Profound vs Semrush in 2026: Which Is Better for AI Visibility Tracking?

Profound is a specialist answer engine optimization platform and Semrush is an SEO suite that added an AI visibility toolkit. Both were compared on public pages read on September 23, 2026, and the choice is less about which product is better and more about which budget line the work belongs to.

Quick answer

Profound is the better choice in this comparison for teams whose main channel is AI answers and that need up to nine answer engines, prompt-level demand data and daily tracking under a custom contract. Semrush is better for SEO teams that want AI visibility next to rank tracking at a published price, from USD 99 a month for the AI Visibility Toolkit with 25 tracked prompts, or USD 199 a month for Semrush One Starter with 50 tracked prompts. Profound’s reviewed pricing page lists no self-serve price for brands; Semrush lists four published prices. Teams that need the measurement run, read and acted on, rather than a second dashboard login, may prefer a managed service such as Canlah AI.

This comparison is based on public product, pricing and help pages reviewed on September 23, 2026. It is not a controlled test of tool accuracy, and neither platform was used through a paid account.

Disclosure: Canlah AI publishes this comparison and sells a managed SEO + GEO service that competes with both platforms for part of the same budget. Treat the verdicts as a vendor editorial assessment, not an independent benchmark. Profound and Semrush capabilities are taken from public pages and are marked where they could not be confirmed.

Profound vs Semrush at a glance

Profound and Semrush compared on public pages reviewed September 23, 2026.

Dimension	Profound	Semrush	Winner
What it is	Answer engine optimization platform with monitoring and marketing agents	SEO suite with an AI Visibility Toolkit and the Semrush One bundle	Tie, different products
Starting price	Free seven-day trial; Enterprise priced on request	USD 99 per month for the AI Visibility Toolkit; USD 199 per month for Semrush One Starter	Semrush
Tracked prompts at entry	50 prompts daily for seven days, then custom	25 prompts on the toolkit; 50, 100 or 200 on Semrush One tiers	Semrush
Answer engines tracked	Capability for up to nine, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and DeepSeek	Four in daily Prompt Tracking; five across the wider AI Visibility reports	Profound
Prompt demand data	1.5 billion real user prompts, vendor-reported, segmented by intent and region	239 million prompts, vendor-reported, presented as topic-level volume and intent	Profound
Traditional SEO	Not found on reviewed pages	5,000 keywords daily and 40 monitored websites on the Advanced plan	Semrush
Execution inside the product	AI Marketer agents billed in credits, agent templates, Context Manager	Content Toolkit, AI Search Health in Site Audit, recommendations	Profound
Seats	Unlimited seats on the trial and on Enterprise	USD 99 per extra toolkit license; extra Semrush users from USD 45	Profound
Chinese engines	DeepSeek listed; Qwen and Doubao not found on reviewed pages	Not found on reviewed pages	Profound

Source: Profound and Semrush product, pricing and help pages read September 23, 2026. “Not found on reviewed pages” means the vendor’s public pages did not name that capability when read on that date. It is not proof that the capability is absent, and coverage should be confirmed with each vendor.

Round 1: Pricing — Semrush wins

Semrush publishes a price and Profound does not: the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit costs USD 99 per month per domain, while Profound’s brand pricing page lists only a free trial and a custom Enterprise plan. For a buyer who needs a number before a sales call, that is the whole round.

Semrush sells AI visibility three ways. The standalone toolkit is USD 99 per month with 25 prompts for daily Prompt Tracking, 300 daily queries in AI Analysis reports, 1,000 daily queries in Prompt Research, AI Search checks for up to 100 pages and 10 CSV exports a day; the toolkit page lists no free trial. Semrush One bundles SEO and AI visibility at USD 199, USD 299 and USD 549 per month, or USD 165.17, USD 248.17 and USD 455.67 billed annually, with 50, 100 and 200 tracked prompts. Add-ons are priced in the open: USD 60 for 50 more prompts, USD 99 for an extra Brand Performance domain and USD 99 for each additional toolkit license.

