The best AI-visibility tracking tools in 2026 (with real pricing)
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude don't come with a Search Console. Here are the tools that track whether AI cites you — what each costs, which engines they cover, and when a free setup is enough.
If you want to know whether AI engines are citing you, you need something to measure it — and unlike Google, there’s no official dashboard. A whole category of “AI-visibility” (or GEO) trackers has appeared to fill that gap. The catch: prices run from $0 to $800+ a month — paid entries start at ~€20/mo with Rankscale Essentials (rankscale.ai), the high end is Ahrefs Brand Radar at ~$828/mo all-in (ahrefs.com/brand-radar) — half the vendors hide their pricing behind a sales call, and the category is churning fast (Ahrefs’ CMO predicts ~80% of these tools won’t exist in five years). So before you pay anyone, here’s what each tool actually does, what it really costs, and — honestly — when you don’t need one yet.
Start free before you pay
For most people just starting out, the right first step is free — not a subscription. Paid tools earn their keep for ongoing, competitive monitoring, not for finding out whether you have a problem. Here’s the free stack:
- Bing Webmaster Tools → AI Performance (free) — the most substantial free native tool, with real citation data (not a proxy) for Copilot/Bing AI. Since it feeds ChatGPT too, it’s the single best free signal. (Bing Blog)
- Google Search Console → AI Performance (free) — shows AI Overviews / AI Mode impressions for your pages. Currently UK-only (a regulatory quirk) and impressions-only, but worth checking if it’s live for you. (Google)
- Manual prompt testing (free) — open ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Copilot in incognito and run 15–30 of your real branded + category questions. This tells you in ten minutes whether you have an AI-visibility problem at all.
- Free one-shot checkers — HubSpot’s AEO Grader, Ahrefs’ and Semrush’s free AI Visibility Checkers, or Trendos (a genuinely free tier, up to 10 brands, no time limit).
The honest verdict: free methods are a great audit and a weak monitor. The tipping point is roughly >20 prompts × >2 engines × a monthly cadence — past that, the time cost of doing it by hand beats a cheap paid plan, and no free tool shows you your competitors’ citation share. That’s when you pay.
The quick picks
- Cheapest self-serve entry: Otterly.ai Lite — $29/mo, or Rankscale Essentials — ~€20/mo if you want the most engines for the least money.
- Best for a solo operator / SMB: Otterly.ai (transparent pricing, free trial, no sales call).
- Best for agencies: Otterly Standard ($189/mo) or Rankscale Pro (~€99/mo) — both unlimited users.
- Best for enterprise: Profound (widest coverage, browser-level data) — but it’s sales-led only.
- Best free baseline: Bing Webmaster Tools + manual testing + a free checker.
The comparison
| Tool | Engines tracked | From-price | Free trial | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.ai | 4 core (+ Claude/Gemini add-ons) | $29/mo | Yes | Solo, SMB, agencies |
| Rankscale | 17+ (incl. Claude) | ~€20/mo | 7-day* | Best value, SMB→enterprise |
| Nightwatch | 6 AI + classic rank tracking | €79/mo | 14-day, no card | Agencies, local SEO |
| Peec AI | 6 (+ Claude add-on) | €89/mo | Unclear | Mid-market, multi-language |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | 5 (no Claude/Copilot/Grok) | $99/mo/domain | No | Teams already in Semrush |
| AthenaHQ | 8 | ~$295/mo | No | Mid-market content teams |
| Scrunch AI | 4–9 | $250/mo | 7-day* | Enterprise, agencies |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | 7 (no Claude) | $699/mo add-on (+$129 base) | No | SEO teams in Ahrefs |
| Profound | 10+ (widest) | Custom (sales-led) | No | Enterprise |
| Conductor / Bluefish | 6–8 | Custom ($27k+/yr) | Varies | Fortune 500 |
| Trendos | 4+ | Free tier | Free | A no-cost baseline |
*No-credit-card claims for Rankscale/Scrunch trials are disputed across sources — check before signing up.
The self-serve tools (sign up today)
Otterly.ai — from $29/mo. The only category tool with a genuine sub-$50 entry and fully transparent pricing. Tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot out of the box, and tells you which URLs got cited, not just whether your brand appeared. Watch out: Lite is only 15 prompts, and Claude/Gemini are paid add-ons on every tier. (Pricing: high confidence — otterly.ai/pricing.)
