What Needs What

What Needs What

OpenGSC follows one rule: nothing is required, and nothing spends money without telling you first. A fresh install with only the Google OAuth app already gives you the full GSC dashboard, analytics, audits, uptime and alerts. Everything else turns on when you add the key it needs.

How to read the tables:

• Free: runs on your server or on a free public endpoint.
• Free key: needs an account or API key, but the provider doesn't charge for normal use.
• Google quota: free, but spends a daily Google API quota on your own OAuth.
• Paid: bills your own key or balance. Every paid button shows its price before you press it, and paid MCP tools refuse to run without confirm: true.
• Self-hosted: runs on your own A-Parser; you pay only for its proxies.

Works out of the box (Google OAuth only)

Feature	Where	Cost
Portfolio dashboard, every site from every Google account	Dashboard	Google quota
Clicks / impressions / CTR / position, period comparison, countries, devices	Site → Dashboard	Free (local data)
Potential (striking distance), Cannibalization, Content Decay, CTR benchmark	Top menu → Analytics	Free
Annotations on the traffic chart	Site → Annotations	Free
Ahrefs Domain Rating badges on site cards	Dashboard	Free (public endpoint, cached 7 days)
Site audit crawler (up to 500 pages), AI-crawler check, llms.txt	Site → Audit, Top menu → Audits	Free
Uptime monitor and incident history	Dashboard dots, Site → Health	Free
SSL certificate check	Site → Health	Free
Sitemap inventory and diff	Site → Indexing	Free
URL Inspection, manual and automatic (2,000 per property per day)	Site → Indexing	Google quota
Alerts and digests	Settings → Notifications, Digest	Free (you bring the channel)
Trend radar (rising GSC queries + Google autocomplete)	SEO Tools → Demand	Free / Google quota
Brand mentions (Google News, Wikipedia, Wikidata)	Site → Visibility → Mentions	Free
Footprints report, hreflang generator	SEO Tools	Free
Backlink toxicity, disavow file, lost-link recovery	Site → Backlinks	Free (local math on imported rows)
Local business profile, NAP check, LocalBusiness JSON-LD	SEO Tools → Local	Free
Competitor crawler (tech stack, shared-owner signals)	Top menu → Crawler	Free
Googlebot View (multi-UA fetch, cloaking diff)	SEO Tools → Googlebot View	Free (True Google View uses Google quota)
Client reports and share links	Reports	Free (e-mail needs SMTP; PDF needs a headless browser on the server)
Audit widget and leads	Settings → Integrations, Leads	Free
Shared read-only dashboards	Site → Settings → Public Link	Free
PWA, web push, browser extension	Settings	Free (push needs HTTPS)
MCP server, local-tier tools	Settings → Integrations	Free
Importing Ahrefs / Semrush CSV exports into the metrics cache	Settings → SEO Metrics	Free
Scheduled encrypted backups, SFTP offsite	Settings → Backups	Free

Needs a free key or account

Feature	What to get	Page
GA4 tab	Analytics Data + Admin APIs in your Google project	Google Cloud Setup
Microsoft Clarity tab	Clarity project + API token	Google Cloud Setup
Safe Browsing, Core Web Vitals	Google API key (Safe Browsing API, PageSpeed Insights API)	Health check keys
VirusTotal reputation	VirusTotal key (free tier: 500/day)	same
Bing dashboards, sitemap submit	Bing Webmaster API key	Indexing
Yandex dashboards, recrawl	Yandex OAuth token	same
IndexNow pushes	A key file on your site	Indexing
Telegram / Slack / Discord / Teams / e-mail / webhook	The channel's bot, webhook or SMTP	Notifications
Google Business Profile reviews and posts	GBP API access (granted by Google on request)	Local SEO
Publishing to WordPress	WordPress application password	Publishing

Needs a paid key (yours)

Feature	Needs	Typical cost
Rank Tracker	A SERP provider: Serper, DataForSEO, ScrapingRobot, or your A-Parser	Serper ≈ $0.0003 per check; A-Parser: proxies only
AI SEO Tools (outlines, articles, rewriter, landing, analysis, policy)	An AI provider key	Your provider's token price, no markup
Keyword clustering, outline / gap research	SERP key (+ AI key for outlines; Firecrawl optional for anti-bot pages)	per SERP query
AI Visibility: live AI-answer checks	OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini / Perplexity / xAI keys (web search on)	about 4 billed calls per question per check
AI Overviews as an engine	DataForSEO (SERP Advanced) or A-Parser	per SERP
LLM Mentions index, share of voice vs competitors in the index	DataForSEO	per request
Demand (keyword research, domain overview)	DataForSEO	≈ $0.03 per 150-row search; cached 14 days
Citation & Sentiment tracker	DataForSEO Content Analysis	per request
Keyword volume / KD / CPC, backlink profiles, competitor gap	Ahrefs, Semrush, Majestic, DataForSEO or Keys.so (or free CSV import)	priced per action; monthly unit cap
Link Monitor (fresh competitor backlinks)	Ahrefs API v3	units per pull
GEO Audit	OpenAI, kie.ai, Gemini, or A-Parser FreeAI::ChatGPT	one agentic web-search run
Plagiarism check, site: index estimate, geo-grid scans	SERP provider	per query, price shown first
Backlink indexed-status checks	XMLRiver	per check
Index accelerators	2index.ninja, NeuralIndexer	their pricing
Magic links (buy posts from striking distance)	FieldLink or 369Team balance	per placement
Drops enrichment	Majestic TF/CF (tiny), refdomains (Ahrefs), AI history pass (AI key)	priced per batch
SERP Monitor	A-Parser with SE::Google + proxies	self-hosted

Spending controls you have

• Prices before buttons: every paid action shows its estimate first.
• Monthly unit cap for metrics providers (Settings → SEO Metrics), enforced server-side before the request is sent.
• Opt-in schedules: automatic AEO checks, weekly backlink refreshes and similar jobs are off by default, so a big portfolio never signs itself up for a bill.
• Roles: only Admin and Owner can spend. Editors and viewers can't trigger paid calls. See Team roles.
• Provider log (Settings → Provider log): every outbound paid call with its status and the cost the provider reported.
• MCP confirm: true: an AI agent can't spend your credits by exploring tools.