The short version: These are the two most-compared tools in AI visibility, and they are not really competing for the same buyer. Profound is the enterprise platform — $155M+ raised, a $1B valuation, 700+ enterprise customers including over 10% of the Fortune 500. Peec AI is the self-serve challenger — founded 2025, roughly $10M ARR in 16 months, around $95/mo at Starter with unlimited users. If you have a dedicated AI search function, Profound. If you want to be live this afternoon, Peec. The detail below explains why, and what neither of them does.
The 30-second verdict
| If you… | Pick |
|---|---|
| Want your whole marketing stack watched, not just AEO | Neither — see below |
| Are a large brand with a dedicated AI search owner | Profound (at $399 Growth, not $99 Starter) |
| Want to start today without a sales call | Peec AI |
| Need the deepest citation and sentiment analysis | Profound |
| Have a small team and want unlimited seats | Peec AI |
| Need MCP access on a small budget | Neither at entry — price the real tier |
Company snapshot
| Profound | Peec AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | ~2024 | 2025 (Antler Berlin) |
| Funding | $155M+; $96M Series C at $1B valuation (Feb 2026) | ~€25M; €18M Series A (Nov 2025) |
| Traction | 700+ enterprises, 10%+ of Fortune 500 | ~$10M ARR in 16 months, 2,000+ brands and agencies |
| Named customers | Target, Walmart, Figma, Ramp, MongoDB, Chime | Chanel, Axel Springer, ElevenLabs, TUI |
| Motion | Enterprise, sales-led | Self-serve, PLG |
Pricing, read properly
Both companies publish an entry price that is not the price you will pay.
Profound’s $99 Starter is ChatGPT-only with no exports. The capabilities Profound is famous for — multi-engine coverage, citation forensics, the analysis that justifies the reputation — begin at $399 Growth, and enterprise deployments are commonly cited between $2,000 and $5,000+ per month depending on engine count and seats.
Peec’s Starter is around $95/mo covering three models, one project and daily tracking, with unlimited users. Additional AI models are metered as add-ons at roughly €30 to €140 per model per month, and API, MCP and SSO sit on Advanced and above.
The practical read: if you are comparing $99 to $95 you are comparing two marketing numbers. Price the tier that actually contains the features you need. On Peec that usually means Advanced plus the models you care about. On Profound it usually means Growth, or a conversation.
Where Profound wins
Citation depth. More engines, more prompts, and considerably more granular analysis of which sources get cited and why. If you need to know not just that you are invisible but which competitor’s blog post is taking your slot, this is where you get it.
Sentiment and position. Profound reports how you are described and where you appear inside an answer, not just whether you appear. Those are the two metrics the category has converged on as the ones that matter.
MCP design. Profound’s MCP is the best-architected in the category. It ships a knowledge graph so an agent understands how visibility relates to mentions, prompts to topics, citations to domains — plus a capability set mapped to how marketers actually work. Their framing of the design problem is sharp: an MCP is built for an agent that shows up at runtime, reads tool names, and has to work out what to call.
Enterprise trust. 10% of the Fortune 500 is a procurement answer as much as a product one.
Where Peec wins
Time to value. Card, domain, competitors, done. No demo, no procurement.
Seat economics. Unlimited users at Starter is genuinely unusual. In a category where most vendors charge per seat, this alone can decide it for a growing team.
Price fit for startups. $95/mo is a line item a founder approves. $399/mo is a discussion, and $2,000/mo is a budget cycle.
Momentum. $10M ARR in 16 months means fast shipping and an engaged user base.
Feature comparison
| Profound | Peec AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Engine coverage | ChatGPT-only at $99; broad from $399 | 3 models at Starter, more as paid add-ons |
| Sentiment analysis | Strong | Lighter |
| In-answer position | Yes | Limited |
| Competitor benchmarking | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes, knowledge-graph based | Yes, Advanced tier and above |
| Exports | Not on Starter | Yes |
| Seats | Tiered | Unlimited at Starter |
| Self-serve | Limited | Yes |
| Real entry price | $399 for the useful tier | ~$95 plus per-model add-ons |
What neither one does
Both tools answer the same question extremely well: how does my brand appear in AI-generated answers? And both wait to be asked. Profound describes its own MCP approach as reactive rather than alert-based — ad-hoc answers in the flow of work. That is an accurate description of the whole category.
Two consequences worth thinking about before you spend.
AI visibility is one surface out of several. Your brand can vanish from ChatGPT. It can also vanish from Google’s index, which happens faster and costs more. Your email authentication can break. A competitor can cut prices and launch a comparison page against you. Neither tool looks at any of that.
Nobody interrupts you. These are places you go. If your pricing page dropped out of Google’s index this morning, both tools will be silent — not as a flaw, but because they are built to be queried rather than to notify.
The third option
If what you actually want is to be told, RunAgents is built for that. It watches AI search visibility alongside SEO and indexing health, competitor moves, email deliverability, brand mentions, uptime and page quality — continuously — diffs each check against the last, and reports what changed and what it means. MCP is included on the one plan rather than reserved for a higher tier, so your AI tools can pull all of it inline while they work. $99/mo flat.
Said plainly: on AEO depth specifically, Profound at Growth is deeper than we are. More engines, more prompts, better citation forensics. If AI visibility is your entire job, buy Profound and do not overthink it. We are the better answer if AI visibility is one of six things you are worried about and nobody is watching the other five.
See what changed across your stack today →
FAQ
Profound or Peec AI for a startup? Peec, almost always. Profound’s product is aimed at companies with a dedicated AI search function and a budget to match — and its $99 tier is not the product people mean when they recommend Profound.
Which has the better MCP server? Profound, clearly — the knowledge graph approach is a genuine design advance. Peec’s is competent but gated to Advanced and above. Neither is free on the entry plan; for how MCP access differs across the category, see best MCP servers for marketing teams.
Is Profound worth $2,000 a month? For a Fortune 500 brand where AI-mediated discovery affects real revenue, yes. For a Series A startup, you are buying depth you will not use. The alternatives are in 7 best Profound alternatives.
Can I switch later? Yes. Neither tool creates meaningful lock-in — the data is a time series you can rebuild elsewhere in weeks. Do not over-plan this decision.
Do these tools replace SEO tools? No. They cover AI answers. You still need something watching rankings, indexing and technical health. See our AI SEO tools breakdown for how those fit together, and best AI visibility tools for the wider field.
Bottom line
Profound and Peec AI are both good at the same job for different companies. Profound is the enterprise instrument: deeper, broader, better-architected, priced for organisations with a dedicated owner — at $399, not $99. Peec is the startup instrument: fast, fairly priced, unlimited seats, live in an afternoon, provided you budget for the models and the tier that unlocks agent access.
Pick on company stage, not feature checklists. And ask the harder question underneath both: is AI visibility genuinely your biggest blind spot, or is it just the newest one? If it is the latter, start with the layer that watches all six surfaces and add the specialist when you need it.
Pricing and funding as of 2026, from the public announcements linked above. Verify current rates with each vendor.