Vercatus vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: Engines, Limits and What Each Is For

Choose Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit if your team already works in Semrush and wants AI data for ChatGPT and Google AI Mode next to its keyword and site data, at one price. Choose Vercatus if you need every major answer engine, the reason a competitor is picked, the exact change to make, and a verdict on whether it worked. Some teams run both: Semrush for SEO, Vercatus for AI answers.

In short

• Semrush’s toolkit tracks prompts on two engines, ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, with 25 tracked prompts for $99 a month per user.
• Vercatus reads up to ten engines, from four on its entry plan, and every plan includes several seats.
• Semrush’s strengths are prompt research with volumes, a very wide choice of locations, and living inside a suite your team already knows.
• Vercatus’s strengths are what comes after the number: why the engines prefer a competitor, the change to make, and a verdict on each change against topics left alone.

This page is published by Vercatus. Everything about the toolkit below was read from Semrush’s own knowledge base article on 3 November 2026. We have not run a hands-on benchmark, and Semrush changes the toolkit often, so check the source before you decide.

Side by side

	Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	Vercatus
What it is	An AI add-on for the Semrush SEO suite, also sold on its own	A dedicated AI visibility product
Engines tracked for your own prompts	Google AI Mode and ChatGPT (Prompt Tracking and Brand Performance)	Essentials: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity. Growth and up add Gemini, Copilot Search, Claude, Grok, Le Chat and You.com
What you track	25 prompts included; 50 more for $60 per month	Topics (groups of your market’s questions) and a number of polled AI answers a month, set by plan
How often	Prompt Tracking daily; Brand Performance weekly	Through the day in hourly batches, on every plan
Locations	Prompt Tracking in 220+ countries and territories; Brand Performance tied to one location chosen at setup	Your markets and languages, set per site
Headline measure	AI Visibility Score: your mentions against the median of your top competitors	Answer Share: the share of answers on your topics that name or cite you, with its range, next to each competitor
Why a competitor is picked	Brand Performance analyses share of voice, sentiment and narratives	What the engine remembers, the pages it reads and the searches it runs, compared for you and the leader
What to change	AI-generated recommendations in Brand Performance	Recommendations: the exact change ranked by expected gain, with a draft on request and a check that it shipped
Whether a change worked	Not described	A verdict on every shipped recommendation, read against topics left alone
Technical AI checks	AI Search Site Audit, up to 100 pages	Whether each AI crawler can read your pages, and SEO Health for the search side
Seats	One $99 license per user; the toolkit cannot be shared through shared limits	Included: 2 on Essentials up to 10 on Agency, viewers free
Price	$99 per month; extra domains or locations $99 each; no free trial	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
Source, checked	Semrush knowledge base, 3 November 2026	Pricing, current

Where Semrush is the better choice

You already live in Semrush. If your team runs keyword research, rank tracking and site audits there, the toolkit adds AI data without another login, another vendor review or another report format. That convenience is real.

You want prompt research. Semrush’s Prompt Research works like keyword research for AI, with topic-level volume, difficulty and intent. Treat AI prompt volumes as estimates, since no AI engine publishes what people ask it, but as a way to explore a market it is useful.

You need many locations. Prompt Tracking covers more than 220 countries and territories, and Brand Performance offers tens of thousands of location options.

You need a quick read across your category. The Visibility Overview and Competitor Research reports work without setting up your own prompts.

Where Vercatus is the better choice

You need more than ChatGPT and AI Mode. Semrush’s own pages name two engines for tracking your prompts. If your buyers use Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude or Google’s AI Overviews, a two-engine view misses them. On one question we measured on 5 October 2026, AI Overviews and AI Mode alone named different brands: they shared two and seven more appeared in only one (how we measured).

You have to explain why. A share-of-voice chart shows that a competitor leads. Vercatus shows why: whether the engine already knows them, which pages it reads that name them, and which searches it runs where they rank. That is what turns a number into a plan.

You have to defend the work. Every recommendation you ship gets a verdict within 45 days, read against the topics you left alone, graded A to D. When the answer is No effect or Too early, Vercatus says so. If your budget depends on showing what changed, this is the difference that matters most.

Several people need access. Semrush licenses the toolkit per user. Vercatus plans include seats, and viewers are free.

A note on the two headline numbers

Semrush’s AI Visibility Score compares your mentions with the median of your top competitors. Vercatus’s Answer Share is the share of AI answers on your topics that name or cite you, with a range, shown next to each competitor. Neither is wrong; they answer different questions. Ask of either: how many distinct questions stand behind it, whether a mention and a link are counted apart, and how much it can move by chance. What makes AI visibility numbers trustworthy goes through each check.

Can you use both?

Yes, and it is a common setup. Keep Semrush for keyword research, rank tracking and backlinks, which Vercatus does not do. Use Vercatus for AI answers across every engine, the reasons behind them and the changes to make. The overlap is the AI tracking itself; if budget is tight, decide which of the two views you will actually act on.

How to decide in a week

1. Write down ten questions your buyers ask before they shortlist, including two comparisons and two “alternatives to” questions.
2. Run them in Semrush’s toolkit and in Vercatus’s free audit.
3. For each tool, ask: can I see the actual answers? Are mentions and links counted apart? Does it show which sites were cited? Does it tell me what to change, and will it tell me later whether that change worked?
4. Choose the one whose output your team would act on next Monday.

For the wider market, the best AI visibility tools compares eleven tools by job, engines and price.

Questions people ask

Which AI engines does Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit track?

For your own prompts, Semrush’s knowledge base names Google AI Mode and ChatGPT, for both Prompt Tracking and Brand Performance (checked 3 November 2026). Other reports in the toolkit do not specify their platforms.

How much does Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit cost?

$99 per month per user, with 25 tracked prompts, one project and one domain. Extra domains or locations cost $99 each, 50 more prompts cost $60 a month, and there is no free trial. Semrush One bundles include more prompts.

Is Vercatus a Semrush alternative?

For AI answers, yes. For SEO, no: Vercatus does not do keyword research, rank tracking or backlink analysis. Most teams that use Vercatus keep their SEO suite.

Does Semrush tell you whether a change improved your AI visibility?

Its knowledge base describes tracking prompts daily to spot drops and AI-generated recommendations, but not a test of whether a specific change worked. Vercatus gives every shipped change a verdict against topics left alone.

Is this comparison neutral?

No comparison by a vendor is. Every Semrush fact here links its source and its check date, and the sections on where Semrush is the better choice are meant seriously. Check the source before you buy, and test both on your own questions.