Semrush Buyer's Checklist: 48 Questions Before You Subscribe

Why Semrush needs a checklist at all

Semrush is easy to buy and hard to unwind. It is sold in layers, from a base plan to toolkits, seats and report fees, and each layer has its own renewal and refund rules. This checklist walks through the decisions to make before you enter a card. Everything here comes from Semrush's pricing pages, help center and legal pages as we read them on October 12, 2026, and the arithmetic is ours. Read the refund and cancellation sections even if you skip the rest.

Start on the free plan and prove you need more

The free plan gives you 10 queries a day, a 100-page Site Audit and 10 tracked keywords, and it needs no card. A blogger checking one site a week can live on that. If you reach the daily limit in one session, which Semrush says most active users do, you need a paid plan. Nothing is lost when you move up, because projects created on Free are kept after an upgrade. The catch is reports: free accounts see 10 rows in the interface and can export none.

Two more free checks are worth running first. SEOquake, Semrush's free extension for Chrome, Firefox and Opera, shows SEO data on any page or results list. Site Audit, on every plan including Free, checks whether your site blocks AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, and the free version covers 100 pages. If those answer your questions, keep your money. Our guide to whether Semrush is free goes deeper on what the free tier does.

Size the plan by sites, keywords and AI prompts

The paid SEO plans differ mainly in three limits, and those three numbers decide which tier you need before any feature does ^[1]:

Sites come first

Count every client site and every test property, because each site is a project holding its Site Audit, Position Tracking and other monitoring campaigns. A freelancer with seven clients is already over the Starter limit. Count them now. And mind the cleanup: deleting a project deletes all of its campaigns, and that data cannot be restored.

Then keywords and their variants

Three sites at 200 keywords each need Pro+, by our arithmetic. Each location or device you track can count again, so plan for variants before you settle on a number. Position Tracking updates within 24 to 48 hours and cannot be scheduled manually. It covers Google, Bing, Baidu, ChatGPT Search and Google AI Mode; tracking on AI platforms needs Semrush One or the AI Visibility Toolkit, while Google and AI Overviews tracking works on any plan.

Then AI visibility

AI visibility is the newest line on the bill. The SEO plan shows AI visibility reports but has no prompt tracking, so Starter is the first SEO tier that tracks prompts. AI Visibility bought on its own is US$99 a month per domain, billed annually. Semrush says its prompt data is captured from real requests, not through the AI companies' APIs, and Brand Performance reports update weekly.

• How many sites, test properties included?
• How many keywords, multiplied by every location and device?
• Do you need prompts tracked, or only the reports?

Add only the toolkits and extras you will open weekly

Toolkits are where the bill creeps. List the ones you want before buying: Local, Content, Social, Advertising, AI PR and Traffic & Market ^[2]. Each is a separate charge, and none is included in Semrush One. You can add or remove them at any time, but each is a standalone subscription for refund purposes, so adding one is not an add-on that the 7-day guarantee covers. A toolkit that sits unused for three months still renews and still has to be canceled with its own form. Add only what you will open every week.

Reports, Local and the API

Reports carry their own fees. Base reports cost US$10 each a month and include Semrush, Google Analytics and Search Console data with PDF export. White-label Pro reports cost US$20 each and add 20+ external integrations, branding and white-labeling. Ten Pro reports add US$200 a month, or US$2,400 over a year, so agencies should decide early which clients really need white-labeled reports and which will accept a plain PDF.

Local costs US$30 or US$60 per location, and a café with one location may need Local Base rather than an SEO plan. Time a Local trial with care, because it can only start while an SEO or Traffic & Market trial is running, and it ends with it. The API is a bigger commitment. The Standard API requires the top tier plus a unit package that expires at renewal, and the Terms limit API use to 10 requests per second. If you only want an AI assistant to query Semrush, MCP units come with Starter and Pro+, so Starter may be enough.

