Authoritas — The only tool here that lets you choose which AI models are queried — and the only one that charges you differently for each.
Short answer: Authoritas prices AI search tracking in prompt credits, with a published formula: sites × questions × frequency × model unit costs. Plans run from a free tier with 50 credits, through AI Search P1 at £89 a month for 2,000 credits, P2 at £229 for 6,000, P3 at £379 for 15,000, and three Enterprise tiers from £1,129 to £2,409, all plus VAT. Most models cost 1 credit per query, flagship models cost 2, and the most capable search-grounded model costs 5. The critical restriction: search-grounded models are Enterprise only.
On this page
Verdict at a glance
Overall rating: 4.0/5 ★★★★☆
Standout: ⭐ Explicit model-level control and pricing. You choose exactly which of roughly 20 models to query — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO, Google AI Mode, Claude, Gemini, GPT-5, DeepSeek and more — and you can see what each costs before you commit.
Watch out: ⚠️ Search-grounded models are restricted to Enterprise plans, starting at £1,129 a month. Below that you are measuring what models say from training data rather than what they say when they retrieve live results — which is what most real users actually see.
Authoritas rates 4.0 for the most intellectually honest pricing in this comparison and one restriction that buyers must weigh carefully. The credit model is genuinely transparent: a published formula, a per-model unit cost, an in-page calculator, and overage rates that fall as you scale, from £50 per thousand prompts on P1 to £22 at Enterprise 3. That lets you cost a monitoring programme precisely before committing, which no competitor here makes as easy. The problem is what the affordable tiers measure. Search-grounded models — the ones that answer using live retrieval, as ChatGPT and Perplexity do for users in practice — are Enterprise-only, from £1,129 a month. On P1 through P3 you are querying direct API models, which answer from training data and give a different, generally staler picture of your visibility. That is a defensible engineering decision and an expensive commercial one. If you understand the distinction and are measuring model priors deliberately, Authoritas at £89 is excellent value. If you assumed you were measuring what users see, budget for Enterprise.
Quick facts
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ideal user | Analysts who want per-model control and precise cost forecasting |
| Learning curve | ⚠️ Moderate — the credit model rewards understanding |
| Setup time | Minutes, once you have chosen models and frequency |
| Free trial | ⭐ Free plan with 50 credits, plus 1 month free on annual |
| Free tier | ⭐ Yes — 50 prompt credits |
| Pricing | P1 £89/mo · P2 £229 · P3 £379 · all plus VAT |
| Models | ⭐ ~20 models selectable, priced individually |
| Key limit | ⚠️ Search-grounded models are Enterprise-only |
Overview
Authoritas splits its business into three priced products — AI Search, SEO and API — and this review covers the AI Search platform. Its distinguishing characteristic is that it does not abstract away which AI model answers your prompt. You choose from roughly twenty, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO, Google AI Mode, Bing AIO, Gemini 2.5 Flash and 3.1 Pro, GPT-5 and GPT-5 mini, Claude Haiku and Claude Sonnet 4.6, DeepSeek Chat and Perplexity Sonar. Each carries a unit cost, and your bill is a function of which you pick.
The pricing formula is published rather than implied: prompt credits per month equal sites × questions × frequency × model unit costs. Authoritas gives a worked example — 3 sites × 25 questions × 4 times per week × combined unit costs of 3 equals 900 credits weekly, or 3,600 monthly. An in-page calculator does the arithmetic for you and recommends a plan. Plans are Free at 50 credits, AI Search P1 at £89 a month for 2,000 credits, P2 at £229 for 6,000, P3 at £379 for 15,000, Enterprise 1 at £1,129 for 42,000, Enterprise 2 at £1,769 for 75,000 and Enterprise 3 at £2,409 for 125,000. All are quoted plus VAT, with monthly and annual options and one month free on annual billing. Currency can be shown in GBP, USD or EUR.
Model costs are tiered in four bands, and the fourth band is the one that shapes the buying decision. Standard models cost 1 credit and cover direct API models plus SERP-based AI answers including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO and Google AI Mode; these are available on all plans. Flagship API models — Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-5 — cost 2 credits and are also available on all plans. Search-grounded models, which answer with live SERP grounding, cost 2 credits but are Enterprise only, and the premium search-grounded option, Claude Sonnet 4.6 with search, costs 5 credits and is likewise Enterprise only. Overage is charged per thousand prompts at rates that improve with plan size: £50 on P1, £42 on P2, £37 on P3, £31, £27 and £22 across the Enterprise tiers.
