The Answer
AI visibility vendors charge in incompatible units. Profound charges per prompt. Ahrefs charges per platform bundle. Rankscale charges per credit (a fractional per-engine query). OtterlyAI charges per prompt tier with engine add-ons. A $29/mo plan that covers 15 prompts across 4 engines is not cheaper than a $99/mo plan that covers 50 prompts across 17 engines. The published price is the bait; the real cost is prompts x engines x frequency x audits x seats, and that number is almost never the sticker price.
We verified every figure below from the vendor's own pricing or product page, accessed August 4, 2026. Treat these as snapshots, not contracts. But the pricing structure - how each vendor charges - is the actual insight. The structure determines your real cost; the sticker price determines only the first line of the sales deck.
How We Verified This
Every pricing figure on this page comes from the vendor's own published pricing page or product page, accessed August 4, 2026. We did not use sales proposals, demo calls, third-party reviews, or cached pages. Where a vendor does not publish a price (Peec AI Starter), we say so.
The cost-per-query calculations use each vendor's own credit-to-query ratio where published (Rankscale: 0.25 credits per engine query). Where the ratio is not published (Rankshift, Profound), we estimate from the stated credit/prompt counts and note the assumption. These are estimates, not measurements - actual consumption varies by engine selection and monitoring frequency.
This page covers the AI visibility monitoring layer only. It does not include the cost of implementation, content production, or internal team time. Those costs are addressed in the AI Visibility Tools Compared page and the nine-platform comparison.
The Five Pricing Traps
Each trap produces the same outcome: you budget for the cheapest advertised price and pay more than you expected.
The Prompt Ceiling
What it is: the plan advertises "25 prompts" or "100 prompts" but does not tell you that prompts x engines = actual queries. A 100-prompt plan across 4 engines generates 400 engine-queries. If the plan charges per response (not per prompt), you consume 4x your budget on day one.
Real example: HubSpot AEO costs $50/mo for 25 prompts. At face value, that is $2 per prompt. But the prompts span ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity (3 engines), so you get 75 engine-queries, or $0.67 per query. Rankscale Pro costs $99/mo for 1,200 credits at 0.25 credits per query, giving 4,800 engine-queries, or $0.02 per query. Rankscale is 33x cheaper per query. But the sticker price looks like Rankscale costs twice as much.
How to spot it: ask the vendor: "Is the prompt limit per query or per engine-queries?" If they cannot answer clearly in one sentence, the limit is almost certainly per engine-query.
Trap severity: high. This is the most common budget surprise.
The Engine Surcharge
What it is: the base plan covers 3-4 engines. Additional engines are paid add-ons. OtterlyAI charges extra for Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Mode. Profound limits Starter to 1 engine (ChatGPT only). Scrunch Core covers 4 engines. The vendor that covers the most engines on the cheapest plan is not necessarily cheapest overall.
Real example: OtterlyAI Lite ($29/mo) covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot. But Gemini and Claude are add-ons. If you need 6 engines, you are on Standard ($189/mo), which is 6.5x the sticker price. Rankscale Pro ($99/mo) includes all 17+ engines in the base price. Ahrefs Brand Radar ($398/mo) covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, and Grok - but not Claude, DeepSeek, or Mistral.
How to spot it: count the engines in the base plan, not the engines listed on the marketing page. The marketing page lists all supported engines; the pricing page lists which are included at each tier.
Trap severity: medium-high. Especially damaging for multi-engine monitoring strategies.
The Seat Restriction
What it is: the plan includes 1 seat. Additional seats are $20-50/mo each. Rankshift is the outlier: unlimited seats across all tiers. If you have a team of 5 marketers, the per-seat cost can double or triple the base price.
Real example: Profound Starter includes 1 seat. Growth ($399/mo) includes 3 seats. For a 5-person team, you need Enterprise or custom pricing. Rankshift Professional includes unlimited seats at no extra cost. Scrunch Core includes 5 licences. Rankscale Pro includes 10 brand dashboards (effectively unlimited team access within one dashboard).
How to spot it: ask: "How many users can access the dashboard simultaneously, and what happens when I add an 11th?" Some vendors count "users" loosely (everyone who can view a report) and others count "editors" strictly (everyone who can change settings).
