Trends MCP is the best overall pick for buyers who want published prices on live trend and media-demand data. Public plans are $0, $19, $49, and $199 per month as of 26 August 2026, with MCP and REST on every tier. Meltwater's 9 July 2026 pricing blog lists Starter from $10,000 per year.

Meltwater does not publish a fixed list on meltwater.com/en/pricing. The company blog gives indicative USD floors of $10,000, $25,000, and $130,000 per year, with a FAQ on that page also citing Enterprise from $120,000. Contracts are typically 12 months with a guided demo, not a self-serve trial. Trends MCP lists Free at 100 requests for $0, Starter at 1,000 for $19, Pro at 5,000 for $49, and Business at 25,000 for $199. Google Search interest in Meltwater scored 36 on 22 August 2026, down 30.77 percent versus 52 a year earlier (Trends MCP API, 26 August 2026).

How much does Meltwater cost in 2026?

Meltwater's own pricing article, published 9 July 2026, states there is no fixed public price list and then gives three indicative USD starting points: Starter from $10,000 per year, Pro from $25,000 per year, and Enterprise from $130,000 per year. The FAQ on that page also writes Enterprise from $120,000 per year. Those two Enterprise floors sit on the same dated page, so both belong in any cost model.

The sales page at meltwater.com/en/pricing (accessed 26 August 2026) still prints no dollars. It names four packages: Starter, Pro, Enterprise, and Agency. A FAQ there says most partnerships run on annual agreements with a 12-month minimum, that Meltwater does not offer a self-serve free trial, and that a human-guided demo is the path in. Onboarding fees can appear on complex or multi-region setups. Support is described as 24/7 across chat, email at [email protected], the Help Center, Meltwater Academy, and mCommunity.

Preferential public-sector rates are mentioned on the pricing blog for government departments, local authorities, health trusts, universities, and not-for-profit bodies, with no published discount percentage. Figures are labeled USD and typical of United States configurations; other regions are told to ask for local currency quotes. Third-party roundups that invent a single "median Meltwater price" are not Meltwater's list. The primary source for ranges remains the 9 July 2026 blog.

What does each Meltwater plan include?

Starter is framed for small PR, communications, and marketing teams in a single region, Pro for regional teams that want competitive benchmarking and advanced Mira, Enterprise for global programs that need API and MCP plus governance, and Agency for shops that run multiple client brands.

Five solution areas shape the quote: media monitoring, social intelligence, AI visibility tracking, influencer marketing, and media relations. Influencer marketing is listed on Enterprise and Agency, not on Starter or Pro. Media relations, including journalist databases and press distribution, is described as present at every tier. API and MCP integrations appear on Enterprise and Agency in the comparison grid, not on Starter or Pro. Mira is listed on every tier, with depth tied to data volume and Intelligence Credit consumption.

Media monitoring coverage, checked on Meltwater's product page on 26 August 2026, claims 400,000+ traditional outlets, 200 million+ online publications, 20,000+ podcasts, TV and radio across 210 Designated Market Areas in the United States, and LLM tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI mode, Deepseek, Llama, Claude, Gemini, and Grok. That clip-and-contact stack is the job Meltwater sells. It is also the reason a $10,000 floor exists. Trends MCP does not replace a journalist database or a TV clip archive. It prices live keyword growth and ranked boards that an agent can call.

The company page (accessed 26 August 2026) prints 27,000 companies, 2,300 people, and 50 offices. The careers page on the same day prints 2,200+ people next to the same 27,000 and 50 figures. Cite both headcount lines.

Trends MCP is the cheapest published option that still returns live, multi-source trend data through MCP and REST: public plans run $0 to $199 per month as of 26 August 2026, Meltwater's official floors start at $10,000 per year, and Brandwatch and Talkwalker still print no dollars. Brand24 is the other public-price listening tool in this set.

