AirOps vs Profound: which AI visibility tool wins in 2026?
A content-operations platform that added AI-visibility measurement, versus a measurement platform that added content agents. Compared on what each publishes about price, engine coverage, execution and analytics depth. Sourced from both companies' live pages and documentation.
AirOps is the pick when the job is producing content at volume with AI visibility attached (Grids, Workflows and the Quill agent draft, update and publish, measurement covers eight documented engines, and Solo and Pro both start free, though no dollar price is published anywhere); Profound is the pick when the job is measuring deeply (real-user prompt volumes, server-log agent analytics and up to nine engines, sold to brands as a free three-engine Trial and then a custom Enterprise quote). If you want the tracking and the content work at a published price, Prefer does both from $24 a month.
The two start from opposite ends. AirOps began as a content engine and its Insights layer now measures mention rate, share of voice, citations and sentiment, with agent-traffic analytics on every tier; its pricing page lists three tiers and not one dollar figure. Profound began as answer-engine analytics and its Agents now draft and publish approved articles on credits; for brands the only paid route on its pricing page is an Enterprise quote. Neither documents earned off-page work such as community participation or PR: AirOps' Offsite runs managed paid placements, and Profound's pages do not describe off-page work either way.
- AirOps publishes no dollar prices: Solo and Pro 'Start for free', Enterprise is 'Work with us' (checked 23 September 2026).
- Profound offers brands a free Trial (50 prompts, daily for 7 days, three engines) and then a custom Enterprise quote for up to nine engines.
- AirOps is the deeper execution layer (Grids, Workflows, Quill, CMS publishing); Profound is the deeper measurement layer (Prompt Volumes, Agent Analytics).
- Choose AirOps to produce at volume; choose Profound to measure deeply; both need a sales conversation for a paid multi-engine plan.
The contenders
Screenshot not captured - FoundedAbout 2021, New York + San Francisco
- Backing$40M Series B (Nov 2025); ~$62M disclosed
- Starting priceFree start on Solo and Pro; no dollar figure published
- Free tierYes; Solo and Pro both 'Start for free'
- Engines at entryChatGPT only on Solo; multi-engine on Pro (8 documented)
- Third-party ratingG2 4.7/5 (134 reviews)
- FocusContent production at scale, measurement in service of it
Screenshot not captured - Founded2024, New York
- Backing$1B valuation (Feb 2026); a $180M Series D announced on its site
- Starting priceBrands: free Trial, then Enterprise quote
- Free tierFree Trial (50 prompts, daily for 7 days)
- Engines at entry3 on the Trial (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews); up to 9 on Enterprise
- Third-party ratingG2 4.5/5 (1,129 reviews)
- FocusMeasurement depth: prompt volumes, agent analytics, compliance
AirOps Profound 
Prefer The Prefer column is shown for reference: it is our product, and this page compares the other two. Website screenshots captured September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep); every claim is referenced in Sources.
Where each tool sits
AirOpsProfound
PreferOur productFeature comparison
AirOps ProfoundBased on both products' public pages, facts checked September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep). "Not advertised" means we could not verify the capability from public materials. Spot something out of date? Tell us.
Pricing, side by side
AirOps ProfoundPrices checked September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep) from each product's public pricing page.
AirOps (New York and San Francisco, founded around 2021) started as a content-operations platform and now positions as the growth platform for AI Search: Grids, Workflows and the Quill agent produce and update content at scale, an Insights layer measures visibility across eight documented engines, Agent Analytics reads AI crawler traffic from your logs, and an Offsite product runs managed placements. It raised a $40M Series B led by Greylock in November 2025 (about $62M disclosed in total, per our 15 August 2026 research) and holds a G2 rating of 4.7 out of 5 across 134 reviews. Profound (New York, founded 2024) is a dedicated answer-engine analytics platform that reached a $1B valuation in February 2026 and now carries a $180M Series D banner on its site; it sits first on G2's enterprise AEO list (4.5 out of 5, 1,129 reviews) and goes deeper on AI-search-specific data such as real-user prompt volumes and server-log agent analytics, with Agents that draft and publish approved content on credits. Sources
Which should you choose?
Choose AirOps if…
- Your job is producing and refreshing content at volume, with measurement attached to that workflow
- You want an agent (Quill) and bulk grids drafting and updating pages, published straight to your CMS
- Multi-engine tracking, agent analytics and MCP on the entry tiers matter more than a published sticker price
- Managed, paid placements fit your off-page strategy
Choose Profound if…
- Your job is measuring deeply: real-user prompt demand, up to nine engines, all-time history
- You are a large in-house team with budget for an Enterprise quote and people to act on the data
- SOC 2, SSO/SAML and a dedicated support desk are procurement requirements
- You want the tool most enterprise reviewers on G2 already rate first
Prefer tracks the same signals across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, then produces the content and citations that move the number. Free trial, paid from $24/mo. See how it compares to AirOps and Profound.
AirOps vs Profound, answered
Is AirOps better than Profound?
Neither is better across the board: AirOps is the better pick for producing content at volume with AI visibility attached (Grids, Workflows, the Quill agent, eight documented engines, free starts on Solo and Pro), and Profound is the better pick for measuring deeply (real-user prompt volumes, server-log agent analytics, up to nine engines on a custom Enterprise plan). If you want the tracking and the content work at a published price, Prefer does both from $24 a month. Pick by the job: produce at volume, or measure deeply.
