The best AI PR tools in 2026 are JustReachOut, Propel, Prezly, Prowly (now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit), OnePitch, Meltwater and Muck Rack, and they split into three jobs: drafting pitches, matching stories to journalists, and tracking pitch results. Public self-serve prices run from a free Propel plan to $599 a month for Propel's top Premium tier, while Meltwater and Muck Rack sell by quote, with Meltwater plans reported from $10,000 a year.
Last updated: November 8, 2026
What are the key takeaways?
- JustReachOut is the only tool in this guide whose own site publishes every tier, monthly and annual.
- OnePitch shows four different prices across four sources, so a written quote matters more there than anywhere else on the list.
- Propel is the only option with a free plan, listed for up to 10 users.
- Annualized, self-serve plans run from $0 to about $7,200 a year, and the two enterprise suites start far above that.
AI PR tools do three concrete things: they draft pitch emails, they suggest which journalists to send a pitch to, and they report who opened or answered it. None of the tools below replaces a publicist's judgment about whether a story is worth pitching, and none of the sources reviewed describe a placement guarantee.
The three functions show up in the vendors' own descriptions. JustReachOut says its AI pitch engine writes personalized pitch emails. Bulldog Reporter's tool roundup describes OnePitch as a tool that matches pitches with relevant journalists. Toolradar describes Propel's analysis of pitch performance as comparable to what Meltwater charges roughly $200 or more per user per month to provide.
Buyers who also need monitoring or a media database should read EPR's guides to media monitoring tools and PR software ranked by price clarity. Teams pitching podcast hosts rather than reporters have a separate set of options in EPR's podcast booking services comparison.
The tools are ordered by price clarity, meaning how easily a buyer can confirm the cost before a sales call. A PR lead asked to defend a budget needs that number first, and AI features are described in similar terms by almost every vendor, so price clarity separates the options more than feature lists do.
Every price below is attributed to its source and may have changed. Several figures come from review directories rather than the vendors, and where sources disagreed, both figures are shown. A written quote from the vendor is the only figure that binds.
How the prices were gathered
EPR compared vendor pricing pages and FAQs, vendor comparison posts, and review directories including G2, Capterra, FitGap, SpotSaaS, TrustRadius and Toolradar in November 2026. Prowly and Prezly prices follow the vendor plan guides cited in EPR's PR software ranking. Annualized totals are EPR arithmetic on the reported monthly prices.
JustReachOut is the most transparent in this guide, because its own pricing FAQ lists three tiers with monthly and annual prices. Starter Outreach costs $147 a month, or $98 a month billed annually up front, and includes one team member, one brand and 100 email sends a month.
The FAQ lists Advanced Outreach at $247 a month ($165 billed annually) with two team members, five brands and 300 sends, and Ultimate Outreach at $497 a month ($331 billed annually) with five team members, 10 brands and 1,000 sends. All tiers include an AI email pitch engine, journalist search, press opportunities and podcast outreach. The cap on monthly sends is the main limit: a team pitching more than 100 reporters a month will move to the second tier almost immediately.
What does Propel cost and is the free plan useful?
Propel offers a free plan for up to 10 users and paid Premium plans from $99 to $599 a month billed annually, according to Propel's own pricing page as summarized by FitGap. The free plan includes contact management, pitching through Gmail and Outlook plug-ins, limited database searches and basic monitoring alerts.
FitGap lists the free plan at 40 database searches per user per month, 3 monitoring alerts and roughly 300 mentions a month. That is enough to test the workflow with a small team, but a team that depends on the media database will hit the search cap quickly. Propel is built around a PR CRM, so the main value is organizing relationships and tracking who has been pitched, with the AI pitch analysis as an add-on to that record keeping.
Prezly is a newsroom and PR management platform with AI assistance, not a pure pitching tool. EPR's PR software ranking cites Prezly's own plan guide at Essential from $120 a month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial.
Review directories show lower per-user entry prices. SpotSaaS lists a Starter plan at $50 per user per month and Capterra lists a starting price of $100 per user per month, so the entry price depends on the source, the billing term and whether the figure is per user. SpotSaaS describes Prezly as built for streamlined AI-driven PR and influencer engagement management. Prezly suits teams that want a branded press newsroom alongside outreach.
Prowly is now the Semrush AI PR Toolkit, with Base at $149 a month and Pro at $279 a month, and extra users at $20 a month, according to the Semrush plan guide cited in EPR's PR software ranking. The toolkit includes a media database, email pitching and online monitoring.
