What 8,273 publicly listed guest post, sponsored article and link insertion prices say about what links really cost, by Domain Rating, niche and who is selling.
Short answer: a typical guest post costs $55 on a self-serve budget marketplace, $88 on an agency rate card and $689 on a premium digital PR marketplace. Domain Rating moves the price, but the seller you buy from moves it far more.
Key findings
$55
median listed price of a guest post on a self-serve budget marketplace (6,686 offers); 99% cost $100 or less.
20×
price gap for the same authority tier: DR 80+ placements cost a median $90 on the budget marketplace and $1,799 on the premium PR marketplace.
1.64×
median markup when the same site appears on two marketplaces (32 sites). The premium listing was higher for 27 of 32.
82%
of sites that quote both prices charge the same for a link insertion as for a full guest post (60 sites).
61%
of DR 70+ budget listings report under 10K monthly organic visits (179 of 293).
On 5 November 2026 we collected every priced offer shown on public, logged-out listing pages from three kinds of seller. We did not log in, pay, or contact anyone, and we did not adjust or negotiate any price.
Budget marketplace (6,686 guest post offers): a self-serve guest post directory that shows DA, DR, traffic, category, link type and price for each site.
Premium / PR marketplace (1,435 sponsored or PR article offers across 15 niche catalogue pages): a digital PR portal listing mostly news and magazine publishers with DR, estimated traffic, link type and price.
Agency rate card (152 offers: 92 guest posts and 60 link insertions): public niche price lists from a link building agency, quoting guest post and link insertion prices side by side.
Sample: 8,273 priced offers on 8,135 unique domains. Duplicate rows (same seller, domain, offer and price) were removed. Prices are list prices in US dollars as displayed; "from" prices were taken at face value.
Metrics: DR and traffic are the figures each seller displays (sellers say these come from Ahrefs and Semrush). We could not re-check every domain in Ahrefs for this edition, so treat them as listing-reported. As a consistency check, 32 domains appear on both marketplaces: their reported DR differed by a median of 1 point and was within 3 points for 70% of them.
Statistics: we report medians (less distorted by a few $10,000 offers) with interquartile ranges and counts. DR bands are 0–19, 20–39, 40–59, 60–79 and 80+. Niche labels are mapped from each seller's own categories into 16 groups; 76% of budget-marketplace rows had no category and are excluded from the niche table only.
Limitations: three sellers are not the whole market; listing prices are asking prices, not paid prices; the budget marketplace caps out near $150 and the premium portal skews to big media, so each segment is analysed separately. Seller names are withheld to keep this a market study rather than a vendor ranking.
Guest post price by DR band
Higher DR costs more in every segment, but the slope is very different. On the budget marketplace a DR 80+ placement costs only 1.8× a DR 20–39 one. On the premium PR marketplace the same jump costs 6.7×. Spearman rank correlation between DR and price is moderate in all three segments (0.49, 0.45 and 0.44), so DR explains only part of the price.
Medians from 8,273 offers collected 5 November 2026. Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
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DR band
Budget marketplace
Premium / PR marketplace
Agency rate card
All offers pooled
DR 0-19
$50($45–$59, n=778)
n=1
$80($38–$82, n=7)
$50 (n=786)
DR 20-39
$50($45–$60, n=2,913)
$269($175–$429, n=125)
$65($56–$79, n=26)
$50 (n=3,064)
DR 40-59
$60($55–$70, n=2,335)
$449($209–$845, n=426)
$80($60–$101, n=52)
$65 (n=2,813)
DR 60-79
$80($75–$90, n=494)
$799($419–$845, n=728)
$105($85–$155, n=65)
$245 (n=1,287)
DR 80+
$90($90–$105, n=120)
$1,799($889–$2,774, n=155)
n=2
$549 (n=277)
Median listed price; interquartile range (25th–75th percentile) and count in brackets. Pooled medians mix very different seller types, so compare within a column.
77% of budget guest posts cost $40–$69
Prices on the self-serve marketplace cluster tightly: the middle half of offers sit between $45 and $65, and 99% cost $100 or less. At these prices the fee is rarely the real cost of a link; checking whether the site has real readers is.
How budget guest post prices are distributed
6,686 guest post offers from one self-serve marketplace. Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
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Same site, two prices
32 domains were listed on both marketplaces. For 27 of them the premium listing was higher, with a median markup of 1.64×. The site, its DR and its audience were the same; only the seller changed. Before you pay a reseller, check whether the publisher accepts direct pitches.
