Elmo vs Profound (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 24, 2026, Elmo and Profound share a 2.2 GPA, and only Elmo has a free plan.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 and Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA
Elmo grades higher on value for money. Profound grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Elmo
Open-source AI visibility tracker, self-hosted free or as a cloud app
Profound
AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in
Which one is for you
Pick Elmo if
- Fits if your prompt data must stay on your own servers and you can run Docker
- Works for developer teams that want an API, SDKs and MCP on every plan
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need more than ChatGPT for under $99 a month, as Starter covers ChatGPT only, once a day
- Not for you if you can't run servers, since the free edition is self-hosted and the hosting and AI API keys are on you
- Watch out: cloud plans cover any 4 platforms, and Claude (web) and Grok (web) are Pro and up, with extra pairings at $5 a month each
- Pricey if you track several brands, as 2 brands need Pro at $299 a month and 5 need Business at $649
Pick Profound if
- Fits if you're a large brand that wants answers tracked on up to 9 engines and can sign a custom contract
- Works for agencies running pitch audits for prospects, at $99 a month for 10 short workspaces
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want to sign up and pay without a sales call, as brands can't
- Pricey if you're an agency with several clients, at $399 a month per client workspace on top of $99
- Tight if you want to test your own questions, since the trial's prompts are fixed
- Watch out: custom prompts, the API, exports and SSO all come only with Enterprise
- Watch out: agents spend credits, and extra credits need an Enterprise package with overage billing or a pause
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAElmoFair | 2.2GPAProfoundFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CStarter is $29 a month for 50 prompts, at the edge of this category's cheaper quarter, but it's ChatGPT only, once a day. Four engines and 4 checks a day start at Basic for $99, above the dearer quarter at $95. Self-hosting is free, but you pay for servers and API keys. | DBrands get no published price: past the trial it's a custom Enterprise quote, given only on a sales call. Agency Growth is $99 a month, but that buys 10 short pitch audits, and each real client workspace is $399 a month on top. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free cloud plan or trial. The free edition is the full product with unlimited prompts, but you host it yourself with Docker and pay for the servers and the AI providers' API keys. | CNo free plan, but a 7-day trial runs 50 preset prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. You can't edit those prompts, so you see the questions Profound picks, not your own. |
| Features | CVisibility, share of voice, sentiment, position, citations and the searches a model ran, read from real chat screens or APIs, plus prompt suggestions. The gap the listing names: cloud plans cover any 4 platforms, and Claude (web) and Grok (web) start at Pro. | BDaily answers with citations, sentiment and competitor ranking on up to 9 engines, Claude, Copilot and DeepSeek among them, plus an AI Marketer, reusable agents, Prompt Volumes and crawler analytics across unlimited domains. It covers the whole job; the agents run on credits. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. The cloud app suggests prompts, but you still choose four platforms and what to track. The free edition needs Docker, a CLI and your own PostgreSQL database. | CNo rating on record. Brands are onboarded through sales, and custom prompts, exports and the API only arrive with Enterprise, so there's set-up before it's really yours. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. Every plan has a REST API with TypeScript and Python SDKs and an MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and VS Code. | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It connects to Google Analytics, Search Console, Cloudflare, Vercel, WordPress, Webflow, Slack and G2, and the API comes with Enterprise. |
| Best for | self-hosted AI visibility tracking | big brands tracking AI answers on many engines |
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: Elmo and Profound. How we grade
Price against what you get
Elmo starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Profound starts at $99 a month and scores 2.7.
Profound scores higher, and starts $70 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 6 score higher than Elmo for less, and 1 scores higher than Profound 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
- Elmo is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Elmo also covers reports.
- Profound also covers AI agents, web analytics and content optimization.
At a glance
| Elmo | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $29 per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, billed monthly | $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies) |
| Free plan | The self-hosted edition is free and open source, with unlimited prompts and every model; you pay for your own servers and AI provider API keys. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial: 50 preset prompts run daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with limited AI Marketer credits |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Blue Whale Software, LLC | Profound |
| Price read from | elmohq.com | tryprofound.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Elmo
- Starter tracks ChatGPT only, once a day; other engines and 4 daily checks start at Basic for $99 a month.
