Ahrefs Academy Free Courses 2026: Full List + What's Inside

Ahrefs Academy Free Courses (2026): The Full List and What's Actually Inside Each One

Ahrefs Academy has five free courses right now, taught by Sam Oh, covering SEO fundamentals, keyword research, technical SEO, local SEO and link building. All of them are genuinely free, no trial period, no credit card, no hidden tier. Here's exactly what's in each one, how long it takes and how to get to it.

There's also a separate, longer credential called Ahrefs Certification that regularly gets confused with these courses. It's covered below too, since "ahrefs course free trial" and "ahrefs learning center" searches often mean people are looking for one when they land on the other.

The full course list

That's roughly 8 hours of total instruction if you go through everything. All five are taught by Sam Oh, using Ahrefs' own tools for real, hands-on demonstrations rather than slides and theory, which is the teaching style independent reviewers most consistently point to as the library's strength.

How to access them

The courses sit at Ahrefs Academy - Free SEO Training and are watchable directly. No purchase, no credit card and per Ahrefs' own materials, no sign-up required for the video content itself. If you're specifically searching "ahrefs course free trial," there isn't a trial to sign up for. The courses themselves are simply free to watch outright, so there's nothing to trial in the first place.

None of the five courses above issue a certificate on completion. If a certificate matters to you, that's a different, separate thing, covered next.

The separate thing: Ahrefs Certification

This is likely what "ahrefs learning center" and some "ahrefs course free trial" searches are actually looking for, a related but distinct offering from the courses above.

The Certification exam is also taught by Sam Oh and covers similar ground in more depth: how Ahrefs discovers and crawls pages, how Domain Rating and URL Rating are calculated and how the tool's core metrics work. It's genuinely free, the same as the courses, but it does require setting up a free Webmaster Tools account first, which the standalone video courses don't.

One thing worth knowing plainly: paid listings exist online selling "exam answers" for the Certification test. We're not going to describe what they contain or where to find them, that's not something worth facilitating, but it's worth being aware the temptation exists if you're planning to use the credential professionally. The value of any certification is entirely in what it actually demonstrates you know.

If you're comparing free options generally

Ahrefs Academy isn't the only free SEO training library. If that's really what brought you here rather than Ahrefs specifically, our existing coverage of Semrush Academy's free digital marketing courses is worth a look. Semrush's library is considerably larger, 30-plus SEO courses and 95-plus total across marketing disciplines, taught by 15-plus instructors including Brian Dean and Kyle Byers. Unlike Ahrefs, Semrush issues certificates directly on individual courses without a separate exam step. Our coverage of Semrush's SEO Toolkit Certification and Semrush's broader free SEO training cover that path in full.

The practical difference: Ahrefs Academy - Free SEO Training is narrower and more tool-workflow-specific, five courses, one instructor, no certificate without a separate exam. Semrush Academy is broader, more courses, more instructors, certificates built directly into individual courses. Neither costs anything, so the choice comes down to whether you want depth on Ahrefs' specific tools or breadth across more of marketing generally.

What these courses don't cover

Worth saying plainly since it's the one consistent gap independent reviewers point out: these are SEO skills courses, not a system for building a blog, an audience, or income from scratch. You'll learn how to research keywords and audit a site. You won't get a step-by-step path from zero to traffic or revenue.

If you're learning SEO specifically to support a content or affiliate income path rather than as a standalone skill, our Ultimate Guide to TikTok Affiliate Marketing covers one of the more direct ways these skills get applied in practice, since affiliate content lives or dies on the same keyword and on-page fundamentals taught here. And if SEO is just one option you're weighing among several ways to build online income, our guide to passive income ideas for beginners gives the wider picture before you commit real time to any one skill.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ahrefs Academy actually free? Yes, all five current courses are free to watch with no sign-up required for the video content itself. There's no trial period since there's nothing to trial.

Does Ahrefs offer a free trial? Not in the traditional sense. The Academy courses are simply free outright rather than trial-gated. Ahrefs' paid software product is separate from the Academy and has its own pricing, not covered here.

How many courses does Ahrefs Academy have? Five as of this writing: SEO Course for Beginners, Keyword Research Course, Technical SEO Course, Local SEO Course and Advanced Link Building Course.

Do Ahrefs Academy courses give you a certificate? No, the video courses themselves don't. A separate, longer Ahrefs Certification exam does include a certificate. It's also free, but requires a Webmaster Tools account and a timed exam.

Who teaches Ahrefs Academy? Sam Oh teaches the current course library and the Certification exam.

Where is the Ahrefs learning center? This typically refers to the Academy course library at Ahrefs Academy - Free SEO Training. If you were looking for the Certification path specifically, see the comparison table above.