Profound’s public ladder is shorter. The free trial runs 50 fixed prompts daily for seven days across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, in one language and one region, and the pricing page lists no history, exports, API or prompt editing for the trial. Enterprise is custom, and a self-serve Agency Growth plan appears in the pricing FAQ with 400 agent credits per month per client workspace, without a stated price. Older reviews still quote a USD 99 Starter tier that was not on the reviewed page.

Round 2: Engine coverage — Profound wins

Profound lists capability for up to nine answer engines against four in Semrush daily prompt tracking, and only Profound names a Chinese engine. Profound’s Enterprise column lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Anthropic Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search.

Semrush splits coverage by report, which is easy to misread. Its help centre states that Prompt Tracking monitors Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and ChatGPT Search daily, that Brand Performance reports track Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini weekly and that Semrush One measures AI visibility across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Claude, Copilot and Grok were not found on the reviewed Semrush pages.

Neither vendor names Qwen or Doubao on its reviewed pages. For a brand selling to Chinese-speaking buyers in Singapore, Malaysia or Greater China, that is a scope gap in both products, and the reason Canlah AI runs those engines as part of a managed engagement rather than as a dashboard tab.

Round 3: Prompt data — Profound wins on depth, with a caveat

Profound states 1.5 billion real user prompts against 239 million in the Semrush database, and both figures are vendor-reported counts that no buyer can audit from outside. Size is not the only difference. Profound says its prompts are broken down by intent, region, age, income and gender, and that answers are captured through a headless browser rather than an API, so the sample reflects the front-end experience a signed-in user sees.

Semrush describes Prompt Research as keyword research for AI, with topic-level volume, difficulty and intent. Profound’s own comparison page, published on May 12, 2026, characterises that as topic-cluster aggregation with individual prompt detail removed in processing, and claims Semrush covers 15 countries against its own 50-plus. Those are a competitor’s claims about a rival and should be tested in a demonstration, not accepted from this table.

The practical test is the same for both. Ask each vendor to show one dated record containing the prompt, the engine, the full answer, the cited URLs and the timestamp, then ask how many runs sit behind the score on the dashboard.

Round 4: Search coverage beyond AI answers — Semrush wins

Semrush tracks 500 to 5,000 keywords daily and 5 to 40 websites depending on plan, and keyword rank tracking was not found on Profound’s reviewed pages. Semrush One adds position tracking, site audits, backlink analysis, content optimization and an AI Search Health widget that flags crawler blockers, all under the same login as the AI visibility reports.

Profound answers a different question on the traffic side. Agent Analytics integrates at the CDN and server layer, with Akamai, AWS, Cloudflare, Fastly, Google Cloud Platform, Netlify, Vercel, WordPress and Google Analytics named on the pricing page, so a team can see AI crawlers reaching its own pages. That is infrastructure evidence rather than clickstream estimation, and no CDN-level equivalent was found on the reviewed Semrush pages.

A team that still earns most of its revenue from classic search results will use Semrush every week and Profound occasionally. A team that has already watched click-through rates fall will reverse that ratio.

Round 5: Acting on the findings — Profound wins

Profound ships an execution layer with more than 20 agent workflow templates, and Semrush ships recommendations inside three tools a subscriber already has. The Profound AI Marketer runs on credits, consumes more for complex multi-step agents and comes with a Context Manager that holds brand knowledge. Semrush answers with its Content Toolkit, AI-generated strategic recommendations in Brand Performance and technical fixes surfaced in Site Audit.

Off-site delivery was not found on either vendor’s reviewed pages. Digital PR, third-party listicles, review platforms and disclosed community participation are the sources AI engines quote most often, and the reviewed pages of both platforms describe reporting that gap rather than closing it. That boundary, not the feature list, is why some buyers end up comparing a platform license with an agency retainer such as Canlah AI, where the measurement and the fixes sit in one scope.

Which is better for AI visibility tracking?

Profound. For a team that treats AI answers as a primary channel and needs nine engines, demographic prompt data, CDN-level attribution and agents, it is the deeper instrument, and the custom price is the cost of that depth.

