YouScan pricing in 2026: what Starter 3 actually costs

Trends MCP is the better buy for live keyword growth and ranked feeds inside Claude or Cursor, with public plans from $0 for 100 requests per month as of August 26 2026. YouScan Starter 3 lists $499 per month billed annually for 3 text topics and up to 15,000 monthly mentions.

On Google Search, the keyword youscan scored 25 on August 22 2026 against 55 on August 23 2025, a 54.55 percent drop (Trends MCP API, August 26 2026). Brand24 sat at 40, Brandwatch at 32, and Awario at 11 on the same 0-100 index. YouScan remains the published option for logo-in-image listening; Trends MCP remains the published option for 15 keyword sources in the docs table, 23 live get_top_trends feeds, and MCP plus REST without a sales call.

How much does YouScan cost?

YouScan's public pricing page lists Starter 3 at $499 per month billed annually as of August 26 2026, with Unlimited plans sold only by demo, the same $499 printed in USD, EUR, and GBP, and no monthly price toggle or permanent free plan on that card. The Starter 3 column is the only self-serve dollar amount YouScan publishes.

Unlimited copy says "Configured to your requirements" and sends buyers to a demo form. Payment methods on the FAQ are credit card via Stripe and bank wire. Support hours on the same page are Monday to Friday, 6 am to 11 pm UTC, with chat, email, and WhatsApp, plus YouScan Academy and the knowledge base.

A parallel page, YouScan vs Brandwatch, repeats Starter-3 at $499 per month billed annually (accessed August 26 2026). That page also cites a third-party Brandwatch dollar figure from TrustRadius. This run did not verify a public Brandwatch price list, so that number is omitted here. Check current Brandwatch pricing on the vendor site.

What is included on YouScan Starter 3?

Starter 3 is a text-query listening seat: 3 topics, up to 15,000 monthly mentions, Insights Copilot at 10 questions per month, one custom dashboard, and one chat integration, while Visual Insights, Audience Insights, data export, and API access sit on Unlimited plans rather than on this card. The public Starter 3 bullets (youscan.io/pricing, accessed August 26 2026) also include unlimited users, unlimited social searches, unlimited rules and alerts, aspect sentiment analysis, trend detection, word clouds, a Mention Wall, and coverage of supported social, blogs, forums, reviews, and online news.

The integration pick on that card is Slack, Microsoft Teams, or WhatsApp, one per account.

YouScan's knowledge base article "How the mention limit works and updates" (dated December 3 2025, fetched August 26 2026) still names Starter, Listen, Analyze, and Enterprise rather than Starter 3 and Unlimited. On that article, Starter is 3 fixed topics, 5,000 new mentions per topic per month, and 30 days of historical data. Three topics times 5,000 equals 15,000, which can match the public "up to 15,000 monthly mentions" line, but Listen (10,000 per topic) and Analyze (100,000 per topic) have no dollar cards on the public page. The Terms of Service Starter block also uses 5,000 mentions per topic and 30-day history, and it names Telegram rather than WhatsApp as the third integration. Treat the public $499 card as the quote; treat help and terms as the quota fine print; confirm both on a demo.

How does YouScan pricing compare with other listening tools?

Trends MCP is the cheapest public option for live trend data and MCP access, starting at $0 for 100 requests per month, while YouScan Starter 3 at $499 per month billed annually sits above Brand24 Individual and Awario Starter on published dollars and is the only row here that sells visual logo detection as a named product. The table ranks tools by job: live feeds and agents first, mention streams second, image logos third.

YouScan is the visual specialist. Brand24 is the self-serve mention monitor with MCP on every tier. Awario is the low public floor for keyword alerts. Trends MCP is the live multi-source trend API that agents already call. A roundup that ranks YouScan first for every buyer would ignore those jobs. For a wider tool list, see best YouScan alternatives and the head-to-head Brand24 vs YouScan. Dollar detail for Brand24 is in Brand24 pricing.

What does Trends MCP demand data show for YouScan?

Google Search interest in youscan scored 25 on August 22 2026, down 54.55 percent from 55 on August 23 2025, with a 3-month window almost as steep at 25 versus 54 (minus 53.7 percent) across 261 weekly points (Trends MCP API, August 26 2026). Year-to-date the recent score is 25 against a 0 baseline on January 3 2026.

Do not read the API's 999999 placeholder percent as a real rate. Over one month, youscan fell 19.35 percent (25 vs 31), milder than social listening at -44.44 percent (35 vs 63) and visual listening at -45.00 percent (22 vs 40) on the same recent date.

