Content Optimization
Frase: what it does, what it costs
Research, draft, optimise, publish and monitor, from $49 a month.
What Frase is
Frase runs the full content loop rather than one stage of it: research a topic into a brief, draft and optimise against what ranks, publish to a CMS, then watch for ranking decay and for whether AI engines cite the page. It is the cheapest product in this category that covers all of that, and it publishes monthly rates, annual rates, overage rates and caps openly.
Two details make it unusually well-behaved commercially. API access starts on the $49 entry plan at 250 requests a month, where competitors reserve it for tiers three times the price. And pay-as-you-go is off by default, so hitting a limit stops the work rather than generating an invoice you did not authorise.
The gap is data. Frase has no keyword database, link index or crawler of its own, so competitive research needs a second subscription. Its own about page also does not state where the company is based or when it was founded, which is a small thing that a directory has to record honestly rather than fill in.
What you can use it for
- Take a topic from research to a published page without changing tools
- Get an alert and a drafted fix when a live page starts losing rank
- Track whether AI engines cite your pages, across up to five named engines
- Use the API or MCP server on an entry-level plan to script content work
The features that matter for SEO
Each one says what it does and the SEO job it serves. A vendor feature list without that second half tells you nothing you could not read on their own site.
Research to brief
Pulls the ranking pages for a query and assembles the questions, headings and terms into a brief.
The brief is the deliverable that decides whether a draft is any good, and this removes the hour of manual SERP reading behind it.
Optimisation scored for search and for citation
Grades a draft against ranking pages and against what AI engines quote.
The two targets have started to diverge — an extractable, well-structured answer earns citations that a keyword-dense one does not.
AI Visibility monitoring
Tracks prompts across up to five named engines, with allowances set per tier.
50 prompts on ChatGPT and Google AI at $49 a month is the cheapest credible entry into AI-visibility measurement in this directory.
Content Guard
Watches live pages, and drafts a fix when one starts losing rank.
Automates the refresh decision, which is the work that beats new publishing on an established site.
75 pages on Professional, 300 on Scale. The draft still needs a human before it goes live.
Publishing to a CMS
Publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity and Wix, or hosts on FraseCMS.
Closes the loop without a copy-paste step, which is where formatting and internal links usually get lost.
API, CLI and MCP server
Exposes the platform programmatically, from 250 requests a month on the entry plan.
Makes Frase scriptable into an existing pipeline at a price where scripting is normally out of reach.
Autonomous drafting agent
Can research, draft and publish without supervision when switched on.
Useful for a high-volume, low-stakes page set with review in place.
Available on any plan. An agent publishing unattended will eventually publish something you would not have.
Pricing and limits
Starting price: From $49/month (Starter), or $39/month billed yearly; Professional $129/month Checked 18 August 2026 Vendor’s own pricing page
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $49 /mo $39/month billed yearly |
|
| Professional | $129 /mo $103/month billed yearly |
|
| Scale | $299 /mo $239/month billed yearly |
|
| Enterprise | Custom |
|
| Extra seats Add-on | $29 /mo | On Professional and Scale. Starter is single-seat and cannot add users. |
| FraseCMS Basic Add-on | $19 /mo | Hosting on your own domain with 250,000 page views. The free CMS tier is included with any plan on a Frase subdomain. |
| FraseCMS Pro Add-on | $99 /mo | One million page views, dedicated support. |
Add-on rows are only ever charged on top of a plan, so they are excluded from the entry price used in the directory’s price filter.
Strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Covers research, optimisation, publishing and decay monitoring at the lowest entry price in this category
- Publishes monthly rates, annual rates, overage rates and caps openly
- API access from the $49 tier, where rivals reserve it for $299-and-up plans
- Pay-as-you-go is off by default, so a plan holds at its limit instead of billing over
Limitations
- No keyword database, link index or crawler of its own, so competitive research needs another tool
- The company does not publish its founding year or headquarters on its own about page
- Client-ready reports and white-label output are Scale and Enterprise features
- An agent that can publish unattended is a real risk without a review step
- Article allowances are tight at the entry tier — 10 a month on Starter
Who it is for, and who should skip it
Worth it if
- You want one tool from research through publication rather than three
- Refresh work matters as much as new publishing
- You want to script content workflows without paying enterprise pricing for an API
Skip it if
- You need competitive keyword or link data in the same product
- You need white-label client reporting below the $299 tier
- Nobody is available to review what an automated draft produces
Alternatives to Frase
Each one answers when it is the better choice, which is the only thing a list of competitors is useful for.
- Surfer Choose it when writers need optimisation inside Google Docs and WordPress and Content Score is the metric your team already briefs against.
- Clearscope Choose it when the team is large and unlimited users matters more than breadth of workflow.
- Semrush Choose it when you need the keyword and competitor data Frase does not hold, in the same subscription.
Sources and verification
Last verified 18 August 2026 2 days ago
Pricing 18 August 2026 Plans 18 August 2026 Features 18 August 2026 Company 18 August 2026
- Frase pricing Pricing page verifies pricing, plans, limits, features checked 18 August 2026
- Frase about Company verifies company checked 18 August 2026
Questions
Does Frase include API access on the cheapest plan?
Yes. Starter at $49 a month includes 250 API requests a month as of 18 August 2026, and Frase also ships a CLI and an MCP server. Most competitors reserve API access for tiers around $299.
Can Frase publish content on its own?
It can, on any plan, when the agent is switched on — it will research, draft and publish without supervision. That is a genuine risk on a site you care about, and the safer configuration is to let it draft and keep a human between the draft and the publish button.
Which AI engines does Frase track?
ChatGPT and Google AI on Starter, adding Perplexity on Professional, and five engines on Scale. Prompt allowances are 50, 200 and 500 respectively.
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