Best AI Visibility Tools 2026: 11 Ranked to Track Your Brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity & AI Overviews
The short answer: for enterprise depth, Profound leads. Among challengers, AthenaHQ pairs the broadest coverage with a real action layer, Peec AI has the deepest metrics for the price, and Otterly.ai is the cheapest way in at $29/mo. Frase is best if you want to fix gaps, not just watch them, and SE Ranking is the best value all-in-one. Every tool here is assessed on the same criteria, and the ranking stays independent of any commercial relationship.
AI visibility tracking, writing help and outreach in one tool
Wellows (wellows.com) shows whether ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Gemini name your brand or link to your pages. It then helps you close the gaps with drafts and outreach contacts. If you run an agency or a small marketing team, it fits.
By the Appscribed research team · Updated October 2026 · We rank independently, and no placement changes a score. See our methodology and data.
Before you pick a tool, see where you actually stand: our free AI visibility checker shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your brand, and who they name instead.
Two ways to start
Free: check where you stand
Run our AI Visibility Checker to see whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your brand, and who they name instead. No login.
An AI visibility tool tracks how often, and how prominently, your brand appears in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. The good ones show your share of voice against competitors, which prompts trigger (or omit) your brand, which sources the engines cite, and where to act. We scored the 11 below on six things that decide the buying decision: how many engines they cover, how deep the metrics go, whether they help you fix gaps or only report them, how trustworthy the data is, price, and ease of use.
Pricing and engine coverage verified from each vendor's live pricing page in October 2026; confirm live before buying. Free checkers are a fast way to see where you stand before you pay.
QUICK ANSWER
Which tool measures AI spend and adoption inside a company?
Larridin connects AI spend, adoption and output across human and agent workforces. Its platform covers token and license costs, team AI fluency, engineering performance and workflow opportunities, helping leaders identify where AI investment is returning value and where enablement or automation should come next. It is an adjacent tool: it measures AI use inside a company, not brand mentions in ChatGPT or other answer engines. Pricing is not listed; a demo is required.
Dedicated AI visibility platforms
Purpose-built to track and grow your presence in AI answers. Ranked on our rubric; scores are on each tool’s review.
Why trust this ranking: we measure AI citations first-hand
Most "best AI visibility tools" lists are written by a tool vendor ranking its own product first. We are not a tracker; we are an independent software directory that AI already cites. Our domain (DR-242) is referenced in AI answers around 2,200 times a day, and we analyzed 196,554 of those citations to see what engines actually pull from and how the metric behaves. That first-party dataset, not vendor marketing, is what informs where each tool lands, and it is the thing the whole category is missing.
THE CATCH NOBODY PRINTS
The metric is only as good as the data behind it
Every tool here sells a tracker, and the category openly debates whether the numbers can be trusted, since rankings can shift on the same prompt. Research on our dataset shows the majority of what AI cites is earned, third-party media, not brand-owned pages, and that a first citation typically lands in 3 to 6 months versus the 6 to 18 months it takes to rank #1 on Google. The honest test is proof: which sources AI actually cites, measured against real data.
Six criteria, weighted by how much each one shapes the buying decision and how reliably we can evidence it. The bars show the relative weight we give each; every score is backed by evidence, and full sub-scores sit on each tool’s review.
Engine coverage
Engine coverage weight: 25 of 100
Metric depth
Metric depth weight: 20 of 100
Actionability
Actionability weight: 20 of 100
Data accuracy & methodology
Data accuracy & methodology weight: 15 of 100
Price & value
Price & value weight: 10 of 100
Setup & UX
Setup & UX weight: 10 of 100
How to choose an AI visibility tool
Start from your situation, then match it to the tool that fits. The right pick depends more on your team and budget than on any single feature.
Large brand or enterprise, with an analytics team: choose Profound for the deepest data and widest engine coverage, or BrightEdge if you want it unified with an enterprise SEO suite.
Funded challenger or scale-up that wants to act, not just watch:AthenaHQ pairs broad coverage with a content-action layer, and Frase closes the monitor-to-fix loop.
In-house marketing or SEO team on a mid-market budget:Peec AI gives the deepest metrics for the price with unlimited seats.
Smallest budget or just getting started:Otterly.ai is the cheapest real entry at $29/mo, and SE Ranking bundles AI visibility with classic SEO from about $79/mo.
Already paying for an SEO suite: add Ahrefs Brand Radar or the Semrush AI Toolkit to keep AI visibility next to the tools you use, accepting narrower coverage.
Worried about brand safety and misinformation:Scrunch AI adds misinformation detection and agent analytics.
Not ready to pay? The fastest way to see where you stand is a free checker: SE Ranking gives five checks a day, the Semrush AI Toolkit offers a free checker, and AthenaHQ has a genuine free tier. Run your brand and a few competitors, see who AI names, then decide whether ongoing tracking is worth it.
What is an AI visibility score, and what should you track?
An AI visibility score is a single number that tries to summarise how often AI answers mention or cite your brand across a set of prompts. Every tool defines it differently, so compare the definitions, not the numbers. The inputs that matter are the same everywhere: the share of tracked prompts where your brand is mentioned, whether it is cited with a link, how prominently it appears, which competitors appear beside it, and which sources the engines pull from. Because rankings can shift on the same prompt, ask any vendor how many prompts it tracks, how many times it runs each one and on which engines, before you trust a trend line.
AI search visibility tools, brand visibility tools and trackers: same job?
