TL;DR
- What it is: A YC startup that sells AI visibility. $6.5M raised.
- Price: $99, $299 or $3,000 a month.
- The catch: Daily tracking of 100 prompts eats 12,000 credits. That's the $3,000 plan.
- My test: I asked 4 AI assistants about them. None knew.
- Verdict: Real company. Results you can't check yet.
Does AI name your brand? Check your site.
The Prompting Company sells AI visibility. They get your brand named by ChatGPT.
So one week after they launched, I asked ChatGPT about them.
It had no idea who they were.
Neither did Perplexity. Or Claude. Gemini found a different company with the same name.
That was August 2025. A lot has happened since. They raised $6.5M. They publish prices now.
So here's the full picture. What they sell, what it costs, and what I'd ask before paying.
Heads up: I build AI SEO Tracker. We compete with part of what they sell. Weigh my take accordingly.
What is The Prompting Company?
A Y Combinator startup from San Francisco. Summer 2025 batch. Team of 7.
They do two things:
- Discovery. Do AI assistants name your product? How do they describe it?
- Usability. Can an AI agent actually use your product? Find the docs, call the API?
They call the pair "agent experience".
The quick facts:
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Batch | YC Summer 2025 |
| Funding | $6.5M seed (TechCrunch, Oct 2025) |
| Customers named | Rippling, Rho, Motion, Vapi, Fondo, Kernel, Traceloop |
| Site | promptingcompany.com |
Don't confuse them with Prompt Marketing, a UK agency. Or the UK creative agency Gemini found for me.
Who's behind The Prompting Company?
Three founders:
- Kevin Chandra, CEO
- Michelle Marcelline, COO
- Albert Purnama, CTO
They've done this before. Twice.
| Company | What | Exit |
|---|---|---|
| Typedream (YC W20) | AI website builder | Bought by beehiiv, 2024 |
| Cotter | Passwordless login | Bought by Stytch, 2021 |
Two exits. These people can build.
The Prompting Company Pricing & Features
Four plans. I checked the pricing page on 2 October 2026.
What the plans include today
| Plan | You get | Engines |
|---|---|---|
| Basic $99 | 25 prompts, 1,000 credits | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini |
| Pro $299 | 100 prompts, 4,000 credits, 8 articles | Adds Google AI |
| White-glove $3,000 | 12,000 credits, 50 articles | Adds Claude, DeepSeek |
| Enterprise | Custom | Same |
One weird thing. The engine lists don't match.
The table says Basic gets three engines. The Basic card says "Access to all models". The FAQ names six.
Ask them which engines your plan runs.
How far the credits go
This is the part most people miss.
You don't pay for prompts. You pay for credits.
1 response = 1 credit. 1 article = 20 credits.
So I did the math:
100 prompts. 4 engines. Every day.
That's 12,000 credits a month. Exactly the $3,000 plan.
What the cheaper plans really get you:
| Plan | One full scan | Scans per month, before articles |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | 25 prompts x 3 engines = 75 | 13. One every 2 days |
| Pro | 100 x 4 = 400 | 10. One every 3 days |
| White-glove | 100 x 4 = 400 | 30. Daily |
Articles come out of the same credits. 20 each in their calculator. Use all 8 on Pro and you're at 9.6 scans.
And here's the kicker. Their own COO says they measure with about 100 prompts, daily, on four engines.
That's the $3,000 plan.
(I'm assuming one response = one engine answering one prompt once. The page doesn't define it. Ask.)
Is there a free trial
Sort of.
The buttons say "Start free trial" and "Try for free". The page doesn't say how long. Or what's limited.
Ask before you count on it.
What you get in the dashboard
From their docs:
- Prompts. It suggests 10 a day. You pick.
- Content. It writes a post per prompt. Publishes to
ai.yourdomain.com. - Metrics. Share of voice, rankings, AI crawler traffic.
- Dev tools. CLI, API, MCP server.
I haven't used the dashboard. This is from their docs.
The Prompting Company case studies
One case study. Hyperbrowser.
The claims:
- Share of voice: 3% to 58%
- Rank: #2
- 7 of 7 categories where they became "a top-recommended platform" (they don't say #1)
Sounds great. Now look closer.
How to read the Hyperbrowser numbers
"+55%" is misleading. 58 minus 3 is 55. That's percentage points. As a relative change it's 19x. Odd way to undersell yourself.
What's missing:
- How many prompts?
- Which engines?
- How many runs?
- What dates?
- What are the seven categories? The text only names four.
None of that is on the page.
And these are their own numbers about their own work.
I'm not saying it's wrong. I'm saying you can't check it.
Does AI name you?
See if AI mentions your brand. Then get the pages to fix.
The by-name test
Their pitch: people ask AI instead of Google. If AI doesn't mention you, you lose.
Fair. So I held them to it.
If you sell AI visibility, AI should know you. At least by name.
On 29 August 2025 I asked four assistants. I posted the result:
One test. One week after launch. It says nothing about today.
Here's what each one said.
ChatGPT doesn't know they exist
I asked: "What is The Prompting Company?"
