Media monitoring services: prices compared (2026)

By Presswire · 23 October 2026

Media monitoring services cost anything from nothing to more than $25,000 a year. Self-serve online tools publish their prices: Brand24 starts at $199 a month billed annually, and Semrush’s PR toolkit at $279 a month for the first plan with monitoring. Full suites that cover print and broadcast are quote-only, and reported buyer medians run from about $8,000 to $26,000 a year. Prices checked October 21, 2026.

Media monitoring prices at a glance

“Published” means the price is printed on the provider’s own website. “Reported” means it comes from a named third party, with that source’s date. Reported figures are not quotes: Vendr’s are medians of what its customers paid, and UK G-Cloud figures are list prices for public-sector buyers before negotiation.

Vuelio’s 2024 price list states its prices exclude VAT; the Talkwalker list does not say. Presswire’s prices exclude VAT. Any VAT is shown at checkout before you pay.

What you are paying for

Five things drive the price of a monitoring service, and most of the gap between a $199 tool and a $25,000 suite comes from the first two.

1. Sources. Online news and social media are cheap to monitor. Print editions, TV and radio, and paywalled titles cost more because they have to be licensed, captured and transcribed. Brand24 and Semrush’s toolkit don’t cover print or broadcast at all; the enterprise suites do.
2. People or software. Automated tools send you everything that matches a keyword, including duplicates and false hits. Services where a person checks the clippings cost more per topic but less of your time.
3. Topics and volume. Self-serve tools price by keywords and mentions: Brand24’s entry plan allows 3 keywords and 2,000 mentions a month.
4. Seats and markets. Enterprise prices rise with users and countries, which is why the same product can cost one buyer $8,000 and another $50,000.
5. Contract length. The suites sell annual contracts. Meltwater’s FAQ, for example, says most agreements run for a minimum of 12 months.

Free and low-cost media monitoring

Google Alerts is free and worth setting up for your company name, whatever else you buy. It emails you new results from Google’s own index, by source type and as often as you choose. It has no option for print editions, TV or radio, podcasts or social media, and it gives you no reach figures, sentiment or reports.

Brand24 is the clearest self-serve option, with prices on its site and a 14-day free trial that needs no card. Its Individual plan costs $199 a month billed annually for 3 keywords and 2,000 mentions; Team is $299 a month billed annually for 7 keywords and 10,000 mentions. It is strongest on social media and online news.

Semrush AI PR Toolkit, which replaced Prowly, includes online media monitoring from its Pro plan at $279 a month, with a 7-day free trial. It monitors online news, blogs and forums, and bundles a media database and pitching tools.

Mention covers social media, the web and review sites, but its pricing page currently prints no figure, so ask for a quote.

Enterprise media monitoring suites

None of the big suites publishes a price. Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack, Agility PR Solutions, Critical Mention, Onclusive, Talkwalker, Signal AI and Isentia all ask you to request a quote or book a demo. The figures that exist come from buyers and from public procurement.

• Meltwater: buyers paid a median of $25,800 a year across 126 purchases, according to Vendr (updated February 2026). We cover it in detail in what Meltwater costs.
• Cision: a Vendr median of $12,625 a year across all Cision products. Its UK G-Cloud price list prices print data at £4,860 a year and broadcast data at £9,072 a year as add-ons to its social listening product. See Cision alternatives.
• Muck Rack: a Vendr median of $13,000 a year across 80 purchases. Print and broadcast monitoring is a paid add-on.
• Talkwalker: £20,790 a year for its Analyze plan on a one-year UK G-Cloud contract, plus a compulsory services package.
• Onclusive: its UK G-Cloud 15 list gives starting annual prices of 1,300 for the self-service license and 1,350 for UK online coverage, with print, broadcast and social priced separately. The document prints no currency symbol.
• Critical Mention and Signal AI: Vendr medians of $7,950 and $12,335 a year, both undated.

Treat these as a sense of scale, not a quote. Ask every supplier for the total annual cost for your exact sources, topics, seats and markets, and whether print and broadcast are included or extra.

Monitoring a single press release

If what you need is the coverage from one announcement, an annual suite is the wrong shape. Presswire monitors a single release for $235, tracking print, online, paywalled and broadcast coverage for up to one month after distribution. Ongoing monitoring of up to two keywords, phrases, stock symbols or company names costs $320 a month.

Presswire watches nearly 30,000 channels, and your account manager double-checks every clipping before you receive it, so you don’t wade through duplicates and false matches. Reports can be daily, every two weeks or monthly, and articles from the past 25 years can be retrieved as Word or PDF files. See the Presswire media monitoring service and every price on the pricing page.

Sharing press cuttings in the UK

In the UK, copying and sharing newspaper and magazine articles inside an organization is licensed by NLA media access, the publisher-owned licensing body. Its Business Licence covers regular copying and circulation of articles within your organization, including articles supplied by a PR agency or a media monitoring service. If you circulate cuttings, check whether you need one.

How to choose

1. Which sources matter? If your coverage appears in print or on air, an online-only tool will miss it.
2. One release or always on? A campaign needs a month of monitoring; a brand needs a standing service.
3. How many topics and people? Count keywords, brands, competitors and seats before you ask for a price.
4. Who checks the results? Decide whether you want raw alerts or verified clippings.
5. What are the terms? Ask about contract length, renewal and what happens to your archive if you leave.

Sources

Read on October 21, 2026. Published prices: Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Mention, Google Alerts and Presswire. Quote-only pricing pages: Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack, Agility PR Solutions, Critical Mention, Talkwalker and Vuelio. Reported figures: Vendr pages for Meltwater, Cision, Muck Rack, Critical Mention and Signal AI; UK G-Cloud listings for Talkwalker, Cision, Onclusive and Vuelio.

Frequently asked questions

How much do media monitoring services cost?

From free (Google Alerts) to more than $25,000 a year. Self-serve online tools start at about $199 to $279 a month; enterprise suites with print and broadcast are quote-only, with reported buyer medians of roughly $8,000 to $26,000 a year.

Is there free media monitoring?

Google Alerts is free and covers what Google indexes online. It doesn’t monitor print, TV, radio, podcasts or social media.

Does Meltwater publish its prices?

No. Meltwater’s plans are all “contact sales”. Vendr reports that its buyers paid a median of $25,800 a year (February 2026).

What is the cheapest way to track coverage of one press release?

Pay per release rather than per year. Presswire monitors a single release for $235, covering print, online, paywalled and broadcast sources for up to a month after distribution.

Do I need a license to share press cuttings in the UK?

Organizations that copy and circulate newspaper or magazine articles internally generally need a license from NLA media access, including for articles supplied by a monitoring service.