An AI search visibility tool shows whether AI search names and cites you.
When a buyer asks ChatGPT search, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews a question, the answer names a few brands and cites a few pages. An AI search visibility tool tracks whether yours are among them, and why not. Proofsource is one; this page covers what such a tool checks and how the main ones compare.
What does an AI search visibility tool check?
AI search engines fetch pages from the web while they answer. So visibility depends on two things: whether the engine names you, and whether it can find, fetch and read your pages in the first place.
A good tool measures both: the answers, and the plumbing behind them, such as AI crawler access and how much of your page a bot can read without running JavaScript.
Three things it should give you
Named and cited
Which brands each AI search answer names and which pages it cites.
Sub-searches
Engines split a question into related searches, so pages win on sub-questions too.
Crawler checks
Whether AI bots get through your CDN and see real text, not an empty shell.
How does Proofsource measure it?
Proofsource is an AI intelligence platform that shows which buyer questions name your brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, who gets named instead, and exactly what to fix. It asks the questions your buyers ask on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, reads every answer, and records which brands are named and which pages are cited.
- Mention rate per question and engine, so you can see exactly which phrasings leave you out.
- A 95% Wilson interval on every percentage, so a dip you see on Tuesday can be told apart from noise. See the glossary.
- Daily, weekly or monthly sampling, you choose; the trial runs 2 scans about a day apart.
- A gap list: each question where a competitor is named and you are not, the pages that won it, and a drafted fix held for your approval.
The full method is on the methodology page.
Which engines does Proofsource cover?
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews, on the free trial and by default on every paid plan, with the same questions on each.
Google AI OverviewsGoogle AI Mode
What should you look for in an AI search visibility tool?
- Citations, not only mentions. In AI search, the cited page decides where the click goes.
- Google AI Overviews and an answer engine such as Perplexity or ChatGPT search, because they cite differently.
- A crawler check. A bot blocked at your CDN edge never sees your page, whatever robots.txt says.
- Intervals. AI search answers shift day to day.
How do the leading tools compare?
6 criteria, the same for every tool. Each competitor fact links to the vendor's own page.
| Tool | Engines covered | Intervals and stats | Fixes and actions | Crawler checks | Price to start | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proofsource | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews in the trial and in every plan's default four. Each is priced per question. Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI are enabled on a call or on Managed. | A 95% Wilson interval on every percentage; changes are flagged only when they clear it | Each gap names the pages the engine cited instead and comes with a draft held for your approval | Site audit checks whether AI crawlers get through and how much of each page they can read without JavaScript | Free trial; then plans from $9 a month (5 questions on ChatGPT, weekly), at self-serve checkout | 2 days of full AI visibility, today and tomorrow: 25 questions on 4 engines, no card |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkitsource | ChatGPT and Google AI Mode are named in Semrush's knowledge base; the full list is not published there | Not published | AI-generated strategic recommendations | AI Search Health in Site Audit flags blockers for AI crawlers (up to 100 pages) | $99/mo per user (25 tracked prompts, 1 domain); 50 more prompts for $60/mo | No free trial, per Semrush's knowledge base |
| Ahrefs Brand Radarsource | Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot; Claude available on the AI Visibility Index | Not published | Finds the pages AI cites and mention opportunities | Not published | Brand Radar AI from $199/mo; custom prompt packages from $50/mo; Ahrefs plans from $129/mo include 5 to 20 tracked AI prompts | Not published |
| SE Rankingsource | Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini | Not published | Not published | Not published | Core $129/mo (100 prompts tracked daily); AI Search add-on +$89/mo | 14-day free trial, no card |
| Otterly.AIsource | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on every plan; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as paid add-ons | Not published | Recommendations (3 a week on Lite) and GEO audits (1,000 a month on Lite) | Agent Analytics on Standard and above; a free AI crawler simulation tool | $29/mo Lite (15 prompts); Standard $189/mo (100); Premium $489/mo (400) | Free trial offered; length not stated on the pricing page |
| Peec AIsource | Choose 3 per plan from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI; Perplexity as an extra model; up to 13 models including Claude on Enterprise | Not published | Gap analysis, ranked recommended actions and agent actions | Crawlability audit of robots.txt across 40+ AI bots, plus crawl insights from CDN logs | $95/mo Starter (50 prompts, 3 models); Pro $245/mo (150); Advanced $495/mo (350) | Free trial offered; length not stated on the pricing page |
The full comparison of eight tools, with what each does best, is in the best AI visibility tools.
- Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit
- Ahrefs pricing ahrefs.com/pricing
- Ahrefs Brand Radar ahrefs.com/brand-radar
- SE Ranking pricing seranking.com/pricing.html
- SE Ranking AI visibility tracker seranking.com/ai-visibility-tracker.html
- Otterly.AI pricing otterly.ai/pricing
- Peec AI pricing peec.ai/pricing
Sources read on .
What buyers ask about AI search visibility tools
What is AI search visibility?
How often AI search engines such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews name your brand and cite your pages when people ask about your category.
How do I check if AI search engines can read my site?
Check that bots such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot get a normal response from your site, including at your CDN, and that your page's text is in the HTML rather than added later by JavaScript. Proofsource's site audit runs both checks.
Why does AI search cite pages that never mention my question?
Because of query fan-out: Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may issue several related searches across subtopics to build one answer, so a page can be cited for a sub-question.
Is an AI search tracking tool the same thing?
Yes. An AI search tracker, AI search tracking tool and AI search visibility tool all name the same category: software that asks AI search engines your buyers' questions on a schedule and records who they name and cite. The word to check is not the label but the cadence, the engines and whether every figure comes with an interval.
Do SEO tools measure AI search visibility?
Some now do. Semrush, Ahrefs and SE Ranking sell AI visibility features alongside their SEO suites; the table compares them with dedicated tools on the same criteria.
Check your AI search visibility today.
See which buyer questions name your brand, who gets named instead, and what to fix. 200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free. No card.
Google AI OverviewsGoogle AI Mode