Profound
See and shape how ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity talk about your brand.
Standout features
Profound created the AEO category: it tracks how AI answer engines mention, cite and describe your brand, then gives you the tools to influence it.
Worldwide search interest, indexed 0–100 · Google Trends.
Profound is the market-leading Answer Engine Optimization platform.
- Founded ~2024 by James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs; based in New York.
- Raised $155M+ across four rounds in ~18 months, hitting a $1B valuation (Series C led by Lightspeed).
- Named G2’s Winter 2026 AEO Leader; customers include Ramp, MongoDB, Figma and DocuSign.
- Tracks real prompts (not just APIs) to measure brand presence across answer engines.
Profound is purpose-built for AI search, not retrofitted.
- Tracks mentions, sentiment and citations in answer engines.
- Profound Index standardises AI-visibility measurement.
- Profound Agents automate AEO content workflows.
- Shows how AI crawlers interpret your site.
Starter and Growth plans plus Enterprise.
Profound is for brands competing in AI search.
- Marketing teams tracking AI-answer visibility.
- Enterprises treating AEO as a real channel.
- Agencies advising clients on AI search.
- Teams that only need traditional SEO.
- Tiny sites with no AI-search footprint yet.
No tool is perfect — the trade-offs to weigh:
- A brand-new, fast-shifting category.
- AI-answer data is inherently volatile.
- Enterprise focus can feel heavy for small teams.
- Influencing answer engines is still an emerging science.
- ✓Category-defining AEO platform
- ✓Real-prompt tracking
- ✓Profound Index + Agents
- ✓Top-tier customers & backing
- ✓Multi-engine coverage
- ✕Brand-new category
- ✕Volatile AI-answer data
- ✕Enterprise-heavy
- ✕AEO science still emerging
Marketers credit Profound with creating the AEO category — it surfaces whether and how AI answer engines mention and cite their brand, then helps shape it. The honest caveats are that the category is brand-new and AI-answer data is volatile, so expect a fast-moving, still-emerging science.
Profound is a New York-based company that pioneered Answer Engine Optimization, reaching a $1B valuation within roughly 18 months of launch.
Company figures are drawn from public disclosures and reputable trackers (gathered Jun 2026). User and revenue numbers are estimates and move fast.
Pick up to two other coding tools to see them head-to-head on the same rubric.