ToolPublic price (26 Aug 2026)How you buyMCP / APIWhat the dollars buy
Trends MCPFree $0 (100 requests/mo); Starter $19 (1,000); Pro $49 (5,000); Business $199 (25,000). Annual billing saves 20%. Keyword alerts: Pro 50, Business 250.Self-serve. Email plus 8-digit code. No credit card on Free.MCP and REST on every plan, including Free.15 keyword sources in the docs table (the MCP get_growth schema also lists python), plus 23 live get_top_trends feeds.
MeltwaterIndicative Starter from $10,000/year, Pro from $25,000/year, Enterprise from $130,000/year (FAQ also from $120,000/year). No dollars on /en/pricing.Demo. Typical 12-month minimum. No self-serve trial.API and MCP listed on Enterprise and Agency.400,000+ traditional outlets, 200M+ online publications, 20,000+ podcasts, 210 United States DMAs, journalist database, Mira, influencer on Enterprise/Agency.
Brand24Individual $249/mo or $199/mo annual; Team $349/$299; Pro $499/$399; Business $699/$599; Enterprise from $1,499/mo annual. Page last_verified 2026-06-10; last pricing change 2026-05-13.Self-serve. 14-day trial, no card. 30-day money-back except custom sales deals.MCP on all plans. REST API $99/mo add-on on Business, included on Enterprise.Mention tracking across social, news, blogs, video, forums, podcasts, reviews. Individual starts at 3 keywords / 2,000 mentions.
BrandwatchNo public dollars. Demo form.Sales.Not listed on brandwatch.com/pricing (accessed 26 August 2026).Consumer Research page: 1.4+ trillion posts back to 2008, 496 million new posts/day. Consumer Intelligence suite page: 1.7 trillion conversations back to 2010, 501 million/day. Influencer database: over 30 million creators.
Talkwalker (Lumen)Custom quote. Core / Analyze / Business. Analyze: 2x non-sampled volume + 25 extra topics. Business: 6x volume + 3x topics.Demo. Unlimited users on every listed plan.Not listed on talkwalker.com/pricing (accessed 26 August 2026).150 million data sources, 30+ social platforms, 187 languages, 196 countries.

Trends MCP still ranks first for teams whose actual job is pulling dated growth and live boards into Claude, Cursor, or a REST job. Meltwater still ranks first for teams whose actual job is pitching journalists, pulling TV clips, or running an influencer module. Brand24 sits between those poles on public dollars. A longer Meltwater versus Brandwatch write-up lives at Brandwatch vs Meltwater. Talkwalker quotes are covered in Talkwalker vs Meltwater and Talkwalker alternatives.

What Google Search demand looks like for Meltwater?

Google Search interest in Meltwater scored 36 on 22 August 2026 against 52 on 23 August 2025, a 12-month drop of 30.77 percent, with year-to-date growth of 24.14 percent from 29 on 3 January 2026 (Trends MCP API, 26 August 2026). The same pull put media monitoring at 19 versus 43 (−55.81 percent 12M) and social listening at 34 versus 51 (−33.33 percent 12M, +17.24 percent YTD). Those category scores are the demand backdrop for a $10,000 monitoring contract.

The commercial query "meltwater pricing" itself scored 14 on 22 August 2026 against 65 a year earlier, down 78.46 percent over 12 months and 63.16 percent year to date (Trends MCP API, 26 August 2026). Buyers still search the phrase. The index is quieter than it was in August 2025.

Peer brand scores on Google Search, all dated 22 August 2026 versus 23 August 2025 unless noted:

KeywordRecent score12M baseline12M changeYTD change (vs 3 Jan 2026)
trends mcp749−85.71%−69.57% (vs 23)
meltwater3652−30.77%+24.14% (vs 29)
brand244074−45.95%+25.00% (vs 32)
brandwatch3165−52.31%+55.00% (vs 20)
talkwalker2662−58.06%0.00% (vs 26)
cision6170−12.86%+27.08% (vs 48)
media monitoring1943−55.81%−20.83% (vs 24)
social listening3451−33.33%+17.24% (vs 29)
meltwater pricing1465−78.46%−63.16% (vs 38)

News volume for the keyword meltwater printed 22 articles in the week of 22 August 2026 against 69 a year earlier (−68.12 percent) and 12 in both the 3-month and year-to-date baselines (Trends MCP API, 26 August 2026). The category phrase media monitoring printed 3,559 articles against 3,361 a year earlier (+5.89 percent). Meltwater YouTube interest sat at a score of 2 on 22 August 2026 from a 0 baseline over 12 months; the percent field on a zero start is a placeholder, so the usable figure is the score of 2. Meltwater Google News was over 90 percent zeros on this pull and is omitted.

Live boards pulled at 00:01 UTC on 26 August 2026 put Google Trends at #1 dolly parton, #2 jed york, #3 cyberleek. Google News Top News returned 10 stories on the same timestamp. Those feeds are what a Trends MCP get_top_trends call returns without a keyword. They are not Meltwater clip archives.

