The best AI visibility tools in 2026, compared on the same facts.
The AI visibility tools AI assistants recommend most are Profound, Otterly.AI, Peec AI, Semrush, Ahrefs, Scrunch, SE Ranking, Writesonic, Rankscale, Siftly, AIclicks, AthenaHQ, Knowatoa, ZipTie and Promptwatch. This page puts all 15 next to Proofsource on price, trial, engines, cadence, statistics, fixes and crawler checks, and links every competitor fact to the vendor's own page with the day we read it.
Which AI visibility tool should I pick?
Start from the job you need done. Each pick below is our read of the published facts in the tables further down.
Profound
Widest engine panel, sales-led
Up to 9 engines on Enterprise and agent analytics through your CDN. Price through a demo.
Otterly.AI
Lowest monthly entry price
Lite is the lowest month-to-month plan here, with daily tracking on 4 engines. 15 prompts.
Peec AI
Choose your own engines
Pick 3 models per plan and add more as needed. Deep source and citation analysis.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Already paying for Semrush
An add-on in the workspace you already use, with an AI crawler check in Site Audit.
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Market view without writing prompts
A database of hundreds of millions of prompts, plus custom prompts refreshed daily.
Scrunch
Change what AI agents see
Monitoring plus an Agent Experience Platform on Enterprise.
SE Ranking
SEO suite with a no-card trial
Rank tracking and AI visibility in one tool, 14-day trial without a card.
Writesonic
Content production in the same tool
AI articles, site audits and agentic workflows next to daily tracking.
Rankscale
Many brand dashboards, white-label
10 brand dashboards on Pro, 50 on Growth, hourly to monthly cadence and a REST API from Pro+.
Siftly
A free plan, then outreach
Free weekly tracking to start; paid plans add blog posts and citation outreach.
AIclicks
Pick engines at a lower entry price
Choose 3 models on Starter, 4 on Pro, daily on every plan.
AthenaHQ
Eleven engines, unlimited seats
11 models on Starter, a free Essential plan, unlimited members.
Knowatoa
Many sites on one account
Unlimited sites share one question limit; all 7 engines on Growth.
ZipTie
Pay only for prompts and engines
Usage-based pricing with unlimited seats and projects. No Claude.
Promptwatch
Daily tracking across several projects
Daily on every plan, 4 models you pick from nine, and AEO articles from Professional.
Proofsource
Proof a change is real, plus the fix
A 95% interval on every percentage and a drafted fix for each gap. 4 engines as standard.
How we compared: the tools are the ones ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews named most across 80 answers to category questions, and every fact comes from the vendor's own pricing or product page, read on the day shown. Proofsource makes this list and includes itself, last, on the same facts. List last checked .
Which tool fits which question?
Which AI visibility tool has a free trial and per-brand pricing for small teams?
Proofsource starts with 2 days of full AI visibility free, no card, then plans from $9 a month (5 questions on ChatGPT, weekly) at self-serve checkout; see pricing per brand. Of the others, SE Ranking (14 days), Siftly and ZipTie (7 days each) offer trials without a card, and the small teams list compares their entry prices.
Which tool tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews together?
Proofsource covers all four on the free trial and in every plan's default four; Rankscale from Pro, AthenaHQ from Starter, Knowatoa from Growth and Promptwatch (if you pick those four as its 4 models) cover them too. The four engine list shows the first plan that covers all four for each tool.
Which AI visibility tools scan daily rather than weekly, and what do they cost per brand?
Profound, Otterly.AI, Peec AI, SE Ranking, Writesonic, AIclicks and Promptwatch run daily, Rankscale and ZipTie let you choose the cadence, and Siftly's free plan runs weekly. Proofsource runs daily or weekly, chosen per plan, from $9 a month (5 questions on ChatGPT, weekly); the daily monitoring page explains what a daily run tells you.
Which tool gives a normalized score to compare my brand against the market leader?
