The Angle Link Pricing Index 2026.
What does a backlink really cost in 2026? We aggregated the most credible public studies, covering more than 300,000 sites and 500 surveyed professionals, into one sourced index. Every number links to its origin. No guesswork, no sales spin.
Average price SEOs consider acceptable for one quality backlink
Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO pros)Average guest post, per link, across 52,671 sites (up 7.5% YoY)
BuzzStream, Link Building Pricing (52,671 sites)What owners ask for a link, versus what buyers actually pay
BuzzStream, Link Building Pricing (52,671 sites)of 257,267 link-selling sites were rated low quality
BuzzStream, The Cost of Guest Posts (257,267 sites)Guest post price by Domain Rating
Authority is the single biggest price lever. Average guest post cost rises steeply with Ahrefs Domain Rating.
| Domain Rating band | Avg. guest post price | Multiple of the cheapest tier |
|---|---|---|
| DR 1-30 | $332 | 1.0x |
| DR 31-70 | $555 | 1.7x |
| DR 71+ | $2,025 | 6.1x |
Price by link type
A full guest post (you supply or commission an article) costs more than a link insertion into existing content. Pricing varies wildly by source.
| Link type | Average price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Guest post | $459 | Full article + contextual link (52,671 sites) |
| Link insertion / niche edit | $225 | Added to an existing, already-indexed page |
| Niche edit (Ahrefs experiment) | $361.44 | vs $77.80 for paid guest posts in the same test |
Price by niche
Niche moves the price as much as authority. The more a vertical monetizes (and the more its ad channels are restricted), the more a link costs.
| Niche | Relative cost | Avg. guest post price |
|---|---|---|
| Sports | Most expensive | $572 |
| News & Media | High | $567 |
| Ecommerce | Low | $341 |
| Adult / Gambling | Least expensive (by avg) | $238 |
The pricing curve, visualized
Average guest post price climbs steeply with authority. Here is the curve, with an Angle DR55 placement for contrast.
Where the market is heading
76% of SEO professionals will pay $300 or more per link; 47% will pay $500 or more.
Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO pros)64% spend $3,000 or more per month on link building; 38% spend $6,000 or more.
Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO pros)75% expect link prices to rise over the next 2 to 3 years; only 8% expect a drop.
Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO pros)80.9% believe link building will become more expensive over the next 2 to 3 years.
Editorial.link, Link Building PricingA DR55 link should cost about $555. Ours is $149.
Angle sits in the DR 31-70 band, where the market average guest post is $555. We sell a clean editorial placement on our DR55 domain for $149, because you buy direct, with no agency markup and no weeks of outreach. The data above is exactly why that is a deal.
Methodology & sources
This index aggregates publicly published pricing data into one view. We did not run a proprietary survey; we curated the most credible recent studies and link each figure to its origin so you can verify it. Primary sources:
- BuzzStream, The Cost of Guest Posts (257,267 sites)
- BuzzStream, Link Building Pricing (52,671 sites)
- Reporter Outreach, State of Link Building 2026 (500 SEO pros)
- Editorial.link, Link Building Pricing
- Ahrefs, Should You Buy Backlinks?
Download the dataset (CSV) · Full methodology
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<figure style="font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;border:1px solid #e7e1d4;border-radius:14px;padding:20px;max-width:520px"><div style="font:600 12px/1 system-ui;letter-spacing:.12em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#21506b">Angle Link Pricing Index 2026</div><div style="font:700 36px/1.1 system-ui;color:#0e1116;margin:8px 0">~$500</div><div style="font:400 14px/1.5 system-ui;color:#586273">Median price of a quality editorial link in 2026. Guest posts average $459; DR71+ sites average $2,025.</div><div style="font:400 12px/1.4 system-ui;color:#586273;margin-top:10px">Source: <a href="https://angletutoring.com/link-pricing-index" style="color:#21506b">Angle Link Pricing Index 2026</a></div></figure>Free to cite with a link to this page. The fastest way to earn links like the studies above is to publish data worth citing, see white-hat link building and our full link building statistics.