# PR and media monitoring: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "PR and media monitoring platform" and as "press outreach and media monitoring tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/pr-and-media-monitoring/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/pr-and-media-monitoring/index.md

**Standing:** Muck Rack leads with 24% of first choices; verdict contested. 49 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Muck Rack](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/muck-rack/index.md) | 24% | 17% | 53 |
| 2 | [Semrush AI PR Toolkit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/semrush-ai-pr-toolkit/index.md) | 20% | 5% | 39 |
| 3 | [Awario](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/awario/index.md) | 16% | 7% | 14 |
| 4 | [Brand24](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brand24/index.md) | 14% | 2% | 41 |
| 5 | [Agility PR Solutions](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/agility-pr-solutions/index.md) | 12% | 11% | 28 |
| 6 | [Mention](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/mention/index.md) | 4% | 17% | 24 |
| 7 | [Meltwater](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/meltwater/index.md) | 4% | 43% | 56 |
| 10 | [Google Alerts](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/google-alerts/index.md) | 0% | 19% | 16 |
| 11 | [Talkwalker](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/talkwalker/index.md) | 0% | 14% | 14 |
| 12 | [Onclusive](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/onclusive/index.md) | 0% | 8% | 12 |
| 13 | [Brandwatch](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/brandwatch/index.md) | 0% | 32% | 25 |
| 63 | [CisionOne](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/cisionone/index.md) | 0% | 49% | 53 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 63 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Muck Rack; alternatives Brand24, CisionOne, Meltwater, Mention
- GPT-5.4 mini: Muck Rack; alternatives CisionOne, Meltwater
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Muck Rack; alternatives Meltwater, Propel PRM, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- Perplexity Sonar: Semrush AI PR Toolkit; alternatives Brand24, CisionOne, Meltwater
- Grok 4.20: Muck Rack; alternatives Agility PR Solutions, Brand24, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- Mistral Small: Muck Rack; alternatives Brand24, CisionOne, Onclusive, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Muck Rack; alternatives Agility PR Solutions, Meltwater, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- Llama 4 Maverick: Agility PR Solutions; alternatives Muck Rack, Semrush Media Monitoring
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Agility PR Solutions, Muck Rack; alternatives Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- Kimi K2: Meltwater, Muck Rack; alternatives Brand24, Mention, Semrush AI PR Toolkit, Talkwalker
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Agility PR Solutions; alternatives Muck Rack, Semrush AI PR Toolkit
- MiniMax M2.5: Agility PR Solutions, Brand24; alternatives Critical Mention, Mention, Respona

## Sources the answers cite

21 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- guideflow.com: 15 answers, 18 citations
- prlab.co: 12 answers, 13 citations
- agilitypr.com: 9 answers, 10 citations
- improvado.io: 9 answers, 9 citations
- meltwater.com: 8 answers, 10 citations
- brand24.com: 8 answers, 8 citations
- cloro.dev: 8 answers, 8 citations
- gartner.com: 8 answers, 8 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://improvado.io/blog/best-digital-pr-tools-and-software (9 answers)
- https://cloro.dev/blog/media-monitoring-tools (8 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/pr-and-media-monitoring-tools (8 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/media-monitoring-software (7 answers)
- https://prlab.co/blog/the-best-media-monitoring-tools-for-news-and-social-media (7 answers)
- https://reachreport.io/en/guide/media-monitoring-tools-for-pr (7 answers)
- https://prlab.co/blog/best-pr-tools (6 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/best-pr-crm-software (5 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-pr-analytics-software (5 answers)
- https://shadow.inc/resources/best-media-monitoring-tools-pr-agencies (5 answers)

## Warned against

- Meltwater: 24 of 56 labels negative. "Meltwater is notorious for its aggressive auto-renewal clauses... they will legally lock you into another full year" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- CisionOne: 26 of 53 labels negative. "Avoid Meltwater and Cision unless you have specific needs that outweigh their significant contract risks and outdated technology." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Brandwatch: 8 of 25 labels negative. "some platforms are cautioned against, such as Brandwatch if you only care about earned media coverage, not social listening" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Muck Rack: 9 of 53 labels negative. "Avoid: Enterprise platforms like Meltwater, Cision, or Muck Rack" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.