Best AI visibility tools in 2026: what each one tracks, costs and misses

An AI visibility tool does one thing at its core. It asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google’s AI features and others a set of questions, and records whether your brand was named, which pages were cited, and how that changes. The tools differ in which engines they cover, how many questions you get, where the questions come from, and what they cost. This list sticks to what each vendor publishes; where a price was not on a page we could read, we say so. For crawler checkers and page auditors, which do a different job, see the best GEO tools.

The tools, side by side

Ahrefs Brand Radar

Brand Radar’s distinctive feature is where its questions come from. For its prompt-based indexes, “Ahrefs takes real queries from its keyword database,” so you see visibility across a large set of prompts you did not have to write. It covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with Claude available for custom prompts. Ahrefs says “Free AI prompts are already included in your paid plan” and lists Custom Prompts from €47 a month and the AI Visibility Index from €179 a month; the page was served to us in euros, so your currency may differ. Its free AI Visibility Checker gives a one-time snapshot, “No signup, no credit card,” limited to the top five results per section. Best for teams already on Ahrefs who want breadth without writing prompts.

Semrush

Semrush folds AI tracking into its SEO + AI Search plans: Starter at $199 a month tracks 50 prompts daily, Pro+ at $299 tracks 100, and Advanced is custom with unlimited prompts. It lists Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini among the engines, and offers a seven-day trial. Best for teams already running their SEO in Semrush.

Profound

Profound is built for large brands. Its free trial runs “50 prompts run daily for 7 days” across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, using a recommended prompt set you cannot customise. Enterprise is custom-priced and covers up to nine answer engines, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews and Exa Search. Best for enterprises that need many engines, languages and regions.

Otterly.AI

Otterly.AI is the most transparent on price: Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, each tracking ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude are paid add-ons. There is a free trial. Best for small teams that want a published price and a short prompt list.

Peec AI

Peec AI names ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini as the engines it analyses and offers Starter, Pro, Advanced and Enterprise plans. The pricing page we read did not publish prices or prompt limits, so we do not state them.

SE Ranking

SE Ranking sells AI search tracking as an add-on: $89 a month on monthly billing, on top of a plan such as Core at $129. It lists AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini and ChatGPT, with Copilot marked “coming soon.” The 14-day trial needs no card. Best if you already use SE Ranking for rank tracking.

A tracker tells you that you are missing. The useful question is why — and whether the crawler could read you in the first place.

Adnan Arodiya, Crawlwise

Crawlwise, honestly

Crawlwise’s AI visibility works on a verified site. It asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity your questions for 0.25 credits a question across all four, on demand or on a weekly or monthly schedule, and alerts you when you start or stop being mentioned, when a competitor overtakes you, or when a new source starts being cited. The cited sources are shown first, above the competitor table, because they are the most actionable list. When you are not mentioned, the “Why not?” view checks crawler access, then whether a page covers the question, then whether it answers it, and says “we cannot establish why” when none of those explains it. There is no visibility score, and sentiment reads “not measured” rather than a guess. The free AI mention checker runs one question as a snapshot, with no account.

Where the others are better: Brand Radar sees far more prompts than you would write; Brand Radar, Profound, Otterly.AI and SE Ranking track Google’s AI Overviews, which our AI visibility does not; the dedicated trackers run hundreds of prompts daily; and Crawlwise accounts are single-user. If you need daily tracking at scale, pick one of them. If you need to know why the answers never mention you, start here.

How to choose

1. Check crawler access first. It is free, and no tracker can fix a blocked OAI-SearchBot — run the AI crawler checker.
2. Already on Ahrefs or Semrush? Try their AI features before adding a vendor.
3. Want a published price and a short prompt list? Otterly.AI.
4. Large brand, many engines, many markets? Profound or Brand Radar.
5. Small site that needs to know why it is not mentioned? Crawlwise.

What no AI visibility tool can tell you

Every number in this category is a sample: the questions someone chose, the engines covered, the moments they ran. Answers change between runs, and a rise in “visibility” can be a change in the question set rather than in the answers. Read the cited sources and the answers themselves, not only the chart. For how mentions turn into visits, see tracking AI traffic in GA4, and for the groundwork, how to get mentioned by ChatGPT.

What a plan actually costs

The free tools stay free. You can open them, run them, and leave without an account. A plan is for the moment you want the report saved, a few sites watched, or the same checks from the API. The price on this table is the price at checkout. A yearly plan is ten months of the monthly price, so two months are on us.

A single-page audit is about 1.25 credits, and that includes the live probe of answer-engine crawlers. You see the estimate before anything runs. If a hold is not used, it comes back to your balance. Extra credits, when you already subscribe, are $9.99 for 20.

Frequently asked questions

What does an AI visibility tool do?

It asks answer engines a set of questions and records whether your brand is named, which pages are cited, and how that changes over time.

Is there a free AI visibility tool?

There are free snapshots: Ahrefs’ AI Visibility Checker shows the top five results per section with no sign-up, and the Crawlwise AI mention checker asks ChatGPT one question. Profound, Otterly.AI, Semrush and SE Ranking offer trials.

Why do two tools give different results for the same brand?

They ask different questions, cover different engines, run from different places at different times, and AI answers change between runs. Compare tools on the same questions before trusting either number.

Does Crawlwise give an AI visibility score?

No. It reports mentions, citations and cited sources as what they are, and explains a missing mention where it can. A composite score would hide which cause matters.

Sources

Every page below was read on 2026-10-29. Vendors change prices, limits and documentation without notice, so check the original before you act on a detail.

• Ahrefs — Brand Radar
• Ahrefs — Free AI visibility checker
• Semrush — Plans and pricing
• Profound — Pricing
• Otterly.AI — Pricing
• Peec AI — Pricing
• SE Ranking — Subscription plans