What is Talkwalker?
Talkwalker is a social listening and media monitoring platform that helps marketing, PR and insights teams track conversations about brands, competitors and topics across social media and news. It now goes by the name Lumen by Talkwalker and belongs to Hootsuite, which acquired it in 2024. The platform covers social listening, media monitoring, social benchmarking, audience insights and customer feedback analytics.
Paid plans are sold by quote and include unlimited users, AI features and non-sampled results. Talkwalker also runs Talkwalker Alerts, a free tool that emails you or feeds RSS when a keyword appears in news, blogs, forums or on X. It works as a simple alternative to Google Alerts and is a low-cost way to try basic monitoring before moving to the full platform.
Talkwalker at a glance
How does Talkwalker work?
- Set up topics
Create topics for the brands, campaigns, competitors and markets you want to follow, with filters and channels to focus the results.
- Collect and analyze
Talkwalker gathers matching social posts and media coverage, then applies sentiment, theme and audience analysis using AI.
- Build dashboards
Track volume, sentiment, reach and share of voice in dashboards that teams can share across marketing, PR and research.
- Get alerts
Receive notifications when conversations spike, or use free Talkwalker Alerts for simple email or RSS updates.
Talkwalker key features
Social listening
Monitor brand and topic conversations across social networks with non-sampled results on paid plans.
Media monitoring
Follow news and online media coverage alongside social data in the same workspace.
Social benchmarking
Compare your social performance and content against competitors.
Audience and consumer insights
Understand who is talking about a topic and what themes and sentiment drive the discussion.
Customer feedback analytics
Analyze reviews and feedback data to find recurring issues and product insights.
AI agent and LLM Insights
Ask questions about your data with an AI agent and track how brands appear in large language model answers, with higher limits on bigger plans.
Talkwalker Alerts
A free alert service covering news, blogs, forums and X, delivered by email, RSS or Slack, with frequency options including as it happens.
Why use Talkwalker?
- Non-sampled results give a fuller picture of conversation volume.
- Unlimited users on every paid plan make it easy to share data across teams.
- Close ties with Hootsuite help teams that already publish and engage there.
- Free Talkwalker Alerts offer a no-cost entry point for basic monitoring.
- Combines social listening and media monitoring in one tool for PR and marketing.
Who is Talkwalker best for?
A good fit for
- Mid-sized and enterprise brands with marketing, PR or insights teams
- Agencies running listening for multiple clients
- Hootsuite customers adding deeper listening
- Anyone wanting free keyword alerts through Talkwalker Alerts
Less suited to
- Small businesses that want published, self-serve pricing
- Users who need a free trial of the full platform
- Teams that only need basic alerts, which the free tool already covers
Talkwalker pricing
| Pricing model | Contact sales |
|---|---|
| Free plan | No |
| Free trial | Not confirmed |
| Starting price | Custom pricing (contact sales) |
Paid plans are Core, Analyze and Business, each quoted after a demo. Higher plans add more non-sampled results volume, topics, channels, historical data and AI usage; Talkwalker Alerts is free.
Prices checked October 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the official Talkwalker pricing page before you buy.
Talkwalker pros and cons
Pros
- Strong listening and media monitoring in one platform
- Unlimited users and non-sampled data on paid plans
- Free Talkwalker Alerts tool for simple keyword tracking
- Integrated with the Hootsuite ecosystem
Cons
- No public prices for the paid platform
- No self-serve trial; buying starts with a demo
- The Lumen rebrand can cause confusion when researching the product
Talkwalker integrations and platforms
Works with
Available on
Talkwalker alternatives
See the full shortlist in Best Social Listening Tools.
Talkwalker FAQ
Is Talkwalker free?
The full Talkwalker platform, now called Lumen by Talkwalker, is a paid product with custom quotes. However, Talkwalker Alerts is free. It lets you track keywords in news, blogs, forums and on X, and sends results by email, RSS or Slack. Many people use it as a free alternative to Google Alerts.
Who owns Talkwalker?
Talkwalker is owned by Hootsuite, which acquired the company in 2024. Since then the two products have moved closer together, and the listening platform is now marketed as Lumen by Talkwalker. The company says workflows and integrations stay the same for existing customers.
What is Lumen by Talkwalker?
Lumen by Talkwalker is the current name of the Talkwalker social listening and consumer intelligence platform. It covers social listening, media monitoring, benchmarking, audience insights and customer feedback analytics. The product and its plans, Core, Analyze and Business, continue under the new name.
Talkwalker vs Brandwatch: what's the difference?
Both are enterprise listening platforms with AI analysis. Talkwalker, now part of Hootsuite, focuses on listening and media monitoring with non-sampled results and links to Hootsuite publishing. Brandwatch, owned by Cision, is known for its long historical archive back to 2008 and bundles its own social media management and influencer tools.
How much does Talkwalker cost?
Talkwalker does not publish prices. You choose among Core, Analyze and Business plans and receive a custom quote after a demo. Every plan includes unlimited users and AI features, while higher tiers add more results volume, topics, channels, historical data and AI agent questions.
Sources
This overview is based on Talkwalker's official website and documentation, checked October 2026.