Best Affordable Alternative to Profound for AI Search Tracking

TL;DR

The best affordable alternative to Profound is Listable Labs, which starts at $89/month for 50 prompts, ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode tracking, 10 articles and 2 seats. Peec AI ($95/month) is the pick for a wider engine list, and Semrush ($199/month) suits teams already on Semrush. Profound has no public price beyond a free trial.

Here are the tools compared in this guide:

• Listable Labs: best value, with tracking plus citation data and content actions from $89/month.
• Peec AI: clean interface and broad engine list from $95/month.
• Semrush AI Visibility: an add-on to the SEO suite from $199/month.
• Profound: the enterprise option with custom pricing.

You do not need to spend $500 a month to track AI visibility. Prices and engine lists were checked on vendor pricing pages in October 2026.

The Shift to Generative Engine Optimization

Search now splits between blue links and synthesised AI answers. When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity for a software recommendation, the model often runs a live web search, reads the sources it finds and writes one answer. A brand that is missing from that answer is missing from the buyer's shortlist.

Traditional rank trackers cannot see this. They report where a page ranks, not whether an AI engine names your brand, in which position, or which third-party pages it cites to justify the answer. That is the job of an AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) tracking platform.

Teams searching for an affordable Profound alternative usually hit the same problem: Profound sells to enterprise teams, and its pricing page offers a free trial and then custom Enterprise pricing. Older articles quote $99 and $399 plans for Profound, but those are no longer published, so treat any figure you see in a 2025 listicle with caution.

Before you commit to any tool, check four things:

• Engine coverage at your price: how many AI engines are included on the entry plan, not the top plan.
• Prompt volume: enough prompts to cover your category and your competitors.
• Citation data: can you see which URLs the engines cite when they recommend a rival?
• Actions: does the tool help you fix gaps, or only report them?

Deep Dive: Listable Labs

Listable Labs is an AI search visibility and AEO platform built in Bengaluru for India, US and global brands. It tracks how and how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers, shows which sources the engines cite, benchmarks your competitors and turns the gaps into content and on-page actions.

The product follows an Insights, Actions, Impact loop. Insights covers visibility score, mentions, Citation Intelligence, share of voice and competitive benchmarking. Actions covers the Prompt Explorer, a knowledge base, AI-optimised article generation with review steps and Content Curation, plus social content for Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Impact connects Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Cloudflare so you can tie AI visibility to traffic.

The price is the point of this guide. Growth is $89/month for 1 project, 50 prompts, 3 models, 4,500 AI answers analysed a month, 10 articles and 2 seats. Scale is $249/month for 5 projects and 200 prompts with white-label reports, and Max is $400/month for 400 prompts and unlimited seats. You can start free with no credit card. Every plan includes MCP, so you can query visibility, mentions and citations from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients through the Listable Labs MCP.

Key features driving adoption:

• AI Visibility Tracking: a visibility score across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode on every plan.
• Citation Intelligence: the exact source URLs the engines cite when they recommend you or a competitor.
• Competitive Benchmarking: your position and share of voice against rivals.
• Content Curation: AI-optimised articles and social posts, with review steps and auto-publish.

Before you commit, know the limits:

• Who should use it: growth teams, agencies and e-commerce brands that want tracking and content actions without an enterprise contract.
• Who should not: teams that need Claude, Grok or DeepSeek tracking, or enterprise procurement items such as SOC 2 and SSO.
• Engines: Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot are paid add-ons, and only three models are included.

For a feature-by-feature view, read our Listable Labs vs Profound comparison.

Competitor Feature and Pricing Comparison

What the table shows:

• Entry cost: Listable Labs is the lowest-priced option at 50 prompts. Otterly.ai is cheaper but gives 15 prompts.
• Hidden fees: Peec AI charges extra for models beyond the three you pick, from $30/month on Starter.
• Ecosystem lock-in: Semrush bundles AI visibility with its wider SEO plans.
• Enterprise depth: Profound reserves its full engine list and security stack for custom contracts.

