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Domain Rating Checker: DR3 vs DR4

Enter a domain or subdomain to see its current Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR3) next to its new DR4 score, and how far it moves. Live data, free, no sign-up.

Nothing you search is stored. Subdomains work too, like docs.stripe.com.

Sample changes

Startup tools, docs sites and media, as of 6 November 2026.

Questions, answered.

DR4 is the fourth version of Domain Rating, the Ahrefs score for how strong a site's backlink profile is compared with others in its database. Ahrefs plans to switch its tools over to DR4 on December 1, 2026, so scores can still move until then.

To make the score reflect link strength more closely. DR4 gives more weight to links from sites Ahrefs estimates get organic search traffic, and in its tests DR4 lined up better with Google rankings across domains and subdomains than DR3 did.

Subdomains are now rated on their own links instead of borrowing the score of their root domain. That's why so many subdomains fall. help.ahrefs.com goes from 91 to 77, while ahrefs.com itself scores 92 on DR4.

Not necessarily. Domain Rating only measures your backlink profile, and it's relative to other sites. It says nothing about your content or product. Check similar sites too, since they may have moved in the same way.

Ahrefs explains the update in its DR4 announcement and covers the metric itself in What is Domain Rating?.

Ahrefs runs the scores, so feedback on them goes to Ahrefs. Its announcement has a rollout and feedback section with a form. If something is wrong with this page, tell FoundrList.

Every score comes from the free Ahrefs Domain Rating API. FoundrList doesn't calculate, adjust or estimate them. The sample tables are a dated snapshot of the same data.

A score of 0 means Ahrefs returned no rating for that host. Ahrefs says only about half as many sites have a DR4 score as a DR3 score, so a new or lightly linked site can show 0 on DR4.

No. FoundrList doesn't store the domains you check. Results are cached for a day so repeat checks are fast, without any link to who ran them.

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Reference figures

Figures worth knowing. Each one links to its source.

FigureValueNote and source
Sites with a DR4 scoreAbout halfAhrefs says around half as many sites have a DR4 score as have a DR3 score, because DR4 puts more weight on links from sites it estimates get organic search traffic.Source: Ahrefs, Introducing a Preview of DR4 (2026), accessed 2026-11-06
Top 1,000 domains by organic traffic64.3% went upAhrefs reports 15.8% stayed the same and 19.9% went down, with a median drop of 4 points.Source: Ahrefs, Introducing a Preview of DR4 (2026), accessed 2026-11-06
Spam domains scoring 30 to 70 on DR3Down 15 to 20The median drop Ahrefs reports for these domains. It says non-spam domains stayed close to zero across most DR3 ranges.Source: Ahrefs, Introducing a Preview of DR4 (2026), accessed 2026-11-06

How to use this tool. Three steps from your inputs to a result you can keep.

  1. 01

    Enter a domain

    Type a domain or a subdomain, such as yourdomain.com or blog.yourdomain.com. A full URL works too.

  2. 02

    Compare the two scores

    You get the current DR3 score, the new DR4 score and the change between them, straight from Ahrefs.

  3. 03

    Check your competitors

    Run the sites you compete with as well. A drop means more when you can see whether similar sites moved the same way.

Formula & methodology. The exact rule this tool uses.

Core Calculation

Change = DR4 − DR3, both read live from the free Ahrefs Domain Rating API. FoundrList doesn't calculate or estimate either score.

With the example inputs, the Domain Rating Checker: DR3 vs DR4 produces −2 (Change from DR3 to DR4). stripe.com scored 95 on DR3 and 93 on DR4 on 6 November 2026.

Domain Rating by Ahrefs
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