Comparison
Profound vs Ternith
Profound is a dedicated AI-visibility platform — it watches your brand across AI engines and reports a Visibility Score. Ternith answers a different question: why your brand isn’t being recommended, and what to fix first.
ProfoundTracks the number.
TernithExplains it.
Side by side
| Profound | Ternith | |
|---|---|---|
| What their published research shows | Profound has published population-scale research on AI search: an AI Mention Effect study of more than 2 million conversations (January through June 2026) finding that a brand mentioned by an AI assistant sees 1.5–2.5x its forecasted baseline site visits over the following 7 days; a Profound Index built on 1.5+ billion real prompts across 50+ industries; and a citation study spanning 3.25 billion citations across 7 models and 14 countries. That body of work shows the channel matters on average and maps how the ecosystem behaves. | Ternith does not produce population science. It answers the question Profound’s research deliberately sets aside — what is happening to this brand, and which failure mode explains it: discoverability, compellingness, or positioning. |
| What the Index measures for a single brand | The Profound Index ranks brands by how often they appear in AI answers. Its prompt set is locked per industry and run weekly across the major models, and its Visibility Score measures frequency of appearance. Profound’s own effect study reports results at platform and industry level and states "individual brands are excluded from publication," so the published figures are category averages, not a reading of your brand. | Ternith measures your brand under a controlled instrument that holds query phrasing, model version, and session parameters constant. It runs twice on separate days and reports a named failure mode only when both runs agree — a reading of your brand, not an industry average. |
| What their own data says about variance | Profound’s query-language study finds that "the language of the query can rewire the entire citation graph" — the same question asked in Spanish rather than English raises social-citation rates on one model and lowers them on another, changing the source mix. That is the phrasing-level variance a weekly frequency average smooths away for any single brand. | Ternith holds query phrasing constant across every run, so the variation left in a result is real signal rather than noise from a changing tool. Each measurement also runs twice on separate days; if the two runs disagree, you see that disagreement rather than an average. |
| What you learn about your brand | Profound reports a rank and a Visibility Score, and names the need directly: "a brand landing fifth or later in most responses has a specific, fixable problem." It answers that need with a position on the leaderboard. | Ternith identifies which of three failure modes is costing you recommendations: discoverability, compellingness, or positioning. That tells you what to brief your content team on. |
| Platforms covered | Profound tiers engine access by plan, as its pricing page lists. Starter ($99/month) tracks ChatGPT only; Growth ($399/month) adds Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; Enterprise covers up to ten engines, including Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, DeepSeek, and Google AI Mode. Claude coverage is Enterprise-only. | Ternith runs three independent measurement legs — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google — on every diagnosis. It covers fewer sources than Profound’s ten-engine Enterprise ceiling, but each leg — including Anthropic — runs in every diagnosis, not only at the top tier. |
| What you get back | Profound returns a dashboard with Visibility Score, Share of Voice, Average Position, Citation Share, and Sentiment trended over time. | Ternith delivers a diagnosis with full evidence: every observation, every page each AI actually read, and what the measurement does and doesn’t settle. It checks the pages, too — how well each one supports your relevance, not just whether your brand appeared. You can walk a client through it. |
| Pricing | Profound is a subscription, tiered by engine count: Starter at $99/month (ChatGPT only), Growth at $399/month (adds Perplexity and Google AI Overviews), and Enterprise for up to ten engines. Prices are listed on Profound’s pricing page. | Ternith uses per-diagnosis pricing. You pay for a measurement when you need one; there is no subscription. |
How Profound works
Profound has published some of the most extensive public research on AI search. Its AI Mention Effect study covers more than 2 million AI conversations from January through June 2026 and finds that after an AI assistant mentions a brand, users visit that brand’s site at 1.5–2.5x their forecasted baseline over the following 7 days. The Profound Index ranks brands by how often they appear in AI answers across 50+ industries, built on 1.5+ billion real user prompts and run weekly. Its citation studies span 3.25 billion citations across 7 models and 14 countries, and over 4 billion citations in its Reddit analysis. That body of work shows the channel matters on average and maps how the ecosystem behaves — and Profound states its own limits honestly: the effect study is "a site-visit study, not a purchase or conversion study, and not a randomized experiment," and its results are reported at platform and industry level, with individual brands excluded from publication. For understanding the channel and benchmarking a category, that is genuinely good science.
