Best Tool for AI Search Visibility: 7 Compared 2026

How this comparison works: tools are judged on engines covered by the base plan, published price, prompt allowance and whether a free tier exists. Figures were checked against vendor pricing pages and independent pricing trackers in September 2026, and move often — confirm before you buy.

What an AI search visibility tool actually measures

These tools answer one question: when a buyer asks an AI assistant about your category, are you in the answer? The tool runs a fixed prompt set against engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, then records whether your brand is named, how often, and whether the answer links back to your site.

That is not rank tracking. A blue-link tracker asks “what position is this URL?” An AI visibility tool asks “was this brand named, and was it cited?” The two diverge constantly — you can hold position one organically and be absent from the AI answer above it. Our guide to AI search monitoring tools covers the wider category, and ranking in Google AI Overviews covers the page-side work.

Best tool for AI search visibility: 2026 comparison

The add-on trap in AI visibility pricing

The advertised price and the price you pay are rarely the same, because engines are billed separately. This is the single most useful thing to understand before buying, and vendor listicles — which is most of this SERP — leave it out.

• Profound starts at $99, but that tier tracks ChatGPT only. Perplexity and Google AI Overviews require the $399 Growth plan.
• Peec AI includes a core set and charges roughly EUR 30 per extra model per month on Starter, EUR 70 on Pro and EUR 140 on Advanced.
• Otterly bundles four engines into every core plan but sells Google AI Mode and Gemini as add-ons.
• Semrush charges $99 per domain for 25 prompts, plus $60 a month for each extra 50 prompts, billed annually.

Work out which engines your buyers actually use, price only those, then compare totals. On that arithmetic Otterly’s $29 tier is genuinely the cheapest credible entry point, and Semrush’s $99 toolkit reaches $159 a month once you add one 50-prompt pack.

A test method and prompt set you can run yourself

Every tool here will sell you its own prompt set. Before you pay, run this five-prompt protocol by hand across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, then repeat it in seven days.

• Category prompt — “What are the best [category] tools?” Tests whether you exist in the broadest, highest-volume answer.
• Comparison prompt — “[Your brand] vs [competitor]: which is better?” Tests whether the engine has a defensible view of you.
• Problem prompt — “How do I [job your product does]?” Tests whether you are cited on intent rather than on brand name.
• Pricing prompt — “How much does [category] software cost?” The most commercially loaded prompt and the one most often answered by a competitor.
• Trust prompt — “Is [your brand] any good?” Surfaces sentiment and the third-party sources the engine leans on.

Score each run three ways — named or not, cited or not, and which competitor appeared first. If your presence swings wildly between the two rounds, you need daily refresh and should filter tools on that alone. If it barely moves, a monthly manual check may be enough and a subscription is premature.

The seven tools in detail

Otterly.AI

Lowest published paid entry at $29 a month for the Lite plan, which tracks 15 prompts across four AI engines. Google AI Mode and Gemini are sold as add-ons. A 7-day trial runs without a credit card.

Profound

Enterprise-leaning AI visibility platform. The $99 Starter plan tracks ChatGPT only; Perplexity and Google AI Overviews arrive on the $399 Growth tier.

Peec AI

European AI search analytics platform priced at EUR 85 a month for Starter, EUR 205 for Pro and EUR 425 for Advanced. Extra engines cost EUR 30 to EUR 140 a month each depending on the plan.

AthenaHQ

Source-intelligence platform that identifies which URLs AI systems reference for your prompts. Listed at $295 a month for 3,600 credits on its Starter plan, with a free Essential tier of 300 credits and quoted Enterprise pricing.

Scrunch AI

Starter runs $300 a month, or $250 billed annually, covering 3 users and 350 custom prompts. Growth is $500 a month, or $417 annually, with 5 users and 700 prompts.

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

A $99 per month per-domain add-on covering 25 tracked prompts. It is sold standalone or inside Semrush’s SEO + AI Search plans from $199 a month, so price both routes before buying.

Free AI visibility checkers

One-off graders such as the HubSpot AEO Grader and the Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker return a snapshot score with no signup. They score you but do not track changes over time.

What none of these tools will do for you

This category measures; it does not fix. A tool will tell you a competitor is named in an answer where you are not. Closing that gap is content work — a clear, extractable answer high on a page that is indexed, renderable without JavaScript, and specific enough to quote.

That is the honest limit of AI visibility tools in 2026, and it is worth knowing before you spend. If your pages are not extractable, a subscription buys a very precise record of your absence. Our guides to answer engine optimization tooling and generative engine optimization cover the work that actually changes the answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best tool for AI search visibility?

Otterly.AI is the best tool for AI search visibility for most teams, at $29 a month for the Lite plan. It tracks 15 prompts across four AI engines and runs a 7-day trial without a credit card. Profound suits enterprises, and free graders answer the question once.

Is a free AI visibility checker enough?

For a first look, yes. One-off graders such as the HubSpot AEO Grader and the Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker score you across a few engines at no cost, but they do not track change over time. Once you are changing pages and need to see the effect, you need a tracker.

What should you test before paying for an AI visibility tool?

Run the five-prompt protocol above — category, comparison, problem, pricing and trust prompts — across ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity, twice, a week apart. If your presence swings between rounds you need daily refresh; if it barely moves, a monthly manual check may be enough and a subscription can wait.

How much does AI search visibility tracking cost?

Entry plans run from about $29 to $300 a month. Otterly Lite is about $29 for 15 prompts, Profound Starter and the Semrush toolkit $99, Peec Starter about €85, Scrunch $250 to $300 and AthenaHQ $295. Engines and extra prompts are billed on top, so price the engines you need before comparing headline figures.

Which AI engines does each entry plan cover?

Otterly Lite covers ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot. Profound Starter covers ChatGPT only, with Perplexity and AI Overviews on the $399 Growth plan. Peec Starter includes three models of your choice, and the Semrush toolkit covers ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews. AI Mode and Gemini are add-ons on several plans.

Conclusion

Buy on base-plan engine coverage, prompt allowance and refresh frequency — and ignore the headline price until you have priced the engines you actually need. On that basis Otterly.AI at $29 is the sensible first subscription, Semrush’s toolkit makes sense if you already pay for Semrush, Peec suits European mid-market teams, and Profound earns its cost only at enterprise scale.

Before any of them, run the five-prompt protocol above for two weeks. It is free, and it is the only way to know whether you are buying a monitoring product or a monthly reminder that you are absent.