Key takeaways
- Profound's old self-serve ladder was $99/mo for ChatGPT only and $399/mo for multi-engine tracking. One roundup dated October 27, 2026 says it now sells custom Enterprise contracts only.
- Cheap is easy. Cheap and tracking the real ChatGPT and Google AI interfaces is harder, because API calls cost far less than scraping the consumer UI, and the answers can differ.
- Otterly.AI is the lowest entry price in the sources ($29/mo, with Google AI Mode as a $9 add-on). Evertune, Writesonic, Geoptie and Athena sit in the $49 to $295 range.
- Prices in the roundups disagree with each other, so treat every number here as a starting point and confirm on the vendor's pricing page.
- Ask each vendor three questions before paying: UI or API, which engines are included, and what happens after the dashboard.
Why people are leaving Profound
Profound was an early mover in answer-engine tracking and has genuinely distinctive features, including real-user prompt volume data and an Amazon Rufus module. The complaint is about cost and packaging, not quality.
According to the Tim Soulo roundup, the $99/mo Starter plan covered ChatGPT only. Adding Perplexity and Google AI Overviews meant $399/mo, and the rest of the engines were Enterprise, unpublished. Even at Growth you were capped at 100 prompts and three seats. AIclicks, in a page updated October 27, 2026, says Profound now sells custom Enterprise contracts only.
If you are a lean team, an agency with a handful of clients, or a company that just wants to see whether ChatGPT names you, that is a lot of money for a narrow slice of engines.
Why real interfaces matter
A tracker can get its answers two ways. It can call a model through an API, or it can run the prompt in the actual consumer product and capture what a person would see. These are not the same thing. The API often returns an answer without live search, with different citations, and sometimes without the shopping cards or AI Overview layout a user gets.
Promptwatch's data collection is built around that distinction: it monitors the real user interfaces of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, and treats API outputs as a separate view of what a model believes from training data. If a vendor can't tell you which one they use, assume API.
Also, citation slots differ by engine. Promptwatch's average sources per response data (an older report, dated September 2025) found ChatGPT citing about 5 sources per web-search answer, while Google AI Overviews and Perplexity sit near 10. Track each engine on its own rather than blending them into one score.
And track by intent. In Promptwatch's ChatGPT content type data for Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026, product pages made up 26.0% of citations on commercial prompts, versus 22.4% overall. Branded prompts lift reviews to 5.6%. A cheap tool that only runs generic prompts will miss that.
The alternatives, with rough pricing
Pricing below comes from third-party roundups (AIclicks, Tim Soulo, Qvery, ZeroRank) and the numbers conflict in places. Athena, for example, shows up at both $95/mo and $295/mo. Check before you buy.
| Tool | Entry price (per sources) | Engines mentioned | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo Lite, 15 prompts | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; AI Mode +$9 | Cheapest entry |
| Evertune | $60/mo billed annually | Up to 5 models incl. ChatGPT, AI Mode | Includes an ads agent |
| Geoptie | From $49/mo | 7 engines, pick 4 per brand | Agency: $99/mo + $399 per client workspace |
| Writesonic GEO | $79/mo annual ($99 monthly) | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, others | 15 articles/mo included |
| AthenaHQ | $95 or $295/mo (sources disagree) | Up to 11 models | Content agent |
| Peec AI | Varies | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, DeepSeek | Simple daily tracking |
| AIclicks | From $59/mo | 10+ platforms | Claims real-interface queries |
| Promptwatch | Free tier; paid from $95/mo | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Meta AI, Alexa and more | Real UI tracking plus action tools |
Otterly.AI
The smallest bill in the research. Lite is $29/mo for 15 prompts tracked daily, and Qvery notes Google AI Mode is a $9 add-on, so $38/mo covers ChatGPT plus AI Mode. Fifteen prompts is tiny, though. It is a sanity check, not a program.
Evertune
Starter at $60/mo annual covers up to five models. The odd extra is an Ads Agent that runs ChatGPT ads for 10% of media spend, which is only interesting if you are already thinking about paid placement in AI answers.
