Parse vs Profound (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Parse and Profound share a 2.2 GPA, and only Parse has a free plan.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
Parse 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.
Parse
AI visibility tracking with outreach tasks handled for you
Profound
AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in
Which one is for you
Pick Parse if
- Fits if you want outreach drafted and sent for you, up to 4 tasks a month on Pro
- Works for online and national brands tracked one brand at a time
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you're a local business, as questions aren't tailored to a location
- Too light for wide engine coverage, with only ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and free topics on ChatGPT only
- Pricey if you run several brands, as Pro is charged per brand
- Watch out: $79 is a launch price against a planned $129, with no date for the change
- Tight if you want more than 4 tasks a month, as extra work is a custom Managed deal
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
| 2.2GPAParseFair | 2.2GPAProfoundFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $79 a month per brand, a launch price shown against a planned $129, with no date for the change. That's a little above this category's middle, and it includes up to 4 tasks a month with the outreach handled. | 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 | CA free plan with no card: one brand, weekly updates, 3 topics of your own on ChatGPT only and a preview of 3 tasks. The caps come quickly. | 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 | CA mentioned-in score, buyer questions found for you, what AI says about you with the pages behind it, and outreach done for you on Pro. The gaps: only ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, and questions aren't tailored to a location. | 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. Parse finds the questions for you, and there are still tasks and outreach drafts to review each month. | 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 an MCP server that connects it to Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, where you can list tasks and edit outreach drafts. | 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 | AI visibility with the outreach done for you | 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: Parse and Profound. How we grade
Price against what you get
Parse starts at $79 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 $20 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 13 score higher than Parse 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
- Parse also covers link outreach.
- Profound also covers AI agents, web analytics and content optimization.
At a glance
| Parse | Profound | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $79 per brand / month (launch price; $129 planned) | $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies) |
| Free plan | One brand with weekly updates, up to 3 topics of your own (asked on ChatGPT only), a preview of up to 3 suggested tasks and a Monday change email. No card required. | 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 | Parse, Inc. | Profound |
| Price read from | parse.gl | tryprofound.com |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Parse
- It tracks only ChatGPT and Google AI Mode; topics added on the free plan are asked on ChatGPT only.
- Pro is $79 per brand at launch, against a planned $129; the page gives no date for the change.
- Questions are not tailored to a buyer's location, so Parse says it suits online and national brands better than local ones.
- Pro includes up to 4 tasks a month; more work is a custom arrangement.
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
Parse
- Mentioned-in score
- The share of tracked answers that mention your brand, across questions about you and your rivals, with weekly or daily updates by plan.
- Buyer questions found for you
- Parse works out what buyers in your market ask AI; you can add your own topics too, up to 3 on Free and 15 on Pro.
- What AI says about you
- Summarizes the strengths, criticisms and rival comparisons that appear in answers, and shows the answers and cited pages behind each result.
- Tasks and outreach
- Suggests pages to pitch, threads to answer and site fixes such as a robots.txt block; Pro drafts and sends the outreach and follows up.
- Public brand index
- Free brand checks without sign-up, drawing on an index Parse puts at over 800,000 brands and 4 million AI answers.
- MCP server
- Connects to Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor; public lookups are free, and a connected workspace can list tasks and edit outreach drafts in chat.
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
Parse
Free$0
One brand, weekly updates, up to 3 custom topics on ChatGPT only, and a preview of 3 suggested tasks.
Pro$79
per brand / month
Launch price, shown against a planned regular $129. Daily tracking, 15 custom topics, and up to 4 tasks a month with outreach handled.
ManagedCustom
Custom work for more than 4 tasks a month or larger campaigns, arranged by contacting Parse.
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.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Parse or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Parse is cheaper to start with: $79 a month, against $99 a month for Profound. Parse starts at $79 per brand / month (launch price; $129 planned), and Profound starts at $99 per month (Agency Growth, the self-serve plan for agencies).
Which has a free plan, Parse or Profound?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only Parse 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.