Moz Free API Call Limit 2026: Rows, Rates and Paid Plans
🚀 Quick Takeaways
- Free tier ceiling: The moz free api call limit 2026 is one request every ten seconds and up to 50 rows per month.
- Rows drive everything: Each response object usually counts as one row, and some weighted endpoints consume more than one row per object.
- Paid entry point: Starter Medium costs $20/month for 3,000 rows, while the official pricing page lists Starter plans from $20 to $75/month.
- Pro is not API: A Moz Pro subscription does not increase your API row allowance because the two products are billed separately.
- Dashboard shortcut: If you only need the Moz interface, Toolsurf offers 1-Click Cloud Access at $2/Day with 99.9% uptime.
The moz free api call limit 2026 is simple on paper and awkward in practice: one request every ten seconds, capped at 50 rows per month. That allowance is a testing budget rather than a working one, and most teams exhaust it during a single afternoon of experimentation.
Understanding the limit matters because Moz bills the API in rows instead of calls, and the row maths is where budgets quietly disappear. A single ranking-keywords request can return enough objects to consume an entire month of free quota.
This guide explains how the Moz API works, what the free tier really allows, how paid tiers and overages compare, and how to run a lean integration without overspending. It also covers who should skip the API entirely and use the Moz interface instead.
What Is the Moz API and How Does It Work?
The Moz API is Moz’s developer data product, and it is also referred to as the Moz Links API. Moz is a Seattle-based search-marketing company founded in 2004, and its product line now spans Moz Pro, Moz Local, STAT and Moz Data. The API exposes that data programmatically instead of through a dashboard.
Technically it is a JSON-RPC 2.0 API served from a single universal endpoint at https://api.moz.com/jsonrpc. It offers 62 public methods across five namespaces, covering Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score, backlink data, keyword metrics, search intent, ranking keywords and Brand Authority.
One Endpoint, Many Methods
Because every call goes to the same URL, the method name inside the request body decides what comes back. That design keeps client code small, since you maintain one HTTP client and one authentication header rather than a dozen routes.
Authentication uses a static Moz API token sent in a custom x-moz-token header. Moz also runs two beta remote MCP servers for Moz Data and Moz Local, which use OAuth 2.1 or the same token as a Bearer credential.
Rows, Not Calls, Are the Real Currency
Moz meters usage in rows. Each object in a multi-object response typically counts as one row, but some endpoints are weighted and can consume more than one row per object.
Every response reports how much you consumed, and the quota.lookup method returns your remaining allowance. Build both into your logging from day one, because guessing your burn rate is how teams exceed a plan they assumed was sufficient.
Moz Free API Call Limit 2026: The Exact Numbers
The free tier is documented as one request every ten seconds and up to 50 rows per month. The rate cap is a hard throttle, so parallel scripting on a free account simply queues up and wastes your own time.
The row cap is the tighter constraint. A single ranking-keywords call returning 50 keywords can consume the whole month in one shot, which makes the free tier a calibration tool rather than a data source.
Two things surprise new users. First, the API is a separate subscription from Moz Pro, so a Pro plan does not raise the free API limit. Second, beta methods are excluded from free access and require Starter or above.
What the Free Tier Actually Gives You
Free access is best treated as a compatibility test. You can confirm your token works, inspect a response shape and verify your parsing logic before spending any money.
It is not enough for production. Even a modest weekly check across a handful of client domains will exhaust 50 rows long before the month ends, leaving your reporting pipeline empty.
Where the Free Allowance Breaks Down
Third-party guides report that keyword endpoints covering difficulty, volume, suggestions and intent return quota errors on the free tier. That makes the free plan a links-only sandbox in practice.
Sources also disagree on whether a credit card is required. One documentation summary says the free tier needs a valid, non-expired card that is not charged unless you upgrade, while other guides say no card is needed at all. Confirm it inside your own account before planning around it.
| Plan | Monthly price | Rows per month | Overage available |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 | No |
| Starter Medium | $20/month | 3,000 | No |
| Starter Large | $75/month | 15,000 | Yes |
| Growth Small | $125/month | 50,000 | Yes |
| Growth Medium | Within the Growth range | 120,000 | Yes |
| Growth Large | $500/month | 500,000 | Yes |
| Advanced | From $2,000/month | 4,000,000 | Yes |
| Toolsurf Group Buy ($2/Day) | $2/Day | Browser access to the Moz interface, not API rows | Not applicable |
Moz’s current pricing page confirms 3,000, 120,000 and 4,000,000 rows for Starter Medium, Growth Medium and Advanced. The other row counts come from release notes and third-party round-ups, so verify them with Moz before you set a budget.
