Ahrefs Python SDK Skill

Overview

The Ahrefs API provides programmatic access to Ahrefs SEO data. The official Python SDK (

ahrefs-python

Key capabilities:

• Site Explorer - Backlinks, organic keywords, domain rating, traffic, referring domains
• Keywords Explorer - Keyword research, volumes, difficulty, related terms
• Rank Tracker - SERP monitoring, competitor tracking
• Site Audit - Technical SEO issues, page content, page explorer
• Brand Radar - AI brand mentions, share of voice, impressions
• SERP Overview - Search result analysis
• Batch Analysis - Bulk domain/URL metrics via POST

Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/ahrefs/ahrefs-python.git

Requires Python 3.11+. Dependencies:

httpx

pydantic

API Method Discovery

The SDK has 52 methods across 7 API sections. The built-in search tool is the fastest way to find the right method — it returns matching method signatures, parameters, and return types directly, so there's no need to scan through a large reference.

Python (preferred when already in a Python context):

from ahrefs.search import search_api_methods

# Returns formatted text with method signatures, parameters, and return types
print(search_api_methods("domain rating"))

# Filter by API section and limit results
print(search_api_methods("backlinks", section="site-explorer", limit=3))

CLI (preferred when exploring from the terminal):

python -m ahrefs.api_search "domain rating"
python -m ahrefs.api_search "backlinks" --section site-explorer --limit 3
python -m ahrefs.api_search "batch" --json
python -m ahrefs.api_search --sections  # list all API sections

IMPORTANT RULES

• ALWAYS use the

  ahrefs-python

  SDK. DO NOT make raw

  httpx

  /

  requests

  calls to the Ahrefs API.
• ALWAYS pass dates as strings in

  YYYY-MM-DD

  format (e.g.

  "2025-01-15"

  ).
• ALWAYS use

  select

  on list endpoints to request only the columns you need. List endpoints return all columns by default, which wastes API units and increases response size.
• USE context managers (

  with

  /

  async with

  ) for client lifecycle management.
• SET the

  AHREFS_API_KEY

  environment variable rather than hardcoding API keys.
• The client handles retries (429, 5xx, connection errors) automatically. DO NOT implement your own retry logic on top of the SDK.

Quick Start

import os
from ahrefs import AhrefsClient

with AhrefsClient(api_key=os.environ["AHREFS_API_KEY"]) as client:
    data = client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15")
    print(data.domain_rating)  # 91.0
    print(data.ahrefs_rank)    # 3

SDK Patterns

Client Setup

import os
import ahrefs

with ahrefs.AhrefsClient(
    api_key=os.environ["AHREFS_API_KEY"],
    base_url="...",          # override API base URL (default: https://api.ahrefs.com/v3)
    timeout=30.0,            # request timeout in seconds (default: 60)
    max_retries=3,           # retries on transient errors (default: 2)
) as client:
    ...

Async client:

import os
from ahrefs import AsyncAhrefsClient

async with AsyncAhrefsClient(api_key=os.environ["AHREFS_API_KEY"]) as client:
    data = await client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15")

For parallel calls, use

asyncio.gather

import asyncio

async with AsyncAhrefsClient(api_key=os.environ["AHREFS_API_KEY"]) as client:
    dr_ahrefs, dr_moz = await asyncio.gather(
        client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15"),
        client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="moz.com", date="2025-01-15"),
    )

Calling Methods

Two calling styles -- both are equivalent:

# Keyword arguments (recommended)
data = client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15")

# Request objects (full type safety)
from ahrefs.types import SiteExplorerDomainRatingRequest
request = SiteExplorerDomainRatingRequest(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15")
data = client.site_explorer_domain_rating(request)

Method names follow

{api_section}_{endpoint}

site_explorer_organic_keywords

keywords_explorer_overview

Responses

Methods return typed Data objects directly.

Scalar endpoints return a single data object (or

None

data = client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15")
print(data.domain_rating)

List endpoints return a list of data objects. There is no pagination — set

limit

select

items = client.site_explorer_organic_keywords(
    target="ahrefs.com",
    date="2025-01-15",
    select="keyword,volume,best_position",
    order_by="volume:desc",
    limit=10,
)
for item in items:
    print(item.keyword, item.volume, item.best_position)

Error Handling

import ahrefs

try:
    data = client.site_explorer_domain_rating(target="example.com", date="2025-01-15")
except ahrefs.AuthenticationError:    # 401
    ...
except ahrefs.RateLimitError as e:    # 429 -- e.retry_after has the delay
    ...
except ahrefs.NotFoundError:          # 404
    ...
except ahrefs.APIError as e:          # other 4xx/5xx -- e.status_code, e.response_body
    ...
except ahrefs.APIConnectionError:     # network / timeout
    ...

All exceptions inherit from

ahrefs.AhrefsError

Common Parameters

Most list endpoints share these parameters:

target

str

date

str

date_from

date_to

str

country

str

select

str

where

str

order_by

str

"volume:desc"

limit

int

Parameters typed as enums in the API reference (

CountryEnum

VolumeModeEnum

country="us"

CountryEnum("us")

The

where

json.dumps()

import json
where = json.dumps({"field": "volume", "is": ["gte", 1000]})
items = client.site_explorer_organic_keywords(
    target="ahrefs.com", date="2025-01-15",
    select="keyword,volume", where=where,
)

For full filter syntax (boolean combinators, operators, nested fields), see

references/filter-syntax.md

API Methods

Use

search_api_methods("query")

python -m ahrefs.api_search "query"