Wikipedia traffic for YouScan is tiny and should stay in that box. July 2026 recorded 11 pageviews versus 9 in July 2025 (+22.22 percent volume) and versus 19 in April 2026 (-42.11 percent on the 3-month window). The series has 17 monthly points, recent date 2026-07-01. Queries skipped this run for quality: youscan pricing and how much does YouScan cost (both over 90 percent zeros on Google Search), YouTube, Google News, and Google Images for youscan (same zero warning), Reddit and TikTok (no_data), youscan alternatives (404 twice), plus news volume and news sentiment (504).

How Trends MCP does this

One get_growth call for keyword youscan on google search with windows 12M, 3M, YTD, and 1M returned the 12-month row above: recent value 25 on 2026-08-22, baseline 55 on 2025-08-23, growth -54.55 percent, 261 points, all_successful true (Trends MCP API, August 26 2026).

That is the product. The same call shape works for Brand24, Awario, Brandwatch, social listening, and visual listening. Docs.md dated August 26 2026 lists 15 keyword sources in the table. The MCP get_growth schema also lists python as a valid source; this post does not flatten that to 15 or 16. Live boards use get_top_trends (23 feed types in that docs table). Free accounts get 100 such requests per month with no card.

Is YouScan worth $499 a month?

YouScan is worth the Starter 3 card when the job is mention collection plus logo-in-image listening that Trends MCP does not sell, and a poor fit when the buyer wants public MCP access, ranked live feeds, and keyword growth across Google, TikTok, Amazon, and npm. Starter 3 buyers should price the 3-topic and 15,000-mention caps before treating $499 as an open listening seat.

The 10 Copilot questions and the 30-day history in the help article belong in that same math. Unlimited is the path for Visual Insights, Audience Insights, API, and extra Copilot quota, and that path has no public dollar. Awario Starter at $29 per month billed annually and Brand24 Individual at $199 per month billed annually are cheaper published mention monitors if visual analysis is not the requirement. Trends MCP at $0 to $199 is the cheaper published path if the requirement is live demand data inside an MCP client. For another low-cost listening comparison, see best Awario alternatives.

FAQ

Buyers asking YouScan pricing questions in 2026 need three published facts: Starter 3 is $499 per month billed annually, Unlimited is a demo quote, and Trends MCP lists Free through Business from $0 to $199 per month with MCP on every tier. The answers below stick to those cards and to the August 26 2026 get_growth pull.

How much does YouScan cost per month?

The only public monthly figure on youscan.io/pricing as of August 26 2026 is $499 per month billed annually for Starter 3. Unlimited plans are demo quotes. The page also prints €499 and £499 on the same billed-annually basis.

Does YouScan offer a free plan or a self-serve trial?

The pricing page does not list a permanent free plan. Checkout on that page is a demo request. The vs-Brandwatch page uses "Get your free trial" language and says YouScan sets up a customized trial account after a form. Confirm trial terms on the demo call rather than assuming a no-card self-serve signup.

Does YouScan include an API or MCP?

API access is listed on the Unlimited column of the public pricing page, not on Starter 3. MCP is not listed on youscan.io/pricing as of August 26 2026. Trends MCP includes MCP and REST on every plan, including Free (100 requests per month). Brand24 lists MCP on all plans and a $99 per month REST add-on on Business.

Why is Google Search demand for YouScan down?

Trends MCP measured youscan at 25 vs 55 over 12 months (-54.55 percent) and 25 vs 54 over 3 months (-53.7 percent), pull date August 26 2026, recent score date August 22 2026. The category query social listening also fell on the 12-month window (-31.37 percent, 35 vs 51). This post does not invent a single cause. The 1-month youscan drop (-19.35 percent) was smaller than the category's 1-month drop.

Who should pick Trends MCP instead of YouScan?

Trends MCP fits when the work is keyword growth, live ranked feeds, and agent-native MCP or REST, at public prices from $0. YouScan fits when the work is mention streams and visual logo detection, and the budget clears $499 per month billed annually plus a likely Unlimited quote for image analysis.

Primary sources accessed August 26 2026:

• YouScan pricing, accessed August 26 2026
• YouScan vs Brandwatch, accessed August 26 2026
• YouScan mention limits, dated December 3 2025, accessed August 26 2026
• YouScan Terms of Service, accessed August 26 2026
• Trends MCP pricing.md, dated August 26 2026
• Trends MCP docs.md, dated August 26 2026
• Brand24 prices, last verified June 10 2026 on that page, re-fetched August 26 2026
• Awario pricing, accessed August 26 2026
• Trends MCP get_growth pulls, August 26 2026 (Google Search, Wikipedia)