domain, so you can’t add your own prompts. Prompt tracking starts at 50 per day on the Starter plan.
Semrush even carries an FAQ entry on why your own ChatGPT tests return different answers. Take that seriously. AI answers vary from run to run, so one reading proves little.
AI Traffic Checker
The AI Traffic Checker estimates monthly visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode, and AI Overviews to any website. It also shows top pages, platform share, and trends.
Semrush models those numbers from aggregated browsing data plus partner and public sources. It calls the results directional rather than exact. Still, I agree with that label.
However, one detail deserves attention. Semrush counts only direct clicks from an AI platform. A reader who meets your brand in ChatGPT and later types your URL lands in direct traffic.
So treat the number as a floor. Its real job is ranking platforms against each other and spotting your most visited AI pages. Paid access adds full historical AI traffic trends and the prompts behind each click.
AI Overviews Visibility Checker
This tool reports a visibility score out of 100 across tested queries. It also lists mentions, cited pages, the exact AI Overview text, and queries where competitors appear without you.
That last field, labeled Opportunities, is the useful one, because it hands you a to-do list of queries to answer.
The catch is access. Because the AI Search Visibility Checker already includes AI Overviews, I’d start there and skip the signup. I’d also call this the least free of the free tools.
Which Free Semrush Tools Cover Keyword Research and Rankings?
Keyword Tool, Keyword Checker, and Search Volume Checker
Three free Semrush tools handle keyword basics. Behind the Keyword Tool sits Keyword Magic, which explores long-tail variations and questions. The Keyword Checker opens Keyword Overview instead, which adds difficulty and CPC. Meanwhile, the Search Volume Checker returns how often people search a term on Google.
Use the volume checker as a yes-or-no filter. Instead, save your reports for Keyword Magic, where one seed term opens the longest list. Each report you run in the app counts toward the 10-Report Ceiling.
Keyword Rank Checker
Give the Keyword Rank Checker a keyword and a URL, then pick a location. It returns your Google position, your ranking page, and the top 10 results. Volume, difficulty, CPC, and SERP features like AI Overviews and People Also Ask come along.
It runs on Semrush’s Position Tracking engine. For each ranking page, you also get Authority Score, backlinks, estimated traffic, and keyword counts. The report adds your site’s top traffic keywords, with positions and traffic share. That makes it a quick way to find terms stuck on page two.
Still, its limit is time. You get one keyword at one moment. A manual rank check is a diary entry, while a tracker is a seismograph.
SERP Checker
The SERP Checker shows Google’s top 10 for any keyword in any location, with unpersonalized results. Each result carries Authority Score, referring domains, backlinks, traffic, and ranking keywords.
Semrush says it crawls Google daily across a database of 26 billion keywords. The sleeper feature is the 30-day SERP volatility chart. A calm chart suggests your drop is local to you, but a jumpy one points to broader churn.
However, the limit is depth. You see the top 10 and a 30-day volatility line, and nothing else.
What Can Semrush’s Free Checkers Reveal About Authority and Competitors?
Website Authority Checker
The Website Authority Checker is the best of the free Semrush tools. I’d defend that ranking against any other tool on the hub.
Type any domain and you get an Authority Score from 1 to 100. The report adds backlinks, referring domains, estimated organic traffic, and 12 months of link growth. It also lists top pages by backlinks and top competitors.
Semrush builds the score from eight weighted signals. One covers link power, and one covers organic traffic. The other six hunt for spam, such as zero Google top-100 rankings or more than 90% dofollow referring domains. Semrush also refreshes scores every two weeks. That design punishes bought links, so a link farm with no traffic scores low. Semrush calls that combination harder to game. Meanwhile, it says Ahrefs’ Domain Rating ignores traffic and spam signals.
Use it to vet outreach targets before you pitch. Compare a prospect’s score with your own, because links from higher-scoring sites help most.
Authority Score isn’t a Google metric, and Semrush says so. The input box also takes one domain at a time, so 200 prospects mean 200 manual runs.
Backlink Checker
The Backlink Checker finds the top backlinks that point to any site and rates link quality. Its hub link sends you into the main Backlink Analytics app, where free account limits apply.
However, you see top links, not the full profile. Semrush Backlinks, the paid product, adds every backlink, competitor link gaps, monthly link gains, and a Backlink Audit tool.
Competitor Finder
The Competitor Finder lists your top 10 organic competitors for a location, ranked by competition level. For each one, you see competition level, common keywords in Google’s top 20, total keywords, and monthly organic traffic. A positioning map plots visibility as circle size.
Expect surprises. Organic competitors aren’t business competitors. For example, Semrush’s own illustration has a gym competing with fitness apps and equipment stores. So your rival list may well include a magazine.
