# Best AI social listening tools

The best social listening tool depends on whether you need to watch your brand every day or answer a question now and then. For always-on monitoring on a budget, Awario or Brand24; for enterprise listening with history, Brandwatch, Talkwalker, Meltwater or Sprinklr; for a one-off report on a brand or competitor, Buzzsift or Senti; to read posts from inside Claude or ChatGPT, Buzzsift or Scrollhound.

## A report when you need one

Pay per report, no subscription. Good for checking a brand before a launch or pitch, a competitor's weak spots, or a campaign's reaction.

- **Buzzsift**: $9.99 a report, no subscription. Finished report, daily or weekly watch by email, Claude and ChatGPT connector. Best for: Reports on one brand, competitor, problem or campaign, when you need them.
- **Senti**: $5 a report, $19 for 5; plans from $29 a month. One brand sentiment report. Best for: A cheap sentiment snapshot of one brand.

## Inside Claude or ChatGPT

Connectors (MCP) that let your assistant search and read posts, with links, while you chat.

- **Buzzsift**: $9.99 a report, no subscription. Finished report, daily or weekly watch by email, Claude and ChatGPT connector. Best for: Reports on one brand, competitor, problem or campaign, when you need them.
- **Scrollhound**: $39 a month (1,500 reads), or $25 per 1,000 reads pay-as-you-go. Reads comments and threads for Claude and ChatGPT. Best for: Content research inside your AI assistant.

## Always-on monitoring

Dashboards and alerts that track your own brand all the time. Monthly plans; keyword and mention limits.

- **Awario**: $49 to $399 a month ($29 to $249 billed yearly); Starter: 3 topics, 30,000 mentions a month. Monitoring dashboard with alerts and reports. Best for: Cheaper always-on monitoring of a few topics.
- **Brand24**: $199 to $599 a month billed yearly ($249+ monthly); Individual plan: 3 keywords, 2,000 mentions a month. Always-on monitoring dashboard and alerts. Best for: Continuous tracking of your own brand.
- **Sprout Social**: $79 to $399 per seat a month; Listening is a paid add-on from the Standard plan ($199/seat), price on request. Social media management suite with a listening add-on. Best for: Teams that publish and reply on social every day.

## Enterprise listening

Years of history, many sources, analysts' tooling. Sold on quotes and annual contracts.

- **Brandwatch**: Custom quotes only; no public pricing. Enterprise consumer intelligence. Best for: Large brands with a research team.
- **Talkwalker**: Custom quotes only; no public prices. Enterprise social listening and media monitoring (now part of Hootsuite). Best for: Brands that need years of history and image recognition.
- **Meltwater**: Quotes from sales only; no public prices. Media and social intelligence platform. Best for: PR and comms teams that also track press coverage.
- **Sprinklr**: Quotes from sales only; its pricing page is gone. Enterprise customer experience suite (Sprinklr Insights for listening). Best for: Large companies running service, marketing and listening in one place.

Prices from each tool's own site, checked 2026-11-14. Written by Buzzsift.