Your customers are asking ChatGPT, Gemini and Google’s AI features which brand to trust. If you can’t see those answers, you can’t tell whether your business is part of the conversation.
Tracking your presence inside those answers has become a real marketing job. Semrush and Profound are two platforms built to help, but they come at the problem from different directions.
This comparison is for marketers, agencies and in-house teams deciding between the two. In one sentence: Semrush connects AI visibility with SEO and content data in one platform, while Profound is an AI-first marketing platform built around agents and enterprise-scale answer engine tracking.
Key Takeaways
- Both platforms track how your brand appears in AI answers, including mentions, citations, sentiment and competitors.
- Semrush pairs AI visibility with a large SEO dataset, so you can link AI presence to keywords, backlinks and content.
- Profound focuses on AI search and agent-led marketing work, with its widest engine coverage on Enterprise plans.
- Semrush publishes a self-serve starting price, while Profound offers a free trial and custom Enterprise pricing.
- Pick based on your workflow: integrated SEO and AI data, or a dedicated AI marketing workbench.
Profound vs. Semrush at a glance
| Semrush | Profound | |
| Key strengths | AI visibility, SEO and content data in one platform; 317M+ prompt database; reports on AI share of voice and sentiment | AI Marketer agents that act on insights; Agent Analytics for AI bot traffic; Enterprise tracking across up to 9 answer engines |
| Limitations | Can be more than you need for a lightweight mention tracker; Claude, DeepSeek and Grok tracking sits in Enterprise AIO | No published self-serve price for brands; trial prompts can’t be customised; exports, API and history are Enterprise features |
| Pricing | Starts at $99/month per domain | Custom pricing, with a free trial |
Choose Semrush if:
- You want AI visibility tracking alongside keyword, backlink and content data.
- You need a clear self-serve price to get started.
- You manage SEO and AI search reporting for the same sites.
- Your team wants recommendations tied to topic, prompt and source gaps.
Choose Profound if:
- AI search is your main focus and you want agents to draft and stage the work.
- You need to see how AI crawlers access your site through CDN and hosting integrations.
- You are an enterprise team that needs SSO, SOC 2 and tracking across many answer engines.
- You want unlimited seats and domains on an Enterprise contract.
How does Semrush compare to Profound at a high level?
Semrush overview
Semrush is a brand visibility platform that brings AI visibility tracking, SEO, competitor research and content optimisation into one place. It’s built for teams that see search visibility and AI visibility as connected.
That connection is the core of its approach. Semrush points out that the same topical authority, backlink profile and entity signals that influence Google rankings can also improve visibility in AI platforms.
Semrush also uses the platform on itself. It reports that acting on its own AI visibility data helped grow its AI share of voice from 13% to 32% in one month.
The platform scales from small teams to enterprise and has been used by more than 28 million people worldwide. SMBs and agencies typically use the AI Visibility Toolkit, while Enterprise AIO serves brands managing multiple products, markets and regions.
The trade-off is breadth. Semrush notes that it can feel like more than you need if you only want a lightweight AI mention tracker, and it delivers the most value when AI visibility is part of a wider SEO and content workflow.
Profound overview
Profound describes itself as an AI marketing platform for the agentic era. Its approach is to show what customers ask AI, deploy agents to act on it and measure the results.
At the centre is an AI Marketer that identifies work worth doing, drafts it and asks for your approval. That makes Profound as much a content and workflow tool as a tracking tool.
Customer results on its site show how teams use it. Plaid reports a 50% increase in its AI search visibility while saving time with Profound Agents, and MongoDB reports 30% time saved.
Profound is aimed squarely at larger organisations. It says it is trusted by a third of the Fortune 100 and supports enterprise governance with RBAC, SCIM and SOC 2.
The trade-off is access. There is no published self-serve price for brands, the free trial runs a recommended prompt set you can’t customize and ongoing daily tracking requires an Enterprise package.
How do Semrush features compare to Profound features?
| Feature | Semrush | Profound |
| AI platforms tracked | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews; more on Enterprise AIO | ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews on Trial; up to 9 answer engines on Enterprise |
| Mentions and citations | Yes, tracked over time | Yes, with citation analytics |
| Sentiment | Yes, in Brand Performance reports | Yes, with the sources driving it |
| Competitor benchmarking | Yes, with topic, prompt and source gaps | Yes, competitive presence in answers |
| Prompt research | 317M+ prompt database | Prompt Volumes from real user conversations |
| AI shopping visibility | ChatGPT Shopping and Google AI Mode (Enterprise AIO) | ChatGPT Shopping at SKU level (Enterprise) |
| Unique features | 28B+ keyword and 43T backlink databases alongside AI data | AI Marketer agents, FactCheck and Agent Analytics for bot traffic |
Semrush features in more detail
The AI Visibility Toolkit tracks mentions and citations across five AI platforms and highlights gaps where competitors are mentioned instead of you. Its Brand Performance reports show your AI share of voice, sentiment, narrative drivers and the questions people ask AI about your company.
Enterprise AIO tracks visibility by product, persona, region and category. It adds platforms such as Claude, DeepSeek and Grok, along with source-level analysis of what shapes AI answers in your category.
Profound features in more detail
Profound’s Trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Enterprise can track up to 9 answer engines, including Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and DeepSeek, and adds CSV and JSON exports, API access and SSO.
Agent Analytics shows how bots view, cite and refer to your pages. It connects with tools such as Cloudflare, AWS, Vercel, WordPress and Google Analytics.
Semrush vs. Profound pricing
| Semrush | Profound | |
| Plan starting price | Starts at $99/month per domain | Custom (Enterprise) |
| Free trial available? | Yes, 7 days | Yes, 50 prompts daily for 7 days |
| Free plan available? | Yes, with limited daily reports | No |
Semrush lists current plans on its pricing page. Its enterprise offerings are custom, and you can request a demo to scope a plan.
Profound lists its Trial and Enterprise packages on its pricing page. Its agents run on a credit-based model, so usage affects cost.
All prices are in US dollars, so Australian teams should factor in exchange rates and any applicable taxes. If you are still mapping how AI features are changing Australian search results, start there before you set a tracking budget.
How to choose between Semrush and Profound
Semrush might be the better fit if:
- You already run SEO campaigns and want AI visibility in the same reports.
- You manage several client sites and want clear per-domain pricing.
- You want prompt research backed by a large database.
Profound might be the better fit if:
- AI search is a dedicated function with its own budget.
- You want agents that draft and stage content for review.
- Your technical team wants CDN-level data on AI crawler activity.
Before you commit, run 10 to 20 of your key prompts in Semrush’s trial and compare the results with what Profound’s recommended trial prompts surface. Look at which mentions and citations each platform finds and how easy it is to act on them.
Which should you choose for AI answer tracking?
Both platforms give you a clear view of how AI talks about your brand. Semrush suits teams that want AI visibility tied to their SEO data, while Profound suits teams building a dedicated, agent-led AI search practice.
If connected SEO and AI reporting sounds right for your team, compare Semrush plans and start with the free trial.
FAQs
Which platforms offer the best AI answer presence tracking features?
Semrush and Profound are two strong options. Semrush combines AI visibility with SEO data, while Profound focuses on AI search with agent-led workflows and enterprise tracking.
Does Semrush track Claude and DeepSeek?
Yes, on Enterprise AIO. The AI Visibility Toolkit covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews.
Does Profound have a free trial?
Yes. The Trial runs 50 recommended prompts daily for 7 days across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
Is AI visibility tracking the same as SEO?
No. SEO measures visibility in traditional search, while AI visibility tracks how often and how positively your brand appears in AI-generated answers.