Plan the team before you invite it

Extra users start at US$45 a month on the SEO plans, and on Traffic & Market each user starts at US$289 a month. Each extra user gets a separate login and draws on the account's limits. Not everyone needs a seat. Folders can be shared view-only for free, so a manager who only reads reports does not need a paid one. API units are a separate matter: they cannot be allocated to team members through User Management, and support must do it for you.

Owners then choose, in User Management, between shared and individual limits. Shared limits let everyone draw from one pool, while individual limits cap each user. Traffic & Market and AI Visibility cannot be pooled at all. Switching from individual to shared limits resets custom allocations to zero, so decide the model before onboarding the team rather than after.

Who owns each project

Ownership is the trap that catches teams. Units are drawn from the project owner's balance, whoever does the work, so when a teammate edits your project, the units come from yours. Create client projects from the account that holds the units. Otherwise a teammate will find that the keywords they try to add are blocked even though the account as a whole still has plenty left, as Semrush's own example of a four-person team shows. Our Semrush for agencies guide covers that side in full.

Monthly or annual, and how you will pay

Annual billing saves up to 17% but is paid upfront, while monthly costs more and cannot be refunded. On Starter, annual wins if you keep the plan ten months or more, by our arithmetic. Monthly limits on an annual plan refresh on the same day each month as the purchase date. You can switch from annual to monthly later, with a prorated credit when the new plan costs more. If you are not sure the tool will stick, pay monthly first and move to annual once it has proved its value.

The card and the invoices

Semrush takes physical cards only and refuses virtual ones, so a prepaid or one-time card will not work. It runs a US$1 authorization when you add a card, which it says is not a charge, and it may update an expiring card automatically through your card provider. If the card fails, the account can be downgraded.

Finance teams should check invoices before anyone buys. Semrush says itemized invoices are not currently available, and combined charges show only the original subscription name. If your accounts team needs line items, ask support first. Invoices can be sent automatically to an extra email address, and changing the billing country requires proof of residency, such as a utility bill or VAT number.

Renewals

Renewals are charged at the then-applicable rate, and fees can change from a renewal date. Annual add-ons share the plan's renewal date and expire with it, and a renewal charge includes every product added during the term. Check the price a week before each renewal. Every time.

The trial and the 7-day refund window

The 7-day trial needs a card and converts to a paid plan unless canceled; Semrush checks the card with a small charge it says is refunded. Most features work, but "exporting data is disabled during the trial period", so plan the trial around research you can read on screen. Trial conversions are not refundable. Trials for standalone products are monthly subscriptions, which is why they fall outside the money-back guarantee. Cancel at least a day early to leave time for the confirmation email.

Do not count on a second try. Anyone who has had a Semrush trial or paid plan is not eligible for free SEO or Traffic & Market access, and each toolkit trial works once per account. Trial upgrades and extensions are limited and must be requested from support.

The guarantee is narrow

The refund window lasts seven calendar days and covers only the first annual purchase or the first add-on, requested in writing ^[3]. The guarantee is one-time, and it applies only to purchases made directly on Semrush.com by credit card; signed contracts follow their own terms. The request must be sent from the account's email address, and Semrush may ask for transaction details or the card's last four digits. Bank fees, such as currency conversion, are not refunded. Approved refunds are processed within 30 calendar days.

Put the date in your calendar the day you buy. Write it down. After the window closes, the year is committed, and no amount of polite emailing, screenshots or explanations about forgotten renewals will change a policy that Semrush applies exactly as written. One more catch trips people up. Canceling does not request a refund, so you must ask for one explicitly in the cancellation form's comments.

How to cancel, downgrade and leave cleanly

Cancellation takes two steps ^[4]. Submit the Cancellation Form while logged in, then click the emailed link within 24 hours; without that click, Semrush says billing will continue. Each toolkit is canceled with its own form, while choosing All Semrush subscriptions cancels everything, add-ons and apps included. Afterwards, check that Subscription Info shows "Recurring: Inactive" and save the confirmation email. If you were charged after canceling, support asks when you canceled and when the charge occurred.