Factors to weigh before you buy:

• Prompt volume: make sure the tier covers your product category and your main comparisons.
• Historical data: check whether the tool keeps history from the day you start.
• Exports and integrations: look for Google Analytics, Search Console and reporting exports.

Peec AI: The Interface-First Monitor

Peec AI is a Berlin-based tracker built around a clean, easy-to-read interface for SEO teams and GEO agencies. Starter is $95/month for 50 prompts, a choice of 3 models, 1 project, daily tracking and unlimited users. Pro is $245/month for 150 prompts, and Advanced is $495/month for 350 prompts with multi-country tracking.

Its engine list is wider than most: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral and Meta, with up to 13 models on Enterprise. The catch is that self-serve plans cap you at three models, and adding more costs extra ($30/month on Starter).

Key details:

• Core advantage: a polished interface and a broad engine list.
• Pricing structure: $95/month for 50 prompts and 3 models.
• Seat limits: unlimited users on every tier.

Operational considerations:

• Ideal users: SEO teams and agencies managing several client dashboards.
• Non-ideal users: bootstrapped teams that need multi-model tracking and content creation in one price.
• Major drawback: it is mainly a monitoring tool, and extra models raise the monthly bill.

Semrush AI Visibility: The SEO Suite Extension

Semrush treats AI visibility as an extension of its search data. Its older standalone AI Visibility Toolkit page now returns a 404, and AI visibility is folded into the Semrush SEO plus AI Search bundles. The $139/month SEO plan includes only lightweight AI tracking, while the Starter bundle at $199/month tracks 50 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews.

That integration is convenient for people who already live in Semrush. It plots AI mentions against keyword data in one place. For everyone else it is a costly route to a tracker.

Key details:

• Integration depth: AI visibility sits next to your traditional search data.
• Platform access: pricing starts at $199/month for the AI Search bundle.
• Engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews.

Operational considerations:

• Ideal users: teams already committed to the Semrush ecosystem.
• Non-ideal users: brands that want a lightweight, standalone GEO tracker.
• Major drawback: the total cost is high for small teams.

Profound: The Enterprise Intelligence Platform

Profound is built for enterprise AEO teams. Its pricing page offers a free Trial (50 prompts daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with fixed prompts) and then a custom Enterprise plan. Enterprise adds up to nine answer engines, including Perplexity, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude and Exa, all-time history, CSV and JSON export, an API, SSO and SOC 2.

Profound also sells "AI Marketer" agents and Agent Analytics through CDN and log integrations. That depth is real. The trade-off is that you cannot see a price, a plan comparison or a self-serve brand tier without talking to sales.

Key details:

• Engine depth: up to nine answer engines on Enterprise.
• Security: SSO and SOC 2 are listed for Enterprise.
• Entry tier: a 7-day trial with fixed prompts, then custom pricing.

Operational considerations:

• Ideal users: large organisations with dedicated AEO owners and procurement.
• Non-ideal users: mid-market teams that want a published price.
• Major drawback: no public price, so budgeting means a sales call.

Final Recommendation

AI answers are volatile, so the cheapest sensible plan is one that lets you track weekly, see the cited sources and act on them. Match your choice to your size and budget:

• Bootstrapped and growth teams: choose Listable Labs for citation data and content actions from $89/month.
• Funded teams that want more engines: consider Peec AI or Promptwatch at $95/month.
• Semrush shops: add the AI Search bundle and avoid a second tool.
• Large enterprises: talk to Profound if you need nine engines, SSO and SOC 2.

Three habits matter whichever tool you pick. Start tracking now, because authority takes months to build. Target the handful of third-party pages the engines already cite. And review your visibility scores weekly, since answers shift often.

If you are comparing the full field, see our ranked list of the 5 best Profound alternatives in 2026. Before you buy anything, run the free AI Crawlability Checker to confirm AI bots can read your site. Then start free on Listable Labs, no credit card, or book an agency demo if you manage several clients.