SmartScout public pricing on 30 August 2026 starts at $49/mo for Basic ($29/mo on the yearly toggle), then Essentials at $119/$99 and Business at $299/$239. Enterprise is custom. Extra seats are $49 on the three self-serve tiers. Snapshot MCP is listed on Business. Full Access MCP is listed on Enterprise. There is no free plan. Paid cards show a 7-day money-back guarantee. Trends MCP is not a SmartScout replacement for brand, seller, or subcategory databases. It is the cheaper path when the job is live Amazon best-seller boards plus Google, TikTok, and Reddit inside Cursor: Free is $0 for 100 requests/month, Starter is $19 for 1,000.

What sits on each SmartScout plan card

The self-serve grid on smartscout.com/pricing (accessed 30 August 2026) is four columns: Basic, Essentials, Business, Enterprise. Monthly list prices are $49, $119, $299, and custom. The yearly toggle reprints those as $29/mo, $99/mo, $239/mo, and custom. The page does not print a billed-annual total next to those yearly rates, so this post quotes the toggle labels rather than inventing a yearly invoice.

Basic is product-level access. The card states snapshot access to 30,000,000+ active products, keyword research, a product research extension, review automation, a price list scanner, and a sales estimator. The comparison grid's UPC Scanner row is the meter that actually steps: 5,000 ASINs on Basic, 50,000 on Essentials, 100,000 on Business, 200,000 on Enterprise.

Essentials adds brand-level and keyword-level access, search-results data in the extension, unlimited keyword research and tracking, historical search trends, and Historical SQP (marked NEW). The Essentials card also states snapshot access to 500,000+ brands.

Business is the first card that names MCP. It adds seller-level and subcategory-level data, Snapshot MCP, sentiment analysis, brand reports, and customer traffic networks. Coverage copy on that card: snapshot access to 2,000,000+ sellers including buy box history, and 40,000+ subcategories. TikTok Shop appears as NEW on every column, including Basic.

Enterprise is a "includes any of" list rather than a single public bundle: historical data, seller exports, ad spy, share of voice, Full Access MCP, custom dashboards plus alerts. The same card also lists API and Data Lake. That last pair collides with the comparison grid, which marks API, Data Lake, Seller Exports, and Search Terms Ad Spy as add-ons that require talking to sales. Both lines are live on the same page. Enterprise is not a single public API SKU.

Paid cards share a 7-day money-back guarantee. The MCP launch post (15 May 2026, still live 30 August 2026) repeats "cancel at any time" under the same guarantee. The public pricing page does not advertise a numbered free trial.

Seat, scanner, and AI meters that actually change

Headline dollars are not the only SKU. The comparison grid (same 30 August 2026 fetch) steps several usage caps by column.

Custom Segments: 1 / 5 / 10 / 50. Buy Box Map: 3 / 15 / 100 / 500 uses. Rating Booster: 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 / Unlimited requests. AI Scorecard: 1 / 10 / 25 / 60 audits per month. AI Visibility Monitor: 1 / 10 / 25 / 60 dashboards. AI Listing Architect: Basic view type on Basic, Advanced on the three higher columns; ASINs per month 1 / 10 / 25 / 60; extra ASIN cost $4 / $3 / $3 / $3.

Teams: 1 user on Basic, Essentials, and Business; Custom on Enterprise. Extra-user cost is $49 on the first three columns and Custom on Enterprise. Keyword Map is described as ranking products for a keyword across the United States. Analyst, Chat, and several export rows are add-ons pointed at sales rather than a public dollar.

Those meters matter because a $49 Basic seat with one user and 5,000 UPC ASINs is a different product from a $299 Business seat that still bills $49 per extra user. Agencies that assumed "Business includes a team" will still pay per extra seat unless Enterprise customizes the cap.

Helium 10 and Jungle Scout remain the usual Amazon-suite comparisons. This post does not reprint those grids. Current Helium 10 figures sit on the Helium 10 pricing write-up; vendor pages should be re-fetched before stacking invoices.

Snapshot MCP on Business vs Full Access MCP on Enterprise

MCP is not on Basic or Essentials. The Business card labels Snapshot MCP. The Enterprise card labels Full Access MCP. The comparison-grid MCP row is a single line about connecting SmartScout data to an LLM and does not explain the Snapshot versus Full Access split. The public page never defines what Snapshot withholds.

The 15 May 2026 MCP post, still live on the SmartScout blog on 30 August 2026, says the server exposes 20 read-only tools across products, brands, sellers, subcategories, search terms, and ad-spy data. It requires an active Business or Enterprise subscription. Setup for Claude Desktop is an OAuth custom connector:

  1. Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector.
  2. Paste https://mcp.smartscout.com/.
  3. Leave Client ID and Client Secret blank.
  4. Name the connector SmartScout.
  5. Save, then authorize in the browser.

That post now also lists OpenAI, Microsoft, Cursor, and Gemini as compatible hosts. It does not publish a paste-ready Cursor mcp.json with a url field, a transport field, or a Bearer header. Cursor users following SmartScout's own instructions are expected to add a custom connector at that URL, not drop JSON into ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

The connector is read-only. It cannot modify a SmartScout account. Support is [email protected], with "MCP" in the subject for connector bugs.

SmartScout wins Amazon brand analytics, seller maps, subcategory market share, SQP history, and the 20-tool MCP that sits behind a Business or Enterprise seat. Trends MCP does not sell those databases. It wins when the job is live multi-source trend boards and a self-serve MCP plus REST key an agent can call without an Amazon-suite login.