- Paid cloud plans cover any 4 platforms; premium models such as Claude (web) and Grok (web) are Pro and up, with extra pairings at $5 a month each.
- Self-hosting is free but you pay for your own servers and for the AI provider API keys it uses.
- White-label deployments for agencies are quoted on request.
Profound
- Brands have no self-serve paid plan: after the 7-day trial, ongoing tracking needs a custom-priced Enterprise contract.
- Trial users get a recommended prompt set and cannot edit it; custom prompts, API access, exports and SSO come with Enterprise.
- On Agency Growth, each full client workspace is a $399-a-month add-on and 5 more trial workspaces cost $199 a month.
- Agent runs use credits; extra credits beyond the plan need an Enterprise package, with overage billing or a pause set by the account team.
Key features
Elmo
- Visibility, share of voice and sentiment
- Each prompt gets a visibility score from 0 to 100%, plus share of voice against competitors, a sentiment score and the brand's position in the answer.
- Real interfaces and APIs
- ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and other consumer apps are scraped from the screens users see; Qwen, DeepSeek, Mistral and Claude are queried through their APIs.
- Citation and search analysis
- Breaks each answer into the domains and URLs cited and the web searches the model ran to find them.
- Prompt Wizard
- Suggests the questions buyers are likely to ask, based on the site's products, competitors and personas, and starts tracking them.
- REST API and MCP server
- Every plan includes a REST API with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and an MCP server for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and VS Code.
- Self-hosting
- Runs as a Docker Compose stack set up with a CLI, storing brands, prompts and answers in your own PostgreSQL database.
Profound
- Answer Engine Insights
- Runs set prompts daily and reports where a brand appears in the answers, which sources are cited, sentiment and how it ranks against competitors.
- Wide engine coverage
- Enterprise can track ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Exa Search.
- AI Marketer and agents
- An assistant that finds gaps in AI answers and drafts or rewrites pages, plus reusable agents for recurring work. Agents run on credits.
- Agent Analytics
- Tracks AI crawler visits and AI-referred traffic across unlimited domains by connecting to CDNs and hosts such as Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS and Vercel.
- Prompt Volumes
- Estimates what people ask AI answer engines about a topic; the trial allows 5 searches.
- Agency workspaces
- Agency plans manage short pitch workspaces for prospects and full client workspaces from one dashboard with consolidated billing.
Plans
Elmo
Self-hosted$0
The same product on your own servers via Docker, with unlimited prompts and any model. You host it yourself.
Starter$29
per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT only, billed monthly
1 brand, each prompt checked once a day in ChatGPT, unlimited seats, and API and MCP access.
Basic$99
per month for 50 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
1 brand, with prompts checked 4 times a day on any 4 platforms picked from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini and others.
Pro$299
per month for 150 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
2 brands, checks 4 times a day, plus 20 daily premium pairings on Claude (web), GPT Search or Grok (web).
Business$649
per month for 350 prompts on 4 AI platforms, billed monthly
5 brands, checks 4 times a day, plus 30 daily premium prompt and model pairings.
CustomCustom
More brands, custom prompt limits, more frequent sampling and any models, by contract.
Profound
Agency Growth$99
per month for up to 10 pitch workspaces a month
For agencies: 10 seven-day pitch audits a month on ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews, 5 agency seats. Each full client workspace is $399 a month extra.
EnterpriseCustom
For brands: tailored prompt tracking on up to 9 answer engines, AI Marketer credits, all-time history, CSV and JSON exports, API, SSO and dedicated support.
Agency EnterpriseCustom
For large agencies and networks: tailored client and trial workspaces, a dedicated agency partner, go-to-market help and Slack support.
Ways to pay less
Elmo
- Annual discount
Two months free with annual billing
Elmo's pricing page says annual billing saves two months: Starter is $290 a year instead of $29 a month, and Basic $990 instead of $99 a month.
Profound
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Elmo or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Elmo is cheaper to start with: $29 a month, against $99 a month for Profound. Elmo starts at $29 per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, billed monthly, and Profound starts at $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies).
Which has a free plan, Elmo or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Elmo has a free plan. Profound does not, though it has a free trial.
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.