Key takeaways
- Profound's public pricing page now shows a free 7-day trial and custom Enterprise. Roundups still quote an Agency Growth plan at $99/mo plus $399 per client workspace, which makes five clients about $2,094/mo. The sources conflict, so confirm with Profound's sales team.
- On a pure per-client basis, Otterly and Peec AI are the cheapest published options. One vendor-authored comparison puts Profound at roughly 4 to 12 times the cost per client.
- "Unlimited clients" rarely means unlimited prompts. Prompt and credit caps are where agency budgets actually break.
- If you want to fix visibility gaps and not just report them, look at tools that include content execution and AI crawler data, such as Promptwatch.
- Many of the comparison articles online are written by vendors. Treat their per-client math as a starting point and rebuild it with your own prompt counts.
Why agencies look past Profound
Profound is still the enterprise name in this category. Alhena's July 2026 roundup reports a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation and more than 1,000 enterprise brands. That is a lot of momentum, but it is aimed at enterprise buyers.
Profound is built around custom contracts now. Its pricing page, checked on October 9, 2026 by SEO Stuff, lists a free 7-day trial (50 prompts a day across ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, no exports) and a custom-priced Enterprise plan. The FAQ mentions a self-serve Agency Growth plan but gives no price.
Other roundups still describe the older agency structure. Xtrusio lists Agency Growth at $99/mo with 5 agency seats and 10 pitch workspaces a month, then $399/mo per client workspace covering 100 daily prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Get3rd adds that extra pitch workspaces cost $199/mo for 5, with 25 prompts each. KIME traces the $399 figure to Profound's November 2025 agency launch post.
I can't tell you which version is current. The honest answer is that it conflicts across sources. If Profound is on your shortlist, ask for a written quote.
The arithmetic that matters: five clients at $99 + 5 x $399 comes to $2,094/mo. For a boutique agency billing $1,500 retainers, that is not workable, which is why the alternatives below exist.
How to compare agency pricing without fooling yourself
A monthly sticker price tells you very little. Before you compare anything, work out four numbers.
- Prompts per client. Twenty-five is a common starting point, but competitive categories need more.
- Engines per prompt. Peec's entry tiers cover 3 models, Otterly covers 4, Scrunch's Agency Core covers 4.
- Run frequency. Daily tracking costs far more credits than weekly.
- Number of clients, now and in twelve months.
Credit-based tools make this concrete. On Peec, 1 prompt x 1 model x 1 day equals 1 credit, so 25 prompts on 3 models daily is about 2,250 credits per client per month (KIME's math). AthenaHQ's Starter plan gives 3,600 credits across 11 models at one credit per AI response, so weekly tracking of 25 prompts on 3 engines is about 325 responses per client.
Also keep in mind that citation counts are not comparable across engines. Promptwatch Data's average sources per response report shows ChatGPT citing about 5 sources per web-search answer, Google AI Overviews about 10, and Perplexity almost exactly 10 every day. Copilot swung from under 2 to nearly 17 within weeks. So a single blended citation number in a client report means little. Report each engine separately.
Per-client cost at a glance
The table below pulls published or reported prices. Treat everything as a snapshot and confirm on each vendor's pricing page.
