If you went to Profound’s pricing page recently expecting a $99 or $399 plan, you didn’t miss it. They’re gone.
In mid-September 2026, around the time it announced a $180 million Series D, Profound removed its self-serve Starter ($99 per month) and Growth ($399 per month) plans for brands. What’s left is a short free trial and a custom-priced Enterprise plan you reach through a sales demo. Agencies can still sign up on their own, at $399 per month for each client workspace.
For large brands with an analytics team, that changes little. For startups, small marketing teams, and in-house marketers who just wanted to see how ChatGPT talks about them, it means Profound is now a sales conversation and an enterprise budget line. This guide covers what changed, who it affects, and eight AI visibility tools that still publish their prices.
The short answer
If you want affordable, self-serve AI visibility tracking after Profound’s change, the strongest options are Otterly.AI (from $29 per month) and Peec AI (from $95 per month) for pure monitoring, AthenaHQ for a free tier, Scrunch for mid-market teams that want crawler analytics, and Eclincher AI Visibility (from $249 per month, billed monthly) if you want to find the gaps and fix them in the same platform. If you already pay for Semrush or Ahrefs, their add-ons are the path of least resistance.
What exactly changed at Profound?
Earlier in 2026, Profound listed two self-serve brand plans, both billed annually:
- Starter, $99 per month: ChatGPT only, 50 prompts.
- Growth, $399 per month: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, 100 prompts.
As of mid-September 2026, neither appears on the brand pricing page. Brands now choose between a limited free trial and Enterprise, which tracks up to nine answer engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Mode. Profound doesn’t publish Enterprise prices. Third-party reviewers report typical contracts somewhere around $1,500 to $5,000 or more per month, but treat those figures as unconfirmed until you get a quote.
One warning if you’re researching this: many review sites still quote the $99 and $399 plans. Check the date on anything you read, and confirm on Profound’s own pricing page.
Who this affects, and what to do
If you were about to buy Starter or Growth, you now need a demo and an Enterprise budget, or an alternative. This guide is mostly for you.
If you’re on a legacy Starter or Growth plan, ask Profound directly what your renewal will look like. We haven’t seen public terms for existing customers, so don’t assume your current price carries over.
If you’re an agency, Profound still has a self-serve path at $399 per month per client workspace. That works for a few high-value clients but gets expensive across a large roster, which is where the agency-friendly options below come in.
If you’re an enterprise team, Profound’s depth may still be the right call. More on that below.
Profound alternatives at a glance
Prices were checked against vendor pages and third-party reviews between August and October 2026, and this category changes fast. Confirm current pricing on each vendor’s site before you buy.
The 8 best Profound alternatives
1. Eclincher AI Visibility: find the gaps, then fix them
If you were weighing Profound’s old Growth plan, this is the closest like-for-like replacement. Growth cost $399 per month, billed annually only, for three engines and 100 prompts. Eclincher AI Visibility’s Standard plan costs $249 per month, billed monthly, for three engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini) and 100 unique prompts, with 3,000 responses a month organized into 10 topics. That’s $150 less per month, with no annual commitment.
Most AI visibility tools stop at the diagnosis. They show you that a competitor appears in ChatGPT’s answer and you don’t, and leave the rest to you. Eclincher tracks how often your brand is mentioned and cited compared with your competitors, and its Prompt Gaps view highlights the questions where competitors appear in the answer and you don’t. Around it, Eclincher also offers an AI Blog Writer for creating the content those gaps call for, AI Local SEO for businesses whose customers ask AI about local options, and a full social media management platform. AI Visibility is sold as a standalone plan, so you don’t need the rest to use it.
For broader coverage, the Enterprise plan tracks all 11 major engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, and Kimi, with 300 prompts and 9,000 responses a month. Like Profound’s Enterprise, it’s priced on request.
The honest trade-off: Standard covers three engines, and Google AI Overviews is not one of them. If you need more engines without an Enterprise conversation, AthenaHQ’s $295 Starter covers eleven, and Scrunch’s $250 Core plan covers four, including AI Overviews and Copilot.
Best for: teams that want to act on what they find, not just report it. You can run a free AEO check that tests nine prompts about your brand and shows where you rank.
2. Otterly.AI: the cheapest real entry point
Otterly.AI is the lowest-cost credible tracker in the category. Its Lite plan is $29 per month for 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, and the same four engines are included on every tier. Standard is $189 per month for 100 prompts, and Premium is $489 per month for 400. Seats are unlimited on every plan, and annual billing saves 15%.
The honest trade-off: Gemini, Google AI Mode, and Claude are paid add-ons, and 15 prompts is enough to test the idea rather than run a full program.
Best for: small teams that want to prove AI visibility deserves a budget before committing.
3. Peec AI: analytics without the sales call
Peec AI starts at $95 per month, or $80 billed annually, for 50 prompts across three engines you choose from a pool of seven, including Google AI Mode and Grok. Pro is $245 per month and Advanced is $495, with unlimited users on every plan and an MCP server included on paid plans.
The honest trade-off: Peec is report-only. It shows you the data and recommendations but doesn’t help you create or fix content, and each extra engine beyond three costs more.
Best for: marketing teams that want clean analytics and flexible engine choice.