How Ternith works
Ternith answers a different question: not how often, but why not. It runs a controlled measurement instrument that identifies which of three failure modes — discoverability, compellingness, or positioning — explains why a brand isn’t being recommended. Every measurement runs twice on separate days; a finding is reported only when both runs agree. When they don’t, you get the full evidence instead of a guess — and if your result is inconclusive, the next measurement is on us. The diagnosis also records which pages each AI actually read and how well they support your brand’s relevance, not just whether your brand appeared. The output is evidence you can hand to a content team or present to a client — not a number, but a what-to-fix.
When to use which
Profound
Ongoing AI visibility monitoring
You run an in-house brand or SEO team and want a recurring visibility number across engines. Profound gives you a Visibility Score trended over time.
Profound
Multi-engine reporting for a pitch
You’re pitching a prospect and want to show visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and more in one dashboard. Profound’s multi-engine coverage, at the Growth or Enterprise tier, gives you that side-by-side.
Ternith
A client asks why they’re not showing up in ChatGPT
The client’s question isn’t about a number — it’s about a reason. A Ternith diagnosis tells you which failure mode is responsible and gives you evidence to brief the content team on what to change.
Ternith
Justifying a content strategy change to leadership
You need to explain why the team should shift budget from one content type to another. A Ternith diagnosis gives you a named problem and an evidence trail you can present — not a graph that needs your interpretation.
Both
Your Visibility Score dropped — now what?
Suppose your Visibility Score in Profound fell month-over-month. The trend tells you something changed, but not what. Run a Ternith diagnosis: if the finding is positioning, the AI is recommending you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another, in the same category. That’s a messaging problem, not a findability problem. Different diagnosis, different fix.
Profound is best for
In-house SEO and brand teams who want continuous AI-visibility monitoring across many engines, with scores they can watch over time. Teams that want Claude, Gemini, or Grok coverage and are on a Growth or Enterprise plan.
Ternith is best for
SEO managers and consultants who need to tell a client or leadership what is actually wrong and what to fix first — not just that a number moved. Teams that need a stable, evidence-backed baseline before committing budget to content changes, and that want their Anthropic leg on every diagnosis, not only at the top tier.
Common questions
Profound’s research shows an AI mention drives 1.5–2.5x more site visits. Why do I need a diagnosis on top of that?
The effect study proves the channel matters — on average. Profound states its own limit: results are "reported at platform and industry level; individual brands are excluded from publication." Knowing that mentions drive visits on average does not tell you whether the AI can’t find your brand, finds you but picks a competitor, or recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another. Those are three different problems with three different fixes, and that is what the diagnosis names.
Can I use both together?
Yes — they pair well. Profound gives you a trending Visibility Score across engines for ongoing monitoring. When that number drops, run a Ternith diagnosis to find out why. One watches the trend, the other explains the cause.
What does “positioning” mean as a diagnosis?
Positioning means the AI recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another, in the same category. For example, suppose you win when someone asks about a premium option and lose when they ask about a budget one. That’s a messaging problem — a different fix from not being found at all, or found but passed over. Ternith shows you that split so you know which message to change.
Profound’s own language study shows AI citations swing with query phrasing. What does that mean for my brand?
Profound finds that "the language of the query can rewire the entire citation graph" — the same question in Spanish rather than English raises social-citation rates on one model and lowers them on another. For a population index run weekly, that variance smooths out. For your brand under one prompt set, it is the instability a frequency average hides. Ternith holds phrasing constant across two day-separated runs and shows you the disagreement instead of averaging it away.
