Buyer Guides

AEO Platform Pricing Compared (2026): Starter to Enterprise

Updated 2026-05-22

Questions this guide answers

How much does an AEO platform cost?
What is the pricing for Profound, Peec, Otterly, and SolCrys?
How much should I budget for AI visibility tracking?
Is there a free AEO platform?
What does enterprise AEO pricing look like?

Direct answer

Realistic 2026 price bands across the Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) category, for one brand, ~50 prompts, 4 engines, monthly tracking: Starter $29–$300/month (Otterly Lite, Peec Starter ~€85, Profound Starter $99, Scrunch Starter $250–$300, SolCrys entry). Growth $189–$500/month (Otterly Standard $189, Peec Pro ~€205, Profound Growth $399, Scrunch Growth $417–$500). Enterprise $2,000–$25,000+/month, custom-quoted (Profound, Brandlight, Conductor, SolCrys enterprise, Peec Enterprise). Per-engine and per-workspace add-ons are common and can double effective cost.

Why AEO pricing is hard to compare

Three problems make AEO pricing pages near-impossible to compare side-by-side without a worksheet:

Different units of measurement. Otterly prices by *search prompts* (15, 100, 400 per tier). Peec AI prices by *prompts × projects × models* (50 prompts × 3 models × 1 project at Starter). Scrunch prices by *user licenses + custom prompts + industry prompts + personas* in one bundle. Profound prices by *engine coverage tier* (Starter is ChatGPT-only; Growth adds Perplexity and AI Overviews). SolCrys, Brandlight, and Profound's enterprise tier negotiate by *workspace + execution credits + integration scope*. The same dollar amount buys radically different scopes.

Different commitments. Most vendors offer monthly and annual billing with 15–17% annual discounts (Otterly ~15%, Scrunch 17%, Peec up to 15%). Enterprise contracts at Profound, Brandlight, and SolCrys are typically annual prepay with custom multi-year options.

Different scopes. A "growth" plan on a measurement-only dashboard (Peec, Otterly, Profound Growth) is not the same product as a "growth" plan on an execution-capable platform (SolCrys Pro, Conductor's AEO module). The first tells you where you stand in AI answers; the second ships content fixes and re-verifies. Compare on total cost of delivered work, not list price.

For a full buying-side framework, see our AI Visibility Platform Buyer's Guide.

6-vendor public-pricing matrix

The matrix below uses only public pricing pages and public statements (G2, vendor blogs, Reddit, review sites). Where pricing is private, we mark "Contact sales" and give an inferred band with the source noted. All non-USD prices converted at approximate May 2026 rates for orientation only — buy in the vendor's billed currency.

Important caveats. Profound's $99 Starter only covers ChatGPT; the moment you add Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, you're on $399 Growth at minimum. Peec's $30–$140/month *per extra model* add-on means a 4-engine setup at Starter is actually €85 + $30 = ~$122/mo, not the headline €85. Otterly's Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons on every tier ($9–$149/mo each). These structural choices matter more than the sticker price.

Vendor	Starter (monthly)	Growth (monthly)	Enterprise band	Primary metric	Source
Otterly	$29 (Lite, 15 prompts, ChatGPT/AI Overviews/Perplexity/Copilot)	$189 (Standard, 100 prompts, Looker connector)	$489 Premium (400 prompts); custom Enterprise above	Per search prompt	otterly.ai/pricing
Peec AI	~€85 / ~$92 (Starter, 50 prompts, 3 models, 1 project)	~€205 / ~$222 (Pro, 150 prompts, 3 models, 2 projects)	~€425 / ~$460 Advanced (350 prompts, 5 projects); custom Enterprise above	Per prompt × project × model	peec.ai/pricing
Scrunch	$250–$300 (Starter, 350 custom + 1,000 industry prompts, 3 seats, 5 page audits)	$417–$500 (Growth, 700 + 2,500 prompts, 5 seats, 10 audits)	Custom (SAML/OIDC, Enterprise API, dedicated GTM)	Per user license + prompt bundle	scrunch.com/pricing
Profound	$99 (Starter, ChatGPT only, 50 prompts)	$399 (Growth, adds Perplexity + Google AI Overviews)	$2,000–$5,000+/month (custom; full engine set + SSO/SAML + SOC 2)	Per engine tier	tryprofound.com + indexly.ai/blog/profound-pricing (verified 2026-05)
Brandlight	Private — contact sales (estimated ~$199–$750/mo entry, public discussions only)	Private — contact sales (estimated $750–$2,500/mo)	$4,000–$25,000+/month (estimated, enterprise-only positioning, 11 engines + SOC 2 Type II)	Per workspace + engine coverage	sat.brandlight.ai + checkthat.ai (estimated, public discussions as of 2026-05)
SolCrys	$29 (Starter, 20 prompts, ChatGPT only, 1 workspace, MCP 100 calls)	$99 Growth (20 prompts, +Gemini +Google AIO/AI Mode) or $349 Pro (60 prompts, +Perplexity, 3 workspaces, 40 Deep Analyses)	Custom-quoted (Enterprise / Scale tier; multi-workspace, governance, custom integrations)	Per workspace + tracked prompts	solcrys.com/pricing (Starter $29, Growth $99, Pro $349 published; Agency $1,499 / Agency Pro $4,999 published)

Per-engine cost-per-prompt math

Procurement teams should not budget off list price. The honest unit is cost per prompt-engine run per month — what it costs to evaluate one prompt on one engine, refreshed at the cadence the vendor offers.