Proofsource's AEO score is 0 to 100 over the answers from every engine, and its benchmark indexes your mention rate to the leader's on the same questions, so the leader is 100. Semrush's AI Visibility score is also on a 0 to 100 scale; how a visibility score is built explains why scores from two tools do not compare.
Which tool shows a coverage matrix of the phrasings where my brand is named and where it is left out?
Proofsource puts every buyer question against every engine in one grid and marks each cell named, cited only or not named, with the brands named instead. The prompt coverage page shows how to read it.
Which tool lets me see the actual answers and citations behind a mention?
Proofsource stores every answer with its engine, timestamp and sources, so you can open the exact answer behind any number and the pages it cited. Peec AI is built for reading source and citation data in depth.
How do the AI visibility tools compare on price, trial, engines and cadence?
16 tools, the same five facts for each, including ours. "Not published" means the vendor's public pages did not say, not that the feature is missing.
| Tool | Price to start | Free trial | Engines covered | How often | Best for (our read) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profoundsource | Free trial, then Enterprise at a custom price through a demo | Free: 50 prompts run daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews | Up to 9 on Enterprise: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa Search | Daily | Large brands that want the widest engine panel, agent analytics and a sales-led rollout. |
| Otterly.AIsource | $29/mo Lite (15 prompts); Standard $189/mo (100); Premium $489/mo (400) | Free trial offered; length not stated on the pricing page | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on every plan; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as paid add-ons | Daily | Small teams that want the lowest published entry price and daily tracking. |
| Peec AIsource | $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 | 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 | Daily (daily or weekly on Enterprise) | Teams that want to pick their own engines and read source and citation data in depth. |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkitsource | $99/mo per user (25 tracked prompts, 1 domain); 50 more prompts for $60/mo | No free trial, per Semrush's knowledge base | ChatGPT and Google AI Mode are named in Semrush's knowledge base; the full list is not published there | Prompt tracking and visibility reports daily; Brand Performance weekly | Teams already on Semrush that want AI visibility in the same workspace. |
| Ahrefs Brand Radarsource | 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 | Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot; Claude available on the AI Visibility Index | Custom prompts refreshed daily | Teams that want a market-wide view from a large prompt database without writing prompts. |
| Scrunchsource | $250/mo Core (125 prompts, 5,000 responses a month, 4 LLMs) | 7-day free trial on Core | Core: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot. Enterprise: 9, adding Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode and Grok | Not published (5,000 responses a month on Core) | Brands that want to change what AI agents receive from their site, not only measure it. |
| SE Rankingsource | Core $129/mo (100 prompts tracked daily); AI Search add-on +$89/mo | 14-day free trial, no card | Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini | Daily | Teams that want rank tracking and AI visibility in one SEO tool, with a trial first. |
| Writesonicsource | Starter $79/mo billed annually (50 prompts); Basic $199/mo; Growth $399/mo; Enterprise custom | Free start, no card; trial length not stated on the pricing page | ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on Starter, Basic and Growth; all 10 platforms, including Perplexity and Claude, on Enterprise | Daily | Teams that want content production and AI visibility tracking in one tool. |
| Rankscalesource | Pro $99/mo (1,200 credits, 10 brand dashboards); Pro+ $229; Growth $385; Enterprise $780; Essentials from $17/mo, billed yearly | 7-day free trial of Pro | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude and Microsoft Copilot from Pro | You choose per search term: hourly, daily, weekly or monthly | Agencies that want many brand dashboards, white-label sharing and a wide engine list at a published price. |
| Siftlysource | Free plan; Starter $79/mo (50 prompts); Growth $249/mo; Scale $599/mo; Enterprise custom | 7-day free trial on any paid plan, no card; also a free plan (10 prompts, weekly) | 2 on Free (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews), 3 on Starter (adds Perplexity), 5 on Growth, 8 on Scale; Claude only on Enterprise | Daily on paid plans; weekly on Free | Small teams that want a free plan, then content and outreach on top of tracking. |
