| Quick answer |
|---|
| The best tool for AI Mode tracking is Ahrefs Brand Radar, listed from $199 a month with the $398 bundle reported by trackers, which covers AI Overviews and AI Mode in the base product. Otterly.AI is the cheapest route at $29 a month, but Google AI Mode is a paid add-on there rather than an included engine. |
| How we compare |
|---|
| Ranking is based on vendor pricing pages read on 12 September 2026, and on third-party trackers where a vendor publishes nothing, with every figure labelled as one or the other. The deciding criterion is whether Google AI Mode is included in the base plan or billed as an add-on. Every price was re-checked against the vendor’s own pricing page in September 2026, and figures available only from third-party trackers are marked as reported. We ran no head-to-head lab test, and no vendor paid for placement. |
Table of Contents
Why AI Mode needs its own tool
Google AI Mode is a conversational search surface that generates an answer rather than returning a ranked list. For measurement purposes it behaves nothing like the search results your rank tracker was built for. There is no position one. There is a paragraph, some named brands, and a set of links that may or may not include yours.
AI Mode tracking therefore works on prompts, not keywords. You supply the questions your buyers ask, the tool runs them on a schedule, and it records presence, ordering within the answer, and citation. Most general AI visibility platforms bolt AI Mode on as an extra engine; only a few treat it as a first-class surface, and that distinction is the whole purchase decision.
Best tool for AI Mode: the options compared
| Tool | Entry price | Is AI Mode included? | Other engines covered | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | From $199/mo; $398 AI Mode bundle reported | Yes, with AI Overviews | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, Grok | Teams treating AI Mode as a primary surface |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo (Lite) | No — paid add-on | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot | Smallest budget, daily refresh |
| Semrush | From $139/mo (SEO plan) | Within its Google coverage | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | Existing Semrush subscribers |
| SE Visible | Reported from ~$79/mo annual | Yes | Main AI answer surfaces | Specialist tracking without enterprise pricing |
| Profound | $99/mo Starter (ChatGPT only) | On higher tiers only | Up to nine engines at enterprise level | Widest coverage, Enterprise quoted |
| Peec AI | Reported from ~$95/mo | Selected at onboarding | Chosen per plan | Sales-led European buyers |
The trackers in detail
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Tracks AI Overviews and AI Mode together as a first-class platform, alongside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini and Grok, with YouTube, TikTok and Reddit in beta. Ahrefs lists Brand Radar AI from $199 a month on top of an Ahrefs plan; trackers report the select-platforms bundle at $398 a month and all-platforms access at $699.
Otterly.AI
The cheapest way in at $29 a month for 15 prompts, tracking ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot daily. Google AI Mode is sold as an add-on rather than included, so budget above the headline price if AI Mode is the reason you are buying.
Semrush
Semrush restructured in 2026 into SEO plus AI Search plans priced from $139 a month, with AI search tracking inside the plan, and it still sells a standalone AI Visibility toolkit at $99 a month per domain billed annually. Confirm which option applies to your account before assuming AI Mode is covered.
SE Visible
A smaller specialist tracker positioned squarely at AI answer surfaces, with plans reported to start around $79 a month on annual billing. Worth a shortlist slot if you want AI Mode coverage without an enterprise contract.
Profound
Profound has the broadest engine coverage in the category. Its pricing page lists Starter at $99 a month billed yearly for ChatGPT only and Growth at $399 for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; neither self-serve tier lists AI Mode, so check Enterprise.
Peec AI
European platform where engines are selected during onboarding. The pricing page renders its figures in-browser rather than in the page text as of September 2026; third-party trackers report brand plans from around $95 a month and agency plans from about $245. Confirm AI Mode inclusion before signing.
The add-on trap
Read every plan for whether Google AI Mode is an engine you get or an engine you buy. Otterly lists Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode as add-ons on top of its four base engines, so the $29 plan is not an AI Mode plan. Profound’s reported entry tier tracks ChatGPT only. Ahrefs is the clearest case in the other direction, bundling AI Overviews and AI Mode together on the plan trackers report at $398.
- Price the engine, not the platform. Add the AI Mode surcharge to the base plan before comparing anything.
- Check whether AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted separately. Some tools bill them as two engines against your allowance, which halves the prompts you can afford to run.
- Ask about market and language coverage. AI Mode availability differs by country, and a tool tracking only US results will show a flat line for a European brand.