ChatGPT guessed:
- Maybe "prompting" in the AI sense?
- A prompt engineering company?
- A theater company?
A theater company.
No mention of the actual YC-backed startup that supposedly specializes in getting brands into these exact responses.
Perplexity can't find them either
Perplexity searches the live web. That's its whole thing.
It gave me definitions of what a "prompting company" might be. Nothing about the specific company charging $299/month to help others achieve what they can't.
Even Google's Gemini is clueless
Gemini did find a Prompting Company.
A UK creative agency. Midjourney prompts.
Not them.
Run the by-name test yourself
My verdict back then was blunt.
Launching an AI visibility service while invisible to AI is like opening a restaurant where the chef won't eat the food.
I thought the founders were talented. I thought the need was real. But they were proving the opposite of what they sold: that AI visibility is harder than they claim.
That was August 2025. AI answers change. So test it yourself. It takes 5 minutes.
- Ask by exact name. New chat each time. "What is The Prompting Company?" "How much does it cost?" "Is it legit?"
- Check the company. YC startup? Or a UK agency?
- Check the facts. Founders and price right?
- Save a dated screenshot.
How to read it:
| The answer | It means |
|---|---|
| Names the YC startup, cites sources | Found them |
| Names a different company | Name is ambiguous |
| "I don't know" | No usable source |
| Right company, wrong price | Stale sources |
One catch. Passing this test is the easy part.
The hard part is showing up when nobody types your name. "Which tools track AI visibility?" That's the real test. Here's how to run both.
What the company site does for AI readers
Credit where due. Their own site is built for AI agents:
- robots.txt has an explicit allowlist.
- llms.txt exists.
- Most pages have a Markdown version. Add
.mdto the URL. (Not /benchmarks or /radar.)
So they practice the technical part. That doesn't prove chat assistants name them. Two different things.
Want to do the same? Markdown for agents.
The Prompting Company review
Real company. Real funding. Public prices.
What I can't verify is the only thing that matters. Does paying them get you named in AI answers?
Also unexplained: their Enterprise page shows "1B+ AI traffic monitored" and "10M+ companies optimizing". No definitions.
Who it fits
| You are | Do this |
|---|---|
| A devtools or software company | Worth a call. That's their stated fit |
| Anything else | Ask for a case study in your category first |
| Only want tracking | Start with Basic. Or a tracker |
Six questions to ask before you pay
- Which engines does my plan run?
- What is one "response"? How often do my prompts run?
- What are the trial terms?
- What's behind the Hyperbrowser numbers? Prompts, engines, dates?
- Do you have a customer in my category?
- Who owns the articles if I cancel?
Copy those into your email. Seriously.
The Prompting Company alternatives
Depends what you want.
- Just measure. Use a tracker. I compared AI SEO Tracker, Profound, Peec and Otterly.
- Pay someone. That's their White-glove plan. Or an agency: AI SEO tools for agencies.
- Do it yourself. Start with how to get cited in AI answers.
Side by side with mine:
| The Prompting Company | AI SEO Tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| You pay | $99 to $3,000 a month | $49, once |
| You get | Tracking, plus articles from Pro | Mentions, citations, gaps, action plan |
| Engines | 3 on Basic, up to 6 | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, AI Overviews |
| Prompts | 25 to 100+, ongoing | Up to 50, daily for 7 days |
Mine doesn't scan Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, AI Mode or Meta AI. Need Claude? Their White-glove plan lists it.
Before you buy any AI visibility service
This goes for any vendor. Me included.
- Ask for the method. Prompts, engines, runs, dates.
- A citation guarantee is a red flag. Nobody outside the AI labs knows how citations get picked.
- Measure before and after. Same prompts. With a tool that isn't selling you the fix.
The lesson for marketers. Before buying any AI visibility service, run a simple test: can the provider be found when you search for them by name in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini? If they cannot get visibility for their own brand with every advantage (knowing their exact company name, controlling their content, having unlimited access to their own tools), they probably cannot do it for you either.
FAQ
What is The Prompting Company?
A YC Summer 2025 startup. Sells AI visibility tracking, articles, and an "agent experience" product.
Who founded The Prompting Company?
Kevin Chandra, Michelle Marcelline and Albert Purnama. They built Typedream and Cotter before.
How much funding has The Prompting Company raised?
$6.5M seed. TechCrunch, October 2025.
How much does The Prompting Company cost?
$99, $299 or $3,000 a month. Enterprise is custom. See the credit math.
Does The Prompting Company have a free plan or trial?
No free plan. There are "free trial" buttons, with no terms stated.
Is The Prompting Company legit?
Yes. YC backed, funded, public prices. The results are self-reported though.
Is The Prompting Company worth it?
If you sell software to developers and can afford $3,000 a month, take the call. Everyone else: track first. Buy help after you can see the gap.
Does The Prompting Company show up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini?
Not in my August 2025 test. Run it again yourself.
What are alternatives to The Prompting Company?
A tracker, an agency, or doing it yourself. See above.
