Answer Socrates vs Keyword Insights (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Answer Socrates grades higher than Keyword Insights: 2.4 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Answer Socrates grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use. Keyword Insights grades higher on features. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Answer Socrates
Question and keyword ideas with clustering and AI brand tracking
Keyword Insights
Keyword clustering, content briefs and AI writing on one credit pool
Which one is for you
Pick Answer Socrates if
- Fits if you want question keywords and only need a few searches a day
- Works for writers turning a topic into clusters for pillar pages
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need numbers for free, as the free plan shows no volume or CPC
- Tight if you track lots of AI answers, as each engine query uses a brand tracker credit
- Pricey if you need the API, which starts at $39 a month or $32.50 on yearly billing
- Not for you if a team needs logins, as seats start at Aurelius ($69 a month) with 2
- Watch out: there's no trial, only a 7-day money-back guarantee, and allowances reset each cycle
Pick Keyword Insights if
- Fits if you have thousands of keywords and need to know which ones belong on one page
- Works for content teams that want research, briefs and drafts in the same place
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you mostly want AI articles, as Basic's credits cover about 8 and nothing else
- Tight if you work with others, as Basic has one seat and sharing starts at $99
- Not for you if you hate credits that expire, as unused ones reset every month and all go when you cancel
- Watch out: pay-as-you-go credits only work for clustering and expire 30 days after purchase
- Watch out: the 7-day trial costs $1 and needs a card
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAAnswer SocratesFair | 2.0GPAKeyword InsightsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CLite is $15.83 a month on yearly billing, $19 monthly, which is mid-table for this category. That's 1,200 searches, 60 AI articles and 600 brand tracker credits a year. API and MCP access start at Seneca, $32.50 a month yearly. | DBasic is $58 a month for 10,000 credits, which is where this category's dearest tenth starts. Yearly billing takes 20% off. Credits go fast: a brief is 100 and an AI Writer Agent article 1,200, and unused ones vanish each month. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with 3 searches a day, 500 cluster credits a month and 1 CSV download, no card needed. You'll hit those caps, and it shows no volume or CPC at all. Paid plans have a 7-day money-back guarantee, not a trial. | DNo free plan. The 7-day trial costs $1 and gives 5,000 one-time credits, and it needs a card, though you aren't charged after it. |
| Features | CQuestions and long-tail phrases from Google, Bing, YouTube and AI models, clustering, volume and CPC, trending topics and an LLM brand tracker. There's no difficulty score or competitor lookup on record. | BKeyword ideas from autocomplete, Reddit, Quora and People Also Ask with volume, difficulty and CPC, then SERP clustering, intent labels, briefs and an AI writer. That covers the whole job, from finding keywords to planning the pages. |
| Ease of use | BNo rating on record, but nothing to set up: type a seed or two and the questions come back, already grouped into clusters if you want them. | CNo rating on record. Clustering a list is simple enough, but you'll want to learn the credit costs first, as every feature draws on the same pool at a different rate. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb plus a browser extension, with no desktop or phone app. From Seneca there's a REST API and an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and others. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Google Search Console and WordPress. |
| Best for | free question research with clustering on top | turning big keyword lists into a page plan |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Answer Socrates and Keyword Insights. How we grade
Price against what you get
Answer Socrates starts at $15.83 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Keyword Insights starts at $58 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Answer Socrates starts $42.17 a month lower. Of the other keyword research tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Answer Socrates for less, and 1 scores higher than Keyword Insights for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Answer Socrates also covers AI search visibility.
- Keyword Insights also covers content optimization.
At a glance
| Answer Socrates | Keyword Insights | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $15.83 per month, billed yearly ($19 billed monthly) | $58 per month for 10,000 credits, billed monthly |
| Free plan | 3 keyword searches and 1 recursive search a day, 500 cluster credits a month and 1 CSV download a month. No search metrics, brand tracking, projects or API. No card needed. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day trial for $1 with 5,000 one-time credits; a card is needed and you are not charged after it |
| Web | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Toast Media FZCO | Snippet Digital Ltd |
| Price read from | answersocrates.com | keywordinsights.ai |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Answer Socrates
- The free plan shows no search volume, CPC or competition and has no projects, brand tracking or API.
- API and MCP access start at Seneca, $39 a month; team seats only come with Aurelius (2) and Senate (5).
- Each LLM Brand Tracker credit covers one AI engine query, so a keyword checked in three engines uses three credits.
- Plan allowances reset each billing cycle; paid plans have a 7-day money-back guarantee rather than a trial.