The category goes by many names: AI search visibility tools, AI brand visibility tools, AI visibility trackers, and tools for generative engine optimization (GEO) or answer engine optimization (AEO). They overlap, but two jobs hide behind the names. Tracking shows where you appear and who appears instead. Optimising helps you close the gaps. Otterly.ai and Peec AI lean towards tracking, while Frase and AthenaHQ add a content-action layer. If you want to understand how the work itself is done, read answer engine optimization, AI search optimization and GEO vs SEO, or compare AI brand monitoring tools.
Free AI visibility trackers and trials
You can see where you stand before you pay. AthenaHQ has a free tier with 300 credits that covers 5 engines, SE Ranking offers 5 free checks a day, Ahrefs and Semrush both have free checkers, and Profound, Frase, Scrunch AI, Otterly.ai and Peec AI offer free trials. Our own free AI visibility checker shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your brand. Free checks are snapshots, so use them to decide whether a paid tracker is worth it, not as a trend.
Do you need a tool, or someone to do the work?
A tool tells you that you are missing from an answer. It does not tell you why, and it does not change the sources the engines read. If you have the team to act on the data, a tracker pays for itself. If you do not, an agency can run the audit and the fixes for you: see the best GEO agencies and how to choose a GEO agency.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI visibility tool?
There is no single best tool for every team. For enterprise depth, Profound leads; among challengers, AthenaHQ pairs broad coverage with a real action layer and Peec AI offers deep metrics at a fair price. For the lowest entry cost, Otterly.ai starts at $29/mo and SE Ranking offers strong value with a free checker. Frase is the pick if you want to act on gaps, not just monitor them.
How much do AI visibility tools cost?
Entry pricing ranges widely. Otterly.ai starts at $29/mo and Frase at $49/mo; Peec AI and the Semrush AI Toolkit are around $95-99/mo; AthenaHQ has a free tier then $295/mo; Scrunch AI starts at $250/mo. Watch hidden floors: Ahrefs Brand Radar starts at $199/mo as a standalone tool (custom prompts from $50/mo), Profound prices on request, and BrightEdge is enterprise quote-only. Free checkers from SE Ranking and Semrush are a zero-cost way to start.
Is there a free AI visibility checker?
Yes. Appscribed has a free AI visibility checker that shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your brand, and who they name instead, with no login. A few tool vendors also offer free checks: SE Ranking (five a day, no login), Semrush (a free checker) and AthenaHQ (free tier with 300 credits). Any of these is a good first look before you pay for ongoing tracking, competitor analysis and alerts.
How do I track brand mentions in ChatGPT?
Use an AI-visibility tool that covers ChatGPT: most on this list do, including Profound, Peec AI, Otterly.ai and SE Ranking. You define a set of prompts, and the tool records where and how often your brand appears, your share of voice versus competitors, and which sources the answer cites. The gap between where competitors are cited and you are not is the practical thing to act on.
Which AI visibility tool tracks the most engines?
Profound (up to nine engines on Enterprise) and AthenaHQ (up to eleven) track the widest set, covering ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot and Claude, with some adding Grok and DeepSeek. Most mid-market tools cover four to six. If broad coverage matters, check exactly which engines are included in the plan you are considering, since the cheapest tiers often track fewer.
Which AI visibility tools also help create or fix content?
Most tools on this list monitor and recommend. The ones that go further, per their own pages: Frase pairs tracking with an AI writing agent and publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Sanity or Wix; AthenaHQ has a content agent and publishes to platforms including WordPress, Shopify and Webflow; and Profound's Agents can find content gaps and create optimized content, though Profound describes them for Enterprise accounts. SE Ranking has an AI Writer in its wider platform, outside the AI tracker. Peec AI, Otterly.ai, Scrunch AI and Ahrefs Brand Radar focus on monitoring with recommendations. The full feature table is in our Profound alternatives comparison.
What is the difference between AI visibility tracking and AI brand monitoring?
AI visibility tracking measures how often and how prominently your brand appears in answers to a fixed set of prompts, including share of voice against competitors and the sources cited. AI brand monitoring is broader: it also watches what AI says about you, such as how your brand is described, whether that is accurate, and in what context it appears. Most tools on this list do both to some degree. For the monitoring side in detail, see our guide to AI brand monitoring tools.
How can I tell if an AI visibility tool's data is accurate?
AI answers change from one run to the next, so accuracy depends on method. Check how many times each prompt is sampled before a result is reported, whether you can see the actual answers and cited sources behind each number, whether you can use your own prompts instead of only a preset list, and whether the engines counted are the ones your plan covers. Be cautious with any tool that reports a single visibility score without showing the prompts and responses behind it. A free checker, including ours, is a quick way to compare a tool's output against a manual check.
What is an AI visibility score?
An AI visibility score summarises how often AI answers mention or cite your brand across a set of tracked prompts. Each tool calculates it differently, so compare how many prompts, how many runs and which engines sit behind the number before you rely on it.
What is the best free AI visibility tracker?
Free options on this page include AthenaHQ’s free tier (300 credits, 5 engines), SE Ranking’s 5 free checks a day, and the free checkers from Ahrefs and Semrush. Profound, Frase, Scrunch AI, Otterly.ai and Peec AI offer trials. Our free AI visibility checker shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your brand.
Are AI visibility tools the same as SEO tools?
No. SEO tools track rankings and clicks on search results pages. AI visibility tools track whether and how AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention or cite your brand. Several SEO suites, such as SE Ranking, Ahrefs and Semrush, now include both.
Appscribed is already cited around 2,200 times a day across AI answers. We place your brand in the pages AI reads and prove the lift with real citation data.