Trap severity: medium. Damaging for agencies and multi-person teams.
The Audit Bait
What it is: the monitoring tool includes page audits as a feature, but the audit limit is lower than your actual needs. Scrunch Core includes 5 audits/month. Rankscale Pro includes 50. If you have 40 decision-stage pages to audit, Scrunch requires you to ration audits while Rankscale covers the job in one month.
Real example: Scrunch Core ($250/mo) includes 5 site audits/month. At 40 pages to audit, you need 8 months of Scrunch Core ($2,000) to audit the same set once. Rankscale Pro ($99/mo) includes 50 audits - you audit 40 pages in one month for $99. Rankshift Professional includes no published audit count. Ahrefs Brand Radar includes no page audits at all; its "AI Visibility Checker" is a one-off free tool, not a monitoring feature.
How to spot it: ask: "How many pages can I audit per month, and what happens if I exceed the limit?" Some vendors deduct credits from your monitoring allocation for audits, effectively reducing your monitoring capacity.
Trap severity: medium. Hidden especially for teams buying "all-in-one" platforms.
The Credit Erosion
What it is: credit-based vendors (Rankscale, Rankshift) consume credits per engine query. One prompt x 4 engines = 4 engine-queries = 1 credit (at Rankscale's 0.25/query rate) or 4 credits (at Rankshift's ~1/query rate). The credit economy is opaque until you run the first prompt set. Budget for your actual consumption, not the advertised credit count.
Real example: Rankscale Pro includes 1,200 credits. At 0.25/query, that covers 4,800 engine-queries. If you track 25 prompts across 4 engines weekly, that is 100 queries/week = 400/month. You use 100 credits/month and have 1,100 left over. Rankshift Professional includes 22,000 credits. If each query costs 1 credit (not 0.25), you use 400 credits/month and have 21,600 left over. Both plans look expensive but are wildly different in real consumption.
How to spot it: ask: "How many credits does one engine-query consume?" If the answer is "it depends on the engine," ask for the table. Claude typically costs more credits than ChatGPT because the inference cost is higher.
Trap severity: high for credit-based platforms. The credit-to-query ratio is the single most important number to understand before buying.
The Credit Economy Explained
Credit-based pricing is the most common structure in AI visibility software, and the most misunderstood. Here is how it actually works.
Credits exist because different AI engines have different inference costs. Querying ChatGPT costs less than querying Claude (which costs more per token to run). Vendors who charge per prompt cannot absorb this variance - they would lose money on Claude-heavy workloads and overcharge on ChatGPT-only workloads. Credits let the vendor price each engine query at its actual cost, passed through to the customer as a fractional charge.
Rankscale publishes its credit-to-query ratio: 0.25 credits per engine query for most engines. This means a 1,200-credit Pro plan covers 4,800 engine-queries. Rankshift does not publish its ratio explicitly, but its stated credit counts and prompt allowances imply approximately 1 credit per query. Profound's "agent credits" are a different unit entirely - they are consumption credits for content generation, not monitoring queries.
| Engine | Rankscale (0.25/query) | Rankshift (~1/query) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 0.25 | ~1 | Standard cost for most vendors |
| Perplexity | 0.25 | ~1 | Retrieval-based, lower inference cost |
| Gemini | 0.25 | ~1 | Google's pricing varies by model version |
| Claude | 0.25 (estimated) | ~2 (estimated) | Higher inference cost; some vendors charge 2x |
| DeepSeek | 0.25 | ~1 | Newer engine, pricing may change |
| Copilot | 0.25 | ~1 | Microsoft-backed, stable pricing |
| Grok | 0.25 | ~1 | Newer engine, limited data |
| Mistral | 0.25 | ~1 | Newer engine, limited data |
Verification note: Rankscale's 0.25/query rate is from their published credit calculator (accessed August 4, 2026). Rankshift's rate is estimated from stated credit counts and prompt allowances; actual per-engine costs may differ. Claude costs are estimated at 2x for Rankshift based on the premium inference cost; verify before budgeting. Profound's "agent credits" are a separate unit for content generation, not monitoring.