Cost per tracked prompt, worked out
Trackers sell prompts, not seats, so the number that actually compares plans is price divided by prompts included. Otterly publishes both figures at every tier, so we did the division on its published prices; Semrush ($99 for 25 prompts) and Profound ($99 for 50) publish them for their entry plans too. Ahrefs and Peec do not publish prompt allowances, so the same sum cannot be done for them without guessing.
| Otterly plan (published) | Monthly price | Prompts included | Arithmetic | Cost per prompt / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $29 | 15 | 29 / 15 | $1.93 |
| Standard | $189 | 100 | 189 / 100 | $1.89 |
| Premium | $489 | 400 | 489 / 400 | $1.22 |
| Extra prompt block | $99 | 100 | 99 / 100 | $0.99 |
The marginal prompt is cheaper than the average prompt on every plan, which changes the upgrade maths. Standard plus three extra blocks is $189 + (3 x $99) = $486 for 400 prompts — three dollars less than Premium at $489 for the same 400. At that point you are not choosing on price at all, you are choosing on Premium’s larger API and MCP quotas. Annual billing takes 15% off, so Premium works out at $489 x 0.85 = $415.65 a month, or $1.04 per prompt.
One figure has to come from trackers rather than the vendor. Google AI Mode is an add-on rather than an included engine on every Otterly tier, and trackers report the AI Mode and Gemini add-on at $9 a month on Lite, $59 on Standard and $149 on Premium. On that basis an AI Mode-inclusive Lite plan is about $38, or $2.53 a prompt — confirm the figure in writing before you compare Otterly with Ahrefs on price.
A prompt set for AI Mode you can copy
No vendor gives you the prompts, only the dashboard, which is why prompt design belongs with the rest of your marketing tooling rather than with procurement. Start with fifteen, split evenly and frozen in wording so your trend line stays comparable.
- Five conversational category prompts phrased as a person would speak them: “what is the best tool for [job] if I only have a small budget”.
- Five follow-up prompts that assume the first answer — AI Mode is built for multi-turn questioning, and brands that survive turn two are the ones being recommended rather than merely listed.
- Five comparison prompts naming you against a competitor, in both directions.
- Log presence, order and citation separately on every run, and re-run each prompt more than once. AI Mode answers vary between identical queries, so a single sample is not a measurement.
For the page-side work that changes those numbers, see our guides to ranking in Google AI Overviews and answer engine optimisation tools, plus the wider AI search monitoring tools category.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best tool for AI Mode?
Ahrefs Brand Radar is the strongest option, because it treats AI Overviews and AI Mode as one tracked platform; Ahrefs lists it from $199 a month, with the AI Mode bundle reported at $398. Otterly.AI at $29 is the cheapest entry, but AI Mode is a paid add-on there. Semrush includes AI search tracking in plans from $139 for teams already on the platform.
How is Google AI Mode different from AI Overviews?
AI Overviews sit on top of normal results; AI Mode replaces them. An Overview appears above the blue links for some searches, while AI Mode is a separate conversational search experience where the whole answer is generated and follow-up questions carry context. A brand can appear in one and not the other, so track them separately where your tool allows.
Does Search Console report AI Mode separately?
Yes, for impressions. Google’s generative AI performance report, announced on 3 June 2026 and rolled out to every site by 31 August, splits AI Mode and AI Overviews impressions by page, country, device and date. It shows no clicks, queries or position, so it tells you that you appeared, not which prompt triggered you — that is still a tracker’s job.
Which AI engines should you track alongside AI Mode?
Track ChatGPT first, because it carries the largest share of assistant-led discovery — our guide to getting cited in ChatGPT covers the page work behind it. Then Google AI Overviews and AI Mode together, since they sit directly on the queries you already rank for and take clicks from them. Perplexity third. Gemini matters for Android and Workspace audiences, Copilot for Microsoft-centric enterprises, and the rest rarely changes a purchasing decision.
Is AI visibility tracking different from rank tracking for AI Mode tracking?
Yes, and the difference is structural. A rank tracker measures a fixed list of ten blue links, so position is stable and comparable day to day. AI Mode generates a fresh answer per query, so there is no position to record — only whether you were named, in what order within the prose, and whether you were linked. That is why these tools sell prompts rather than keywords.
Conclusion
If AI Mode is the surface you are actually being judged on, Ahrefs Brand Radar is the honest recommendation — from $199 a month, with the AI Mode bundle reported at $398 — because it is included rather than surcharged and it sits next to the organic data you already use. If you simply need to know whether a problem exists, start with Otterly at $29 and pay for the AI Mode add-on for one month.
Either way, price the engine rather than the platform, freeze your prompt wording, and sample each prompt more than once. AI Mode is variable by design, and a tracker that shows you one roll of the dice per week is measuring noise.