Geoptie
Seven engines are available, and you choose any four per brand on every paid tier. The agency math is where it gets pricey: $99/mo plus $399/mo per full client workspace, per the ZeroRank roundup. For one brand it is cheap. For ten clients it isn't.
Writesonic GEO
The appeal is the bundle: 50 prompts on three engines plus 15 AI articles a month and site audits. If you were going to buy a writing tool anyway, the effective price of tracking drops.
AthenaHQ
Qvery lists Starter at $295/mo with 11 models and a content optimization agent, while the Tim Soulo post lists a $95/mo self-serve plan. One of those is out of date. Both agree the draw is broad model coverage and an action layer.
Peec AI
Simple on purpose: prompt tracking, daily monitoring and history across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews and DeepSeek. Qvery says you choose three models from six on entry plans. Good if you want clean data and no extras.
AIclicks
Positions itself as querying real user-facing interfaces rather than APIs, with a recommendations engine, from $59/mo. Note that this comes from AIclicks' own page, so verify the claim during a trial.
Promptwatch
Promptwatch is the option on this list that pairs real-interface tracking with the work that follows. It runs prompts in the actual UIs of ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Meta AI and Alexa, in each country and language you choose. Beyond tracking, it adds IP-verified AI crawler logs, visitor analytics for AI-referred traffic, an Action Board of prioritized fixes, and a Content Agent that writes and publishes to WordPress, Webflow or Framer on Business plans.
Prices: a free Explore plan (ChatGPT only, 10 prompts), Essential at $95/mo with 50 prompts and all models, Professional at $245/mo, Business at $579/mo. Agencies run $199 to $799/mo with unlimited projects. Confirm on promptwatch.com/pricing.
Others worth a look
Frase tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI daily and then drafts and publishes the fix, which makes it a content tool with tracking attached. Ahrefs Brand Radar ($50 to $699/mo depending on checks and indexes) is the pick if you already live in Ahrefs and want prompts based on real People Also Ask data. Semrush and SE Ranking fold AI tracking into suites you may already pay for. Skip these if your only need is cheap UI-level tracking.
How to verify a tool really tracks the UI
Vendors rarely volunteer this, so test it.
- Ask directly: "Do you capture responses from the consumer ChatGPT and Google AI interfaces, or from the API?" Vague answers mean API.
- Run one prompt yourself in ChatGPT with search on, then compare the tool's stored response. Look at the cited sources and whether shopping cards or AI Overview structure appear.
- Check the country and language options. Real-UI tracking is expensive, so good vendors usually let you pick locations.
- Look at the citations list, not just mentions. If sources differ wildly from what you see by hand, the data is not coming from the live product.
- Confirm Google AI Mode and AI Overviews are separate. Otterly charges extra for AI Mode, and AthenaHQ's free tier omits it.
What cheap plans quietly limit
- Prompt counts. 15 to 50 prompts is a pilot. A real topic map needs hundreds.
- Engine caps. Geoptie lets you pick four of seven, Peec three of six.
- Seats and projects. Profound's Growth tier had three seats. Agency plans multiply costs per client.
- Refresh rates. Daily versus weekly matters when answers move fast. Promptwatch's data showed reddit.com's share of ChatGPT citations falling from roughly 4% to 0.5% on a single day, August 14, 2026. Weekly snapshots would have blurred that.
- The 'now what' gap. AIclicks calls it the biggest complaint across the category: great data, no direction. Tools with an action layer cost more but save the analyst hours.
Which one to pick
- Under $50/mo and you just need a pulse check: Otterly.AI, or Geoptie from $49.
- Want content included: Writesonic GEO or Frase.
- Already in an SEO suite: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush or SE Ranking.
- Need real-UI tracking plus crawler logs, AI traffic attribution and publishing: Promptwatch.
- Agency with many clients: model the per-workspace math for Geoptie against Promptwatch's flat agency tiers before committing.
For wider browsing, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists far more options than fit here.
Before you sign
Start with a free tier or trial, run the same ten prompts in the tool and by hand, and compare. If the tool's answers match what you see in ChatGPT and Google, the price is justified. If they don't, the cheaper plan was never cheaper.