Teams that set out to measure AI search visibility usually start with a simple goal: see which buyer questions mention the brand and which ones mention competitors. Profound is one of the better-known options. As of October 2026, its brand pricing page lists a free seven-day Trial and a custom Enterprise plan that starts with a demo.
For a team with an approved budget and a procurement process, that path works. For a team that wants data this week, the steps between sign-up and ongoing tracking matter as much as the feature list. This guide compares how OtterlyAI and Profound handle those steps, using plan details published on each vendor’s site.
TL;DR
- OtterlyAI publishes its prices: Lite at $29, Standard at $189, and Premium at $489 per month, with 15% off annual billing.
- The OtterlyAI free trial runs a team’s own prompts and needs no credit card. Profound’s Trial uses a recommended industry prompt set that can’t be customized.
- After the trial, ongoing tracking on OtterlyAI continues on a self-serve plan. On Profound, it moves to a custom Enterprise contract.
- Profound fits best for large enterprises that need up to nine engines and SOC 2 Type II.
How each platform gets a team from sign-up to tracking
Both platforms offer a free way in. The difference shows up in what the trial tests and what happens when it ends.
| Step | OtterlyAI | Profound |
| Sign-up | Self-serve, no credit card | Self-serve Trial |
| Prompts in the trial | The team’s own prompts | Recommended industry prompt set, not customizable |
| After the trial | Lite, Standard, or Premium at a published price | Enterprise at a custom price, after a demo |
| Default engines | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot on every paid plan | Trial: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Enterprise: up to nine |
| Countries and languages | Multi-country support on every paid plan | Trial: one language and one region |
Sources: otterly.ai/pricing, help.otterly.ai, and tryprofound.com/pricing, checked October 5, 2026.
Published pricing a team can budget for
OtterlyAI lists three self-serve plans, plus a custom Enterprise plan:
• Lite ($29 per month): 15 prompts, one workspace, three recommendations per week, and 1,000 GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) Audit checks per month.
• Standard ($189 per month): 100 prompts, unlimited workspaces and recommendations, a Looker Studio connector, API and MCP access with 2,000 requests each, Agent Analytics with 200,000 events, and 5,000 audit checks.
• Premium ($489 per month): 400 prompts, 10,000 audit checks, 5,000 API and MCP requests each, 1 million Agent Analytics events, and personal onboarding.
Every paid plan includes daily tracking, unlimited team members and Brand Reports, the AI Prompt Research Tool, the Brand Visibility Index, and data exports. Teams that outgrow a plan can add 100 prompts for $99 per month on Standard and Premium. The monthly cost stays predictable as usage grows.
Profound prices its brand Enterprise plan through its sales team. Its agents run on credits, and its account team sets up how overage is handled, either with continued usage and overage billing or a pause when the allotment runs out.
A trial that tests the questions buyers ask
A trial is most useful when it runs the questions a team cares about. The OtterlyAI trial uses a team’s own prompts and needs no credit card. A marketing lead can enter the questions the sales team hears every week and see which ones mention the brand.
Profound’s Trial runs 50 prompts daily for seven days on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Trial users receive a recommended prompt set based on their industry and can’t customize it. The trial also includes no history, exports, or API access. That gives a useful picture of the category, though it may not include questions specific to one company’s products.
Coverage and tools from the first day
Every paid OtterlyAI plan tracks four AI search engines by default: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot. Claude, Google AI Mode, and Gemini are available as paid add-ons. Multi-country support is included on every paid plan, so teams can track the same prompts across markets.
Two tools work without extra setup. The GEO Audit checks crawler access and content readiness on any URL, with no log connection required. From Standard, Agent Analytics reads server logs to show which AI agents visit a site, since those visits don’t appear in JavaScript-based analytics dashboards.
Profound’s Enterprise plan reaches further, with up to nine engines, SOC 2 Type II, and SSO, which matters for organizations with strict vendor security reviews.
Where each platform fits
OtterlyAI fits best when:
• A team wants to start tracking this week without a sales call.
• The budget calls for a published price and predictable monthly costs.
• The trial needs to test the company’s own buyer questions.
• The whole team needs access, with unlimited members on every paid plan.
Profound fits best when an enterprise has a procurement process and needs up to nine engines, SOC 2 Type II, and a tailored contract.
Conclusion: start with the questions buyers ask
For most teams outside an enterprise procurement process, OtterlyAI is the faster path to AI search data. It pairs a published entry price of $29 per month with four engines by default, a trial on a team’s own prompts, and no sales call.
The simplest way to test it is to pick the 15 questions buyers ask most and run them in an OtterlyAI free trial, with no credit card required. Within the first week, the results show where the brand appears and where competitors appear instead.
