Ahrefs Backlinks Scraper

🚀 Ahrefs Backlinks Scraper: Check Backlinks of Any Website

Check backlinks of a website, or of a whole competitor list, in one run. The Ahrefs Backlinks Scraper works like the Ahrefs backlink checker in bulk: for each domain or page it returns the top backlinks Ahrefs shows, with the linking page and its title, the linking site's Domain Rating, the anchor text and the words around it, the exact target URL and any redirects. Use it for competitor backlink analysis, link building prospecting, PR mention tracking and SEO audits, or as a simple alternative to the Ahrefs API. No Ahrefs account needed.

🎯 Use Cases for a Bulk Backlink Checker

• Find competitor backlinks: list your competitors and see which sites link to them, with what anchor text and to which pages.
• Link building prospecting: sort the linking sites by Domain Rating to find the strongest blogs, directories and media that already link to sites like yours.
• Backlink monitoring: schedule a weekly run for your own site or a client's and catch new top links as they appear.
• PR and mention tracking: see which articles link to a launch page, a press release or a campaign URL.
• SEO audits and reports: export the top links with the target's DR, backlink and referring-domain totals for a quick backlink analysis in Google Sheets.

✨ Features

• Top backlinks per domain or page: up to 20 of the top backlinks Ahrefs shows for each domain or exact page, in Ahrefs' order (rank).
• Authority of each link: the Domain Rating of every linking site, so the best prospects stand out.
• Link context: anchor text, the text before and after the link, the exact target URL and the redirect chain.
• Raw or rendered HTML: whether Ahrefs found the link in the page's raw HTML, in the JavaScript-rendered page, or both.
• Target totals on every row: the target's own DR, total backlinks and referring domains, ready for pivot tables.
• Many domains in one run: check a whole competitor list at once; repeated domains are checked once and links are never duplicated.
• Fair billing: a domain with no known backlinks returns no rows and costs nothing, and the run stops at your maximum charge.

🛠️ How It Works

1. Add domains or page URLs: a domain (apify.com) covers the site and its subdomains; a page URL (https://apify.com/store) covers that exact page.
2. Set Max results: the total number of backlinks across all domains. The default is 100, enough for 5 domains.
3. Run the scraper: download the links as JSON, CSV or Excel, or pull them through the API.

⚙️ Input

Field	What it does
Domains or URLs	Domains or page URLs, one per line. Up to 20 top backlinks are returned for each.
Max results	Stop after this many backlinks across all domains. Default 100.

With an empty input the scraper returns the top backlinks of apify.com. To get all 20 links for each of 50 competitors, set Max results to 1,000.

{
    "domains": ["semrush.com", "moz.com", "https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker"],
    "maxItems": 500
}

💰 Pricing

Pay only for the backlinks you get. No monthly rental.

Event	Price	What you get
Backlink	$0.001 per backlink ($1 per 1,000)	Linking page URL and title, linking site DR, anchor and surrounding text, target URL, redirect chain, plus the target's DR and totals
Actor start	$0.00005 per run	Charged once when the run starts.

Examples: the top 20 backlinks of one domain = $0.02 · the default 100 backlinks = $0.10 · 50 competitors with Max results 1,000 = up to $1.00.

📊 Sample Output Data

{
    "id": "subdomains:apify.com|https://venngage.com/blog/types-of-diagrams/|https://blog.apify.com/best-competitive-intelligence-tools/|compare to the competition",
    "targetDomain": "apify.com",
    "rank": 9,
    "sourceUrl": "https://venngage.com/blog/types-of-diagrams/",
    "sourceTitle": "12 Types of Diagrams and How to Choose the Right One",
    "sourceDomainRating": 84,
    "targetUrl": "https://blog.apify.com/best-competitive-intelligence-tools/",
    "anchor": "compare to the competition",
    "textBefore": "SWOT analysis, you have a better picture of how you",
    "textAfter": ", and how to differentiate yourself.",
    "redirectChain": [],
    "foundInRenderedHtml": true,
    "foundInRawHtml": true,
    "targetDomainRating": 82,
    "targetBacklinks": 3979092,
    "targetReferringDomains": 16892,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-14T09:00:35.718Z"
}

targetDomain is what you entered (a domain, or a page such as apify.com/store), and targetUrl is the exact page the link points to. redirectChain lists the redirects between the link and that page and is usually empty. targetDomainRating is always the DR of the whole domain, while targetBacklinks and targetReferringDomains count links to exactly what you entered. id is a stable key for deduplicating links across scheduled runs.

🔁 Schedule Backlink Monitoring

For backlink monitoring, run it once a week with the same list of your own and your competitors' domains: every run is a dated snapshot, so new top links and changes in the target's backlink and referring-domain totals show up when you compare runs. Set it up in Apify Schedules, then send the results to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, n8n or a webhook with Apify integrations, so new links reach your link building sheet automatically.

🤖 Use with AI Agents (MCP)

This Actor works as a tool in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients through the Apify MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com), so an agent can check backlinks while it plans outreach or audits a site. An agent can call it with:

{ "domains": ["semrush.com"], "maxItems": 20 }

❓ FAQ

Does Ahrefs have an official API? Yes. Ahrefs offers an official API as part of its paid subscription plans, billed in API units. This Actor is the practical alternative when you only need the top backlinks of a list of sites: no Ahrefs subscription, no API key, no rate-limit handling, and you pay per backlink.

How do I check backlinks of a website? Add the domain to Domains or URLs and run the Actor. You get up to 20 top backlinks with the linking page, its DR and the anchor text, plus the site's total backlinks and referring domains. Add competitors to the list to find competitor backlinks in the same run.

How many backlinks do I get per domain? Up to 20: the top links Ahrefs shows publicly for that domain or page. For more domains in one run, raise Max results; the full backlink list of a site is not available.

Do I need an Ahrefs account? No. The Actor returns the data Ahrefs shows publicly in its free backlink checker.

Why is the anchor context or redirect chain empty? Ahrefs doesn't record the surrounding text for every link: textBefore and textAfter are null for roughly half of the links. redirectChain is empty when the link points straight at the target page. A domain with no known backlinks returns no rows and is named in the run's status message.

What is a good free backlink checker for many sites? Free backlink checkers usually handle one site at a time. This Actor checks a whole list in one run for $0.001 per link, and the Ahrefs Domain Rating Scraper is cheaper per domain when you only need DR and backlink totals.

🔗 Related Scrapers

• Ahrefs Domain Rating Scraper: Domain Rating, backlink and referring-domain counts for a long list of domains.
• Ahrefs Traffic Scraper: monthly organic traffic, traffic value, top pages, countries and keywords for the same sites.
• Ahrefs Keyword Difficulty Scraper: Keyword Difficulty, including the referring domains needed to reach the top 10.
• Google Ranked Keywords Scraper: every Google keyword a domain ranks for, to see what its links help it win.
• Similarweb Scraper: total monthly visits of the linking sites, to judge which links bring real traffic.

This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Ahrefs.