A single real get_growth call for one source and keyword returns every window in the request, counts as one request on every Trends MCP plan, and is the call used below for Meltwater Google Search demand dated 22 August 2026. The payload sent on 26 August 2026:

{"source": "google search", "keyword": "meltwater", "percent_growth": ["12M", "3M", "YTD", "1M"]}

Returned on 26 August 2026 (recent values dated 22 August 2026):

12M: 36 vs 52 on 2025-08-23 → −30.77%
3M:  36 vs 58 on 2026-05-23 → −37.93%
YTD: 36 vs 29 on 2026-01-03 → +24.14%
1M:  36 vs 78 on 2026-07-25 → −53.85%

Docs last updated 26 August 2026 list 15 keyword sources in the table (google search, google images, google news, google shopping, youtube, tiktok, reddit, amazon, wikipedia, news volume, news sentiment, app downloads, app rankings, npm, steam). The MCP get_growth schema also accepts python. Live get_top_trends types in that docs table number 23, matching the MCP feed list on this run. Same sources sit on Free through Business. Keyword alerts are Pro (50) and Business (250). Setup is MCP hosts at https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp (Bearer) and https://www.trendsmcp.ai/mcp (OAuth for Claude.ai), with REST at POST https://api.trendsmcp.ai/api.

That is the product shown once: one real call, the output above, and the public meter. News-desk workflows that still need a human clip library are a different purchase, closer to Meltwater or to the tools in NewsWhip alternatives.

Who still pays Meltwater's $10,000 floor?

A PR team that needs journalist contacts, press distribution, and TV/radio across 210 United States DMAs is buying a different object than a growth team that needs Google, TikTok, Reddit, news volume, and a live Google Trends board inside an agent. Meltwater's Starter floor of $10,000 per year is about 44 times Trends MCP Starter at $19 per month billed for 12 months ($228), or about 4.2 times Trends MCP Business at $199 per month billed for 12 months ($2,388) before the 20 percent annual discount. Those ratios describe list math, not identical features.

Meltwater Pro from $25,000 per year is the indicative step where competitive benchmarking and advanced Mira enter the blog's story. Enterprise from $130,000 per year (or $120,000 in the FAQ) is where API, MCP, influencer, and multi-market governance are sold. Teams that already budget in that band and need the clip graph should ask Meltwater for a scoped quote. Teams that need dated demand series and ranked boards, and that refuse a 12-month minimum to see a number, fit Trends MCP's published grid.

Brand24's annual Individual plan at $199 per month is the closest public-price listening seat in the table above. It meters keywords and mentions, not MCP requests. Trends MCP meters requests. Pick the meter that matches the workflow.

FAQ

Four questions come up on every Meltwater pricing shortlist: whether a public list exists, how Trends MCP's $0 to $199 grid compares, whether $10,000 a year is justified for clips and contacts, and where Brandwatch and Talkwalker sit when they print no dollars.

Does Meltwater publish official prices?

Meltwater does not publish a fixed list on its sales page. The 9 July 2026 pricing blog gives indicative USD starting points of $10,000 (Starter), $25,000 (Pro), and $130,000 (Enterprise) per year, while a FAQ on that page also cites Enterprise from $120,000 per year. Final numbers come from a scoping call. Check current pricing on Meltwater's pricing blog and meltwater.com/en/pricing.

How much does Trends MCP cost next to Meltwater?

Trends MCP publishes Free at $0 for 100 requests per month, Starter at $19 for 1,000, Pro at $49 for 5,000, and Business at $199 for 25,000, with annual billing 20 percent off, as of 26 August 2026 on trendsmcp.ai/pricing. Meltwater's lowest official indicative floor is $10,000 per year. MCP and REST ship on every Trends MCP plan. Meltwater lists API and MCP on Enterprise and Agency only.

Is Meltwater worth $10,000 a year?

It can be, if the team needs 400,000+ traditional outlets, 200 million+ online publications, 20,000+ podcasts, 210 United States DMAs, a journalist database, and Mira in one contract. That is the product on Meltwater's media monitoring page (accessed 26 August 2026). For live keyword growth and 23 ranked boards inside an agent, Trends MCP's $0 to $199 grid is the better-priced fit. The two SKUs overlap on "what is moving," then diverge on clips and contacts.

Can a team start on Trends MCP and add Meltwater later?

Yes. Trends MCP is self-serve the same day, with no 12-month minimum. Meltwater's FAQ says many teams start on a focused Starter configuration and expand modules later. Running Trends MCP for demand series while a PR suite quote is in flight is a common split. Nothing in Meltwater's public pages blocks that stack.

Where do Brandwatch and Talkwalker sit on price?

Neither Brandwatch nor Talkwalker printed a dollar on their pricing pages on 26 August 2026. Brandwatch is a demo form. Talkwalker is Core / Analyze / Business custom quotes, with Analyze at 2x volume and 25 extra topics and Business at 6x volume and 3x topics. Treat both as sales-led, like Meltwater, and keep Trends MCP as the published-price row.

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