Agriculture · head to head
CeresAI vs Teralytic
CeresAI
Agriculture
Aerial and satellite crop imagery with per-acre pricing for permanent crops and irrigation
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Teralytic
Agriculture
Wireless soil probe reading NPK at three depths, sold as an annual per-probe service rather than a sensor
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: CeresAI per-acre pricing only pencils on high-value crops; on low-margin broadacre cereals the fee is hard to justify against free public satellite imagery.; Teralytic the company is reported at around six employees, so if it stops trading the buried probes become inert hardware, which is the single biggest risk in a multi-year soil sensing deployment.
- They diverge on capability: CeresAI covers Aerial multispectral capture, Teralytic covers Wireless NPK sensing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which CeresAI and Teralytic actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Agriculture).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in CeresAI
- Aerial multispectral capture
- Thermal water stress
- Irrigation fault detection
- Nitrogen and chlorophyll
- Pest and disease hotspots
- Yield variability
- Third-party integrations
Only in Teralytic
- Wireless NPK sensing
- Three-depth profile
- Soil respiration and aeration
- Long-range radio uplink
- Cloud analytics
- Above-ground sensing
- API access
- Multi-field deployment view
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
CeresAI
- An almond grower finding blocked emitters across thousands of trees without walking every rownot Teralytic
- A wine estate managing deficit irrigation block by block to hit a target fruit compositionnot Teralytic
- A farmland investment manager verifying tenant irrigation practice on ground it ownsnot Teralytic
- A citrus operation targeting nitrogen applications to the parts of a block that actually need itnot Teralytic
Teralytic
- A research trial that needs continuous nitrogen readings between sampling dates rather than two lab tests a seasonnot CeresAI
- A vegetable grower on sandy ground where leaching after rain makes a fortnightly lab test worthlessnot CeresAI
- An almond or vine operation tracking salinity build-up under drip irrigationnot CeresAI
- An agronomist validating a variable-rate nitrogen prescription against in-ground readingsnot CeresAI
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
CeresAI
- Per-acre pricing only pencils on high-value crops; on low-margin broadacre cereals the fee is hard to justify against free public satellite imagery.
- Aerial capture runs on a scheduled cadence and is weather dependent, so it will not answer a question you need settled tomorrow and gaps happen in bad seasons.
- Geographic coverage follows where the aircraft fly, which concentrates the service in California and a handful of other regions and leaves growers elsewhere on satellite-only products.
- The company rebranded from Ceres Imaging to CeresAI, so older contracts, integrations and search results use the previous name and buyers checking references need to know both.
- It flags problems but does not fix them; without an agronomist or manager committed to acting on every alert, the imagery becomes an expensive subscription nobody opens.
Teralytic
- The company is reported at around six employees, so if it stops trading the buried probes become inert hardware, which is the single biggest risk in a multi-year soil sensing deployment.
- No current pricing is published and reported figures have moved between roughly 300 and 500 US dollars per probe per year, so a buyer cannot model the cost of a hundred-probe deployment without a quote.
- The subscription is mandatory for the probe to report at all, so the up-front hardware payment buys nothing durable and a lapsed account means a field full of dead instruments.
- In-field NPK sensing is scientifically contested and readings need interpretation against soil type and calibration, so agronomists will not treat the numbers as interchangeable with a lab test and many will insist on both.
- Spatial coverage is the unsolved problem: a probe measures one point, soil varies over metres, and covering a field properly multiplies both the hardware and the annual subscription by the number of zones you care about.
Pricing, plan by plan
CeresAI
On request- CeresAI$undefined/year
- Priced per acre for a defined season of flights
- Flight cadence and imagery types set the rate
- Minimum acreage applies in most regions
Teralytic
On request- Teralytic Soil Probe$undefined/year
- Probe purchased or supplied with an annual per-probe subscription
- Subscription covers hardware, network, software and analytics
- Reported figures have ranged from roughly 300 to 500 USD per probe per year
Which should you pick?
Choose CeresAI if
- You need aerial multispectral capture.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want thermal water stress.
Choose Teralytic if
- You need wireless npk sensing.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want three-depth profile.
Questions people ask
- Is CeresAI or Teralytic better?
- Neither clearly leads. CeresAI starts at On request and Teralytic at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, CeresAI or Teralytic?
- CeresAI starts at On request and Teralytic at On request.
- Does CeresAI or Teralytic run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is CeresAI best used for?
- CeresAI is most often used for an almond grower finding blocked emitters across thousands of trees without walking every row, a wine estate managing deficit irrigation block by block to hit a target fruit composition, a farmland investment manager verifying tenant irrigation practice on ground it owns, a citrus operation targeting nitrogen applications to the parts of a block that actually need it. Of those, an almond grower finding blocked emitters across thousands of trees without walking every row and a wine estate managing deficit irrigation block by block to hit a target fruit composition are not what Teralytic is typically brought in for.
- What can CeresAI do that Teralytic cannot?
- CeresAI covers Aerial multispectral capture, Thermal water stress, Irrigation fault detection, Nitrogen and chlorophyll. Teralytic covers Wireless NPK sensing, Three-depth profile, Soil respiration and aeration, Long-range radio uplink.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
CeresAI: Is Ceres Imaging still trading?
Yes, under the name CeresAI following a rebrand in 2024. The aerial imagery service continues and the company has taken further funding since.
Teralytic: Can I buy the probe without a subscription?
No. The probe reports through Teralytic’s network into its cloud, and without an active subscription it does not deliver data.
CeresAI: How is it priced?
By the acre for a season of imagery. The rate depends on crop, region and how many flights the programme includes.
Teralytic: Does it replace lab soil tests?
No. It gives continuous in-season trend data. Most agronomists will still want lab results for absolute nutrient values and for compliance records.
CeresAI: Why pay for aircraft when satellites are free?
Resolution and thermal. Public satellite imagery cannot resolve individual trees or reliably detect a single blocked emitter; aerial thermal capture can.
Teralytic: How much does it cost?
Teralytic does not publish current pricing. Reported figures have ranged from roughly 300 to 500 US dollars per probe per year including hardware and connectivity.
CeresAI: Does it work on broadacre cereals?
Technically yes, commercially rarely. The per-acre fee is designed against permanent crop and irrigated margins.
Teralytic: How many probes does a field need?
That depends on soil variability. One probe represents one point, so a field with several distinct soil zones needs one per zone to be meaningful.
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