| Tool | Entry agency-relevant price | What you get | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | Reported $99/mo + $399 per client workspace | 100 daily prompts per workspace | Conflicting reports on whether these plans still exist |
| Peec AI | $245/mo (Essential agency) | 10,000 credits, 3 client projects | Two different $245 tiers exist (brand vs agency) |
| Otterly | $189/mo (Standard) | Unlimited workspaces, 4 engines | No native white-label |
| Scrunch | $500/mo (Agency Core) | 250 prompts, 10,000 responses, 3 brand workspaces | Five clients need a bigger plan |
| AthenaHQ | $295/mo (Starter) | 3,600 credits, 11 models | No published agency discounts |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo per domain | 25 prompts, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode | Costs scale linearly per client |
| Promptwatch | $199/mo (Kick-off) | Unlimited projects, 10 seats, 10,000 responses | Agency plans exclude the Content Agent |
KIME's own comparison (vendor-authored, so biased) calculated cost per client at 25 prompts each:
| Tool | 5 clients | 15 clients | 30 clients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly | $37.80 | $32.60 | $26.20 |
| Peec AI | $99 | $53 | Exceeds Scale; custom |
| Semrush | $123 | $127 | $129 |
KIME's conclusion is that Profound costs roughly 4 to 12 times more per client than Otterly or Peec, though Profound includes 100 prompts per workspace instead of 25. Compare on equal prompt counts before you take that at face value.
Peec AI: the default agency pick
Peec is the one most roundups reach for when the buyer is an agency, including Alhena's "by use case" guide, which calls out unlimited seats on every plan.
Per Peec's agency pricing page, Essential is $245/mo with 10,000 credits, Growth is $495/mo with 25,000 credits (aimed at boutique agencies with 3 to 10 clients), Scale is $795/mo, and Comprehensive is custom. According to Xtrusio, Essential covers 3 client projects, Growth 10 and Scale 25, with annual billing at $205, $420 and $675/mo. All plans include unlimited team and client users, 7-day free pitch projects, shareable dashboards, scheduled client updates and CSV exports. Data Studio dashboards arrive at Scale and above.
The catch is the brand-versus-agency confusion. Peec's self-serve brand tiers (Starter $95, Pro $245, Advanced $495) share price points with the agency tiers but have different limits. Make sure you read the right pricing page. Also, the Looker Studio connector needs an API key, and several sources say white-label is not documented.
Otterly: lowest cost per client
Otterly's brand plans start at $29/mo (Lite, 15 prompts), then Standard at $189 and Premium at $489. It tracks ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot. Claude, Gemini and AI Mode are paid add-ons.
For agencies, unlimited workspaces start at Standard. Agency Partner status raises prompt limits to 150 (Standard) or 500 (Premium) and adds pitch workspaces and branded Looker Studio dashboards. Extra prompts run $99 per 100. Get3rd shows likely annual rates around $160 and $422.
The tradeoff is reporting polish. There is no native white-label, so client-facing reports run through a branded Looker Studio template. If your clients mostly want a monthly PDF and a number going up, that is fine. If you sell a premium dashboard experience, it will feel thin.
Scrunch: agency-specific, but small at entry
Scrunch's brand plans start at $300/mo ($250 annual) for 350 custom and 1,000 industry prompts, then $500/mo for the Growth tier. Its Agency Core plan is $500/mo (Xtrusio, checked October 23, 2026) with 250 unique prompts and 10,000 responses a month, but only 3 brand workspaces and 3 pitch workspaces, with unlimited users.
That three-workspace cap is the thing to catch. Five clients means jumping to a different plan. Scrunch does offer a prospecting license through its partner program and includes product/SKU tracking, which matters if your clients sell physical goods.
AthenaHQ: broad model coverage
AthenaHQ has a free Essential plan with 300 credits, and Starter at $295/mo with 3,600 credits across 11 models. KIME's math puts about 5 clients on Starter at roughly $59 each if you track 25 prompts weekly on 3 engines. Agency discounts are not published, though it offers pitch workspaces and a GEO certification.
It is a reasonable middle ground if you want wide model coverage without Profound's enterprise packaging. Weekly cadence is the key assumption in that per-client figure. Move to daily and the credits disappear quickly.
Semrush and Ahrefs: if you already pay for the suite
Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is $99/mo per domain for 25 prompts. Extra domains are $99 each, 50 extra prompts are $60, and white-labeled Pro Reports add about $20. It covers Google AI Mode and ChatGPT. Five clients cost $495/mo, and the per-client cost stays flat as you grow, so it never gets cheaper at scale.
