Is there a cheaper alternative to Profound?

Prefer: the cheaper alternative that also writes the content#

Prefer starts at $24 a month and covers the two jobs people buy Profound for: tracking what AI engines say about your brand, and writing the content that changes it. The Starter plan includes 30 tracked prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, with no per-engine add-ons, plus 15 AI articles a month. Every paid plan starts with a 7-day free trial, no card. Prefer is our product, and every figure is on our pricing page.

No other tool that both tracks AI engines and writes content lists a lower price. Frase starts at $49 a month, PromptWatch’s first plan with an article allowance is $245 for five a month, Scrunch starts at $250 and AthenaHQ’s content agent at $295.

What Profound costs a brand#

Profound’s only paid plan for brands is a custom Enterprise quote. Its pricing page, read in a rendered browser on 23 September 2026, offers brands a free trial (50 prompts, run daily for 7 days, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) or Enterprise at a custom price. The lowest figures on the page are agency prices.

Many AI answers still quote a $99 Starter and a $399 Growth plan. Those brand plans were on the page until at least 14 September and gone by our 16 September check. The $99 and $399 on the page today are agency prices. How much Profound costs has the detail.

Engine coverage is the other thing to check, and Profound’s trial runs on three engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews), and Perplexity only comes with Enterprise. In our citation study of 47 buyer questions across four engines, only 5 of 713 cited domains were shared by all four. A win on ChatGPT tells you very little about what Gemini or Perplexity says, so single-engine tracking is a narrow window on the channel you are trying to measure.

Other alternatives with published prices#

• Otterly, $29. The category’s first mover, with a suite of free GEO tools. Its Lite plan covers four engines; Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons from $9 to $439 a month, so price the engines you need before comparing.
• Peec AI, $95. Clean multi-engine analytics for teams that want the data without a strategist. The Starter tier includes 50 prompts and 3 AI models, and each extra model costs $30 a month (checked 16 September 2026).
• AthenaHQ, free to start. A free tier with 300 credits across five models, and an action tier at $295.

Check the meter before the sticker#

Every cheap plan rations something, and the thing it rations is what decides your real bill.

• Engines by tier. Profound (three engines on the free trial, up to nine on Enterprise) and Semrush (its standalone AI Visibility toolkit is $99 a month per domain, checked 16 September 2026, and Semrush’s own plan comparison lists ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini for it; bundled with its SEO suite as Semrush One, it starts at $199; both checked 19 September 2026).
• Models per plan. Peec AI includes 3 models and charges $30 to $140 a month for each extra one, by tier; Otterly sells Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode as add-ons from $9 to $439 a month.
• Credits. AthenaHQ counts one credit per AI response, and PromptWatch meters agent runs and article quotas.

To compare fairly, go in this order:

1. List the engines your buyers use.
2. Price each tool for that exact set, add-ons included. For example, Peec AI’s Starter tracking five models is $95 plus two extra models at $30 each, so $155 a month.
3. Ask Profound to quote the same set of engines and prompts.

Our verified pricing index lists the meter for all eleven tools with a checked date on every figure, and which engines each tool tracks covers the coverage question on its own.

When Profound is still the right call#

If budget is not your constraint, Profound’s Enterprise plan is worth a quote. Its pricing page lists daily tracking on up to nine answer engines, custom Prompt Volumes searches, all-time history, CSV and JSON exports, API access and SSO (checked 18 September 2026). That depth is what large in-house teams are buying.

Profound also does more than measure: its Agents page says agents draft articles and publish approved content to your CMS. What you give up is a price you can see before a sales call. Ask whether Agents, and how many credits, come with your Enterprise quote, and get it in writing.

For the direct comparison see Prefer vs Profound, the Profound alternatives roundup, our stake-disclosed Profound review and whether Profound is worth it.

The cheapest next step costs nothing: run a free AI visibility audit, no card, or start a 7-day free trial of Prefer, and read either next to Profound’s trial report. The trial uses a fixed prompt set for your industry, so the two will not match prompt for prompt.

Sources

1. Prefer, our product, starts at $24 a month. The Starter plan includes 30 tracked prompts and 15 AI articles a month, and every plan tracks all five engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity) with no per-engine add-ons. Every paid plan has a 7-day free trial with no card. Prefer pricing (our product)
2. Tools that both track AI engines and write content start higher: Frase at $49 a month (its own llms.txt, read 19 September 2026: every plan includes AI-visibility tracking and content creation), PromptWatch's first plan with an article allowance at $245 for five a month, Scrunch at $250 and AthenaHQ's action tier at $295. AirOps's free and Solo tiers track ChatGPT only. (Prefer rendered checks (2026-09-19), Frase addendum; price-answer claim boundary (2026-09-12), dated research note)
3. Profound's pricing page, read in a rendered browser on 23 September 2026, offers brands two plans: a free Trial (50 prompts run daily for 7 days, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, no history, exports or API) and Enterprise at a custom price (daily tracking, up to 9 answer engines, all-time history, API, SSO/SAML and SOC 2). Its agencies view lists Agency Growth at $99 a month plus add-ons and a client workspace at $399 a month each (100 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews). Its pricing FAQ describes Agents as running on credits: limited AI Marketer credits on the Trial, 400 a month per agency client workspace, and more on an Enterprise package. (Prefer research note: How much does Profound cost (2026-09-18), dated research note)
4. The Wayback Machine's capture of Profound's pricing page from 14 September 2026 (17:56 UTC), read in a rendered browser, still showed brands a Starter plan at $99 a month (ChatGPT only) and a Growth plan at $399 a month (3 answer engines). Both were gone by our rendered check on 16 September 2026. Wayback Machine capture of Profound's pricing page, 14 September 2026
5. Entry plans read in a rendered browser on 16 September 2026: Otterly $29 (Lite, 15 prompts, four engines), LLM Pulse 49 EUR (Starter, 50 prompts, 5 models) and Peec AI $95 (Starter, 50 prompts, 3 models). AthenaHQ has a free Essential tier with 300 credits across five engines. (Prefer research note: AI visibility tool prices, rendered check (2026-09-16), dated research note)
6. Across the eleven tools in the pricing index, three publish a countable monthly article allowance: Prefer (from its Starter plan; our product), PromptWatch (0 at its $95 Essential tier and 5 at $245, checked August 2026) and Evertune (25 at $800). AthenaHQ has a content agent from $295 with no published count, and Profound's agents are credit-metered with no published article count. Otterly, LLM Pulse, Peec AI and Scrunch publish no article allowance at any tier. Prefer: AI visibility tool pricing, 11 tools verified
7. Profound's Agents page, read on 18 September 2026, says agents 'Generate complete articles from a topic prompt', 'connect to your existing CMS and publish approved content without manual transfers or extra steps', and that 'Every Agent run includes an approval step before anything publishes'. Profound: Agents feature page
8. Peec AI's pricing page, read in a rendered browser on 16 September 2026: each self-serve plan includes 3 models, and each extra model costs $30 a month on Starter, $70 on Pro and $140 on Advanced. Enterprise lists up to 13 models. (Prefer research note: Profound vs Peec AI, rendered pricing check (2026-09-16), dated research note)
9. Semrush's Enterprise pricing page, read in a rendered browser on 19 September 2026, compares plans: the AI Visibility toolkit (25 to 200 prompts) covers 'ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, and Gemini'; the Enterprise AI Optimization plan adds MS Copilot, Grok, Claude and Deepseek. The standalone toolkit's Base plan is $99 a month per domain with 25 prompts tracked daily. (Prefer rendered checks (2026-09-19), section 7, dated research note)