Answer Audit or Profound: which should you use?
Use Profound if you want one platform that checks answers daily and has agents that write content for you. Use Answer Audit if you want to see the answers AI assistants give your buyers before you pay for a monthly plan: the full report is $29£24 once, with no subscription, and asks every company in a category the same 25 questions.
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is getting your company named when a buyer asks an AI assistant who to use. Both measure it; they suit different buyers. The grid compares them on the points these tools' own pricing and comparison pages use (price, commitment, assistants, seats, countries, how often answers are checked, app or API answers, exports and MCP), plus the ones that set Answer Audit apart.
Side by side
Profound's facts are as its own pages stated them on 12 October 2026, in the currency they were shown in. Where a point says “Not stated on the pages we read”, we found nothing on it, which is not the same as “no”. Prices change often; check the vendor's site before you buy.
| Point | Answer Audit | Profound |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free check 6 questions on 3 assistants, no card. Full report: $29£24 once, 25 questions Monitor: $19£15 a month, 25 questions Added to the full report; the first payment includes the report, and so does the yearly plan. | Trial: free 50 prompts run daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews; a recommended prompt set that cannot be edited. Enterprise: on request Tailored prompt plan; up to 9 answer engines. Agency Growth: $99 a month Plus add-ons: a client workspace (100 prompts, daily) at $399 a month, five trial workspaces at $199 a month. |
| Commitment | Free check: free. Full report: paid once, no subscription. Monitor: priced by the month. | Trial: free. Agency Growth: priced by the month. Enterprise: priced on request. |
| Free check or trial | Free check, and for its first 30 days your competitors on the grid and one drafted page. | Free: 50 prompts daily for 7 days on three engines. |
| AI assistants asked | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google Search AI (AI Mode or AI Overview) The free check asks the first 3; the full report asks all 5. | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Anthropic Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa Search Enterprise can track up to nine; the trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. |
| Seats | No seats to buy: a report opens from its own private link, and your account is your email address. | Unlimited on Trial and Enterprise; 5 agency seats on Agency Growth. |
| Countries and markets | 7 markets; another market is a pack of its own. | One region and one language on Trial; custom on Enterprise. |
| How often answers are checked | Monthly. The full report is one run; the Monitor re-checks the same questions monthly. | Daily. |
| App or API answers | Some assistants through their own apps, some through APIs. Four assistants answer through their APIs with web search, and Google's own results page is read for the fifth. API answers are a proxy for what a person sees in the apps. | From the assistants' own apps, as a person sees them. Prompts run daily through each answer engine's front-end browser interface, not API calls (its comparison with Peec). |
| Where the questions come from | 25 questions written for each category with the brand withheld; the same 25 are asked for every company in that category. | Trial uses a recommended prompt set by industry; Enterprise prompts can be edited, added or disabled. Its Prompt Volumes data comes from a licensed panel of real user prompts. |
| Your brand in the questions | The brand is withheld while the questions are written; on request we add a list of your own questions, scored apart and never compared with the category set. | Not stated on the pages we read. |
| Whole answers to read | The full report shows every answer whole, with who it named and which websites it cited. The free check shows the first 6 whole and the first 30 words of the rest. | Not stated on the pages we read. |
| Exports and API | CSV, PDF and API. CSV and Save as PDF on every report. A REST API with personal keys, and an MCP server: its category tools need no sign-in, and your own reports need you to sign in. Both read only, since 12 October 2026. | CSV, JSON and API. No exports on Trial; CSV, JSON and API on Enterprise. |
| MCP server | Yes. A REST API with personal keys, and an MCP server: its category tools need no sign-in, and your own reports need you to sign in. | Not stated on the pages we read. |
| Writes content for you | Drafts answer-shaped pages grounded in the answers we hold (a page pack). | Yes: its AI Marketer and Agents research, write and report, on credits. |
| Done for you by people | Monitor Pro: $150£120 a month Full audit: from $750£600 once Get cited: from $1,500£1,200 a month Agency white label: from $189£149 a month From 5 clients; reports carry the agency's name. A company that wants the number moved, not just measured. | Not stated on the pages we read. |
| Best for | Seeing the actual answers before you pay anyone | Large brands and agencies wanting a full platform with content agents |
When Profound is the better buy
- You need numbers every day. Profound checks daily; our Monitor re-checks monthly. For daily numbers a daily tracker is the better buy, and Profound is one.
- You want one platform that writes as well as measures. Its AI Marketer and Agents research, write and report, on credits.
- You want answers read from the assistants' own apps. Prompts run daily through each answer engine's front-end browser interface, not API calls (its comparison with Peec). Four of our five assistants answer through their APIs; API answers are a proxy for what a person sees in the app.
- You want more assistants than our five. Enterprise can track up to nine; the trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
- You need Microsoft Copilot. Profound lists it; we do not ask Copilot.
When Answer Audit is the better buy
- You want the price on the page. Profound's Enterprise plan is priced on request; ours are in the grid above.
- You want to know where you stand before you commit to a monthly plan. The free check asks 6 buyer questions on 3 AI assistants with no card, and the full report is $29£24 once, with no subscription: all 25 questions on all 5 assistants.
- You want a fair test. 25 questions written for each category with the brand withheld; the same 25 are asked for every company in that category. So your result sits beside your competitors' on the same questions.
- You want the answers in one report you keep, with no subscription. The full report shows every answer whole, with who it named and which websites it cited. The free check shows the first 6 whole and the first 30 words of the rest.
- You want someone to do the work. A full audit is from $750£600, and getting cited from $1,500£1,200 a month. Agencies can resell the report under their own name.
Questions people ask
Is Answer Audit cheaper than Profound?
Answer Audit's free check costs nothing, the full report is $29£24 once and Monitor adds $19£15 a month on top of it, or $190£150 a year with the report included. Profound's plans as its pages showed them on 12 October 2026: Trial: free; Enterprise: on request; Agency Growth: $99 a month. Which costs less depends on whether you want one clear look or numbers every day.
Does Profound check every day?
Profound checks daily. Answer Audit's full report is one run, and its Monitor asks the same questions again each month. If you need daily numbers, Profound is the better buy.
Which AI assistants do Answer Audit and Profound ask?
Answer Audit: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google Search AI (AI Mode or AI Overview). The free check asks the first 3; the full report asks all 5. Profound: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Anthropic Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa Search.
Does Profound read the AI apps or use their APIs?
Prompts run daily through each answer engine's front-end browser interface, not API calls (its comparison with Peec). Answer Audit: four assistants answer through their APIs with web search, and Google's own results page is read for the fifth. API answers are a proxy for what a person sees in the apps.
Why not ask the AI assistants about my company by name?
Because a buyer who has not heard of you does not ask that way, and an assistant asked about a named company will talk about it. The questions that decide whether you make a shortlist are written from the category description alone, before any company's name is given.
Does every company in my category get the same questions?
Yes, for the same category and market. That is what makes scores in a category comparable, and it is why the answers are asked once and reused rather than bought again for each company.