VercatusThe Best AI Visibility Tools in 2026, Compared by Job, Engines and Price
Eleven AI visibility tools compared by job, engines and published price, each checked on the vendor's own page on 3 November 2026.
By Norbert Szabo, founder of Vercatus
Published · 11 min read
The best AI visibility tool depends on the job. To start counting mentions cheaply, OtterlyAI’s entry plan is the lowest published price here. If you already pay for Semrush or Ahrefs, their AI add-ons are the easiest first step. AthenaHQ covers the most engines on one self-serve plan, and Profound is built for enterprise teams. Vercatus, which we make, is for teams that need to know why AI picks a competitor and whether each change they make worked.
In short
- The same products are sold as AI visibility, AEO, GEO or LLM SEO tools. The labels differ; the job is the same.
- Most AI visibility tools are trackers: they ask engines a list of prompts and count how often you appear. They differ mainly in engines, prompt allowance and price.
- Check how answers are collected. Answers from an engine’s API differ from what people see in its app, so a tracker that reads the API measures something your buyers never see.
- Entry plans are thin. Several cover only three engines or fewer, and some engines are paid add-ons.
- Almost none says whether a change you made worked. If you have to defend the work to someone senior, that gap matters more than the engine count.
This page is published by Vercatus, one of the tools compared. Every figure for another vendor was read from that vendor’s own page, linked in its row, on 3 November 2026. We did not run a hands-on benchmark of these products. Vendors change plans often, so check the source before you buy.
Which tool for which job
| If you need to | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Count mentions on a small budget | OtterlyAI | The lowest published entry price; the plan cards say four of seven engines |
| Add AI data to the SEO suite you already use | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit or Ahrefs Brand Radar | Same login, same reports, no new vendor |
| Cover many engines on one plan | AthenaHQ | Eleven engines on its self-serve Starter plan |
| Run an enterprise program with procurement and compliance | Profound | Custom enterprise packages, up to nine engines |
| Track hundreds of prompts for many clients | SE Visible or Scrunch | Large prompt allowances on mid-tier plans |
| Tie tracking to content writing | Surfer or Writesonic | Tracking sits next to their writing and optimization tools |
| Know why AI picks a competitor, what to change, and whether it worked | Vercatus | The cause behind each answer, the exact change, and a verdict on each one |
The eleven tools side by side
Engines, prices and prompts are those of each tool’s entry plan, as the vendor’s own page states them on the date in the last column. A dash in the fourth column means we found no description of that feature on the vendor’s pages; it is not a claim that the tool cannot do it.
| Tool | Engines on the entry plan | Entry price and prompts, as published | Says whether a change worked | Source, checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vercatus | Essentials: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity. Growth and up add Gemini, Copilot Search, Claude, Grok, Le Chat and You.com | Essentials $59, Growth $299 and Agency $990 a month, tax included; Enterprise from $4,900 a month on an annual contract; a free audit once per domain. Allowances are topics, sites and answers a month (plan reference) | Yes: a verdict on each shipped change, against topics left alone | Pricing, current |
| OtterlyAI | Seven listed: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Mode, Gemini and Claude. The plan cards say 4 of 7; a line below says every plan can track every engine, each engine using credits | Lite: €29/month excluding tax for 16 prompts and 2,000 credits (on 3 November the page showed $29 for 15 prompts) | – | OtterlyAI pricing, 11 November 2026 |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Prompt tracking on “platforms like Google AI Mode and ChatGPT” | $99 per month for 25 prompts; no free trial | – | Semrush knowledge base, 3 November 2026 |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude on custom prompts | Custom prompts from $50/mo (5, 10 or 20 prompts by tier); the AI Visibility Index from $199/mo | – | Ahrefs Brand Radar, 3 November 2026 |
| Peec AI | Starter: three active models chosen from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI | Starter: $95/mo billed monthly, 50 prompts | – | Peec AI pricing, 3 November 2026 |
