Contributors:
Amol Ghemud Published: February 17, 2026
Summary
AI search visibility tools are essential for any fintech brand serious about GEO. Profound leads on enterprise features and data depth with visibility scores 10x higher than competitors. Scrunch offers the most fintech-relevant monitoring at a competitive price point with its Agent Experience Platform. Manual tracking works for startups but doesn’t scale past 20 queries. For Series A-C fintech brands, Scrunch delivers the best ROI at $300 per month with actionable recommendations and compliance-focused monitoring. Profound makes sense at Series D+ when you need enterprise compliance and board-level reporting. Manual tracking supplements paid tools but cannot replace them beyond 20-30 queries.
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Which AI visibility platform actually works for fintech brands at your stage
Google Analytics shows you 2% referral traffic from chatgpt.com. You assume AI search is negligible. Then you start actually monitoring AI citations. You discover 18% of your qualified leads come from AI platforms citing your content, not from users clicking through. Google Analytics isn’t tracking citations. It only tracks the small percentage of users who click from AI responses to your site.
For fintech brands, this gap is a real problem. AI platforms cite interest rates, regulatory information, product terms, and comparison data without sending traffic. Your brand gets mentioned in thousands of AI responses daily, but you have no visibility into what’s being said, whether it’s accurate, or how you compare to competitors.
The challenge is that most fintech marketers don’t realize how blind they are. They track organic rankings in Semrush, measure paid ad performance in Google Ads, and monitor social engagement on native platforms. But the fastest-growing discovery channel, AI search, runs completely dark. No alerts when your APR gets cited incorrectly. No dashboard showing citation share versus competitors. No compliance verification that regulatory disclosures are preserved in AI summaries.
This creates three specific problems. First, you can’t optimize what you can’t measure. Second, competitors monitoring AI visibility are improving their citation rates while you guess. Third, compliance teams can’t verify that AI platforms accurately represent your regulated products.
This comparison breaks down three approaches to AI search monitoring: Profound (an enterprise platform), Scrunch (a growth-stage tool), and manual tracking (a DIY method). We’ll show you which option makes sense at each funding stage, what each option actually costs when you factor in time, and how fintech brands use these tools to catch compliance issues before they become liabilities.
Why You Need AI Search Monitoring Tools (Not Just Google Analytics)
Google Analytics can’t track AI citations. It sees referral traffic from chatgpt.com but can’t tell you what was cited or why.
AI platforms cite different sources for different queries. Your visibility fluctuates daily. Without monitoring, you’re flying blind on the fastest-growing search channel.
For fintech specifically, compliance accuracy in AI responses matters. You need to know if AI is citing your rates, terms, and regulatory info correctly.
1. Profound: The Enterprise-Grade AI Visibility Platform
Profound raised $58.5M across three rounds from seed through Series B in August 2025. They track across 10+ AI engines, including ChatGPT, Google AIO, Claude, and Perplexity.
Visibility scores at Profound average 47.1%, which is 10x higher than industry averages of 4-5%. The Conversation Explorer shows exactly how topics and brands get discussed in AI responses.
Profound launched its Prompt Volumes feature in December 2024, giving you AI search demand intelligence ahead of competitors. All plans offer unlimited data retention, which matters for year-over-year reporting.
SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance built in. For fintech and healthcare brands, this means you don’t have to worry about regulatory gaps.
Pricing starts at $99 per month for the Starter plan (ChatGPT only, 50 prompts). Growth tier is $399 per month for 3 engines and 100 prompts. Enterprise pricing is custom.
Best for large fintech brands at Series C and beyond with dedicated marketing teams that need board-level reporting. The setup is heavyweight, the learning curve is steep, and costs add up fast at scale.
2. Scrunch: AI Monitoring Built for Growing Fintech Brands
Scrunch raised $19M across seed and Series A funding in July 2025. They built self-serve monitoring with prompt tracking and interface-level insights specifically for growth teams.
The Agent Experience Platform (AXP) is Scrunch’s differentiator. It creates a compressed, structured version of your site optimized for AI agents. No other tool does this.
Automated recommendations help you improve AI visibility without needing a data analyst. SOC 2 compliance is included. Pricing starts at $300 per month for 350 prompts.
Scrunch is built for Series A-C fintech brands and agencies managing multiple clients. Teams prefer it because setup is faster and insights are actionable, not just raw data.
Here’s why our fintech clients prefer Scrunch: the actionable recommendations save our team 10-15 hours per client per month versus manual tracking. We use it internally for client monitoring.
