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Semrush at $139 a month: how many people does that cover?
One. Semrush's help center states: “By default, all Semrush plans come with one user seat.” The $139 on the pricing page is the monthly price for a single person.
A note on the figures before anything else: Semrush currently publishes two sets of them. The pricing page sells four plans — SEO $139, Starter $199, Pro+ $299 and Advanced $549 a month — while the help center's SEO Toolkit pages still carry the former lineup of Pro $139.95, Guru $249.95 and Business $499.95. Both are official pages. This article uses the pricing-page figures, and notes the help-center ones where they are the only published source.
Sharing one login between two people is not permitted
The terms of service are explicit: “Each Authorized User must be a unique individual, and two or more individuals may not share a single Authorized User's Account.” One email address can be signed in at a time by default. Budget on the basis of one seat per person.
Only people who sign in under their own ID are billed; anyone who merely receives a PDF costs nothing. External agencies can be given a guest role — a non-account user granted access to specific assets such as folders, documents or keyword lists — and a guest does not take up a paid seat unless you invite them to the team as a full member.
What does the second person add?
| Plan (monthly billing, USD, excl. tax) | 1 user | Each extra user | 3 users, total | Per user at 3 | How to read this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | $139 | $45 | $229 | $76.33 | 1.65× at three users. The total rises, but the cost per person falls by almost half |
| Starter (AI Search for the first user only) | $199 | $45 | $289 | $96.33 | Seats cost the same as SEO's. At 1.45×, the multiple is the lowest of the four |
| Pro+ | $299 | $80 | $459 | $153.00 | 1.54× at three users — the same shape as SEO from a higher base |
| Advanced | $549 | $100 | $749 | $249.67 | The extra seat is less than a fifth of the base price — the best ratio of the four. The first seat is the hurdle |
| Starter (AI Search for all three) | $199 | $45 + $99 | $487 | $162.33 | What raises the bill is not headcount but how widely AI Search is distributed |
Source: https://www.semrush.com/prices/ / https://www.semrush.com/kb/677-how-much-does-it-cost-to-add-sessions-or-users (verified 1 September 2026)
Three people on SEO comes to $139 + $45 × 2 = $229, or $229 ÷ 3 = $76.33 each. The formula is ($139 + $45 × (users − 1)) ÷ users, and it falls as headcount rises: $63.80 at five users, $54.40 at ten. What increases is the total, not the cost per person.
There is no headcount at which SEO's total overtakes Pro+'s. The gap is $160 + $35 × (users − 1) — $160 at one user, widening to $335 at six. The lines that do matter are different ones: two people on SEO, $184, cost less than a single Starter seat at $199, and SEO at four seats, $274, is still below a single Pro+ seat at $299 — the fifth seat at $319 passes it.
Starter is not a bigger SEO
On the pricing page, Starter's SEO limits are identical to SEO's — 5 websites to monitor and 500 keywords to track. The $60 gap between Starter at $199 and SEO at $139 buys the AI Search toolkit — the ability to measure how often your brand comes up when people ask an AI — for the first user, not more SEO capacity. If you have no need to measure that, SEO is sufficient. Only when an additional user also needs AI Search does $99 per person sit on top of the $45 seat. Pro+ and Advanced then raise the SEO limits themselves: 15 and 40 websites, 1,500 and 5,000 keywords.
Where does SEO run out?
| Limit (monthly plans) | SEO | Starter | Pro+ | Advanced | How to read this |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Websites to monitor (registration is by domain — a site address such as example.com; the official term is “websites to monitor”, shown in the interface as “Projects”) | 5 | 5 | 15 | 40 | Your own site plus three or four competitors fills SEO. The moment you want a fifth, you are on Pro+ |
| Keywords to track (a keyword is a term typed into the search box; this is how many can be logged automatically each day) | 500 | 500 | 1,500 | 5,000 | A single small-business site typically works with 100–300 terms in practice, so SEO's 500 is enough. Combine terms with locations (“tax accountant Shibuya” × 20 districts) and you reach several thousand |
| AI prompts to track daily (how many AI-search questions can be logged for your brand) | — | 50 | 100 | 200 | This is the AI Search axis; the SEO plan does not include it |
| API (machine access for pulling data into other tools) | No | No | No | Yes | Relevant only if you run an internal data platform processing tens of thousands of rows a month |
The help center also publishes a results-per-report ceiling for the SEO Toolkit tiers — 10,000, 30,000 and 50,000 rows under the former names Pro, Guru and Business. If the top 10,000 rows answer your question, the entry plan is unlikely to get in the way; this only bites when you export everything to CSV and analyze it yourself.
Source: https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (verified 1 September 2026) / https://www.semrush.com/kb/1547-seo-toolkit-pricing-limits (former lineup; verified 1 September 2026)
The 2 assumptions: 1 — 1 person actually opens Semrush and works with the numbers (the SEO plan carries 1 user, and each additional user is billed separately). 2 — you do not need the functions that only start at Pro+, above all AI search visibility. Change either assumption and the entry plan stops being enough.