| AIclickssource | Starter $59/mo (30 prompts, 3 models); Pro $189/mo (150, 4 models); Business $499/mo (300, 6 models); Enterprise custom | 3-day free trial on Starter and Pro, no card | Choose 3 models on Starter, 4 on Pro, 6 on Business, all on Enterprise, from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Grok, Meta, DeepSeek and Mistral | Daily | Teams that want to choose their engines at a published price, with daily tracking. |
| AthenaHQsource | Essential free ($25 credit, 300 credits); Starter $295/mo (3,600 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response); Enterprise custom | Free Essential plan; no trial length stated | Essential: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot. Starter: 11, adding Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral | Not published | Teams that want 11 engines on a self-serve plan with unlimited seats. |
| Knowatoasource | Starter $59/mo; Growth $199/mo; Enterprise custom | Free trial on Starter and Growth; length not stated | Starter: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Growth and Enterprise: all 7, adding Claude, Gemini, Meta AI and Perplexity | Daily updates, per its pricing FAQ, with a weekly digest of changes | Teams that track several sites on one account and want all 7 engines on a mid-priced plan. |
| ZipTiesource | Usage-based, about $0.01 per prompt check per engine; presets from $42.75/mo | 7-day free trial: 25 daily prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, no card | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI Overview and Gemini | Daily, weekly or monthly, set per project | Agencies with many clients on light cadences, since price follows prompts and engines, not seats or projects. |
| Promptwatchsource | Essential $95/mo (50 prompts, 1 project); Professional $245/mo (150, 2); Business $579/mo (350, 5) | 7-day free trial on Essential and Professional; Business starts with a demo | 4 models per plan, chosen from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Claude, Gemini, Meta Llama, DeepSeek and Grok | Daily on every plan | Agencies and teams that want daily tracking with several projects on one account. |
| Proofsource | 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 | 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. | Daily or weekly, chosen per plan; the trial runs 2 scans about a day apart | Teams that want to know whether a change in AI visibility is real before acting on it, and want the fix drafted. |
How do they compare on statistics, fixes and crawler checks?
The three facts that decide whether a tool tells you what to do next, not only what happened.
| Tool | Engines covered | Intervals and stats | Fixes and actions | Crawler checks | Price to start | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profoundsource | Up to 9 on Enterprise: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Exa Search | Not published | AI Marketer agent, Opportunities, reusable Agents and Profound Sheets | Agent Analytics: AI-sourced traffic and attribution through CDN integrations such as Cloudflare, Vercel and Akamai | Free trial, then Enterprise at a custom price through a demo | Free: 50 prompts run daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Scrunchsource | Core: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot. Enterprise: 9, adding Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, Google AI Mode and Grok | Not published | Insights and recommendations, 1 page optimization a month on Core, content generation | AI agent and bot traffic, 5 site audits a month on Core; AXP on Enterprise | $250/mo Core (125 prompts, 5,000 responses a month, 4 LLMs) | 7-day free trial on Core |
| 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 |
| Writesonicsource | ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews on Starter, Basic and Growth; all 10 platforms, including Perplexity and Claude, on Enterprise | Not published | AI articles (15 a month on Starter), site audits, Action Center (full on Enterprise) and agentic workflows | Not published | Starter $79/mo billed annually (50 prompts); Basic $199/mo; Growth $399/mo; Enterprise custom | Free start, no card; trial length not stated on the pricing page |
| Rankscalesource | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude and Microsoft Copilot from Pro | Not published | Rankscale Scout recommendations and page audits (50 a month on Pro) | Not published | Pro $99/mo (1,200 credits, 10 brand dashboards); Pro+ $229; Growth $385; Enterprise $780; Essentials from $17/mo, billed yearly | 7-day free trial of Pro |