Key features
- ~20 selectable AI models — ⭐ choose exactly what is queried
- Published credit formula — ⭐ sites × questions × frequency × model cost
- In-page pricing calculator — recommends a plan from your inputs
- Multi-platform tracking — Google AIO, Bing, Perplexity, ChatGPT and more
- Source citation analysis — where models source their answers
- Brand sentiment monitoring — alongside citation and visibility
- Flexible scheduling — daily, weekly or monthly tracking frequency
- Declining overage rates — £50 per 1,000 on P1 down to £22 at Enterprise 3
- BigQuery and Looker Studio integration — ⚠️ Enterprise
- Unlimited users — ⚠️ Enterprise only
Pricing (as of 2026-10-01)
Model: prompt credits consumed per query, priced by model; overage billed per thousand prompts · Free tier: ⭐ 50 prompt credits at no cost · Entry paid: £89/mo (AI Search P1)
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | 50 prompt credits · standard models only |
| AI Search P1 | £89/mo + VAT | 2,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £50 per 1,000 · standard and flagship API models |
| AI Search P2 | £229/mo + VAT | 6,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £42 per 1,000 · marked Popular by Authoritas |
| AI Search P3 | £379/mo + VAT | 15,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £37 per 1,000 |
| AI Search Enterprise 1 | £1,129/mo + VAT | 42,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £31 per 1,000 · ⭐ search-grounded models · unlimited users · BigQuery and Looker Studio · priority support and dedicated account management |
| AI Search Enterprise 2 | £1,769/mo + VAT | 75,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £27 per 1,000 |
| AI Search Enterprise 3 | £2,409/mo + VAT | 125,000 prompt credits/mo · overage £22 per 1,000 |
⚠️ Search-grounded models are Enterprise only, from £1,129 a month. This is the most consequential thing on the pricing page. Below Enterprise you query direct API models, which answer from training data rather than retrieving live results — a materially different measurement from what a user sees in ChatGPT or Perplexity with search enabled. Know which you are buying.
⭐ The credit formula is published and calculable: sites × questions × frequency × model unit costs. Authoritas’ own example is 3 sites × 25 questions × 4 times weekly × combined unit cost 3 = 900 credits weekly, 3,600 monthly. Very few competitors let you cost a programme this precisely before subscribing.
⚠️ All prices are quoted plus VAT and default to GBP, though USD and EUR can be selected. UK buyers should add 20% to every figure here when comparing against the dollar-denominated alternatives.
⭐ Overage rates fall as plans grow — £50 per 1,000 prompts on P1 against £22 at Enterprise 3 — and Authoritas states you can upgrade at any time to lower your effective cost per thousand. Overage means you do not run out unexpectedly, but at P1 rates it is cheaper to size the plan correctly than to overrun it.
⭐ There is a genuine free plan with 50 prompt credits, and annual billing includes one month free. Authoritas also offers 20% off if you upgrade to its SEO platform in-app within the first 90 days.