Real-World Scenario Workups
Three common team profiles, with actual costs calculated from verified pricing.
Profile: 1 person, needs to track 15 high-intent prompts across 4 engines, weekly. Needs 20 pages audited once. No API, no white-label.
Calculation: 15 prompts x 4 engines x 4.3 weeks = 258 engine-queries/month.
| Platform | Plan | Monthly cost | Real cost/query | Audit capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OtterlyAI | Lite | $29 | $0.45 | None |
| HubSpot AEO | Standard | $50 | $0.76 | None |
| Rankscale | Pro | $99 | $0.04 | 50 audits (covers the 20) |
| Scrunch | Core | $250 | $0.97 | 5 audits/month (4 months to audit 20) |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Select | $398 | $1.54 | None |
Verdict: OtterlyAI is cheapest at the sticker price. But if you need page audits, Rankscale Pro ($99/mo) includes 50 audits and covers the full audit workload in one month. The "cheapest" tool depends on whether audits matter.
Profile: 4 people, 50 prompts across 6 engines, weekly. 40 pages audited quarterly. API access needed for reporting.
Calculation: 50 prompts x 6 engines x 4.3 weeks = 1,290 engine-queries/month.
| Platform | Plan | Monthly cost | Real cost/query | Seats | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | Growth | $399 | $0.31 | 3 (need 1 more seat) | No |
| Rankscale | Growth | $385 | $0.03 | 50 dashboards | Yes |
| Rankshift | Professional | Published | ~$0.01 | Unlimited | Yes |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | All platforms | $699 | $0.54 | Unlimited projects | No |
Verdict: Rankscale Growth ($385/mo) is the best value: 22,000 credits (covers 1,290 queries with massive headroom), 200 audits (covers quarterly audits), 50 dashboards (covers the team), and REST API. Profound Growth costs more and includes fewer seats and no API.
Profile: 10 people, 8 brands, 30 prompts per brand x 4 engines x weekly = 960 engine-queries/brand/month = 7,680/month total. 10 pages audited per brand quarterly = 80/month. White-label dashboards required.
| Platform | Plan | Monthly cost | Real cost/query | White-label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rankscale | Growth | $385 | $0.005 | Yes |
| Rankshift | Business | Published | ~$0.003 | Custom Enterprise |
| Scrunch | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Yes |
| Profound | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Yes |
Verdict: Rankscale Growth ($385/mo) is the cheapest published option with white-label and API. Its 22,000 credits cover 7,680 queries with 14,320 headroom. Rankshift Business may be cheaper per-query but white-label requires Enterprise (custom pricing). For agencies, the credit-to-query ratio and white-label availability are the deciding factors.
The 10-Minute Cost Calculator
Run this before any vendor demo. If you cannot fill in the blanks, you are not ready to evaluate.
Step 1 (2 min): List the prompts you need. Not 100 vanity keywords; the 25 questions your buyer asks before choosing a vendor. If you do not have a prompt list, start with your top 10 sales-objection questions and your top 10 product-comparison queries.
Step 2 (1 min): Count the engines. ChatGPT + Perplexity + Gemini + Claude = 4. Add Copilot if you sell to Microsoft-heavy enterprises. Add Google AI Overviews if your buyers search on Google.
Step 3 (1 min): Multiply prompts x engines x frequency. Weekly: prompts x engines x 4.3. Monthly: prompts x engines.
Step 4 (2 min): Check which plan covers that volume. If the plan's prompt limit is lower than your prompt count, or the credit limit is lower than your engine-queries, you will hit the ceiling within the first billing cycle.
Step 5 (2 min): Add audit, seat, and API costs. If the plan does not include enough audits for your page count, add the per-audit cost. If you need more than 1 seat, add per-seat cost. If you need API access, check whether it is included or requires Enterprise.