Semrush wins the opposite case, which is more common. An SEO team that wants to know whether its brand appears in ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, beside the rank tracking and site audits it already runs, can buy that for USD 99 a month and be reporting within a day. The prompt panel is small, the engine list is shorter and the Brand Performance data updates weekly rather than daily, but the total cost of a second tool is avoided.

Peec AI vs Semrush and Scrunch vs Semrush

Peec AI Starter tracks 50 prompts on three chosen models for USD 95 a month and Scrunch Core tracks 125 prompts on four engines for USD 250 a month, against 25 prompts for USD 99 in the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit. Both sit between the toolkit and a Profound contract on the same shortlists.

Entry plans compared on public pricing pages reviewed September 23, 2026.

Platform	Entry plan	Tracked prompts	Engines at entry	Best for against Semrush
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	USD 99 per month per domain	25	4 in daily Prompt Tracking	An SEO team that wants one domain tracked in an existing suite
Semrush One Starter	USD 199 per month	50	5 across AI visibility reports	SEO plus AI visibility in one subscription
Peec AI Starter	USD 95 per month	50, on any three of the available models	3 chosen from a list that includes DeepSeek and Qwen	More prompts per dollar and Chinese-engine choice
Scrunch Core	USD 250 per month	125	4, rising to 9 on Enterprise	Site diagnostics and agent traffic beside monitoring

Source: Semrush, Peec AI and Scrunch pricing pages read September 23, 2026. Figures are list prices for the entry plan only and exclude add-ons, annual discounts and negotiated terms.

Peec AI is the better value for prompt volume: its Starter plan tracks 50 prompts on three models for USD 95, and its Enterprise tier advertises up to 13 models, including DeepSeek and Qwen, which no Semrush plan names. Scrunch Core costs USD 250 for 125 prompts, five user licenses, five site audits a month and four engines, with nine engines and API access on Enterprise. Among the four entry plans reviewed, only Semrush lists keyword rank tracking.

Where Canlah AI fits

Canlah AI is a Singapore-based SEO + GEO agency that measures and improves brand visibility inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode alongside DeepSeek, Qwen and Doubao, reporting AI visibility as re-verifiable ranges with timestamped evidence. It is a managed service, not a seat, so it belongs on this page only for buyers whose real question is who runs the measurement and fixes what it finds.

The measurement protocol is published. Each engagement locks 20 to 30 buyer queries for 90 days, runs at least three phrasing rotations per query per engine, stores every probe as a raw record with prompt, full response, citations and timestamp and re-runs the identical pool monthly so the client can check the numbers or hand them to a rival agency. Retainer tiers run from 100 tracked prompts at weekly cadence on one engine to 200 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.

The limitation is real. Canlah AI has no self-serve dashboard, no prompt-volume dataset, no published rate card and no agent product a client team can run alone, and it is far smaller than either platform here. Its own visibility is modest: in a September 7, 2026 self-audit of 39 buyer questions run three times each, Canlah AI was named in seven of 84 non-branded OpenAI answers, in none of 93 Gemini answers and in none of 51 browser-rendered Google AI Overviews. A buyer who wants thousands of prompts, SSO and a SOC 2 report should stay with Profound.

Buy Profound if, buy Semrush if

• Buy Profound if AI answers are the channel you report to leadership, you need more than four engines, and a custom contract is within reach.
• Buy Semrush if SEO is still the main channel, one domain and 25 to 200 prompts cover the question, and a published price matters more than depth.
• Buy Peec AI if you want the most tracked prompts per dollar at entry, or need DeepSeek and Qwen in a self-serve tool.
• Buy Scrunch if site diagnostics and AI agent traffic belong in the same product as monitoring.
• Engage Canlah AI if you need the baseline run for you across English and Chinese AI engines, with an archive you can re-run, and the on-site and off-site work done afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

Profound vs Semrush: which is better for AI visibility tracking?

Profound is deeper on the AI answer layer, with capability for up to nine engines, prompt-level demand data and agents, so it wins for teams whose main channel is AI answers. Semrush is better when AI visibility is a second report beside keyword rankings, because it is published at USD 99 a month and sits inside a suite the team already uses.