Ratings breakdown
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Ease Of Use | 3.5/5 | ⚠️ The credit model needs understanding; the calculator helps a lot |
| Features | 4.0/5 | ⭐ Per-model selection is unique here; ⚠️ best models are gated |
| Value | 4.0/5 | Excellent per credit at P1; ⚠️ search grounding costs an Enterprise contract |
| Support | 4.0/5 | Priority support and dedicated account management at Enterprise |
Pros
- ⭐ Choose exactly which of ~20 AI models are queried
- ⭐ Published credit formula and an in-page calculator for precise budgeting
- ⭐ A genuine free plan with 50 prompt credits
- Overage rates decline as plans scale, from £50 to £22 per 1,000 prompts
- Daily, weekly or monthly scheduling to match budget rather than a fixed cadence
- Citation and sentiment analysis included on every plan
- One month free on annual billing, plus 20% off an in-app SEO platform upgrade
- Unlimited users, BigQuery and Looker Studio at Enterprise
Cons
- ⚠️ Search-grounded models are Enterprise-only, from £1,129/mo
- ⚠️ Prices are plus VAT, so UK buyers add 20% to every figure
- ⚠️ Unlimited users are Enterprise-only; lower tiers do not state seat counts
- Overage at £50 per 1,000 on P1 punishes under-sizing your plan
- The credit model requires more upfront thinking than a flat prompt allowance
- AI Search, SEO and API are priced as three separate products
- No MCP server is published on the AI Search pricing page
Who it’s for
- Analysts who need to control and document which models were queried
- Teams with precise budgets who want to forecast cost before committing
- Enterprises that genuinely need search-grounded measurement and will pay for it
- Buyers wanting to trial AI visibility tracking properly on a free plan
Who it’s not for
- Anyone assuming the entry tiers measure live, search-grounded AI answers
- Small teams needing many users below the Enterprise tier
- Buyers who want AI visibility bundled with a full SEO suite at one price
- Teams that prefer a simple flat prompt allowance to a credit calculation
Best use cases
- Comparing how different AI models answer the same brand question
- Costing a monitoring programme precisely before committing budget
- Tracking citation sources across Google AIO, Bing, Perplexity and ChatGPT
- Measuring brand sentiment in AI answers alongside visibility
- Enterprise-grade search-grounded measurement with BigQuery export
Integrations
Authoritas keeps integrations mostly at the Enterprise end, which is consistent with the rest of its packaging. Google BigQuery and Looker Studio integration are listed as Enterprise features, alongside unlimited users and dedicated account management, and data export is offered as a general capability. A separate API product line is priced independently of the AI Search platform, so programmatic access is a distinct purchase rather than an allowance within your plan — a different model from SE Ranking, which includes 25,000 API credits and MCP access in its $103.20 Core tier. No MCP server appears on the AI Search pricing page, which is a gap relative to Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking and Nightwatch, all of which now expose their data to AI assistants directly.
How it compares
| Authoritas | Ahrefs Brand Radar | SE Ranking | Nightwatch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | £89/mo (AI Search P1) | $129/mo (Lite) | $103.20/mo annual (Core) | €79/mo billed yearly (Starter) |
| Free tier | ⭐ 50 prompt credits | ⚠️ None for Brand Radar | No — 14-day trial | No — 14-day trial |
| Working tier | £379/mo AI Search P3 | $449/mo Advanced | $223.20/mo Growth annual | €159/mo Professional yearly |
| Model selection | ⭐ ~20 models, priced individually | Platform-level | Platform-level | 6 AI platforms, all plans |
| Search-grounded answers | ⚠️ Enterprise only, from £1,129 | Included | Included | Included |
| MCP access | ⚠️ Not published | ⭐ Every plan | ⭐ Every plan | ⭐ Every plan |
| Best fit | Credit-based multi-model AI search tracking | AI visibility inside a full SEO suite | SEO suite with AI search visibility | Rank tracking plus AI visibility, no per-seat fees |
All figures are vendor-published and verified on 2026-09-07. Authoritas prices in GBP plus VAT and also offers USD and EUR; the others are dollar- or euro-denominated. Comparing across currencies is indicative rather than exact.
Alternatives
If per-model control is not essential, every alternative here is simpler and most are cheaper for equivalent volume. SE Ranking bundles 100 daily tracked prompts, MCP access and 25,000 API credits into a $103.20 monthly plan billed annually. Nightwatch covers six AI platforms on every tier with unlimited seats from €79 a month billed yearly. Ahrefs Brand Radar adds a 459 million-prompt research database no one else offers. Semrush gives 50 daily prompts plus a full SEO suite. Among dedicated GEO tools, Profound and Scrunch AI occupy the enterprise tier where Authoritas’ own Enterprise plans sit, and Peec AI and Otterly.AI the affordable end. Authoritas earns its place with buyers who need to state precisely which models produced a measurement — an auditability requirement that becomes real once AI visibility reporting reaches a boardroom.
Disclosure: DigiJaws publishes this review and sells a competing product: a free AI visibility checker that audits how machine-readable a page is, and the Prompt Observatory at $49 a month, which re-queries AI engines weekly and records which brands they name. We have deliberately left both out of the ratings and comparisons here rather than rate our own work.
