Last updated September 2026
Every AI SEO pricing page shows one number: the plan price. That number is not what you pay.
Real invoices carry extra lines. Seats, add-on engines, prompt overages, currency conversion, onboarding, and the cost of switching tools later all add up, and vendors rarely put them next to the plan price. You find most of them on invoice two.
That full total is what this worksheet calls the true cost of ownership: every dollar a tool takes from your budget in a year, not just the number on the pricing page. Below, we name all 12 lines, define each one, and fill in real prices for five tools: Temso, Otterly.AI, Peec AI, Profound, and Surfer. Copy the formula near the bottom, drop in your own team size, and you will know your real annual cost before you enter a card number.
The 12 cost lines your pricing page skips
- Base plan: the tier that actually covers your real engine list, not the teaser tier.
- Per-seat fees once you add teammates.
- Extra engine add-ons when a plan does not include every AI engine you track.
- Prompt or query overages past the included cap.
- Extra project or brand fees past the plan’s project limit.
- Content production add-ons, if the tool writes content at all.
- Currency conversion drag, if the vendor bills in a currency other than yours.
- Annual-versus-monthly billing delta: what prepaying saves you, or costs you.
- Onboarding or setup fees.
- Premium support upsells, like a dedicated account rep.
- Cancellation friction: minimum terms and manual cancellation forms.
- Switching costs: exporting data and running two tools in parallel while you migrate.
The worksheet: 11 lines, 5 tools, real numbers
The table below fills in lines 1 through 11 for a five-person team buying the tier it would actually need to run a real program, not the cheapest teaser plan. Line 12, switching costs, depends on the tool you are leaving, so the formula covers it separately below.
All prices are in USD unless noted, current as of September 2026. Peec AI bills in euros only.
| Cost line | Temso | Otterly.AI | Peec AI | Profound | Surfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Base plan (5-person team) | $199/mo (Growth, 5 engines) | $189/mo (Standard, 100 prompts) | €205/mo (Pro, 3 engines) | $399/mo (Growth, full coverage) | $182/mo (Pro, billed yearly) |
| 2. Per-seat fee, 5 users | $0, unlimited | not published | $0, unlimited | not published | not published |
| 3. Extra engine add-ons | $0, all 5 included | $0 on Standard* | €30 to €140/mo each (2 needed) | $0, Growth is full coverage | N/A, no Copilot at any tier |
| 4. Prompt or query overage | none; next tier $499 | none; next tier $989 | none; next tier €425 | capped at 100/day, no overage rate | N/A, engine-based tracking |
| 5. Extra project or brand | $0, unlimited | not published | upgrade to Advanced (€425) past 2 projects | $399, a full second account | not published |
| 6. Content production add-on | included, 10 pieces/mo | N/A, no content module | N/A, no content module | N/A, no content module | included on every tier |
| 7. Currency conversion drag | $0, USD billing | $0, USD billing | variable, euro-only billing | $0, USD billing | $0, USD billing |
| 8. Annual-vs-monthly delta | -15% yearly (about $358 saved on Growth) | not published | not published | not published | reversed: yearly billing required for the listed rate |
| 9. Onboarding or setup fee | $0, self-serve | $0, 14-day trial | $0, self-serve | $0 on self-serve tiers | $0, self-serve |
| 10. Premium support upsell | $0, included | not published | not published | Enterprise only, custom quote | not published |
| 11. Cancellation friction | $0, cancel anytime | not published | not published | not published on self-serve tiers | annual commitment needed to hold the listed rate |
* Otterly.AI charges extra for Gemini tracking only on the Lite plan, per its public pricing page. Standard includes it.
A “not published” cell is not a promise of zero cost. It means the vendor does not list a number for that line, so you should ask before you sign. Treat a pricing page full of blanks as a cost signal on its own.
Your true annual cost formula
True annual cost = (Base plan x 12) - annual discount
- (per-seat fee x extra seats)
- (extra engine add-ons x 12)
- extra project fees
- content overage fees
- currency conversion drag
- onboarding fee
- support upsell
- cancellation friction cost
- switching cost (one month of your old tool’s price, while you run both)
Fill in your own headcount and engine list, and the blank cells above turn into real numbers fast. For most teams, seats and engine add-ons move the total more than the headline plan price ever does.
What a 5-person team really pays each year
- Temso: $2,030 a year on annual billing ($2,388 on monthly billing), with every other line at $0.
- Surfer: $2,184 a year for Pro, already billed yearly. Copilot never shows up at any price.
- Otterly.AI: $2,268 a year for Standard, before any per-seat or onboarding fee it has not published.
- Peec AI: about €2,460 a year for Pro alone, climbing toward €5,820 (roughly $2,600 to $6,200) once you add the two extra engines most five-engine buyers need. Zero seat fee, though.
- Profound: $4,788 a year for Growth, and that covers exactly one brand. A second brand needs its own $399-a-month account, since Profound sells one property per account.
The 2026 value scoreboard
| Rank | Tool | Stars | True annual cost (5-person team) | Wins on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temso | 4.5/5 | $2,030 | Total cost, unlimited seats and projects |
| 2 | Surfer | 3.5/5 | $2,184 | Content-workflow value |
| 3 | Otterly.AI | 4/5 | $2,268 | Cheapest solo entry, $29/mo |
| 4 | Peec AI | 4/5 | €2,460 to €5,820 | Unlimited seats |
| 5 | Profound | 3.5/5 | $4,788 | Enterprise analytics depth |
Stars reflect our full weighted scoring on the AI SEO software ranking, where value for money carries the heaviest weight. The cost column here is narrower on purpose: one buyer persona, one engine list, real numbers.
The gotcha in each contract
Temso: the only real limit is your imagination. No seat fee, no project fee, no overage on the core lines. Read the plan table anyway. Growth’s 150-prompt cap gets real once you track several competitors across five engines.
Otterly.AI: the Lite-to-Standard jump costs more than six times the entry price, and per-seat pricing does not appear on the public pricing page. Ask before you add a fourth teammate.
Peec AI: the €85 headline plan buys three engines. The two you are missing cost €30 to €140 each, every month, and your invoice rides the euro-to-dollar exchange rate.
Profound: the $99 tier is a demo, not a plan. The real product starts at $399, and every extra brand needs its own subscription, since Profound sells one property per account.
Surfer: the listed prices already assume yearly billing. Pay monthly and the rate climbs. Copilot is not for sale at any tier, at any price.
Run your own numbers
Your real bill depends on your headcount, your engine list, and whether you pay monthly or yearly, so the formula above matters more than any single row in the table. Start with the tool that leaves the fewest blanks to fill in: check Temso’s current plans and run its Growth price against your own team size before you compare anything else. See our methodology for how we check and update every price on this site.