Surfer offers an API that lets you access core functionality, including auditing, content creation, and more. The API is suited for developers, technical SEO specialists, and partners who want to integrate Surfer’s capabilities into their workflows or tools.
The following Surfer features are currently dashboard-only and do not have API endpoints:
Feature | Why it matters |
Internal Linking Engine | Surfer's GSC-integrated link suggestion tool runs exclusively in the dashboard |
Topical Maps / Sites View | Keyword clustering and content silo planning is UI-only |
Competitor customization | In the dashboard you can deselect competitors (e.g. Wikipedia, Pinterest) from SERP analysis; the API uses Surfer's default top-10 selection |
Plagiarism checker | Pre-publish plagiarism review runs in the browser editor only |
AI Tracker | AI visibility tracking and monitoring is not exposed via API (yet, but we are currently working on it) |
If you're building a programmatic workflow, consider using the dashboard for strategy-phase tasks (topical mapping, competitor pruning, internal linking) and the API for execution (creating editors, generating content, running audits).
This feature is available with the Peace of Mind or Enterprise plan. To check if it’s the right fit or to explore other available options, please reach out to our Sales Team via this form or by email at [email protected].
All requests without proper access will be blocked, even if a valid API key is provided.
You can automate actions with API requests without opening the Surfer web app each time. This includes:
Creating and managing Content Editor queries
Generating content via Surfer AI
Running Audit reports
Accessing SERP Analyzer data
Generating shareable links
Pulling structured data for custom dashboards
Detect AI-generated content in your text (AI Detector)
Humanize text (paraphrase to sound more natural while keeping meaning)
... and more - described in our API Documentation!
Details on endpoints, authentication, and request/response formats, available here 👉 Surfer API V1 documentation.
For full details on endpoints, authentication, and request/response formats, navigate here 👉 Surfer API V2 documentation.
What's new in V2:
- Content Editor management: create and manage Content Editor documents via API.
- New Content Score: access scores based on the updated scoring model (covers both SEO and AI Visibility).
- Outline generation: generate content outlines programmatically.
- Surfer AI: trigger Surfer AI writing through the API.
Surfer API uses API keys for authentication. If you have already subscribed to the Peace of Mind or Enterprise plan and need your API key, contact us via Live Chat or email at [email protected].
You need to authenticate your calls as the account owner. No other member, including admins, can do that. Read more about roles here.
Include your API key in the request header using the API-KEY field. Requests missing a valid key or made without the required plan or add-on will receive a 401 "Access Denied" response.
If you lost your API key, you can request a new one through our Support via [email protected]. We will resend you your key or, if you'd like - generate a new one instead.
We don't currently offer a sandbox environment. All API requests you send will consume actual limits from your account and count toward your plan’s quota.
Having API access doesn't automatically unlock all API-compatible tools. If your plan or add-on does not include tools like Audit or SERP Analyzer, related endpoints will not work, even with a valid API key.
You may receive errors such as 403 "Forbidden", 422 "Quota exceeded", or 500 "Internal server error", depending on the tool and the call.
