Most pricing pages for this category bury the number. This one leads with it, because the reason people search “Ahrefs Brand Radar pricing” is that the pricing model is unusual enough to need working out before a budget conversation, not after it.
What Ahrefs Brand Radar costs
Three components, and only the first is advertised prominently. As of July 16, 2026, per ahrefs.com/brand-radar:
| Component | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Brand Radar, per AI engine | $199/mo | Each engine is a separate line item |
| Ahrefs base plan | from $129/mo | Required: Brand Radar is an add-on, not standalone |
| Custom prompts | +$50 per 2,500 | Needed for your own buyer questions, and for daily checks |
Figures published by Ahrefs and checked on July 16, 2026. Pricing changes; verify on their site before you budget.
The per-engine line is the one that decides your invoice. It is not a tiering trick, it reflects the fact that each engine is a genuinely separate data pipeline, but it does mean the price scales with breadth rather than with usage.
The real monthly total
Work it forward rather than reading the headline. One engine, cheapest base plan, no custom prompts is about $328/mo. That is a reasonable number for a team that only cares about Google AI Overviews.
Breadth is where it moves. Matching six engines is $1,194/mo before the base plan, so roughly $1,323/mo all in at the cheapest tier. Independent reviews land lower, between about $828 and $1,148 per month, because in practice most teams buy three or four engines rather than all six. Both numbers describe the same shape: every engine you add is another full-price line.
The part that surprises people:
What the price actually buys
Worth saying plainly, because a fair comparison is more useful than a cheaper one: Brand Radar is a strong product and some of what it offers is genuinely hard to replicate.
- An enormous passive corpus. Ahrefs cites 105M+ AI Overviews prompts. If your question is “what does the AI Overviews landscape look like across my whole category”, that breadth is difficult to buy elsewhere, and it is the strongest argument for the price.
- Microsoft Copilot coverage, which Cituna does not have. If Copilot matters to your buyers, that is a real reason to pay.
- One tool, one login. If your team already lives in Ahrefs, the AI data sits beside the link and keyword work you do daily, and the base plan is already sunk cost.
The flat-price comparison
The alternative to per-engine pricing is not a discount on the same model, it is a different model. Cituna charges by plan, so engine coverage is not a pricing dimension at all.
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Cituna | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per AI engine, plus a required base plan | Flat, per plan |
| Six engines | ~$1,194/mo + base | Included on every plan, from $39/mo |
| Cadence on chatbots | Monthly, 90-day window (custom prompts can run daily) | Daily on every plan |
| Google AI Overviews | Continuous, very large corpus | Daily |
| Microsoft Copilot | Covered | Not covered |
| Adding an engine | Another $199/mo line | No change, already included |
Brand Radar column from ahrefs.com/brand-radar and Ahrefs's methodology page, July 16, 2026. Cituna plans: /pricing.
The honest summary of that table is not “cheaper”, it is “priced on a different axis”. Brand Radar charges for breadth and gives you depth on AI Overviews. A flat plan charges for the plan and gives you breadth by default. Which is better value depends entirely on how many engines you need, and that is a question about your buyers, not your budget.
When Brand Radar is worth its price
Pay for it when you already subscribe to Ahrefs, Google AI Overviews is the surface you care most about, Copilot is on your list, and one or two engines covers your question. In that shape the per-engine model is working in your favour and the corpus is worth the money.
Look elsewhere when you need three or more engines, when you need to see movement in days rather than at a monthly refresh, or when you do not otherwise need an Ahrefs subscription and the base plan is pure overhead. At that point per-engine pricing is charging you most for the thing you most need.
If you are weighing specific products rather than the price alone, the Brand Radar alternatives page covers the feature comparison, and how to choose an AI visibility tool sets out the criteria worth scoring before you look at any pricing page, including this one.