Step 6 (2 min): Divide the total by the number of engine-queries. That is your real cost per query.
| Platform | Plan | Sticker price | Real cost/query | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot AEO | Standard | $50/mo | Cannot run (25-prompt ceiling) | 25 prompts total, 3 engines |
| OtterlyAI | Standard | $189/mo | $0.43 | 100 prompts, 4 base engines |
| Profound | Growth | $399/mo | $0.93 | 100 prompts, 3 engines, agent credits |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | All platforms | $699/mo | $1.62 | All engines, 2,500 custom checks |
| Rankscale | Pro | $99/mo | $0.02 | 4,800 queries, 17+ engines, 50 audits |
| Rankshift | Professional | Published tier | ~$0.01 | 22,000 credits, 9 engines, unlimited seats |
| Scrunch | Core | $250/mo | $0.50 | 125 prompts, 4 engines, 5 audits/mo |
Complete Pricing Matrix
Every figure verified from the vendor's own page, August 4, 2026. Prices change frequently - verify before buying.
| Platform | Entry price | Unit | Engines (base) | Audits | Seats | API | White-label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | $99/mo | Prompts + agent credits | Starter: 1. Growth: 3. Enterprise: 9. | Via agents | S:1 G:3 E:custom | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| HubSpot AEO | $50/mo | Prompts | 3 (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) | No | Not specified | No | No |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | $398/mo | Platform bundle | Select or All (7 engines + social beta) | No | Unlimited projects | No | No |
| Rankscale | From $20/mo | Credits (0.25/query) | 17+ (all tiers) | Pro:50 G:200 E:200 | 10 dashboards (Pro) | Growth+ | Growth+ |
| Rankshift | Published tier | Credits (~1/query) | 9 (all tiers) | Not published | Unlimited (all tiers) | Professional+ | Enterprise |
| Scrunch | $250/mo | Prompts + audits | 4 (Core) | 5/month | 5 | Enterprise | Enterprise |
| OtterlyAI | $29/mo | Prompts | 4 base (add-ons extra) | No | Unlimited members | Standard+ | No |
| Peec AI | Not published | Projects + models | 3-5 models | No | Not published | Enterprise | Enterprise |
When to Pay More and When to Pay Less
| Situation | Right choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Quick pilot, fewer than 15 prompts, 3 engines | OtterlyAI Lite ($29/mo) or HubSpot AEO ($50/mo) | Lowest entry; you are testing whether AI visibility matters. |
| Broadest engine coverage on a budget | Rankscale Pro ($99/mo) | 17+ engines, 50 audits, REST API on Growth. Lowest cost per query. |
| Unlimited seats and projects for agency work | Rankshift Professional or Business | Unlimited seats/projects, content briefs and AI writer. |
| Already run Ahrefs; want AI visibility in one place | Ahrefs Brand Radar ($398-$699/mo) | Integrates with Ahrefs index; YouTube/TikTok/Reddit in beta. |
| White-label dashboards and REST API for clients | Rankscale Growth ($385/mo) | White-label and API included from Growth tier. |
| Content agents that draft from findings | Profound Growth ($399/mo) | 400 agent credits, CMS connectors, Sheets. |
| Monitoring + audits + personas in one brand | Scrunch Core ($250/mo) | 5 audits/month, 5 personas, bounded one-brand package. |
FAQ
What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?
OtterlyAI Lite at $29/month is the lowest published entry price. But "cheapest" depends on what you need. If you need more than 15 prompts or more than 4 base engines, the real cost climbs quickly. Rankscale Essentials from $20/month offers the broadest engine coverage per dollar for teams that can estimate their credit consumption. The real question is not "which is cheapest" but "which delivers the most commercially useful queries per dollar for my specific prompt set."
Are credits the same as prompts?
No. A prompt is a question you submit. A credit is a fractional charge per engine query. One prompt tracked across 4 engines may consume 1 credit (at Rankscale's 0.25/query rate) or 4 credits (at Rankshift's ~1/query rate). Always check the vendor's credit calculator before budgeting. The difference between 0.25 and 1 credit per query is the difference between a $99 plan lasting 12 months and the same plan lasting 3 months.
Do I need an enterprise plan?
Only if you require SSO, SLA guarantees, dedicated onboarding, custom API integrations, or multi-region compliance. Most B2B SaaS teams at $3M-$50M ARR can run on published mid-tier plans (Rankscale Growth, Profound Growth, Rankshift Professional, Ahrefs All platforms) and add Enterprise later when procurement demands it. The common mistake is buying Enterprise "just in case" and discovering the published tier already covers 80% of what you needed.