Same site, two marketplaces: lowest listed price
Budget marketplacePremium / PR marketplace
Pink dot: budget marketplace. Violet dot: premium / PR marketplace. Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
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Link insertions are rarely a discount
The common advice is that a link insertion in an existing article should cost less than a new guest post. In the agency rate card, 60 sites quoted both. 82% charged exactly the same, 17% charged less and 2% charged more. The average discount was just 2%. Another 32 sites offered guest posts only.
Link insertion vs guest post price on the same site
60 sites with both prices listed. Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
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Guest post price by niche
Within the budget marketplace most labelled niches have a median of $35–$60, so niche matters less than seller type. In the premium segment, crypto placements carry the highest median ($845), while health and technology are among the lowest. In the premium segment nofollow offers had a higher median ($1,895, n=84) than dofollow ones ($650, n=1266): the nofollow listings are mostly major news and business publishers (median DR 84 vs 65), which suggests that brand reach, not link equity alone, sets the price at the top end.
Niche
Budget marketplace median
Premium / PR median
Median DR
Crypto
$35 (n=26)
$845 (n=512)
70
News & media
$60 (n=181)
$459 (n=189)
53
Lifestyle
$60 (n=245)
$430 (n=114)
41
Business & marketing
$35 (n=143)
$444 (n=144)
48
Technology
$40 (n=130)
$325 (n=133)
52
Health
$35 (n=161)
$294 (n=44)
39
Travel
$35 (n=120)
$369 (n=62)
38
Entertainment & sports
$60 (n=21)
$419 (n=135)
53
Gambling / iGaming
$35 (n=155)
n=1
38
Home & real estate
$35 (n=91)
$399 (n=38)
38
Finance
$40 (n=32)
$469 (n=47)
52
Education
$35 (n=77)
n=0
39
General
$35 (n=64)
n=0
39
Food
$40 (n=61)
n=0
38
CBD / vape
$35 (n=52)
n=0
39
Adult
$70 (n=27)
n=0
44
Legal
n=0
$380 (n=16)
56
Only offers with a niche label from the seller. Medians shown where a cell has at least 10 offers.
Key takeaways for link builders
Budget against the segment, not DR alone. A DR 80+ placement can be listed at $90 or $1,799. Decide first whether you need a niche blog link or a media mention.
Check traffic before DR. 179 of 293 DR 70+ budget listings report under 10K monthly visits. High DR with no readers is a warning sign.
Ask for a link insertion discount. Most sites price it the same as a guest post, even though you do less work for them. Treat that as a negotiating point.
Go direct when you can. The same site cost a median 1.64× more through the premium reseller. Pitching the editor yourself often removes the markup, or the fee entirely.
Track every fee per live link. Paid placements should use rel="sponsored" or nofollow under Google's guidelines; record what you paid and whether the link is still live.
The full anonymised dataset is free to use under CC BY 4.0: 8,273 rows with segment, offer type, niche, listing-reported DR and DR band, traffic band, link type, price and collection date. Domains are replaced by stable anonymous IDs.
$55 median listed price of a guest post on a self-serve budget marketplace (6,686 offers); 99% cost $100 or less.
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
20× price gap for the same authority tier: DR 80+ placements cost a median $90 on the budget marketplace and $1,799 on the premium PR marketplace.
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
1.64× median markup when the same site appears on two marketplaces (32 sites). The premium listing was higher for 27 of 32.
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
82% of sites that quote both prices charge the same for a link insertion as for a full guest post (60 sites).
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
61% of DR 70+ budget listings report under 10K monthly organic visits (179 of 293).
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
Attribution
If you use a chart or number, please credit and link:
Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices
FAQ
Questions, answered
How much does a guest post cost in 2026?
It depends mostly on where you buy. In our sample of 8,273 public listings, the median was $55 on a self-serve budget marketplace, $88 on an agency rate card and $689 on a premium digital PR marketplace.
Do higher DR sites cost more?
Yes, but how much more depends on the seller. On the budget marketplace the median rose from $50 at DR 20–39 to $90 at DR 80+ (1.8×). On the premium marketplace it rose from $269 to $1,799 (6.7×).
Is a link insertion cheaper than a guest post?
Usually not. Of 60 sites that listed both prices, 82% charged the same, 17% charged less for a link insertion and 2% charged more.
Where does the data come from?
Public, logged-out listing pages from two guest post marketplaces and one agency rate card, collected on 5 November 2026. Domains are anonymised in the CSV.
Can I use these numbers?
Yes. Please cite and link: Source: Pink Post Guest Post Pricing Index 2026 — pinkpost.io/research/guest-post-prices.
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