Keyword Insights
- Unused subscription credits reset at the end of each billing period, and all credits are removed when a subscription ends.
- Basic has a single user seat; team sharing starts at Professional.
- Pay-as-you-go credits work only for clustering and expire 30 days after purchase.
- An AI Writing Agent article costs 1,200 credits, so Basic's 10,000 credits cover about 8 such articles and nothing else.
Key features
Answer Socrates
- Question and long-tail ideas
- Turns one or two seed keywords into hundreds of questions, comparisons and long-tail phrases gathered from Google, Bing, YouTube and AI models, in any country and language.
- Keyword clustering
- Groups a keyword list by meaning and intent into topic clusters, each with its total search volume and average CPC and competition. Uses cluster credits.
- Search volume, CPC and competition
- Paid plans show volume, cost per click and competition for every keyword and sort question keywords by volume. The free plan has no metrics.
- LLM Brand Tracker
- Runs keywords through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok and DeepSeek, and scores your brand's mentions and share of voice over time. One credit covers one engine query.
- Trending Topics and AI articles
- Shows topics spiking in any country and language, and paid plans include AI-written SEO articles of up to 2,500 words each.
- MCP server and REST API
- From the Seneca plan, a hosted MCP server lets assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor pull keywords, trends and clusters into your projects.
Keyword Insights
- Keyword clustering
- Groups a keyword list by overlap in Google results to show which pages to create, then relates clusters to each other into wider topics.
- Search intent labels
- Counts how many of the top 10 results for each keyword are informational, commercial, transactional or other, to suggest the page type.
- Keyword Discovery
- Pulls keyword ideas in real time from Google Autocomplete, Reddit, Quora and People Also Ask, with volume, difficulty and CPC.
- Content briefs
- Builds an outline for each cluster with headings, questions to answer and talking points drawn from the pages that rank.
- AI Writer Assistant and Agent
- Write and grade an article in an editor (200 credits), or have the AI Writer Agent draft a full article for the page type (1,200 credits).
- Mentions
- Lists Reddit, Quora and YouTube conversations where a brand could join in and be mentioned, as a route into AI answers.
Plans
Answer Socrates
Free$0
3 searches a day, 500 cluster credits a month and 1 CSV download a month, without search volume or CPC data.
Socrates Lite$15.83
per month, billed yearly at $190 ($19 billed monthly)
1,200 searches, 60 AI articles and 600 LLM Brand Tracker credits a year, search metrics, unlimited CSVs and 2 projects. No API.
Seneca$32.50
per month, billed yearly at $390 ($39 billed monthly)
6,000 searches, 300 AI articles and 2,400 brand tracker credits a year, API and MCP access with 6,000 API credits, and 5 projects.
Aurelius$57.50
per month, billed yearly at $690 ($69 billed monthly)
Unlimited searches, 720 AI articles and 6,000 brand tracker credits a year, 30,000 API credits, 10 projects and 2 team seats.
Senate$249.17
per month, billed yearly at $2,990 ($299 billed monthly)
For agencies: 1,800 AI articles and 36,000 brand tracker credits a year, 300,000 API credits, 100 projects and 5 team seats.
Keyword Insights
Basic$58
per month for 10,000 credits, billed monthly
1 user seat and 5 workspaces. Clustering costs 1 credit per keyword, a brief 100 credits and an AI Writing Agent article 1,200.
Professional$99
per month for 20,000 credits, billed monthly
3 user seats, 10 workspaces and team sharing, with the same credit costs per feature.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits, seats and workspaces, priority support and onboarding, for high-volume teams. Sold after a demo.
Ways to pay less
Answer Socrates
- Annual discount
Save 17% with yearly billing
Answer Socrates's pricing page says yearly plans are billed once at a 17% discount, two months free: Lite is $190 a year against $19 a month.
Keyword Insights
- Annual discount
Save 20% with annual billing
Keyword Insights' pricing page offers annual subscriptions at 20% off the monthly price.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Answer Socrates or Keyword Insights?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Answer Socrates is cheaper to start with: $15.83 a month, against $58 a month for Keyword Insights. Answer Socrates starts at $15.83 per month, billed yearly ($19 billed monthly), and Keyword Insights starts at $58 per month for 10,000 credits, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, Answer Socrates or Keyword Insights?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Answer Socrates has a free plan. Keyword Insights does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Answer Socrates and Keyword Insights run on?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Answer Socrates lists a browser extension. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.