How much does Profound cost compared with Semrush?

Profound’s brand pricing page listed only a free seven-day trial and a custom Enterprise plan on September 23, 2026, plus an Agency Growth plan with 400 credits per client workspace and no stated price. Semrush lists USD 99 per month for the AI Visibility Toolkit and USD 199, USD 299 and USD 549 per month for Semrush One Starter, Pro+ and Advanced.

Does Semrush track DeepSeek, Qwen or Doubao?

No. The reviewed Semrush pages name Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. No Chinese engine was found on those pages. Profound lists DeepSeek among its nine engines, and Qwen and Doubao were not found on its reviewed pages, so a brand selling to Chinese-speaking buyers needs a vendor that samples those engines directly, which is the gap Canlah AI covers per engagement.

Semrush One vs Profound: which suits a small in-house team?

Semrush One, in most cases. Starter covers 50 tracked prompts, 500 daily keywords and five monitored websites for USD 199 a month with unlimited scope for growth inside the same bill, while Profound’s ongoing tracking requires an enterprise conversation. Profound’s free trial is still worth running first, since 50 prompts for seven days is a real baseline.

Peec AI vs Semrush: which tracks more prompts for the money?

Peec AI. Its Starter plan tracks 50 prompts across three chosen models at USD 95 a month against 25 prompts at USD 99 in the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, and its higher tiers reach 350 prompts. Of the two, only Semrush lists keyword rank tracking and site audits.

Scrunch vs Semrush: which covers more AI engines?

Scrunch covers four engines on its USD 250 Core plan and nine on Enterprise, against four in Semrush daily Prompt Tracking and five across the wider Semrush AI visibility reports. Scrunch also adds site diagnostics and AI agent traffic, while Semrush adds classic SEO.

Can Profound or Semrush guarantee that ChatGPT recommends my brand?

No. Neither platform makes that promise, and neither could keep it. Both measure how models answer and suggest changes; the model decides each answer independently, and cited sources move month to month. Canlah AI makes the same point about its own work, guaranteeing a measurement a buyer can re-run rather than a recommendation, so judge a vendor on whether the measurement is reproducible and not on the size of the promise.

About the author: Haoyang Pang, founder, Canlah AI. Writes on generative engine optimization and AI search measurement for Singapore and APAC brands. This comparison was researched and drafted with AI assistance and edited for accuracy; vendor capabilities are taken from public pages and marked where they could not be confirmed.

Method and sources

Plan limits, engine lists and prices were read from public product, pricing and help pages on September 23, 2026. No paid accounts were used, no quotes were requested and no dashboard was independently tested. Prices are list prices in USD and may differ by region, billing term or negotiation. Where a vendor makes a claim about a competitor, it is attributed to that vendor and should be treated as a first-party description.

• Profound pricing. Trial and Enterprise limits, nine-engine capability list, credits, seats and integrations.
• Profound vs Semrush, May 12, 2026. Profound’s own claims about prompt volume, headless-browser capture and Semrush country coverage.
• Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit help page. Toolkit price, prompt allowance, export limits, add-on prices and regions.
• Semrush plans and pricing. Semrush One Starter, Pro+ and Advanced prices, prompt and keyword limits, extra-user cost.
• Semrush AI visibility data and Semrush One. Which engines each report covers and how often it updates.
• Peec AI pricing. Starter, Pro and Advanced prompt tiers, model choice and Enterprise model list.
• Scrunch pricing. Core plan price, prompts, licenses and the four- and nine-engine lists.
• Canlah AI GEO services and pricing. Measurement protocol, locked query pool, phrasing rotations and retainer tiers.
• Canlah AI self-audit archive, anonymised, September 7, 2026. Self-visibility figures quoted above.

Do not decide from this page alone, and that includes the Canlah AI section above. Run the same ten buyer questions through both trials, in every language your buyers use, then compare the raw answers, the number of runs behind each figure and what each plan lets you export.

See where your brand stands in AI answers. Run the free AI visibility audit →

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