How Row Consumption Changes Your Real Limit
Row counting sounds predictable until weighted endpoints enter the picture. A call that returns ten objects might bill more than ten rows depending on the method and the fields you request.
A Moz community complaint describes querying 250 domains and consuming over 6,000 rows. The same report notes Page Authority and Domain Authority returning as 1 and Spam Score as -1, which usually signals a request that needs adjustment rather than a broken quota.
Why Your First Integration Burns Rows
Development traffic is the usual culprit. Loops that re-query the same domain on every page load, missing caches and retry logic that fires on 4xx responses all consume quota without producing anything useful.
Moz describes a penalty rate limit after repeated 4xx responses on paid plans, so a retry storm costs you twice. Validate parameters locally before you send anything to the endpoint.
Match Rows to Your Reporting Cadence
Daily refreshes across many domains multiply fast. Moz’s own worked example shows 3,000 rows supporting daily URL metrics for 25 domains, which sets a useful baseline for planning.
If your team refreshes weekly rather than daily, the same row budget covers roughly seven times the domain count. Cadence is therefore a pricing decision, not just an engineering preference.
Moz API Pricing in 2026: Every Tier Compared
The official pricing page lists Starter from $20 to $75/month, Growth from $125 to $500/month and Advanced starting at $2,000/month, all in US dollars at the time of writing in October 2026.
Moz’s release notes confirm Starter Medium at $20/month for 3,000 rows, Starter Large at $75/month for 15,000 rows and Growth Small at $125/month for 50,000 rows. Higher-tier figures circulate widely but deserve verification before you sign anything.
If you need scheduled rank tracking rather than raw data, the cost comparison changes completely, and our Authority Labs pricing 2026 breakdown covers a platform built around daily positions instead of rows.
| Plan example | Rows per month | What Moz says it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Starter Medium | 3,000 | URL metrics tracked for 25 domains daily. |
| Growth Medium | 120,000 | Up to 100,000 links plus URL metrics for over 500 domains daily. |
| Advanced | 4,000,000 | Roughly 130,000 rows per day, Link Intersect across six domains and URL metrics histories for more than 4,000 domains daily. |
| Toolsurf Group Buy ($2/Day) | Not applicable | The Moz browser interface through 1-Click Cloud Access, with no API consumption involved. |
Overage Rules Differ by Tier
Starter Medium has no overage option at all, so exceeding 3,000 rows means waiting for the reset or upgrading the plan. Starter Large and the Growth tiers support pay-as-you-go overages instead.
Reported overage rates vary by tier, with roughly $20 per 10,000 extra rows on some Starter plans, $10 per 10,000 on Growth and $5 per 10,000 on Advanced. Treat those numbers as a planning guide and confirm current rates before scaling.
No API Trial and Limited Discounting
A Moz staff answer states plainly that Moz does not offer a 30-day free trial of the API, only for Moz Pro plans. The free tier is the only test window you get.
A discount of around 20% applies to annual Moz Pro billing, but the sources reviewed do not state an equivalent annual discount for API tiers. Budget on monthly pricing until Moz confirms otherwise.
Moz API Alternatives Compared for 2026
Moz is not the only option, and for some jobs it is the wrong one. The alternatives differ mainly in how they charge and whether scheduled tracking is included.
- Moz Pro: $49, $99, $179 and $299 per month for Starter, Standard, Medium and Large, with roughly 20% off annual billing, adding campaigns, rank tracking, site crawl and AI Visibility but no paid API rows.
- Ahrefs API: capacity is reported to start near $500/month, so it is not a like-for-like cheap substitute for Moz’s $20 entry point.
- Semrush API: unit prices are not published, with entry through Semrush plans; one comparison cites SEO at $139/month and API access on Advanced at $549.
- DataForSEO: a pay-per-call SEO data API whose developer plan is cited from $40/month for 10,000 searches.
- Authority Labs and Advanced Web Ranking: dedicated scheduled rank-tracking platforms that fill the tracking gap the Moz API leaves open.