The main limitation is the 6-month data retention period. You won’t have year-over-year analysis. The AXP is still in limited testing, so you can’t rely on it yet for all accounts.
3. Manual Tracking: The DIY Approach for Early-Stage Fintech
Manual tracking involves testing 20-50 queries per week across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Claude. Cost is free. Time investment is 2-4 hours per week.
The upside is zero cost and a deep understanding of how AI responds to your queries. You catch nuance that tools miss. The downside is that it doesn’t scale past 20-30 queries.
Without a spreadsheet, you won’t have historical data or automated alerts. You’re managing everything manually.
Manual tracking works best for pre-seed to Series A fintech with fewer than 20 target queries. Even then, consider it a supplement to paid tools, not a replacement.
Here’s the compliance angle: manual checking is better at verifying that AI cites correct interest rates and regulatory information. Automated tools miss context.
To do it right, create a Google Sheet with query, date, top citations, and notes columns. Test your top 20 queries weekly. Track changes over time.
4. Head-to-Head: Which Tool Fits Your Fintech Stage
Pre-seed to Seed (0-50L INR revenue): Use manual tracking plus Google Search Console AI bot data. Tools don’t make sense yet.
Series A (50L-5Cr INR revenue): A $300 per month scrunch yields the best ROI at this stage. The AXP and recommendations justify the cost.
Series B-C (5Cr-200Cr INR revenue): You can go either direction. Scrunch stays cost-efficient. Profound makes sense if you need enterprise compliance features.
Series D and above (200Cr+ INR revenue): Profound Enterprise is the right choice. You need full compliance, unlimited data retention, and board-ready reporting.
The hybrid approach most fintech brands use: Scrunch for automated monitoring, plus manual spot checks for compliance accuracy. It’s not either-or.
5. What to look for in any AI monitoring tool (fintech checklist)
Multi-engine coverage at minimum: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews. Single-engine tools are toys.
Citation accuracy tracking, not just mention tracking: You need to know what was cited, not just that you were mentioned.
Compliance monitoring is built in: Does the tool catch if AI cites incorrect regulatory info? Most don’t.
Historical data retention for trend analysis: Six months is the minimum. A year is better. Tools that don’t offer this won’t tell you anything about momentum.
Competitive comparison: You care about your visibility relative to competitors, not in isolation.
Alert system for citation changes: You need to know within hours if your visibility drops, not days later.
API access for custom dashboards: If the tool doesn’t have an API, you can’t integrate it into your workflow.
RBI and SEBI content accuracy verification: This is critical for Indian fintech. Most tools don’t offer this natively.
Start Monitoring your AI Visibility Today
At upGrowth, we use Scrunch internally for all client monitoring. Our insights come from real-world experience managing AI visibility for Series A-C fintech brands like Fi Money and LendingKart, not theory.
We help fintech brands improve AI citation rates, verify compliance accuracy, and build monitoring systems that catch regulatory issues before they become liabilities.
1. What’s the best AI monitoring tool for fintech startups?
Scrunch is the answer for Series A-C fintech. It’s built for your stage, the pricing makes sense, and the AXP addresses the core problem. Profound is overkill until you’re Series C+.
2. How much do AI search monitoring tools cost?
Scrunch starts at $300 per month. Profound starts at $99 per month but gets expensive fast once you add more queries and engines. Manual tracking is free but scales to 2-4 hours per week of your time.
3. Can I track AI visibility without paid tools?
Yes, but only for 20-30 queries. Weekly manual checks across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude give you the data. The problem is it doesn’t scale, and you lose historical data after a month or two.
4. Does Profound or Scrunch track compliance accuracy?
Neither tool has native compliance monitoring. Profound comes closer with HIPAA compliance, but they don’t flag if AI cites your 8% APR incorrectly as 9%. You still need manual verification for regulatory accuracy.
5. How many queries should I monitor for fintech GEO?
Start with 20-30 high-intent queries at Series A. Scale to 100-200 at Series B-C. Series D brands monitor 500+. Focus on queries that drive revenue, not vanity metrics.
6. What’s the difference between AI monitoring and traditional rank tracking?
Traditional rank tracking (like Semrush) tells you your Google position for a query. AI monitoring tells you if AI systems cite your content and in what context. They’re measuring different things in different channels.
7. Should my agency or in-house team manage AI monitoring?
If you have 1-3 clients, agencies use manual tracking or Scrunch. If you have 10+, you need Scrunch or custom dashboards. In-house teams at fintech brands should own this themselves, not outsource it.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
Growth Strategy and Planning
