Best AI visibility tools in 2026: tracking what ChatGPT and Google AI say about your brand

This guide is for marketers, SEO leads and agencies who need to know how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode talk about their brand. The best AI visibility tools for most teams are the add-on inside the SEO suite you already pay for (Semrush or Ahrefs), Otterly.AI if you want a cheap standalone tracker, and Profound or Scrunch if you are a large brand with an enterprise budget. All of them sample AI answers rather than see real conversations, so read their numbers as a trend line, not a market share figure.

Key takeaways

• AI visibility tools run a list of prompts through AI engines on a schedule and record if your brand is mentioned, where it appears, which sources get cited and how you compare with competitors.
• Prices run from $29 a month (Otterly.AI Lite, 15 prompts) to custom enterprise contracts (Profound). Most useful setups cost $100 to $500 a month.
• Engine coverage differs more than features. Check that your plan includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, because some tools sell engines as add-ons.
• Answers change between runs, locations and users, so a 15- or 25-prompt sample shows direction, not your true share of AI answers.
• To see whether AI assistants actually send visitors, Google Analytics 4 now reports a free AI Assistant channel.

What AI visibility tools measure

Every tool in this category works the same way at its core. You, or the tool, build a list of prompts a buyer might type, such as "best payroll software for a 20-person company", and the tool runs them through each AI engine daily or weekly. It then parses the answers and reports a handful of metrics:

• Mentions or visibility: the share of answers that name your brand.
• Position: where you appear in the answer relative to competitors.
• Citations: which pages and domains the engine cites as sources. This is often the most useful report, because it shows which review sites, forums and publishers shape answers in your category.
• Share of voice: your mentions or citations as a percentage of all tracked brands.
• Sentiment: whether the description of your brand is positive, neutral or negative.

Many tools also sell optimization features under the generative engine optimization (GEO) label: page audits for AI readiness, reports on how AI crawlers hit your site, and content suggestions. The monitoring is the dependable part. Most GEO advice comes down to familiar SEO and PR work, such as clear product pages and earning coverage on the sites AI engines already cite.

The limits to know before you pay

Your prompts are a sample you chose. AI companies do not publish query data the way Google Search Console reports search queries, so no tool knows which prompts real buyers type most. Vendors estimate instead: Ahrefs models its prompt database from real search keywords, and Profound says its Prompt Volumes come from analysing real user conversations. Both are estimates, and a brand that looks dominant on 25 hand-picked prompts can be invisible on the ones that matter.

Answers vary from run to run. The same prompt can name different brands on two runs, and answers shift with location, chat memory and whether the user is logged in. Otterly's own site warns that manual checks may not match its data for these reasons. A daily check gives you one sample per prompt per day, so watch trends over weeks rather than single-day swings.

Collection method matters. Some tools query engines through their APIs, which can answer differently from the consumer app with web search switched on. Peec AI says it simulates the user interface for most engines, while Otterly labels its Claude data as collected via API. Ask each vendor how it collects each engine. Semrush notes that its prompt tracking supports desktop results only.

Visibility is not traffic. A mention without a click never reaches your analytics. Google Analytics 4 added an AI Assistant channel in May 2026 that groups visits from popular AI assistants, which is the cheapest way to check whether any of this sends you customers.

Who needs an AI visibility tool

You need one if buyers in your category ask AI for recommendations before they buy, as they do for software, consumer products, travel and financial services, and if someone on the team will act on the results. Agencies need one to report to clients, and PR teams use citation reports to decide which publications to pitch. You probably do not need one yet if you run a local business or a young site with little brand search. Running 20 prompts by hand in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google once a month and logging the answers in a spreadsheet costs nothing and tells you most of what an entry plan would.

The best AI visibility tools compared

Profound

Profound is the enterprise option. Beyond prompt tracking it offers Prompt Volumes (estimates of what people ask AI), citation analytics, Agent Analytics on how AI bots crawl and cite your pages, and tracking of product visibility in ChatGPT Shopping. The Enterprise plan covers up to nine engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude and Exa. It lists role-based access, SCIM provisioning and SOC 2, which matters to large brands with security reviews. Pricing is custom. A free trial runs 50 prompts daily for seven days on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, and a self-serve Agency Growth plan exists without a published price. The drawback is cost and opacity: you will not know the price until you talk to sales, and it is more tool than a small team can use.

Otterly.AI

Otterly.AI is the cheapest credible way to start. Lite costs $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100 and Premium $489 for 400, with 15% off on annual billing (as of October 2026). Every plan includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google AI Mode and Gemini are add-ons at $9 a month each on Lite and $59 each on Standard, and Claude costs more again. Reports cover mentions, cited links, share of AI voice and AI-readiness content audits, and there is a free trial. It suits small teams and consultants who want a number to show a manager. The drawback is that 15 prompts is too small a sample to mean much, and adding prompts and engines pushes you to Standard quickly.

Peec AI

Peec AI reports visibility, position and sentiment for your brand and competitors, and shows which sources AI engines rely on. Its plans (Starter, Pro, Advanced and a custom Enterprise tier) scale by prompts, models, countries and projects, which suits agencies and brands tracking several markets, and it publishes separate agency pricing. Peec says it simulates the real user interface for most engines rather than relying on APIs, which should keep its data closer to what buyers see. A free trial is available; for current prices, see the vendor's pricing page. The drawback is model limits: below Enterprise you choose a fixed number of models, and each extra one adds to the monthly bill.