Rankscale — from ~€20/mo. The hidden gem: 17+ engines including Claude at the lowest entry price in the category, on a credit model. Under-covered in English roundups because it’s European. Watch out: credits are consumed at different rates per engine (Claude costs ~8× a ChatGPT check), so billing can be unpredictable. (High confidence — rankscale.ai.)
Nightwatch — €79/mo. Primarily a classic rank tracker with AI tracking in beta — but that combination is the point if you want SEO + basic AI visibility in one tool. Longest free trial in the category (14 days, no card). (High confidence — nightwatch.io.)
Peec AI — €89/mo. Strongest regional/multi-language benchmarking in the mid-market (115+ languages). Diagnosis-only — it tells you where you stand but won’t recommend fixes. (Note: the “$95” figure floating around is a EUR→USD conversion error; it’s €89.)
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit — $99/mo per domain. Best if you already live in Semrush — it ties AI visibility to your keyword and competitor data. Big gap: no Claude, no Copilot, no Grok, and $99 covers only one domain / 25 prompts. (High confidence — Semrush.)
AthenaHQ — from ~$295/mo. A self-serve mid-market all-rounder (8 engines) with revenue attribution into Shopify/GA4; founded by ex-Google/DeepMind engineers.
The enterprise tools (expect a sales call)
Ahrefs Brand Radar — ~$828/mo all-in. $699/mo for all 7 platforms plus a $129 base Ahrefs plan (it’s an add-on, not standalone). Largest real-prompt database (371M+) and the only one here tracking Grok — but no Claude, and non-Google data updates only monthly. No trial (“we never run discounts”). (High confidence.)
Profound — custom, sales-led. The enterprise leader ($1B valuation, Feb 2026): 10+ engines, browser-level capture (sees what real users see, not API samples), and a 400M-query prompt dataset. No public pricing and no self-serve — older “$99/$499” figures are stale; assume a demo and a real budget. (Pricing: low confidence — sales-gated.)
Scrunch AI ($250/mo), Conductor & Bluefish (custom, ~$27k+/yr): built for Fortune 500 teams; Scrunch was acquired by Sitecore in June 2026. Overkill for anyone not running enterprise SEO.
How to choose (the 3 questions that matter)
- Which engines do you actually care about? This is the real filter. If Claude matters to you — and per how each engine sources content, it reads from Brave, so it’s its own battle — note that Ahrefs and Semrush don’t track Claude at all, Otterly and Peec charge extra for it, while Rankscale and Nightwatch include it.
- Audit or monitor? A one-time “do I have a problem?” check is free (above). Ongoing competitive tracking is what you pay for.
- Solo or team? Under ~$50/mo and self-serve points you at Otterly or Rankscale. Anything sales-gated (Profound, Bluefish, Conductor) is an enterprise commitment.
Common questions
What's the cheapest AI-visibility tool?
Can I track AI visibility for free?
Which tools track Claude?
What does an AI-visibility tool actually measure?
The takeaway
There’s no Search Console for AI yet, so measuring whether you’re cited means either a free DIY setup or a paid tracker. Start free — Bing Webmaster Tools plus a manual prompt panel will tell you if you even have a problem. Pay only when you’re monitoring more than ~20 prompts across multiple engines or you need to see competitors’ share — at which point Otterly ($29) or Rankscale (€20) are the cheapest credible entries, and Profound is the enterprise standard. And whatever the slick dashboards imply, remember the category is young and volatile; don’t lock into an annual contract you can’t exit.
(Full disclosure: I’m running my own free measurement stack on this site rather than paying for a tracker yet — you can follow what I’m finding on the experiments log.)
Sources
- Otterly pricing: otterly.ai/pricing · Rankscale: rankscale.ai · Nightwatch: nightwatch.io · Semrush: semrush.com · Ahrefs Brand Radar: ahrefs.com/brand-radar
- Profound Series C ($1B valuation): Fortune · Scrunch/Sitecore acquisition (June 2026): Sitecore newsroom
- Free tools: Bing Webmaster AI Performance · Google AI performance reports