Worked example: 50 prompts × 4 engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini) × daily refresh = ~6,000 prompt-engine runs/month.

Here's what that scope costs on each vendor's nearest fit tier (all numbers from the matrix above):

How to read this table. On pure cost-per-run, Peec AI and Otterly win — they're built for measurement at scale and pass through that efficiency. Profound is competitive on the engines it covers but forces you to Enterprise to hit Gemini. Scrunch sits in the middle. SolCrys and Brandlight look expensive *per run* because the run is not the product they're selling — they bundle the diagnose-and-fix work that turns runs into shipped content. If you only want measurement, do not buy SolCrys; if you want measurement plus execution, the per-run number is the wrong denominator. Use cost-per-shipped-fix instead.

Vendor	Closest tier	List price	Engine add-ons to hit 4 engines	Effective monthly	Cost per prompt-engine run
Otterly	Standard ($189, 100 prompts)	$189	+ Gemini $59 + Google AI Mode $59 (already has ChatGPT/Perplexity/AI Overviews/Copilot)	$307/mo	~$0.051
Peec AI	Pro (~€205, 150 prompts, 3 models)	~$222	+ 1 extra model at $70	~$292/mo	~$0.049
Scrunch	Growth ($417 annual / $500 monthly, 700 custom prompts, 4 engines included)	$417–$500	Engines included	$417–$500/mo	~$0.070–$0.083
Profound	Growth ($399, ChatGPT + Perplexity + AI Overviews)	$399	+ Gemini requires Enterprise quote (no public add-on)	$399/mo, but missing Gemini	~$0.067 (3-engine basis)
Brandlight	Estimated mid-tier $750–$2,500/mo (all engines included)	$750–$2,500	None (bundled, estimated)	$750–$2,500/mo (estimated)	~$0.125–$0.417 (estimated)
SolCrys	Pro tier ($349, 60 prompts, full 4 engines + execution + 40 Deep Analyses)	$349	Engines included	$349/mo	~$0.048 (60 prompts × 4 engines × 30 daily runs basis)

Hidden cost callouts

These don't show up in the headline tier price but routinely double a 12-month TCO:

Per-engine add-ons. Otterly charges $9–$149/month per extra engine (Google AI Mode, Gemini) depending on tier. Peec charges $30/$70/$140 per extra model per tier. Profound forces you up to Enterprise to access the full engine set.

Per-workspace fees. Scrunch Starter caps at 3 user licenses; extra seats are $25/month each. Peec Starter is 1 project, Pro is 2, Advanced is 5; agencies running 10+ clients hit Enterprise quickly. SolCrys's Agency tier is priced by workspace count specifically because this is the most common surprise on competitors.

Deep Analyses + Content Audits. SolCrys's tiers cap monthly Deep Analyses (2 on Starter, 12 on Growth, 40 on Pro, 200 on Agency, 700 on Agency Pro) and Content Audits (1, 4, 10, 50, 150 respectively). These are the platform's diagnose-and-fix unit of work — you'll run through them faster than tracked-prompt count if your team is actually shipping. Conductor charges similarly per content brief; Brandlight is custom-quoted. Always ask what counts as a "unit" and what burn rate to expect at your prompt volume.

Integration fees. SSO/SAML, Looker Studio, MCP server access, REST API, and Salesforce/HubSpot connectors are *almost always* gated to a higher tier. Otterly's Looker connector starts at Standard. Peec's API + MCP + SSO start at Enterprise. Profound's SSO/SAML/SOC 2 are Enterprise-only.

Onboarding fees. Enterprise contracts at Profound, Brandlight, and (SolCrys Enterprise / Scale) typically include a one-time setup of $2,500–$15,000 covering prompt-set design, persona modeling, competitor benchmarking, and integration. Otterly, Peec, and Scrunch are self-serve and don't charge setup.

Annual prepay discounts. Otterly ~15%, Scrunch 17%, Peec ~15%, SolCrys 10–20% depending on tier. Enterprise contracts often allow multi-year prepay for an additional 5–10% off — useful for a finance team trying to lock the rate before the category re-prices.

Cost vs ROI framing

A short version, full treatment in our AEO ROI business case.

The honest break-even calculation for a mid-market in-house team: a senior marketer running 50 prompts × 4 engines manually (copy each prompt into ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini; record citations; tag mentions) takes roughly 8–12 hours per refresh. At a $75/hour blended cost, weekly refresh = ~$2,400–$3,600/month of human time, before any analysis. At that workload:

We cover the CFO-ready spreadsheet in the linked ROI piece.