Recent changes
As verified on 2026-09-07, Authoritas prices its AI Search platform in prompt credits across seven tiers: Free at 50 credits, P1 at £89 a month for 2,000 credits, P2 at £229 for 6,000, P3 at £379 for 15,000, Enterprise 1 at £1,129 for 42,000, Enterprise 2 at £1,769 for 75,000 and Enterprise 3 at £2,409 for 125,000, all plus VAT with monthly and annual options and one month free on annual billing. Overage per thousand prompts runs £50, £42, £37, £31, £27 and £22 across those tiers. The model catalogue now spans roughly twenty options across four cost bands: 1-credit standard models including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO, Google AI Mode, Bing AIO, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5 mini, Claude Haiku, DeepSeek Chat and Perplexity Sonar; 2-credit flagship API models Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-5; 2-credit search-grounded models restricted to Enterprise; and Claude Sonnet 4.6 with search at 5 credits, also Enterprise only. Authoritas continues to price AI Search, SEO and API as three separate products, and offers 20% off an in-app upgrade to the SEO platform within the first 90 days.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Authoritas AI Search cost?
There is a free plan with 50 prompt credits. AI Search P1 is £89 a month for 2,000 credits, P2 is £229 for 6,000, P3 is £379 for 15,000, and the three Enterprise tiers are £1,129 for 42,000 credits, £1,769 for 75,000 and £2,409 for 125,000. All figures are plus VAT. Annual billing includes one month free, and prices can be displayed in GBP, USD or EUR.
What is a prompt credit?
It is the unit consumed each time you query an AI model, and the cost varies by model. Most models cost 1 credit, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO and Google AI Mode. Flagship API models — Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-5 — cost 2 credits. Search-grounded models cost 2, and Claude Sonnet 4.6 with search costs 5. Authoritas publishes the formula: sites × questions × frequency × model unit costs.
Why are search-grounded models restricted to Enterprise?
Authoritas explains the cost difference rather than the tiering: direct API models are the most efficient to collect from, UI crawling requires running real browsers, and search-grounded models provide richer context with live SERP data. The practical consequence for buyers is significant. On P1 through P3 you are measuring what models answer from training data; search-grounded answers — closer to what a user with search enabled actually sees — require Enterprise from £1,129 a month.
How do I work out which plan I need?
Use the published formula — prompt credits per month equal sites × questions × frequency × model unit costs — or the calculator on the pricing page, which recommends a plan from your inputs. Authoritas’ worked example is 3 sites × 25 questions × 4 times per week × combined unit costs of 3, giving 900 credits weekly and 3,600 monthly. Remember that adding a second model multiplies your consumption rather than adding to it.
What happens if I exceed my credits?
You are billed overage rather than cut off, at a rate per thousand prompts set by your plan: £50 on P1, £42 on P2, £37 on P3, then £31, £27 and £22 across the Enterprise tiers. Authoritas notes you can upgrade at any time to lower your effective cost per thousand prompts. At P1’s £50 rate, consistently overrunning is more expensive than moving up a tier, so review usage after the first full month.
Is there a free version of Authoritas?
Yes — a free plan with 50 prompt credits, which is enough to see how the platform reports citations and sentiment before committing. Annual plans also include one month free. That is a better evaluation path than Ahrefs Brand Radar, which has no free tier and no trial, though SE Ranking and Nightwatch both offer fully functional 14-day trials without a credit card.
Does Authoritas offer an API or MCP server?
Authoritas sells API access as a separate product line with its own pricing, distinct from the AI Search platform, so programmatic access is an additional purchase rather than an allowance within your credits. No MCP server is listed on the AI Search pricing page. That is a gap relative to Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking and Nightwatch, all of which now expose data to AI assistants over MCP, in several cases from their entry tiers.
Sources
- Authoritas — AI Search platform pricing and model tiers
- Authoritas — pricing plans overview
- Ahrefs — official plans and pricing
- SE Ranking — official pricing page
- Nightwatch — official pricing page
Compiled from public sources; last verified 2026-10-01. Pricing is subject to change — verify with the vendor. Ratings reflect editorial opinion based on documented capabilities, published pricing, and aggregated user reviews. DigiJaws does not accept payment for review placement or rating.
Authoritas Review (4/5): AI Search Pricing 2026. DigiJaws, 2026. https://digijaws.com/reviews/authoritas-review/