| AthenaHQ | Free: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot. Starter: eleven, adding AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral | Free with 300 credits; Starter $295/month with 3,600 credits (one credit is one AI response) | – | AthenaHQ pricing, 3 November 2026 |
| Profound | Trial: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews. Enterprise: up to nine engines | Free 7-day trial with 50 prompts chosen for your industry; Enterprise custom | – | Profound pricing, 3 November 2026 |
| Scrunch | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, Meta | Starter: $300 month to month, or $250 per month billed annually; 350 custom prompts | – | Scrunch pricing, 3 November 2026 |
| SE Visible (SE Ranking) | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, read from the live pages | Basic: €80/mo or €64 (the page does not label which is the annual rate), 75 prompts | – | SE Visible pricing, 3 November 2026 |
| Surfer AI Tracker | AI Search Analytics plan: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google, AI Overviews, Gemini (the Standard plan is ChatGPT only) | €82/month billed yearly, or $95 billed monthly per the page’s FAQ; 50 prompts | – | Surfer AI Tracker, 3 November 2026 |
| Writesonic | Starter: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews; all nine on Enterprise | Starter: $79 per month billed annually, 50 prompts | – | Writesonic pricing, 3 November 2026 |
Two things stand out. First, the engine lists on entry plans are short: several tools start with three engines or fewer, and Claude, Grok and Le Chat rarely appear below the top tiers. Second, every tool here tracks; few describe what to change, and only one describes judging whether a change worked.
The tools, one by one
OtterlyAI: the cheapest way to start counting
A prompt tracker priced in credits: every check of a prompt on an engine costs one, and a Claude answer costs three. Sixteen prompts on Lite is enough to watch a few category questions, not a market. Best for a small team that wants a first number on a budget. Work out what your real panel costs in credits across the engines you need, AI Mode and Gemini included. Vercatus vs OtterlyAI goes through it in detail.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: AI data inside your SEO suite
If your team already works in Semrush, the toolkit puts AI visibility next to your keyword and site audit data. Twenty-five tracked prompts is a small panel, and the page names only Google AI Mode and ChatGPT for prompt tracking. Best as a first look for an existing Semrush team; check whether the engines you need are covered. Vercatus vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit goes through it in detail.
Ahrefs Brand Radar: a large index with no setup
Brand Radar’s AI Visibility Index answers “how often is my brand mentioned” across a large prompt set Ahrefs collects, so there is nothing to configure. Custom prompts cover your own questions on top. Best for Ahrefs customers who want market-wide context. An index of prompts someone else chose tells you about the category, not necessarily about your buyers’ questions.
Peec AI: focused prompt tracking
A clean tracker built around prompts, competitors and sources, with three active models on each self-serve plan. Best for marketing teams that want a dedicated tool with a simple setup. Three models at a time means choosing which engines to ignore.
AthenaHQ: the most engines on one self-serve plan
Eleven engines on Starter, priced by credits rather than prompts, plus a free tier with five engines. Best when engine coverage is the priority. Credits are spent per AI response, so estimate how many answers your questions need before you compare it with a prompt-priced plan.
Profound: built for enterprise
Profound sells custom enterprise packages with up to nine engines, plus crawler analytics and content workflows. The free trial uses a prompt set chosen for your industry, not your own questions. Best for large brands with a procurement process and a budget to match.
Scrunch: large prompt panels
Three hundred and fifty custom prompts on its entry plan, across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google’s surfaces and Meta. Best for teams that need breadth across many questions.
SE Visible: agency-friendly volume
SE Ranking’s AI tool reads five engines from their live pages and scales to a thousand prompts on its Agency plan. Best for agencies already on SE Ranking. The plan cards show two prices without saying which is the annual rate, so confirm before you buy.
Surfer AI Tracker: tracking next to content optimization
Surfer collects answers from the apps people use rather than from APIs, and says so clearly. That is the right choice: its own test found API and app answers “overlapped 30% at best”, in line with ours. Best for content teams already using Surfer to write and optimize pages.
