Keyword.com vs Semrush AI Toolkit (2026): Credits or Per-Domain Pricing?
Keyword.com meters AI visibility in credits from $9.80/mo. Semrush AI Toolkit charges $99/mo per domain with 25 prompts. We ran the cost math for three team sizes and show where a dedicated platform beats both.
Both tools bolt AI answer tracking onto an SEO product you may already pay for. Keyword.com AI Visibility sits on a rank tracker. Semrush AI Toolkit sits on the Semrush suite. Feature lists overlap a lot. Pricing does not. Keyword.com sells credits that burn per engine, per run. Semrush sells a fixed bundle per domain and charges again for every seat and every 50 prompts.
So the question for this pair is mostly arithmetic: which meter costs less for the panel you actually need? We ran it below. We also put Promptwatch in the table as the benchmark, because at mid-sized panels it lands in the same price range while covering more than tracking.
Snapshot
| Keyword.com AI Visibility | Semrush AI Toolkit | Promptwatch (benchmark) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $9.80/mo for 20 credits ($94/yr) | $99/mo per domain | Free Explore; Essential $95/mo |
| What entry buys | About 5 prompts, weekly, 4 chat engines | 25 prompts, 1 user | 50 prompts, daily, all tracked LLMs |
| Engines | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot; Claude and others as API models | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity; Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek on Enterprise AIO | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Grok, Llama, DeepSeek, Mistral, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode |
| Users | Unlimited | 1, then $99/mo per seat | 1 on Essential, 2 on Professional |
| API and MCP | Every plan | Not published for the add-on | MCP and API on paid brand plans |
| Crawler logs | Not published | Not published | Agent Analytics from Professional |
| AI-referred conversions | Not published | Not published | Visitor analytics on every paid plan |
| Best for | Agencies wanting a cheap metered panel | One-domain Semrush shops | Teams that need to act on the data |
The cost math
Keyword.com's calculator counts a weekly schedule as 4 updates a month. A chat-app engine costs 0.25 credit per run. So one prompt, weekly, on four chat engines uses 4 credits. Semrush's add-on prices are flat: $99 per domain with 25 prompts and one user, +$99 per extra seat, +$60 per 50 extra prompts.
| Panel (one domain, weekly on Keyword.com) | Keyword.com | Semrush AI Toolkit |
|---|---|---|
| 25 prompts, 1 user | 100 credits, $39/mo | $99/mo |
| 75 prompts, 1 user | 300 credits, 500-credit pack at $90/mo | $159/mo |
| 75 prompts, 2 users | $90/mo (users unlimited) | $258/mo |
Keyword.com wins every row at weekly cadence. Two caveats shrink the gap. First, credits reset monthly and never roll over. Second, daily runs cost proportionally more, and API models like Claude, Mistral, DeepSeek and Grok cost 1 credit per run, four times the chat-app rate. We could not confirm a refresh cadence for the Semrush add-on, so a like-for-like daily comparison isn't possible.
Keyword.com: cheap, metered, built for plumbing
The appeal is control. You choose the prompts, the engines and the schedule. Each answer is stored as a timestamped snapshot with mentions, the full citation list, sentiment and competitor co-mentions. For Perplexity it also logs source-panel position. API and MCP access come on every plan, with unlimited users and projects, which makes it an easy feed for an agency's own dashboards. The 14-day trial needs no card.
It stops at the answer. Keyword.com's pages document nothing about AI crawler logs or what AI-referred visitors do on your site. White-label reports are a $29/mo add-on. And the engine list differs between the docs and the pricing calculator, where Perplexity shows up only as the Sonar API at 1 credit. Check the calculator before you buy a pack.
Semrush AI Toolkit: one login, one domain
If Semrush is already open all day, the add-on is the lowest-friction start. Keyword-to-prompt mapping shows which money keywords now resolve to AI answers you're missing from. Nobody needs training.
The prompts are the soft spot. Semrush generates them as approximations of what users might ask, rather than letting you start from observed demand. And the cost model punishes growth. A second domain is another $99, so does a second seat, and Claude, Copilot and DeepSeek coverage moves you to the sales-gated Enterprise AIO tier.
Who wins which buyer
- Agency tracking many small clients: Keyword.com. Unlimited seats and the API matter more than polish.
- Single-domain in-house team already on Semrush: Semrush. $99 buys a column next to your rankings, with nothing new to learn.
- Anyone who needs Claude: Keyword.com, which meters it as an API model rather than gating it behind Enterprise.
- Anyone who needs to know whether AI answers send traffic: neither. Both stop at mentions and citations.
Where Promptwatch fits
At 50 prompts, Promptwatch Essential costs $95/mo, roughly what Semrush charges for 25. It refreshes daily across every tracked LLM. Keyword.com is cheaper at weekly cadence, and that's a fair reason to choose it for a thin panel. But Promptwatch covers the steps after tracking, which neither tool here publishes.
Every Promptwatch prompt carries a search volume, a difficulty score and its query fan-outs, so you pick prompts by demand instead of guessing. Citation analytics go down to individual pages, Reddit threads and YouTube videos. Visitor analytics, via a script or GTM template, tie AI-referred sessions to conversions. Essential includes 200K visitor events. Move to Professional at $245/mo and you get Agent Analytics: ChatGPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot hits from your CDN, with a crawl-to-citation path. That plan also gives you 150 prompts, two seats and 15 AEO articles that Content Agents can publish to Webflow or Framer.
Agencies should look at the agency plans instead: Kick-off at $199/mo includes unlimited projects and prompts, ten seats, 10,000 responses and 10M crawler logs.
Verdict
Between these two, Keyword.com is the better value and Semrush is the easier habit. Pick Keyword.com for a small weekly panel with API access, Semrush for one domain inside a suite you already run. If the tracking is meant to lead to fixes, start a Promptwatch trial before committing to either. Its Essential price sits right next to Semrush's, and its upper plans add crawler logs and conversion data that neither add-on publishes.
FAQ
Is Keyword.com really cheaper than Semrush AI Toolkit?
At weekly cadence, yes: 25 prompts on four chat engines is 100 credits, $39/mo, against Semrush's $99. Daily runs and API models like Claude close the gap fast, and unused credits expire each month.
Does either tool show AI crawler activity?
Neither publishes it. Promptwatch's Agent Analytics, from the Professional plan, logs AI crawler hits through CDN integrations.
Promptwatch vs Keyword.com and Semrush: which should I trial first?
Trial Promptwatch first if you need to connect AI visibility to traffic or content. Keyword.com is the pick if all you need is a cheap mention panel, and Semrush if you only track one domain inside Semrush.