A measurement-only tool at $200–$500/month pays for itself in week one.
A measurement + execution tool at $1,500–$3,500/month pays for itself if it also saves the ~20 hours/month of brief writing, fix prioritization, and re-test analysis — typically $1,500–$2,250/month of additional human time.
An enterprise contract at $5,000+/month needs to also show measurable lift in citation share or sourced pipeline (the harder claim), or it's a brand-channel investment, not an ROI calculation.

CTA

Two things you can do with this article:

For deeper buying-side reading, see AI Visibility Platform Buyer's Guide, AEO ROI Business Case, and the AEO Platform Pilot Playbook. For head-to-head comparisons, see SolCrys vs Profound and SolCrys vs Peec AI.

*Pricing sources used in this article: otterly.ai/pricing (verified 2026-05-22), peec.ai/pricing (verified 2026-05-22), scrunch.com/pricing (verified 2026-05-22), tryprofound.com/pricing + G2 + indexly.ai/blog/profound-pricing (Starter and Growth verified; Enterprise band estimated from third-party reviews 2026-05), sat.brandlight.ai + checkthat.ai + getaiso.com (Brandlight pricing estimated from public discussions, no published page as of 2026-05-22), solcrys.com/pricing (SolCrys tiers per published pricing page). We re-publish this article quarterly with refreshed data.*

Run a free 10-prompt AI visibility audit on your brand across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini — the same data shape that fills the per-engine columns above, scoped to your company. Use it to evaluate any vendor in this matrix, not just SolCrys. Start the free audit.
Subscribe to refreshed pricing alerts — we re-verify every price in this table quarterly and notify subscribers when any vendor changes tier structure, raises sticker price, or moves an engine into a paid add-on. Get pricing alerts.

FAQ

Why doesn't Profound publish enterprise pricing?

Profound publishes Starter ($99) and Growth ($399) but routes Enterprise to a sales call because the contract scales with engine coverage, prompt volume, seat count, integrations, and SOC 2 / SSO requirements. Public discussions (G2, third-party reviews, indexly.ai, cairrot.com) place real Enterprise deals at $2,000–$5,000+/month. Brandlight follows the same pattern but doesn't publish any tier — every customer is contact-sales.

What if I only want to track one engine?

Profound Starter ($99/mo) is built for this — ChatGPT-only, 50 prompts. Otterly Lite ($29/mo) is the cheapest entry but bundles four engines anyway. If you genuinely only need ChatGPT visibility, Profound Starter is the most focused. As soon as a second engine matters, the math changes — Otterly Standard ($189) or Peec Pro (~€205) beats Profound Growth ($399) on cost per engine for measurement workloads.

Is there a free AEO platform?

No production-grade free tier exists in this category as of May 2026. Most vendors offer 7–14 day trials or a one-time free audit. SolCrys offers a free 10-prompt audit covering 4 engines as a low-friction onboarding — useful for evaluating any vendor on your category, not just SolCrys. Free Chrome extensions and one-off prompt checkers exist but don't replicate scheduled tracking, citation URL extraction, or competitor benchmarking.

How does SolCrys price?

Three published Brand tiers plus two Agency tiers, on solcrys.com/pricing: Starter $29/month (20 prompts, ChatGPT only, 1 workspace, read-only MCP 100 calls), Growth $99/month (20 prompts, ChatGPT + Gemini + Google AI Overviews/AI Mode, 1 workspace, MCP 500 calls), Pro $349/month (60 prompts, all 4 default engines including Perplexity, 3 workspaces, 40 Deep Analyses, MCP 2K calls). Agency $1,499/month (10 client orgs × 30 prompts, 3 engines) and Agency Pro $4,999/month (25 client orgs × 30 prompts, all 4 engines) are priced per client-org portfolio. Enterprise / Scale is custom-quoted. Claude and Retail AI (Amazon Rufus, Walmart Sparky) are separate add-on packages, not bundled into any default tier. The SolCrys MCP server is read-only — it exposes citations, prompts, recommendations, and evidence for your own agents to read; it does not publish content or write to your CMS.

What about agency pricing across the category?

Agencies need three things most vendors don't price natively: multi-tenant workspaces, white-label reports, and per-client billing. Scrunch's Growth tier ($417–$500) handles up to 5 personas / a small agency; beyond that, Enterprise. Peec's Advanced (~€425) tops out at 5 projects. Otterly's Standard/Premium offer "unlimited workspaces" but lack white-label. SolCrys's Agency tier is purpose-built for 10–50 clients with workspace isolation and per-client billing. Realistic agency-tier band across the category: $1,499–$4,999/month depending on workspace count and white-label depth.

Are there annual prepay discounts?

Yes — most are in the 15–17% range for self-serve tiers: Otterly ~15% (Lite drops $29→$25, Standard $189→$160, Premium $489→$422), Scrunch 17% (effectively 2 months free), Peec up to 15%. Enterprise contracts often layer an additional 5–10% multi-year prepay discount. Always negotiate.

Why do per-prompt costs vary 10x between vendors?

Because the product is different. A vendor charging $0.05/prompt-engine run is selling pure measurement; a vendor charging $0.50/prompt-engine run is bundling diagnose-and-fix work. The denominator (runs) is the same; the numerator (what's delivered) is not. Compare on cost per delivered unit of work, not cost per run.

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