# Elmo review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Open-source AI visibility tracker, self-hosted free or as a cloud app

Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 24, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Elmo tracks how ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and other models mention a brand, which competitors appear beside it and which sources they cite. Consumer apps are read from their real interfaces and other models through their APIs. The MIT-licensed code can be self-hosted for free, and Elmo Cloud is a hosted version with self-serve plans and unlimited seats.

- **Category:** AI Search Visibility (AEO & GEO)
- **Made by:** Blue Whale Software, LLC (since 2025)
- **Website:** https://www.elmohq.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you need more than ChatGPT for under $99 a month, as Starter covers ChatGPT only, once a day.
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 23, 2026

## Pricing

As of Oct 23, 2026, Elmo has a free plan, and paid plans start at $29 per month for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, billed monthly.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **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.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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. |
| Custom | Custom | More brands, custom prompt limits, more frequent sampling and any models, by contract. |

Read from https://www.elmohq.com/pricing on Oct 23, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Elmo before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Two months free with annual billing** (Annual discount): 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. Source: https://www.elmohq.com/pricing

## Key features

- **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.

## Good for

- Developer teams and regulated companies that must keep prompt data on their own servers
- Small brands wanting a low-cost start tracking ChatGPT
- Teams that want frequent sampling, with checks up to 4 times a day
- Agencies looking for a white-label AI visibility product

## Worth knowing

- 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Oct 24, 2026. Elmo is open source: you can run it free on your own server, or pay for the cloud version, which has unlimited seats and an API and MCP server on every plan. But the $29 cloud plan covers ChatGPT only, once a day, other engines start at $99, and self-hosting means running Docker and paying for your own servers and AI keys.

- **Value for money: C.** Starter 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.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** No 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.
- **Features: C.** Visibility, 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.
- **Ease of use: C.** No 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.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web 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.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Elmo's own pages on 23 October 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among AI search visibility tools

- Elmo's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 68 of the 157 other AI search visibility tools we grade, and level with 56.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 51 of 157) and worst on ease of use (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $29 a month, against a middle price of $59 for the category: 22 of the 128 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 6 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-visibility

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** The plain part of Elmo you could make: reports. What surrounds it you could not. The 2 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It costs $348 a year. Elmo is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.

- You could make: Reports: an app builder makes this well.
- You could not: The same prompts asked of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI answers every day, and the answers kept.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, OpenRouter, PostgreSQL and Docker among them, and has an API.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

OpenRouter, PostgreSQL, Docker, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, VS Code

**Tags:** AI search visibility, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API, Reports

## Alternatives

- [Profound](https://toolgpa.com/tools/profound): AI search visibility tracking with an AI marketing agent built in. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elmo-vs-profound)
- [Peec AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/peec-ai): AI search analytics that tracks brand prompts across AI models. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elmo-vs-peec-ai)
- [Otterly.AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/otterly-ai): Daily brand and citation tracking across AI search engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elmo-vs-otterly-ai)
- [LLMrefs](https://toolgpa.com/tools/llmrefs): Keyword-based AI search visibility tracker with one flat plan. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elmo-vs-llmrefs)
- [Rankscale AI](https://toolgpa.com/tools/rankscale-ai): Credit-based AI visibility tracker covering 17+ AI engines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/elmo-vs-rankscale-ai)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 23, 2026:

- https://www.elmohq.com/pricing
- https://www.elmohq.com/
- https://www.elmohq.com/about

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/elmo
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).