Backlink Checker API: Backlinks, Referring Domains & Anchors

Check the backlinks of any domain or URL: source page, anchor text, dofollow, domain rank, spam score, first and last seen. Or list its referring domains with link counts. Up to 10,000 rows per target, no Ahrefs or Semrush subscription. Pay only per result.

Try it on Apify

Typical uses

Competitor backlink research: see which sites link to a competitor, with which anchor, and which links pass authority (dofollow).
Link building prospecting: list the referring domains of competing pages, sorted by rank, and contact the best ones.
Backlink audits: spot spammy, broken, lost or nofollow links pointing to your site.
New link monitoring: sort by newest to see links found recently; schedule the run weekly.
Automations and AI agents: feed n8n, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets or an MCP client with structured JSON.

Pricing

Pay per use, no subscription, no monthly fee. The price depends on your Apify plan. Apify's free plan includes $5 of usage every month.

You pay per	Free plan	Starter	Scale	Business
Backlink One row returned: a backlink (linking page, anchor, dofollow, ranks, spam score, dates) or a referring domain (rank, backlink counts, dates). Targets with no backlink found get a free row.	$0.003	$0.002	$0.0016	$0.0012
Target lookup One lookup in the backlink index: charged once per domain or URL checked, plus once per extra block of 1,000 rows when you ask for more than 1,000 rows per target. Not charged when the lookup fails.	$0.035	$0.035	$0.035	$0.035

Run it from your code

Get an API token in the Apify Console (Settings → Integrations), then:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plainrows~backlink-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "targets": [
    "backlinko.com"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerTarget": 100
}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("plainrows/backlink-checker").call(run_input={'targets': ['backlinko.com'], 'maxResultsPerTarget': 100})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

Use it in automations and AI agents

n8n, Make, Zapier: use the official Apify integration and pick the Actor plainrows/backlink-checker.
MCP (Claude, Cursor, other AI agents): https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plainrows/backlink-checker

Full documentation, input options and output fields: https://apify.com/plainrows/backlink-checker