HTML pricing on 30 August 2026 lists Free $0 / 100 requests per month, Starter $19 / 1,000, Pro $49 / 5,000, Business $199 / 25,000. Annual billing saves 20%. The yearly toggle prints Starter $16/mo ($192 billed annually), Pro $39/mo ($468), Business $159/mo ($1,910), with copy "2 months free." Keyword alerts: 50 on Pro, 250 on Business. Failed calls are free. Hitting the cap returns 429 with no overage. Free signup is email plus an 8-digit code, no card.

HTML also markets Free as top 10 trends, 12 months of history, and 24-hour delayed data, while paid plans get all trends, full history, and real-time data. The markdown pricing table does not restate those Free caps. Paid-plan fine print says $192/year after day 7 (and the matching Pro/Business yearly lines). The FAQ on the same HTML page says the card is collected at checkout but not charged until day 8. Both sentences were live on the same fetch.

Source counts still disagree across properties on the same day. HTML markets 35+ data sources. docs.md lists 15 keyword sources (no python row) plus 24 named live feeds, including all four by Category boards. The MCP get_growth schema still lists python as a valid source. MCP get_top_trends lists 24 feeds and includes TikTok Trending Hashtags by Category. data-sources.md lists 20 live feeds and omits all four by Category boards, including Amazon Best Sellers by Category, while docs.md still says official category names live on /data-sources. llms.txt intro still says plus 21 live feeds while that file's live-feed table lists 24. Those counts are not the same number.

For Amazon boards, Trends MCP's durable limit is the one that matters next month: get_top_trends default limit 25, min 1, max 200, counted per feed and per page. Amazon Best Sellers by Category takes an official category string. Docs list 26 names, including Electronics, Home Kitchen, and Toys Games. Sort rank_change with window 7d returns climbers versus a prior snapshot. That call is the product demo that teaches the job:

{
  "mode": "get_top_trends",
  "type": "Amazon Best Sellers by Category",
  "category": "Toys Games",
  "sort": "rank_change",
  "window": "7d",
  "limit": 10
}

Cursor config for Trends MCP is documented on the MCP server for Cursor page and in docs. It is Bearer HTTP against https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp, not the SmartScout OAuth URL:

"trends-mcp": {
  "url": "https://api.trendsmcp.ai/mcp",
  "transport": "http",
  "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" }
}

Mac and Linux store that object in ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Windows stores it in %USERPROFILE%\.cursor\mcp.json. Claude.ai Connectors are a different host (the www /mcp OAuth path), not the api host.

Amazon search-volume history (source: amazon) and the live best-seller boards are also covered on Amazon trends in Cursor and Amazon Best Sellers by Category API. Those pages are the matching landings when the buyer wants boards, not a seller database.

A Business SmartScout seat at $299/mo (or $239/mo yearly) is the first public SKU that includes any MCP. Trends MCP Pro at $49/mo already includes MCP plus REST, 5,000 requests, and 50 keyword alerts. The two prices buy different jobs: Amazon competitive intelligence versus live trend boards.

FAQ

Does SmartScout offer a free trial?

The 30 August 2026 pricing page does not advertise a numbered free trial. Paid cards show a 7-day money-back guarantee. The MCP post repeats cancel-at-any-time under that guarantee. Buyers who need a no-card trial for trend boards should look at Trends MCP Free (100 requests/month, no card) rather than treating SmartScout's refund window as a trial SKU.

Which SmartScout plan includes MCP?

Snapshot MCP is printed on the Business card ($299/mo, $239/mo yearly). Full Access MCP is printed on the Enterprise card (custom). Basic and Essentials do not list MCP. The 15 May 2026 connector post requires Business or Enterprise and documents OAuth at https://mcp.smartscout.com/ with blank client credentials. It does not publish a Cursor transport JSON snippet.

How much is an extra SmartScout user?

The comparison grid lists 1 user on Basic, Essentials, and Business, with extra-user cost $49 on those three columns. Enterprise is Custom for both seat count and extra-user cost. AI Listing Architect extra ASINs are a separate meter: $4 on Basic, $3 on Essentials, Business, and Enterprise.

Can Trends MCP replace SmartScout for Amazon product research?

No. SmartScout's public cards sell product, brand, seller, and subcategory databases, SQP history, buy-box maps, and (on Business or Enterprise) a 20-tool Amazon MCP. Trends MCP sells live ranked feeds and keyword growth across many platforms, including Amazon best sellers and Amazon search. SmartScout sizes a brand or a seller. Trends MCP covers the case where an agent needs Amazon Best Sellers by Category plus Google, TikTok, or Reddit in the same MCP session.

Do yearly SmartScout prices include a billed annual total?

Not on the public toggle. Yearly labels are $29/mo, $99/mo, and $239/mo. Trends MCP HTML does print billed-annual totals ($192, $468, $1,910) next to the yearly monthly rates. Each vendor is quoted here the way the page actually prints.

Sources, all accessed 30 August 2026 unless noted: SmartScout pricing at https://smartscout.com/pricing; SmartScout MCP host https://mcp.smartscout.com/; SmartScout MCP connector post on the vendor blog dated 15 May 2026; Trends MCP HTML pricing page (live counter 9,572,555 API calls served on that fetch; homepage counter the same morning was 9,543,071); Trends MCP docs, data-sources, and llms.txt markdown mirrors.