What actually leaves your account when you sign
Monthly billing is $139, or $139 × 12 = $1,668 over a year. Annual billing is displayed as $117.33 a month, but the help center states plainly that annual is a prepayment for a full year, not twelve installments. What is debited in one go is $117.33 × 12 = $1,407.96 (roughly ¥210,000 at ¥150 to the dollar). The difference is $260.04, a discount of 1 − 117.33 ÷ 139 = 15.6%. Annual pricing for additional users is not documented officially, so ask for a written quote covering the full headcount.
The seven-day trial bills you if you leave it alone
There is a seven-day free trial. Whether a card is required is not stated on the help, pricing or legal pages; only the FAQ on the official blog says “if you want to start the 7-day free trial, you'll need to enter credit card details.” Sign up expecting to be asked for a card.
Unless you cancel beforehand, the first payment is charged automatically when the trial ends. The refund policy also states: “Refunds are not available for month-to-month subscriptions.” The day the count starts is not documented officially, so make your decision by day five at the latest.
To try it without handing over a card, use the free account — the pricing page says “No credit card required”. The main tools (including backlink research, backlinks being external links pointing to your site from others) are limited to 10 queries a day, position tracking to 10 keywords, and site audit — the crawl that lists what needs fixing — to 100 pages a month.
How many people can Semrush cover before it stops being cheap?
The axis is not price but headcount — how many people open the screen and work with the numbers themselves. At one person or at two or three, the answer is SEO ($139 each, falling to $76.33; annual is $1,407.96 up front). Before adding a fourth, establish whether that person analyses or merely reads. Once tracked keywords pass 500, it is Pro+ regardless of headcount. If you are undecided, three months of monthly billing is $417 — money that does not come back.
Who should not sign
- A site launched so recently it has fewer than ten articles. There is almost nothing for the tool to work with
- A business fed mainly by repeat custom and referrals. Better rankings are unlikely to translate into revenue
- Anyone whose SEO is handled by an agency. Ask first which tool they use and whether they can share the reports
- An organization where five or more people read the numbers but only one analyses them. One seat plus a PDF beats five seats
Sources (dates as noted)
- SEO $139, Starter $199, Pro+ $299, Advanced $549 (monthly billing) / annual billing $117.33, $165.17, $248.17, $455.67 a month / websites to monitor 5, 5, 15, 40 / keywords to track 500, 500, 1,500, 5,000 / AI prompts 50, 100, 200 / API on Advanced / additional users from $45 / seven-day trial → https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (verified 1 September 2026)
- One user seat included by default on all plans / additional users: SEO Toolkit Pro $45, Guru $80, Business $100; Semrush One Starter $45, Pro+ $80, Advanced $100 / AI Visibility Toolkit $99 per user (on top of the base seat) → https://www.semrush.com/kb/677-how-much-does-it-cost-to-add-sessions-or-users (verified 1 September 2026)
- One email address logged in at a time / definition of guests (access to folders, documents and keyword lists; a seat is used only on inviting them to the team) → https://www.semrush.com/kb/1409-user-management (verified 1 September 2026)
- Prohibition on sharing a seat (each authorized user must be a unique individual) → https://www.semrush.com/company/legal/terms-of-service/ (verified 17 August 2026)
- The former lineup on the help center: Pro $139.95, Guru $249.95, Business $499.95 / rows per report 10,000, 30,000, 50,000 / API on Business only → https://www.semrush.com/kb/1547-seo-toolkit-pricing-limits (verified 1 September 2026)
- Annual billing is a prepayment for one year, not installments → https://www.semrush.com/kb/1013-billing-faq (verified 17 August 2026)
- Seven-day trial and automatic conversion at its end → https://www.semrush.com/kb/1011-subscriptions (verified 17 August 2026)
- Monthly subscriptions non-refundable / annual refunds by written request within 7 days of the first order / automatic charge when the trial ends → https://www.semrush.com/company/legal/refund-policy/ (verified 17 August 2026)
- Credit card details required to start the trial / free account limits (10 queries a day, 10 tracked keywords, 100 audited pages a month) / “No credit card required” on the free plan → https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-can-i-do-with-a-free-account-from-semrush/ and https://www.semrush.com/pricing/ (verified 17 August 2026)
What could not be confirmed in official documentation
- How the pricing page’s current lineup (SEO / Starter / Pro+ / Advanced) corresponds to the help center’s former lineup (Pro / Guru / Business) — the help-center article that mapped them is no longer published, so this article treats the two sets of figures separately
- A results-per-report ceiling under the current plan names (the help center publishes 10,000 / 30,000 / 50,000 for the former lineup)
- Annual pricing for additional users (the help center lists monthly rates only)
- Whether Google Analytics / Search Console integration depends on plan tier (KB 857 covers only Google-side permission requirements)
- The day the trial period starts counting (day one on sign-up, or the following day)
- Whether a $1 authorization hold is placed at the start of the trial (KB 1013 mentions it only as a general note on card registration)
Prices and terms change. Check the official pages before you sign.
What changed on this page
- editorial basis6 September 2026 Semrush plans — plan recommendation
Most businesses will fit inside SEO. → marked as the editor’s view, with the limits that decide it shown alongside
Every recorded change to this site is in the change log.
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