The tool names rivals but not their winning pages. That detail lives in Organic Research, a full Semrush report.
Website Traffic Checker
Semrush’s Website Traffic Checker shows where a site’s visitors come from and which pages drive growth. It opens in the main app. Treat every figure as an estimate, because no outside tool sees a site’s private analytics.
Can the Hub Fix Technical SEO and Content Problems?
Four free Semrush tools touch technical and content work. Two of them build or audit your site, and two polish what you publish.
SEO Checker
The SEO Checker opens Semrush’s Site Audit and reports your site’s SEO health and improvement opportunities. Semrush’s blog has cited a free crawl cap of 100 URLs per month. Check the current limit in your account.
A hundred URLs covers a small blog, but a store needs far more. The Starter plan also adds an AI-ready Site Audit.
Sitemap Generator
The Sitemap Generator crawls your site and builds a downloadable XML sitemap. Semrush advertises unlimited uses. You upload the file to your root directory and add a Sitemap line to robots.txt. Then you submit it in Google Search Console.
WordPress users can skip it. Core WordPress has generated wp-sitemap.xml since version 5.5, and most SEO plugins write their own.
For static sites and hand-built pages, though, this is the cleanest free option on the hub. It asks for nothing but a URL.
Plagiarism Checker
The Plagiarism Checker is the weakest tool on the hub. It accepts 20 to 800 words and allows three checks per month, according to the counter on the page.
An 800-word ceiling covers one section of a long article. Editors who publish 2,000-word pieces must split the text, and three checks run out fast.
Semrush points longer drafts to its SEO Writing Assistant, which includes an originality check. The free tool also reports readability and reading time.
Google SERP Simulator
The Google SERP Simulator previews how your title and meta description will look in Google results before you publish. Use it to catch truncation. Google sometimes rewrites both, so a preview is a rehearsal, not a promise.
Do the Free Semrush Local SEO Tools Help Small Businesses?
Local businesses get three free Semrush tools of their own. The Google Business Profile Description Generator drafts your listing text. Meanwhile, the Google Review Link Generator builds a direct link to your review form. Finally, the Review Template and QR Code Generator pairs request templates with a scannable code.
The local free Semrush tools create assets, not results. Google caps a Business Profile description at 750 characters, so edit the draft to fit. Incentivized reviews break Google’s rules too, so send the same link to every customer.
Nothing here monitors your reviews or tracks your local rankings. Semrush lists Local under its own pricing tab for that job.
Free Semrush Tools at a Glance
This table sums up all the free Semrush tools and the main limit of each.
| Tool | What you get | Main limit |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Checker | Site health and opportunities | Small free crawl, no monitoring |
| Website Authority Checker | Authority Score, backlinks, traffic | One domain per run |
| AI Search Visibility Checker | Score, mentions, top cited pages | Three runs per day |
| AI Overviews Visibility Checker | AI Overviews score, query gaps | Sends visitors to signup |
| AI Traffic Checker | Estimated visits from AI platforms | Directional estimates |
| Keyword Tool | Keyword Magic ideas | Counts toward 10 daily reports |
| Keyword Search Volume Checker | Monthly Google search volume | One metric only |
| Keyword Rank Checker | Position, top 10, SERP features | One keyword at a time |
| Keyword Checker | Keyword Overview metrics | Counts toward 10 daily reports |
| Backlink Checker | Top backlinks, link quality | Top links, not the full profile |
| Website Traffic Checker | Traffic sources, top pages | Estimates only |
| SERP Checker | Top 10, features, 30-day volatility | No ranking history |
| Plagiarism Checker | Similarity scan, readability | 800 words, three checks monthly |
| Google SERP Simulator | Title and description preview | Google may rewrite snippets |
| Sitemap Generator | Downloadable XML sitemap | Static file, no updates |
| Competitor Finder | Top 10 organic competitors | No page-level detail |
| Google Business Profile Description Generator | Listing text draft | Draft only |
| Google Review Link Generator | Direct review link | No review monitoring |
| Review Template and QR Code Generator | Request templates, QR code | No review monitoring |
Where Do the Free Semrush Tools Fall Short?
Every limit above traces back to one cause. Snapshot Data answers what’s true today, while Stream Data answers what changed and why. Think of Stream Data as a stored series of snapshots that alerts you when numbers move.
My thesis is simple. The free Semrush tools serve decisions you make once, and paid tools serve decisions you revisit weekly.
For example, take the AI Visibility Checker. You can run it three times a day. Starter tracks 50 prompts every day. That gap is the whole business model, and it’s a fair one.
Estimates also carry error. Authority Score isn’t a Google metric, and AI answers vary between runs. None of that makes the tools useless. It means you should log results with dates and compare trends, not single readings.