Older figures still circulate. Siege Media's comparison lists the Basic plan at $258 a month on annual billing, and an Inbound Blogging roundup lists Basic at $369 a month with an AI assistant and a maximum of two users. Those numbers likely reflect the plan structure before the Semrush change, but the sources do not date it, so the Semrush plan guide is the figure to use and a current quote is the figure that binds.
Why does OnePitch show so many different prices?
OnePitch shows four different prices because its plans and its community membership are listed in different places. G2 shows the prices provided by OnePitch itself as a free tier, an All Access Monthly plan at $50 per seat and an All Access Annual plan at $510 per seat per year.
Other sources conflict. FitGap lists a $15 a month community membership and notes a $70 Pitch Pro monthly price on the official site, and xpay's database lists a $29 pay-as-you-go plan alongside Pitch Pro at $70 a month with a 17 percent yearly discount. Bulldog Reporter's roundup says OnePitch helps match pitches with relevant journalists and is simpler than Muck Rack. With that spread, a buyer should ask OnePitch for the current plan list in writing before committing.
How do Meltwater and Muck Rack compare on price?
Meltwater and Muck Rack both sell AI features inside enterprise suites that are priced by quote, so neither can be compared with the self-serve tools on a monthly basis. EPR's Meltwater pricing review reports that Meltwater says plans start at $10,000, $25,000 and $130,000 a year, and that Vendr data shows a $25,800 median.
Muck Rack's pricing is quote-only, as covered in EPR's Muck Rack review, and EPR's Meltwater pricing breakdown shows the modules and hidden costs. These suites make sense for teams that need monitoring, a large database and reporting together. A team that only needs AI-assisted pitching can start at a small fraction of those prices.
AI PR tools cost between $0 and about $7,200 a year for self-serve plans, based on the reported prices below. The table converts monthly prices to annual totals so the tools can be compared on one basis.
| Tool | Reported price | Annualized total | Price source |
|---|
| Propel Free | $0 for up to 10 users | $0 | FitGap |
| OnePitch All Access | $50 a month per seat, or $510 a year | $510 to $600 per seat | G2, from OnePitch |
| Propel Premium | $99 to $599 a month, billed annually | $1,188 to $7,188 | FitGap |
| JustReachOut Starter | $98 billed annually, or $147 monthly | $1,176 to $1,764 | JustReachOut FAQ |
| Prezly Essential | From $120 a month, billed annually | From $1,440 | Prezly plan guide, via EPR ranking |
| Semrush AI PR Toolkit (formerly Prowly) | $149 Base, $279 Pro a month | $1,788 to $3,348 | Semrush plan guide, via EPR ranking |
| JustReachOut Advanced | $165 billed annually, or $247 monthly | $1,980 to $2,964 | JustReachOut FAQ |
| JustReachOut Ultimate | $331 billed annually, or $497 monthly | $3,972 to $5,964 | JustReachOut FAQ |
| Meltwater | Quote, plans reported from $10,000 a year | $10,000 and up | EPR Meltwater review |
| Muck Rack | Quote only | Not published | EPR Muck Rack review |
The spread inside a single vendor is often as wide as the spread between vendors. JustReachOut's Ultimate tier costs more than three times its Starter tier, and Propel's Premium range spans a factor of six, so the headcount and send volume a team needs decide the price more than the choice of tool.
A PR team should choose by the one job it needs automated and then confirm the price in writing. The steps below sort most teams quickly.
- Count monthly pitches. Under 100 a month fits JustReachOut Starter or a Propel plan, while 300 or more points to JustReachOut Advanced or above.
- Decide whether the team needs a CRM. Propel and Prezly are built around relationship records and newsrooms, while OnePitch and JustReachOut center on the pitch itself.
- Ask for the plan list in writing. This matters most for OnePitch, where the reviewed sources disagree, and for Prezly, where entry prices differ by source.
- Test with a free tier or trial. Propel Free and Prezly's 14-day trial let a team run real pitches before paying.
| If the team needs | Start with | Reason |
|---|
| Cheapest test of AI pitching | Propel Free or OnePitch | Free tier or $50 per seat entry |
| Clear tiers for agency budgeting | JustReachOut | All tiers published with send limits |
| Newsroom plus outreach | Prezly or the Semrush AI PR Toolkit | Newsroom, database and pitching in one product |
| Monitoring, database and reporting together | Meltwater or Muck Rack | Enterprise suites with quote pricing |
Teams that want people rather than software to run the pitching can compare these costs with hiring a PR agency for media relations and AI search.
