- Free tiers cap on mentions per month — typically a few hundred — and on networks, usually one or two.
- Text only is the near-universal limit; nothing free reads a video transcript.
- A trial expires whether or not you used it; credits sit there until you spend them.
- Twenty free credits is several real sweeps, not a countdown.
Where the free tiers stop
Google Alerts is free and genuinely useful for news and blogs, and it will never see a TikTok comment. Brand24, Mention and Awario run fourteen-day trials that end on a date rather than on your usage. The suite vendors do not have a free tier at all — the entry point is a demo call.
The common shape is a cap that binds before the tool has told you anything. A few hundred mentions is one interesting week for a small brand, and one hour for a large one.
- Google Alerts — free forever, news and blogs, no social depth.
- Brand24 / Mention / Awario — 14-day trials, then paid tiers from ~$49–$99.
- Brandwatch / Sprinklr / Talkwalker — no free tier; sales call first.
Why a credit is a better free unit than a day
A trial makes evaluation a scheduling problem: you have two weeks, most of which you spend on other work, and the clock runs whether or not you learn anything. Twenty credits is the same offer with the clock removed. Spend them in an afternoon or over a month; the answer to "is this useful" arrives when you actually ask.
It also fails honestly. If the material is thin for your niche, you find out on credit three and stop, rather than discovering it on day twelve.
Tip:The useful test is not volume, it is whether one specific comment you did not know about turns up.
What free gets you on Nooticr
Twenty credits, priced per network searched, across all ten readable networks including video transcripts. No card, no seat, no expiry. Scheduled watches quote before they create anything, so nothing starts spending in the background while you are still deciding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is social listening free anywhere, really?
Google Alerts is genuinely free and genuinely limited. Everything else marketed as social media listening free is a trial or a cap. Nooticr's twenty credits are free in the sense that matters — no card, no clock — but they are finite, and the honest framing is "enough to evaluate", not "enough to operate".
Is Nooticr free?
The first twenty credits are. After that it is pay-as-you-go, metered per fetch, with no subscription and no minimum. Reading your own balance, your connections and your watch list never costs anything.
How far do twenty credits go?
A sweep is priced per network, so a three-network search of one term costs three. Twenty is roughly six such sweeps, or a smaller number of deeper reads with transcripts.
What is the catch?
Publishing. Nooticr reads ten networks but can only publish to TikTok and YouTube, because those are the two with an OAuth app. If you need to post to Instagram or LinkedIn, this is not the tool for that half.