4. AthenaHQ: the widest coverage, starting free
AthenaHQ’s free Essential tier comes with $25 of credit, roughly 300 AI responses, across five engines. Its Starter plan at $295 per month covers eleven engines, including Claude and Grok, with unlimited seats. Pricing is credit-based, with one credit equal to one AI response.
The honest trade-off: credit math takes some getting used to, and API access is a paid add-on on Starter.
Best for: teams that need many engines and want to try before paying.
5. Scrunch: the closest mid-market match
Scrunch’s Core plan is $250 per month for one brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot, with Agency Core at $500 per month and a custom Enterprise tier covering nine engines. Its standout features are AI crawler analytics and GA4 AI-traffic attribution, which show which bots read your site and what traffic AI sends back.
The honest trade-off: Sitecore acquired Scrunch in June 2026, and its packaging changed several times this year, so some buyers are cautious about where the roadmap goes.
Best for: mid-market teams that want the most Profound-like depth at a published price.
6. Semrush AI Visibility: if you already live in Semrush
Semrush’s AI visibility tracking costs $99 per month per domain and sits inside the SEO toolkit many teams already use.
The honest trade-off: it’s the most expensive option per tracked prompt at the entry tier, and costs stack up as you add domains and other Semrush add-ons.
Best for: existing Semrush customers who want one login.
7. Ahrefs Brand Radar: if you already live in Ahrefs
Ahrefs Brand Radar brings AI brand visibility into the Ahrefs suite, starting at $398 per month.
The honest trade-off: it’s a premium entry price unless you’re already paying for Ahrefs.
Best for: existing Ahrefs customers.
8. Promptwatch: a flat mid-market plan
Promptwatch offers a flat $95 per month plan covering four engines of your choice. It’s a newer and smaller vendor, so use the trial to check feature depth against your reporting needs.
Best for: teams that want straightforward flat pricing at a mid-market level.
Should you stay with Profound?
Possibly, and it’s worth being fair here. Profound is one of the best-funded companies in this category, and its Enterprise plan offers broad engine coverage, content-generation agents, SSO, SOC 2 compliance, and dedicated support. If you’re a large brand with an analytics team and a budget for it, the sales conversation may be worth having.
The change mostly affects everyone else: the teams that were well served by a $99 or $399 plan and now face an enterprise process for what used to be a self-serve purchase.
How to choose
Start with the job you need done.
- To prove AI visibility matters before spending real money: Otterly.AI or AthenaHQ’s free tier.
- For solid analytics at a mid-market price: Peec AI, Scrunch, or Promptwatch.
- To act on the gaps you find, not just report them: Eclincher AI Visibility.
- If you’re already paying for an SEO suite: Semrush or Ahrefs.
- For maximum depth with an enterprise budget: Profound Enterprise or Eclincher Enterprise.
Then run your top two side by side for a week with the same set of prompts. Results differ between engines and tools, and seeing your own brand in each is more useful than any comparison table. If you’re new to the vocabulary, our AEO explainer and AI and AEO glossary cover the terms these tools use.
Frequently asked questions
Did Profound get rid of its $99 plan?
Yes. In mid-September 2026, Profound removed its self-serve Starter ($99 per month) and Growth ($399 per month) plans for brands. Brands now get a limited free trial or a custom-priced Enterprise plan. Agencies can still self-serve at $399 per month per client workspace.
How much does Profound cost now?
Profound no longer publishes brand pricing. Enterprise is quoted after a demo, and third-party reviewers report typical contracts of roughly $1,500 to $5,000 or more per month, though those figures are unconfirmed. Agencies pay $399 per month for each client workspace.
What is the cheapest alternative to Profound?
AthenaHQ has a free tier with $25 of credit, and Otterly.AI is the cheapest paid option at $29 per month for 15 prompts across four engines. Peec AI starts at $95 per month for 50 prompts across three engines you choose.
What is the closest replacement for Profound’s Growth plan?
Eclincher AI Visibility’s Standard plan is the closest match: $249 per month, billed monthly, for three engines and 100 prompts, compared with Growth’s $399 per month, billed annually, for three engines and 100 prompts. Scrunch’s $250 Core plan is another close option, covering four engines.
Which Profound alternative is best for agencies?
Scrunch offers an Agency Core plan at $500 per month, Peec AI and Otterly.AI include unlimited seats, and AthenaHQ supports unlimited seats on paid plans. Profound itself still sells agency workspaces at $399 per month per client, which suits a small number of high-value clients.
Is there a Profound alternative that also fixes AI visibility gaps?
Most tools only measure visibility. Eclincher AI Visibility pairs its Prompt Gaps view with an AI Blog Writer and AI Local SEO, so teams can create the content those gaps call for in the same platform. Otterly.AI also offers page-level GEO audits.
The bottom line
Profound’s move upmarket makes sense for Profound, but it leaves a lot of teams without a self-serve option. The good news is that the category has matured fast. Otterly.AI and AthenaHQ make it cheap to start, Peec AI, Scrunch, and Promptwatch cover the mid-market with published prices, and Semrush and Ahrefs serve teams already in their ecosystems.
If you want to go a step further than tracking, Eclincher AI Visibility shows you where competitors are cited instead of you and gives you the tools to close the gap, starting at $249 per month with monthly billing. Run a free AEO check to see where your brand stands today.
