Semrush vs Profound for AI Visibility Tracking

How do they compare?

From Semrush's knowledge base and pricing pages and Profound's pricing and feature pages:

What does Semrush's AI tracking include?

The AI Visibility Toolkit has three parts. Prompt Tracking runs your prompts daily in ChatGPT Search, AI Mode and Gemini across more than 220 countries, and reports visibility, mentions, owned sources and average position. Brand Performance runs weekly reports on sentiment, narratives and the questions people ask about your brand, with full answer text. Prompt Research draws on a database of more than 317 million prompts, built from AI search clickstream data and Google keyword data, with estimated topic volumes. Extra domains cost $99 a month each, and 50 more prompts cost $60.

Its strength is context. The same account holds rankings, backlinks, site audits and Position Tracking, which records AI Overview appearances next to organic positions. A full review is in the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit review.

What does Profound include?

Profound says it captures the consumer front ends of each engine, not their APIs, and runs every tracked prompt daily. On top of visibility, share of voice and citations, it offers:

• FactCheck, which flags inaccurate claims about your brand and the sources behind them.
• Agent Analytics, which reads server or CDN logs to show AI crawlers and agents visiting your site.
• Prompt Volumes, estimates of what people ask AI assistants, drawn from opt-in consumer panels.
• AI Marketer, agents that draft pages, guides, posts and ads for your approval.
• Personas and Prompt Designer, for running prompts as different audiences, on Enterprise.

Its strength is depth: more engines, more frequent data and tools that act on it. Pricing detail is in Profound pricing, and a fuller assessment is in the Profound review.

Why do some tool lists leave one of them out?

Lists of AI visibility trackers often skip one or both, for different reasons. Semrush is still seen as an SEO suite, and its AI tracking arrives as a toolkit or bundle rather than a standalone product. Profound removed its self-serve brand plans in mid-September 2026, so lists built around prices a small team can pay now exclude it. Neither omission says much about quality; each reflects who the list was written for.

How do their prompt data differ?

Both sell estimates of what people ask AI assistants, built in different ways. Semrush combines AI search clickstream data with its Google keyword data and machine-learning estimates. Profound uses consumer panels whose members opt in to share AI conversations. Panels see real phrasing but depend on who joins them. Clickstream-based estimates cover more topics but are further from the actual conversation. Treat both as a guide to which topics matter, not as exact counts. A side-by-side test is in Semrush Prompt Research vs Profound Prompt Volumes.

What does the tracking cost per answer?

On Semrush's toolkit, 25 prompts run daily on three engines produce about 2,250 answers a month for $99, roughly 4.4 cents each. Semrush One Starter, at $199 for 50 prompts on the same engines, works out at the same 4.4 cents, with the SEO toolkit included.

Profound does not publish a price for brands, so the maths depends on your quote. When comparing, ask for the number of prompts, engines and runs per day, and divide the monthly price by prompts × engines × runs × 30. Also count what you would otherwise pay for crawler analytics and fact-checking, since those are included.

Which should you choose?

• Semrush if your team already uses it for SEO, tracks one or a few domains, and wants AI visibility at a published price.
• Profound if you are an enterprise needing many engines, markets and prompts, with fact-checking and crawler data in one place.
• Profound's agency plan if you manage several clients and want daily tracking at a per-client price: each $399 client workspace covers 100 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, and full nine-engine coverage needs an Agency Enterprise contract.
• Neither if you are a small team on a tight budget; lower-cost trackers are compared in Otterly vs Semrush and Profound vs Peec vs Otterly.

How should you trial them side by side?

Run the same 20 prompts in both for a week: Semrush has no free trial for the toolkit, but monthly billing makes a one-month test possible, and Profound's trial gives seven days. Check four things:

1. Coverage: does each include the engines your buyers use?
2. Agreement: do the two tools show your brand in the same answers? Where they differ, check by hand.
3. Evidence: can you see the full answer and sources behind each result?
4. Action: which one tells you more clearly what to change?

Note that Profound's trial prompts are recommended by Profound and cannot be edited, so compare on the prompts both tools share.

What might this look like in practice?

Consider an illustrative payroll software company, Trellstead, selling in the US and UK. Its SEO team already used Semrush One and tracked 100 prompts across ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini. When a board member asked about Claude and Copilot, which its buyers' finance teams used at work, the company took Profound's trial and then requested an Enterprise quote covering both markets and seven engines. Profound's FactCheck found assistants quoting an old UK price. The team kept Semrush for SEO and prompt research, used Profound for AI tracking, and corrected the price on its site and two comparison pages.

What do people ask about Semrush and Profound?

Is Profound more accurate than Semrush?

Both say they use real answers rather than APIs. Profound's Enterprise plan covers more engines daily, up to nine; accuracy for your prompts is best judged in a side-by-side trial.

Can small businesses still buy Profound?

Not on a self-serve brand plan since September 2026. Brands get a trial and then a custom Enterprise contract.

Does Semrush track Perplexity?

In weekly Brand Performance reports, yes. Daily Prompt Tracking covers ChatGPT Search, AI Mode and Gemini.

Which is cheaper for agencies?

For a few clients, Semrush per domain; Profound's agency plan costs $99 a month plus $399 per client workspace.