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 a month on its own (as of October 2026) and includes competitor and prompt research, brand performance reports, an AI search site audit and tracking for 25 prompts. Prompt tracking runs daily on ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini, while the broader brand reports also cover Perplexity and AI Overviews. Semrush One bundles it with the SEO toolkit, with 50 tracked prompts on Starter, 100 on Pro+ and more on Advanced, and 50 extra prompts cost $60 a month. It suits teams already working in Semrush who want AI data next to keyword data. The drawbacks: 25 prompts is a thin sample, prompt tracking covers desktop only, and Perplexity is missing from prompt tracking.

Ahrefs Brand Radar

Ahrefs Brand Radar flips the usual model. Instead of only tracking prompts you pick, it gives you an index of more than 481 million prompts, modeled from real searches in Ahrefs' keyword database, with stored answers from AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. That lets you research any brand, including competitors, without setting anything up. An index costs $199 a month per platform or $699 for all platforms, and it needs a paid Ahrefs plan; Lite ($129 a month) and above include custom prompt tracking (as of October 2026). It suits SEO teams that want market-wide context. The drawback is that modeled prompts are still guesses about what people ask AI, and costs stack fast on top of the base subscription.

Scrunch

Scrunch combines monitoring with tools to fix what it finds. It tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews and Meta, segments results by persona, topic and region, audits pages, and shows how AI bots crawl your site. Its Agent Experience Platform (AXP) serves AI agents a lightweight, machine-readable version of your site. Starter costs $300 a month, or $250 a month billed yearly, for 350 custom prompts, 3 personas and 3 users; Growth is $500, or $417 billed yearly (as of October 2026). A seven-day trial needs no card. It suits mid-size and enterprise teams. The drawbacks are the entry price and AXP itself: serving a separate version of your site to AI agents is a technical SEO decision that deserves review, and the pricing page does not say which plans include it.

Nightwatch

Nightwatch is a rank tracker that added AI tracking, so you get Google rankings and AI answers in one dashboard. Its plans cover ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode and AI Overviews on every tier. Starter lists 50 AI prompts and 1,500 AI answers a month for €79 a month billed yearly (the vendor lists prices in euros), with a 14-day trial and no card required. It suits SEO professionals who report on both channels. The drawback is depth: its analysis and reporting are lighter than the specialist tools, so it answers "are we there" better than "why not".

Clearscope

Clearscope is a content optimization tool that now tracks queries in AI answers alongside its writing guidance. Essentials costs $129 a month for 50 tracked queries, 50 pages and 20 drafts, and Business is $399 for 300 queries (as of October 2026), with a 14-day trial. All plans track ChatGPT and Gemini. It suits content teams who want tracking tied to the pages they write and refresh. The drawback is coverage: the pricing page does not list Perplexity or Google AI Overviews, so it is not a full monitoring setup.

Also worth a look: Surfer sells an AI Search Analytics plan that tracks 50 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews and other models for €82 a month billed yearly. It makes sense if your writers already use its Content Editor.

How to choose

• You already pay for Semrush or Ahrefs: start with their AI add-on. Ahrefs Lite includes custom prompt tracking, and the Semrush toolkit is $99. Move to a specialist only if the sample feels too small.
• You need a first number on a small budget: Otterly.AI Lite at $29, plus the free Semrush and Ahrefs checkers. Add AI Mode for $9 if Google is your main channel.
• You are an agency: Peec AI or Otterly.AI Standard, both set up for tracking several brands against competitors. Profound's Agency Growth plan is worth a quote if your clients are large.
• You are an enterprise brand in several markets: Profound or Scrunch. Choose Profound for breadth of engines and research data, Scrunch for persona segmentation and on-site fixes.
• You run a content team: Clearscope or Surfer, so tracking sits next to the editor where pages get fixed.
• You mainly report Google rankings: Nightwatch, to keep one dashboard.

Whatever you buy, pick 50 or more prompts that mirror real buying questions, run them for at least a month before drawing conclusions, and check the GA4 AI Assistant channel to see whether visibility turns into visits.

FAQ

What is an AI visibility tool?

It is software that sends a fixed set of prompts to AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on a schedule and records if your brand is mentioned, where it sits in the answer and which sources are cited. Think of it as rank tracking for AI answers, with less certainty.

What are the best AI tools for generative engine optimization?

For measuring GEO work, use one of the trackers above: Otterly.AI on a budget, Semrush or Ahrefs if you already have them, Profound or Scrunch at enterprise scale. For the optimization itself, the work matters more than the tool. Citation reports tell you which sites to earn coverage on, and content tools such as Clearscope help keep pages clear and current.

Can I track AI visibility for free?

Partly. Semrush and Ahrefs offer free AI visibility checkers, Profound and Scrunch offer short trials, and the GA4 AI Assistant channel shows AI referral traffic at no cost. Ongoing daily tracking needs a paid plan.

How many prompts should I track?

Enough to cover your main product categories, use cases and competitor comparisons, which for most brands means 50 to 150. Fewer than 25 is too small a sample to separate real changes from run-to-run noise.