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Choosing between the API and the dashboard is the bigger decision for most teams, and our Moz Pro vs Raven Tools 2026 comparison covers the campaign-side trade-offs in detail.
Where Moz Still Wins
At $20/month, Moz is repeatedly described as the cheapest programmatic route into a major backlink index. That entry price is the strongest argument for the API and the reason small teams start there.
Domain Authority and Page Authority also remain widely recognised metrics, even though they are Moz’s own and not interchangeable with Ahrefs DR or Semrush Authority Score.
Where Moz Falls Short
There is no site audit endpoint, no full real-time SERP scraping and no saved campaigns; every call returns a snapshot. Ranking keyword data stops at the top 50 positions, and only Domain Authority histories support genuine trend analysis.
Documentation and tooling are also described as dated compared with newer competitors, and there is no OpenAPI specification. Expect to read the docs closely rather than generating a client library automatically.
How to Get Started With the Moz API, Step by Step
- Decide whether you need the API or the interface, because a Moz Pro plan will not add API rows to your account.
- Pick a starting tier; Starter Medium at 3,000 rows is enough to validate a real reporting pipeline on a small domain set.
- Generate your static API token in your Moz account and store it in a secrets manager rather than in source control.
- Send a JSON-RPC 2.0 request to the universal endpoint with the method name and parameters in the body and your token in the x-moz-token header.
- Log the row consumption reported in every response so you can reconcile usage against your plan each day.
- Call quota.lookup to check your remaining allowance programmatically and raise an alert before you hit the ceiling.
- Cache aggressively and de-duplicate targets so repeat runs reuse stored metrics instead of spending fresh rows.
Handle Response Shapes Carefully
Because one endpoint serves every method, your parser should branch on the method rather than on the URL. Validate a few responses by hand before wiring the output into client dashboards.
Numbers can diverge between the Moz Pro interface and the API because of index timing and differing field definitions across endpoints. Document the reconciliation rules early so nobody has to explain a discrepancy under pressure.
Test Before You Pay
The free tier is genuinely useful for the testing stage. One request every ten seconds is slow enough to be irritating and fast enough to confirm authentication, error handling and field mapping.
Once those pieces work, upgrade to Starter Medium and re-run the same tests against a realistic domain list. That sequence avoids paying for rows while you are still debugging basic plumbing.
Practical Tips to Stay Inside Your Moz API Quota
- Cache everything: Store Domain Authority and Page Authority results for at least a day, because these metrics do not move hourly.
- Batch by target list: Use multi-object methods such as Fetch Multiple Site Metrics instead of looping single-domain calls.
- Respect the throttle: On the free tier, one request every ten seconds is a hard cap, so build a queue rather than firing parallel requests.
- Handle 4xx properly: Repeated failing requests trigger a penalty rate limit on paid plans, so add backoff and stop looping on bad parameters.
- Watch weighted endpoints: Some methods consume more than one row per object, so test each new endpoint against a small sample first.
- Compare index costs: If backlink coverage is the main requirement, review a second index before scaling rows; our Majestic SEO pricing 2026 breakdown shows a different pricing model entirely.
Budget for Growth, Not Just Launch
Roughly 130,000 rows per day sits at the Advanced level in Moz’s worked example, a very different scale from a Starter plan. Plan your tier against peak reporting weeks rather than average months.
If a client onboard lands with 400 domains, your tidy Starter budget doubles overnight. Forecast the domain count you expect in six months, then buy one tier below that so overages stay cheap.
Pros & Cons of Moz API in 2026
👍 Pros
- Entry at $20/month for 3,000 rows is the cheapest programmatic access to a major backlink index among the options reviewed.
- A single JSON-RPC endpoint with 62 public methods keeps client code small and maintenance light.
- Domain Authority, Page Authority, Spam Score, keyword metrics and search intent all sit behind one token.
- The free tier allows realistic testing of authentication and parsing before any payment is made.
- Beta MCP servers let analysts query Moz data from Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Cursor without custom code.
👎 Cons
- The 50-row monthly free allowance is a test budget and cannot support production reporting.
- Row consumption across weighted endpoints surprises new integrations and inflates forecasts.
- There is no site audit endpoint, no full SERP scraping and ranking keywords stop at the top 50.
- A Moz Pro subscription does not raise the API limit and no API trial exists.
