# Ahrefs DR4 Score

Your Ahrefs DR is about to change. Don't panic. And don't tell your client that it's a penalty.

Ahrefs has published a preview of Domain Rating 4 (DR4). It will be available in the standard Ahrefs UI in December.

**There are two big changes:**

1. A smaller, higher-quality pool of domains.
2. DR is still calculated from links.

However, links from sites with estimated organic traffic now carry more weight.

As a result, only about half as many sites will receive a DR4 score as received a DR3 score.

Subdomains now have their own score and no longer inherit the root domain’s DR.

> Ahrefs will roll out DR4 in December 2026. This change reflects how it scores backlink profiles. Subdomains will have their own ratings, and a smaller pool of domains will be used in the calculation.

This means that your score may change even if your backlink profile remains the same.

Ahrefs reports a correlation that is more than 2.5 times stronger with Google ranking positions across all hosts in its testing.

However, this finding comes with context: the correlation for root domains alone was lower under the new model.

> You can now check your DR4 score here at <https://detailed.com/dr-v4/>

**Example: New domain rating for Best AISO website**:

[bestaiso.com](http://bestaiso.com) DR 16 → 0 (as of 9th Nov 2026)

![dr4 score for bestaiso.com](https://cdn.hashnode.com/uploads/covers/5f8dd1613432643d6b92c06c/81a15ffe-4cba-4d39-b4ca-37d4ee50ce2a.png align="center")

### Why is Domain Rating (DR) being updated?

This isn't the first time that Domain Rating scores have been overhauled. Ahrefs always want DR to accurately reflect the quality of a site's link profile. They felt that there were some opportunities to improve the current system.

### What's the biggest change?

By popular request, subdomains now have their own rating and no longer inherit the overall domain's rating.

**For instance**, [Microsoft.com](http://Microsoft.com) has a DR of 94, while [Blogs.microsoft.com](http://Blogs.microsoft.com) has a DR of 87.

**Learn more at** [**https://ahrefs.com/blog/domain-rating-dr4/**](https://ahrefs.com/blog/domain-rating-dr4/)

**Read more relevant posts at Best AISO:**

- <https://bestaiso.com/ahrefs-backlink-checker-review>
- <https://bestaiso.com/free-dr-checker-tools>
- <https://bestaiso.com/profile-creation-websites>