The 10-Report Ceiling disappears quickly. So run six keyword lookups and four domain checks, and your day ends.
What Does a Paid Semrush Subscription Add to the Free Tools?
A subscription buys memory, and the free Semrush tools have none.
| Plan | Monthly price | Annual billing, per month | Websites | Keywords tracked daily | AI prompts tracked daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | $139 | $117.33 | 5 | 500 | Not listed |
| Starter | $199 | $165.17 | 5 | 500 | 50 |
| Pro+ | $299 | $248.17 | 15 | 1,500 | 100 |
| Advanced | $549 | $455.67 | 40 | 5,000 | 200 |
The $139 SEO plan buys your first stream. It tracks 500 keywords daily across five websites, which the free Keyword Rank Checker can’t do.
Starter, at $199 a month, adds AI visibility. You track 50 prompts daily for one domain and get 300 AI visibility reports per day. MCP access and an AI-ready Site Audit come with it.
Pro+ costs $299 and adds historical SEO data, content optimization, keyword cannibalization analysis, and multi-location tracking. It also raises limits to 15 websites and 1,500 keywords. Anyone working across several markets should pick Pro+, because device and location tracking appears there first.
Advanced, at $549, brings SEO share of voice and API data integration. Enterprise buyers talk to sales.
Annual billing saves up to 17%, according to the pricing page. Extra users start at $45 a month. Base Reports cost $10 a month, and Pro Reports with white-labeling cost $20. Semrush also advertises a seven-day free trial.
Solo writers and small shops should start with the SEO plan or Starter. Pick Starter if AI visibility is your reason to pay.
No public guarantee says today’s plans will stay as listed. Adobe now owns the platform, so I wouldn’t assume prices stay put.
How Do You Run a Rank-Mention-Click Audit With Free Semrush Tools?
A Rank-Mention-Click audit compares where you rank, whether AI names you, and whether AI sends visitors. The free Semrush tools cover all three lenses inside their daily meters.
- First, run the Keyword Rank Checker with your best keyword and URL. Note your position.
- Next, run the SERP Checker on the same keyword. Check the volatility chart and whether AI Overviews appear.
- Then run the AI Search Visibility Checker on your domain. Record the score and the top cited pages.
- After that, run the AI Traffic Checker on your domain. Record estimated AI visits and the leading platform.
- Run the Competitor Finder, then repeat steps three and four on your closest rival.
- Finally, log every number in a spreadsheet with the date. Repeat monthly.
That spreadsheet is homemade Stream Data. It’s clumsy, but it works.
Read the results through the Citation Gap. A Citation Gap is a page that ranks well in Google yet earns no AI mentions.
- High rank and low mentions signals a Citation Gap. Google likes the page, but AI systems skip it.
- Low rank and high mentions means AI trusts a page Google buries. Protect it, then build its links.
- High mentions and low clicks means AI answers satisfy readers without a visit. Instead, offer something the answer can’t.
- Low scores everywhere call for keyword basics first.
What Will Happen to the Free Semrush Tools Under Adobe?
Adobe completed the Semrush acquisition on April 28, 2026. Its data, cited at closing, showed AI traffic to US retail sites up 269% year over year in March 2026. The company also promised continued investment in Semrush’s roadmap. My predictions for the hub follow.
- By the end of 2027, most of the 16 SEO tools will lead with an AI search metric.
- By mid-2027, the AI Overviews Visibility Checker will either open without signup or merge into the AI Search Visibility Checker.
- Daily caps on AI tools will stay near today’s three runs, because AI checks likely cost more than keyword lookups.
- Free pages will also push more enterprise forms. The AI Visibility Checker already links to one.
FAQ About Free Semrush Tools
Is Semrush free to use?
Partly. Semrush offers a free account with one demo project and 10 reports per day. It also runs a seven-day trial of paid plans. The hub adds 19 standalone free Semrush tools.
Do these free Semrush tools need an account?
Most don’t. The AI Overviews Visibility Checker sends visitors into a signup flow. Several others link into the main app, where free account limits apply.
Is Authority Score the same as Domain Authority?
No. Authority Score is Semrush’s 1 to 100 metric. Moz owns Domain Authority, and Ahrefs owns Domain Rating. Each uses a different formula, so numbers differ across tools.
How much do paid Semrush plans cost in 2026?
Monthly prices on the pricing page are $139 for SEO, $199 for Starter, $299 for Pro+, and $549 for Advanced. Annual billing saves up to 17%.
How long is the Semrush free trial?
Semrush advertises seven days and says you can cancel anytime. Read the billing FAQ on the pricing page before you enter a card.
How many times can you use the free AI visibility checker?
Three times per day, without registering or creating an account. One report covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
Check out WE AND THE COLOR’s AI and Technology categories for more business news.
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