Writesonic: tracking plus writing
Writesonic adds AI visibility tracking to its writing platform. Paid self-serve plans cover three engines; all nine come with Enterprise. Best for teams that want tracking and drafting in one place.
Vercatus: the cause and the verdict
We make Vercatus, so weigh this accordingly. It tracks Answer Share across every major answer engine, then does the two things trackers leave to you: it shows why an engine picks a competitor (what it remembers, the pages it reads and the searches it runs), and hands you the exact change to make. Every change you ship gets a verdict against topics you left alone. Best for teams that must show what their AI search work changed. If you only need a count of mentions, one of the trackers above will cost less.
What to check before you buy
Every tool draws a chart. These checks decide whether the chart means anything. They come from our own experiments of 1 October 2026; AI visibility tracking explains each one in full.
- App or API? In our tests ChatGPT’s app and its API named only 30% of the same brands and cited 4% of the same sites. Ask how each engine’s answers are collected.
- Search on? With search off an engine answers from memory and recommends different brands. Buyers asking shortlist questions get search.
- Distinct questions, or repeats? Two answers to the same question shared 68% of their brands. A small prompt list asked often measures less than it seems.
- Named and cited apart? A mention, a link and a first recommendation are different results.
- Cited sources kept? The pages an engine cites are where its picks come from, and where your next effort should go.
- A range on every figure? Without one, a weekly move cannot be told from noise.
- What happens next? A finding you cannot act on, and a change you cannot judge, are where most of the cost hides.
Price it against your workload, not the headline
Plans are counted in different units: prompts, credits, topics or checks. Write down your workload first, then ask each vendor for the price of exactly that.
| Input | What to clarify |
|---|---|
| Questions | Distinct questions, saved prompts or completed checks? |
| Engines | Which are included, which are add-ons, and how they are read |
| Frequency | Daily, weekly or on demand, and how each uses the allowance |
| Markets | Whether each country or language is billed separately |
| Sites and seats | Domains, projects, editors and viewers included |
| Data | Exports, API access and how long history is kept |
Is an AI visibility tool worth it?
You can estimate it from three numbers you already have. Your analytics shows visits referred by assistants (chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and similar) and the trials or demo requests they produce. Your CRM gives the value of one conversion. The quote gives the monthly cost for your workload. Divide the cost by the value of one conversion: that is how many extra AI-referred conversions a month the tool has to help produce. Referral data undercounts AI answers, because most readers never click, so treat it as a floor. The full method is in proving the ROI of AI search visibility.
Can you do it in-house?
For a small fixed set of questions that one person checks by hand each month, yes; the manual audit shows how. The cost grows with every engine, market and repeat you add: Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode appear only on live results pages, each engine changes its interface without notice, and someone has to read and classify every answer. Price your own hours against a quote before you decide.
Questions people ask
What is the best AI visibility tool?
It depends on the job. For a low-cost first count of mentions, OtterlyAI. Inside an SEO suite you already use, Semrush or Ahrefs. For the most engines on one plan, AthenaHQ. For enterprise programs, Profound. To know why AI picks a competitor and whether a change worked, Vercatus.
Are there free AI visibility tools?
AthenaHQ has a free tier with five engines, Profound offers a 7-day trial, and Vercatus runs a free audit once per domain on four engines. A manual audit in a spreadsheet costs only time.
How many prompts do I need to track?
Enough distinct questions to cover each topic you care about, from different angles: category, comparison, alternatives, pricing and integrations. Variety matters more than repeats, because answers to the same question overlap heavily.
Which AI engines should an AI visibility tool cover?
At least ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, and Perplexity; then Gemini and Copilot. Check that each is read with web search on and the way people use it, not through a cheaper API.
Are AI visibility tools accurate?
They are as accurate as their sampling. Answers vary from one ask to the next, so a figure from a few dozen answers is a direction, not a decision. Prefer tools that show how many answers stand behind each figure, or a range.