- Documentation and tooling lag behind newer competitors, and there is no OpenAPI specification.
Who Should Use Moz API in 2026?
Developers Building Lightweight SEO Dashboards
If you need Domain Authority and backlink counts inside your own tool, the Moz API is the shortest path at the lowest entry price. One endpoint and one header make the first integration quick to ship.
Agencies Reporting Authority for Client Domains
Agencies that pull authority and link data for many client domains into their own reports get predictable costs from row-based pricing. Caching keeps those costs flat as the client list grows through the year.
Teams Putting Moz Data Inside AI Assistants
The beta Moz Data MCP server exposes 28 read-only tools and lets Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Cursor query Moz metrics in plain English. That suits analysts who want the data without maintaining integration code.
Marketers Who Only Need the Interface
If campaigns, rank tracking and site crawl are the actual job, the API adds nothing to your workflow. The Moz browser application covers that ground, and Toolsurf group buy access opens it through 1-Click Cloud Access for $2/Day with no browser extension to install.
🏆 Toolsurf Verdict: Model Your Row Budget Before You Build
The Moz API is a fair deal at the entry level and a confusing one if you never model row consumption. Toolsurf’s view is that the free tier settles the question quickly, because 50 rows per month tells you almost nothing about what production will cost.
For readers who mainly want Moz’s interface rather than raw data, Toolsurf provides browser-based access to the tool through 1-Click Cloud Access, so the API meter never starts running at all.
- 1-Click Cloud Access: Open the Moz interface in your browser in a couple of clicks, with no local installation or licence key to manage.
- 99.9% Uptime: Reliable access matters when a client report is due, and Toolsurf publishes 99.9% uptime for its cloud access service.
- $2/Day Pricing: A predictable daily rate beats a metered row budget when your team only needs the dashboard rather than programmatic data.
- Zero Browser Extension Setup: Nothing to install on each machine, which keeps IT requests and security reviews out of the way.
If you need raw rows for your own product, buy a Moz API tier and cache hard. If you need the Moz interface for reporting work, Toolsurf is the cheaper and simpler route.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Moz API in 2026
What is the Moz free API call limit 2026?
The free tier allows one request every ten seconds and up to 50 rows per month. The rate cap applies only to free access, while paid plans are governed by row quotas plus a penalty limit after repeated failing requests. Treat the free allowance as a testing budget rather than a working allocation for live reporting.
Does a Moz Pro subscription increase my API rows?
No. The API is a separate subscription, and a Moz Pro plan does not raise the free API limit. Moz staff have confirmed this directly. If you need programmatic data you must buy an API tier separately, even when you already pay for Moz Pro campaigns and rank tracking.
How many rows does a single API call use?
Usually one row per object returned, but some endpoints are weighted and can consume more than one row per object. Every response reports consumption, and quota.lookup returns your remaining allowance. Test unfamiliar methods against a small sample so one call cannot drain your monthly budget.
Why did my quota disappear after one request?
A single ranking-keywords call returning 50 keywords can consume the entire free monthly allowance. Multi-object requests across many domains also multiply quickly. The fix is to cache results, de-duplicate targets and use the multi-site methods instead of looping single-domain calls in a script.
Is there a free trial of the Moz API?
No. A Moz staff answer states that Moz does not offer a 30-day free trial of the API, only for Moz Pro plans. The free tier is the only way to test without paying. It supports authentication and response validation but not meaningful production volume across real client domains.
What happens if I exceed my plan’s rows?
It depends on the tier. Starter Medium has no overage option, so you must wait for the reset or upgrade. Starter Large and the Growth tiers support pay-as-you-go overages, with reported rates of roughly $20 per 10,000 extra rows on some Starter plans, $10 on Growth and $5 on Advanced.
Can I get Moz data without paying for API rows?
Yes, if you only need the interface. The Moz browser application covers campaigns, rank tracking, site crawl and reporting without consuming API rows. Toolsurf group buy access opens that interface through 1-Click Cloud Access at $2/Day with 99.9% uptime and no browser extension to install.
Does the Moz API include site audits or SERP scraping?
No. There is no site audit endpoint and no full real-time SERP scraping. Ranking keyword data stops at the top 50 positions, and every call returns a snapshot with no saved campaigns or scheduled reporting. Only Domain Authority histories support trend analysis, so pair the API with a dedicated tracking platform where needed.