Ahrefs Brand Radar starts from $199/mo on top of a base plan.
The argument for these is workflow. Your team already lives in the SEO suite, and the AI data sits next to keyword and backlink data. The argument against is that prompt sets are fixed and shallow compared with dedicated platforms, and there is no crawler-level data.
Promptwatch: when you want to act on the data
Most of the tools above stop at monitoring. Promptwatch is different in that it shows why a client is or isn't visible, then helps fix it. Its IP-verified AI crawler logs show which AI bots hit a client's site and what errors they run into, and visitor analytics tie AI referrals to real traffic and conversions. That is the kind of evidence that makes a renewal conversation easier than a screenshot of a mention count.
The agency plans are a good fit for this article's theme. Kick-off is $199/mo, Growth is $399/mo and Scale is $799/mo, all with unlimited projects, pitch projects and prompts, 10 seats, all models, Agent Chat, country/state/city tracking, crawler logs, visitor analytics, site audits, custom reports, white-label PDF exports and MCP/API access. Responses are the limiting factor: 10,000 on Kick-off, 25,000 on Growth and 65,000 on Scale. Unlike per-workspace pricing, you are not charged a fee for each new client. Be aware that agency plans don't include the Content Agent, AEO articles or 360 Insights, which sit on the Business and Enterprise plans. Confirm current pricing at promptwatch.com/pricing.
It also tracks the real interfaces of ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Meta AI and Alexa, which matters because Promptwatch Data shows the engines behave very differently from one another. For example, ChatGPT drew just 0.46% of its citations from social platforms from Sep 28 to Oct 4, 2026, while Google AI Overviews drew 12.2% (social media citations by AI model). A client strategy built on Reddit and YouTube looks very different depending on which engine matters to them.
Other tools worth a look
A few smaller options show up in agency conversations. Search Party is built specifically for agencies, KIME offers an Agency Starter at EUR 499 for 200 prompts across unlimited workspaces, and Similarweb pairs visibility with AI-referral traffic from $99. ZeroRank starts at $39/mo with research and content tools, and Peekaboo offers white-label reporting from $100/mo with Looker Studio.
Similarweb AI Brand Visibility
For a longer list, the directories at ai-rank-tools.com and bestgeosoftware.com are good places to keep browsing.
Pitfalls that blow up agency budgets
- Prompt and credit caps differ per tool, so unlimited clients does not mean unlimited prompts.
- Entry-price engine coverage differs (Peec 3, Otterly 4, Scrunch 4 on Agency Core). A cheaper plan that skips the engine your client cares about is not cheaper.
- Annual and monthly prices are often shown side by side in roundups, and it is easy to quote the wrong one.
- Roundups quote stale Profound prices.
- Several of these comparisons are written by vendors, including KIME's, Alhena's and ZeroRank's, each of which ranks itself or a partner favorably.
- Pitch workspaces are now standard everywhere, so they are not a differentiator. Check how many you get and how long they last.
See also the Screenshot of the Alhena roundup for a use-case view, though I would verify any price against the vendor page.
Which one should you pick
| Your agency | Start with |
|---|---|
| 3 to 10 clients, want polished client dashboards | Peec AI Growth |
| Many small clients, lowest cost per client | Otterly Standard or Premium with Agency Partner |
| Needs crawler data, AI traffic proof and more than visibility reports | Promptwatch agency plans |
| Already deep in an SEO suite | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit |
| Wide model coverage on a modest budget | AthenaHQ Starter |
| Product-heavy ecommerce clients | Scrunch or Alhena |
My practical advice: pick two finalists, run a real pitch project for each on one live client with your actual prompts, and compare what you can show the client in week two. Pricing pages tell you what a tool costs. A pilot tells you whether you can sell it.
If you are building out a full AI search offering and want a partner on the service side, 1001 SEO Media runs GEO programs for brands, but the tool decision above stands on its own.