Profound says a brand ranking fifth or later has "a specific, fixable problem." Isn’t that the diagnosis?
It names the need — and answers it with a rank. Knowing you land fifth or later tells you something is wrong, not what. Ternith names the failure mode: whether the AI can’t find you, finds you but passes over you, or recommends you to one kind of buyer and a competitor to another. A position is a symptom; the failure mode is the fix.
Profound covers Claude at the Enterprise tier. Does Ternith cover Claude?
Yes. Ternith runs an Anthropic leg — Anthropic is the company behind Claude — on every diagnosis, alongside the OpenAI and Google legs. You don’t move to a higher tier for Anthropic coverage; it’s in every measurement.
How long does a Ternith diagnosis take?
Each measurement runs twice on separate days, so a diagnosis takes a minimum of two days from start to delivery. Profound updates its dashboard as it tracks — if you need a number today, that’s what a monitoring tool is for.
What happens if Ternith can’t give me a clear answer?
Ternith runs twice on separate days and reports a finding only when both runs agree. If they don’t, the result is inconclusive — and it ships with the full evidence so you can see exactly what each run found. If your result is inconclusive, the next measurement is on us. A confident-sounding guess isn’t a diagnosis.
Does Ternith cover my category?
Ternith works across categories — it measures how AI systems respond to queries in your space, not from a fixed index. If you’re unsure whether your niche is a fit, the waitlist is the fastest way to ask.
Does Ternith show me how I compare to competitors?
Not as a leaderboard. The Profound Index ranks brands by how often they appear, which is useful for category benchmarking. Ternith diagnoses what’s happening to your brand specifically — whether the AI can’t find you, finds you but picks a competitor, or recommends you to one kind of buyer and not another — so you know what to change. If a side-by-side rank is what you need, the Index is the right tool.
Ternith checks which pages each AI actually read — what does that tell me?
When an AI answers about your brand, it reads a set of pages first. Ternith records those pages and checks how well each one supports your brand’s relevance — not just whether your brand appeared. For example, suppose the AI read your homepage but still named a competitor: the page was found, but it didn’t make the case. That tells you whether to fix findability or the page itself.
Profound is a subscription. Is Ternith?
No. Ternith uses per-diagnosis pricing — you pay for a measurement when you need one, with no subscription. Profound is priced as a monthly subscription tiered by how many engines you track.
Sources
Every claim on this page is drawn from the competitor's own published materials or independently verified research.
- Profound: The AI Mention Effect — verifies the 2-million-conversation sample (January–June 2026), the 1.5–2.5x baseline-visit finding, the study’s own stated caveats, and that results are reported at platform and industry level with “individual brands are excluded from publication”. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Profound: Introducing the Profound Index — verifies the 1.5+ billion prompts and 50+ industries, the locked weekly prompt set, the Visibility Score definition (“how often a brand appears”), and the “specific, fixable problem” line. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Profound: How query language reshapes AI citations — verifies the 3.25-billion-citation dataset (7 models, 14 countries) and “the language of the query can rewire the entire citation graph”, including the opposite-direction Spanish/English shifts across models. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Profound: The data on Reddit and AI search — verifies the 4-billion-citation, 300-million-response dataset scale of the Reddit analysis. Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Profound: how to track your visibility in AI search — verifies the five metric names shown in the dashboard row (Visibility Score, Share of Voice, Average Position, Citation Share, Sentiment). Accessed 22 July 2026.
- Profound pricing — verifies the tiered engine access, the Starter ($99/mo) and Growth ($399/mo) plans, and the ten-engine Enterprise ceiling including Anthropic Claude. Accessed 22 July 2026.
Find out why you're not being recommended
A Ternith diagnosis tells you which failure mode to fix — not just whether a number went up or down.