AthenaHQ has three tiers: a free Essential plan carrying $25 of credit, Starter at $295 a month with 3,600 credits and nine models, and a custom Enterprise. Seats are unlimited on every tier. API access and extra credits are paid add-ons on Starter, not included.
Key takeaways
- Free tier is real, not a trial: $25 of credit, prompt and response analysis, competitor insights.
- Starter is $295/month for 3,600 credits, or 17% less on annual billing.
- Nine models on Starter — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok and more.
- Unlimited seats with role-based access control on every tier, which is rare above the cheap end.
- API access is a paid add-on on Starter and only included on Enterprise.
AthenaHQ describes itself as action on AI search rather than monitoring of it, which is the same argument several tools in this category are now making. What separates it on the pricing page is a free tier that is a plan rather than a countdown, and unlimited seats at every level.
Everything below was read off AthenaHQ's own plans page on 6 August 2026.
AthenaHQ pricing and plans
| Plan | Price | Credits | Models | Seats | API |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | Free | $25 of credit | 9 | Unlimited | — |
| Starter | $295/mo | 3,600 | 9 | Unlimited | Paid add-on |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom allocation | 9+ | Unlimited | Included |
Annual billing is about 17% off. The comparison table lists countries as single on Starter and multiple on Enterprise, and topics as unlimited on both.
The free tier is the interesting part
Most of this category offers a trial with a timer. AthenaHQ's Essential plan is a plan: unlimited members, prompt and response analysis, sources and competitor insights, content recommendations, and $25 of credit to spend.
That matters for evaluation. You can put your own brand through it and see real output before deciding, which is a materially different sales motion from booking a demo and being shown somebody else's dashboard.
What Starter actually buys
Nine models is at the top of what this category covers, and they are on the $295 tier rather than reserved for Enterprise — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Grok among them. Several competitors gate half of those behind a sales call.
Unlimited seats with role-based access control is the other unusual line. Seats are a common upsell in this category, and not charging for them is a deliberate position.
The things to check before signing are on the same page, in smaller type: API access is a paid add-on on Starter, additional credits are a paid add-on, and multi-language and multi-region support is single on Starter and multiple only on Enterprise. If you track one brand in several countries, that last one decides your tier.
Where it stops
Credits are the meter, and the page does not say what one credit buys. Without that, 3,600 cannot be converted into prompts or refreshes, and it cannot be compared with a tool that quotes prompts directly. That is worth asking before committing — the answer sets your real capacity.
How AthenaHQ compares to GEO Autopilot
| AthenaHQ | GEO Autopilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Essential, $25 credit, ongoing | One run on your own domain, kept |
| Paid entry | $295/mo, 3,600 credits | $89/mo, 100 prompts |
| Models | 9 | 4: ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview |
| Seats | Unlimited on every tier | 1 on Starter, 3 on Pro |
| Metering | Credits, unstated conversion | Prompts, stated |
| Deliverable | Content optimisation agent, on- and off-page actions | Report and recommendations, with the pages drafted |
Two things that table should not be read as saying. AthenaHQ tracks more than twice the surfaces we do, and if Claude or Grok is where your buyers are, we do not measure them and are not pretending to. Their unlimited seats also beat ours outright.
Where we differ is the meter and the entry price. A prompt count converts directly into what you can track; a credit balance does not until somebody tells you the rate.
Verdict
If you want the widest model coverage with a free tier to test it on, AthenaHQ is the strongest entry on both counts in this price band. Ask what a credit buys before you sign, and check whether you need more than one region — that is the line that moves you to a sales call.
What to do next
Run your own brand through the free tier first. Which questions your buyers ask, and whose pages the answers are built from, is a different answer for every business — and it tells you which model coverage you actually need rather than which sounds most complete.
FAQ
- Does AthenaHQ have a free plan?
- Yes. The Essential tier is free and carries $25 of credit, with unlimited members, prompt and response analysis, sources and competitor insights, and content recommendations. It is a plan rather than a countdown trial.
- How much does AthenaHQ cost?
- Starter is $295 a month, or about 17% less billed annually. Enterprise is custom-priced. The free Essential tier sits underneath both.
- How many AI models does AthenaHQ track?
- Nine on Starter, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Grok.
- Does AthenaHQ charge per seat?
- No. Unlimited seats with role-based access control are listed on every tier, including the free one.
- What are AthenaHQ credits?
- Starter includes 3,600 credits a month. Additional credits and API access are paid add-ons on that tier; on Enterprise they come inside a custom allocation.
Sources
- AthenaHQ plans and pricing — AthenaHQ, 2026
- athenahq
- pricing
- tool reviews