How do AirOps and Profound pricing compare?
Neither publishes a dollar price for a paid brand plan, checked 23 September 2026. Prefer does: its paid plans start at $24 a month, with five engines, 30 prompts and 15 AI articles. AirOps lists Solo and Pro as 'Start for free' and Enterprise as 'Work with us', with no figure on any tier; Profound offers brands a free Trial (50 prompts, run daily for 7 days, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and a custom Enterprise quote, and the only dollar figures on its page are agency prices ($99 a month plus $399 per client workspace). Any AirOps or Profound Enterprise figure you read elsewhere is a third-party estimate.
Which is cheaper, AirOps or Profound?
On published prices it is a draw, because neither publishes one for brands: AirOps' Solo and Pro start free with no dollar figure, and Profound's brand track is a free Trial followed by an Enterprise quote (checked 23 September 2026). Prefer publishes its price, from $24 a month for five engines, 30 prompts and 15 AI articles. The practical difference is where the free part stops: AirOps' free starts include ChatGPT-only insights on Solo and multi-engine insights on Pro, while Profound's Trial runs for 7 days and then the only paid brand route is a quote.
Which AI engines do AirOps and Profound track?
AirOps' documentation lists eight engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Grok), with the free Solo tier reading ChatGPT only, multi-engine on Pro and Claude tracking dependent on your plan (checked 5 September 2026); Profound's pricing page lists up to nine answer engines on Enterprise and ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on its free Trial (checked 23 September 2026). Prefer covers five on every paid plan: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Neither AirOps nor Profound names every engine on its entry tier, so check the tier you would actually buy.
Do AirOps or Profound create content for you?
Both do, in different depths, and Prefer includes 15 AI articles a month in its entry plan from $24. AirOps is the deeper content engine: Grids generate and refresh pages in bulk, Workflows automate the pipeline, the Quill agent monitors, drafts and updates, and content publishes to WordPress, Notion or Webflow. Profound's Agents generate complete articles from a topic prompt and publish approved content to your CMS, with an approval step on every run and usage metered in credits.
Do AirOps or Profound do off-page work?
AirOps does, in one specific form (its Offsite product manages paid placements, handling outreach, negotiation and payment, and does not name community participation or earned PR), while Profound's pages do not describe off-page work either way. Prefer's off-page work is authentic Reddit participation and PR pitching, at scale but not automated, done for you on Prefer Managed and Prefer's Enterprise plan; the self-serve plans from $24 a month track, show the sources and write the content. If earned mentions rather than paid placements are the goal, that is the difference to weigh.
Does AirOps or Profound track AI crawlers?
Both do, and so does Prefer, which reads AI crawler activity from server logs as part of its Monitor layer. AirOps' Agent Analytics streams HTTP request logs from Cloudflare, CloudFront, Vercel or Netlify to show which AI engines crawl your site and when assistants send visitors, and it is included on every tier (checked 5 September 2026). Profound's Agent Analytics uses server logs rather than JavaScript trackers and lists integrations for Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Cloud, Netlify, Vercel and WordPress (checked 23 September 2026).
Who is AirOps best for?
Content and marketing teams that ship at volume and want measurement attached to the workflow: bulk grids, workflows, an agent that drafts and updates, and CMS publishing, with multi-engine insights on Pro. Lean teams that want a plug-and-play monitor with content included at a published price fit Prefer better, from $24 a month. G2 reviewers praise AirOps' Quill agent and its opportunities feed, and flag the learning curve and feature overwhelm, so it suits teams with a content operation to run.
Who is Profound best for?
Large in-house teams that want the deepest answer-engine data and can act on it: real-user prompt volumes, up to nine engines, all-time history, an API, SSO/SAML and SOC 2, bought as an Enterprise quote. Teams without a quote-sized budget, or without people to act on the data, fit Prefer better, since it includes the content work from $24 a month. Profound sits first on G2's enterprise AEO list, and its free Trial (50 prompts, daily for 7 days, three engines) is a way to see the product before a demo rather than a plan to run on.
What is the best alternative to AirOps and Profound?
Prefer is the best pick if you want measurement and content execution together at a published price: it tracks five engines and includes 15 AI articles a month from $24 (free trial on every paid plan, free audit), and Prefer Managed and Prefer's Enterprise plan add authentic off-page work. The category also includes Peec AI, Scrunch, AthenaHQ, Otterly and Semrush's AI toolkit. See our roundup of the best AI visibility tools.
Sources
- AirOps pricing page airops.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound pricing page tryprofound.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- AirOps documentation (Insights analytics, engines, Agent Analytics) docs.airops.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- AirOps AI Search Visibility page (plan limits, mention tracking) airops.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- AirOps platform page (Intelligence, Action, Measurement) airops.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound features overview (five modules) tryprofound.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound Agents feature page tryprofound.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound Prompt Volumes feature page tryprofound.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound Agent Analytics feature page tryprofound.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- G2: Best Enterprise Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Tools g2.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- AirOps on G2 g2.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Profound on G2 g2.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)
- Fortune: Profound raises $96M Series C at a $1B valuation fortune.com Accessed September 2026 (AirOps 5 and 23 Sep; Profound 18 and 23 Sep)