If you cannot log in, cancel by emailing support from the account address with the card type, its last four digits and the amount and date of the last payment. Never send the full card number. Canceling a plan also does not delete the account. Deletion is a separate request with its own activation link, valid for 72 hours, and the account is then deleted within 30 days.

Downgrades and the data you keep

Downgrades go through support, and there is no pause. Some toolkits, such as AI PR, also downgrade only through support. Remove add-ons before upgrading, or they carry over, and note that custom plans cannot reduce the limits included in a standard plan. Export the reports you need before leaving. After canceling or downgrading, Website Monitoring data is kept for 30 days, then deleted except for the oldest project. Downgrading to Free keeps your data for one month, and locked projects stay visible in the list but cannot be used.

• Form submitted and the email link clicked within 24 hours?
• Refund asked for in the comments, if you want one?
• Subscription Info checked and the confirmation email saved?
• Reports exported before the data clock runs out?

Legal terms, security and the fine print

Disputes go to individual arbitration, with an opt-out by written notice within 30 days, and EEA, Swiss and UK customers fall under Irish law. Liability is capped at the greater of US$50 or three months of fees. Semrush pays arbitration fees for claims up to US$10,000 on request. On AI, Semrush says it does not train models on user input, nor let its providers do so. Its Terms also forbid using Semrush outputs to train your own models.

For a security review, Semrush lists PCI DSS Level 1, two-factor authentication, annual penetration tests and SSO on request. No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 was published on the pages we read. Service data is stored in US data centers run by AWS, Google Cloud and Digital Realty, and Semrush says its providers aim for 99.9% uptime. Ownership changed this year, too. Semrush has been an Adobe company since April 2026, and Adobe says existing contracts are unchanged at this time and operations continue without interruption, including support and billing. It gave no pricing commitments beyond existing contracts.

Languages and pages that disagree

The SEO Writing Assistant works best in English: 17 other languages get limited support, and the tone-of-voice check is English only, so non-English teams should test it in the trial. The help center is a weaker guide than it looks. It still lists the retired Pro, Guru and Business plans, so some limits people quote, such as crawl budgets and rows per report, describe plans you can no longer buy. Semrush's pages also disagree with each other. The AI Visibility help article prices Traffic & Market at US$289 in one table and from US$200 a few lines later. Trust the pricing page and the in-app plan comparison, and ask sales to confirm any figure that matters to your budget.

Compare once, then read the complaints

Ask whether you need Semrush's breadth before paying for it. Ahrefs Lite and SE Ranking Core list at US$129, and Moz Pro Standard at US$99. Often you do not need it. A single freelancer who mostly needs keyword research, rank tracking for a few sites and an occasional audit can get all three from a cheaper rival without paying for AI prompt tracking, social scheduling or traffic estimates. SE Ranking offers a 14-day trial without a card. Semrush's own comparison pages are marked as data from May 2025 and still quote the retired US$139.95 entry price, so check rivals' current pricing pages directly.

Then read the complaints. Of the 100 most recent Trustpilot reviews we read, 87 gave one star; 76 mention billing, 59 cancellation and 57 refunds. Most describe the written policy working as written, not a hidden trick. That is the useful lesson here. Read the policy before buying, not after.

Two worked examples

A small agency with two people, 8 client sites, 1,200 keywords and four white-label reports needs Pro+, since Starter stops at 5 sites and 500 keywords. Pro+ costs US$248.17 a month on annual billing. Add one user from US$45 and four reports at US$80, and the bill comes to at least US$373.17 a month, by our arithmetic. That is the floor. Any toolkit the team adds sits on top of it. At the other end, a café with one location that wants help with its Google Business Profile can take Local Base at US$30 a month per location, without an SEO plan at all. It should add the SEO plan only if it also writes content for search.

The bottom line

Buy the smallest plan that covers your sites and keywords, add only the toolkits you open weekly, and put both the refund window and the renewal date in your calendar. If you are unsure, use the free plan for a few weeks, run one trial with research you can read on screen, and buy annually only after monthly use has proved the value. Keep every confirmation email, and check Subscription Info after each change. For every tier's price in one place, read our Semrush pricing guide.