| Siftlysource | 2 on Free (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews), 3 on Starter (adds Perplexity), 5 on Growth, 8 on Scale; Claude only on Enterprise | Not published | GEO blog posts (8 a month on Starter), citation outreach campaigns, Reddit and social distribution | AI bot crawl tracking from Growth | Free plan; Starter $79/mo (50 prompts); Growth $249/mo; Scale $599/mo; Enterprise custom | 7-day free trial on any paid plan, no card; also a free plan (10 prompts, weekly) |
| AIclickssource | Choose 3 models on Starter, 4 on Pro, 6 on Business, all on Enterprise, from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode, Grok, Meta, DeepSeek and Mistral | Not published | Clicky AI Agent and AI-optimized articles (5 a month on Starter) | Not published | Starter $59/mo (30 prompts, 3 models); Pro $189/mo (150, 4 models); Business $499/mo (300, 6 models); Enterprise custom | 3-day free trial on Starter and Pro, no card |
| AthenaHQsource | Essential: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot. Starter: 11, adding Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral | Not published | On-page and off-page actions and a content optimization agent; a recommendation engine on Enterprise | Manages AI crawler access with a smart robots.txt and llms.txt | Essential free ($25 credit, 300 credits); Starter $295/mo (3,600 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response); Enterprise custom | Free Essential plan; no trial length stated |
| Knowatoasource | Starter: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Growth and Enterprise: all 7, adding Claude, Gemini, Meta AI and Perplexity | Not published | Not published | Not published | Starter $59/mo; Growth $199/mo; Enterprise custom | Free trial on Starter and Growth; length not stated |
| ZipTiesource | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Bing AI Overview and Gemini | Not published | Content Generation add-on: briefs and pieces with footnote citations | Not published | Usage-based, about $0.01 per prompt check per engine; presets from $42.75/mo | 7-day free trial: 25 daily prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, no card |
| Promptwatchsource | 4 models per plan, chosen from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Claude, Gemini, Meta Llama, DeepSeek and Grok | Not published | Agent credits, content gap analysis and AEO articles (5 a month on Professional, 10 on Business) | Crawler logs that show when AI bots read your site | Essential $95/mo (50 prompts, 1 project); Professional $245/mo (150, 2); Business $579/mo (350, 5) | 7-day free trial on Essential and Professional; Business starts with a demo |
| 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 |
How did we rank them?
The order is not our opinion of quality. It is how often ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews named each tool across 20 category questions we asked them, most named first. Proofsource is listed last, because ranking ourselves is the one claim on this page nobody could check.
Each tool is then judged on the same criteria, in this order of weight:
- Engines by name, per plan. Which of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews the plan you would buy actually covers, not the largest count on the top tier.
- How sure each number is. Whether the tool publishes an interval or other statistics with its figures.
- What happens after the score. Fixes, recommendations or drafts, and the pages the engine cited instead.
- Crawler checks. Whether it tells you if AI bots can read your site at all.
- Price, trial and cadence. The published entry price, the free trial and how often each question is asked.
What does each AI visibility tool do best?
Profound
Enterprise AI search platform with answer engine insights, agent analytics and an AI Marketer agent.
- Best for: Large brands that want the widest engine panel, agent analytics and a sales-led rollout.
- Watch out: No public price after the trial. The trial covers 3 engines and fixed prompts you cannot edit.
- Pricing model: Custom Enterprise packages. Source · Proofsource vs Profound
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Otterly.AI
Self-serve AI search monitoring for ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, with GEO audits.
- Best for: Small teams that want the lowest published entry price and daily tracking.
- Watch out: 15 prompts on the entry plan. Claude costs extra.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompt count, monthly or annual (15% off). Source · Proofsource vs Otterly.AI
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Peec AI
AI search analytics for marketing teams and agencies: visibility, position, sentiment and sources.
- Best for: Teams that want to pick their own engines and read source and citation data in depth.
- Watch out: 3 models per plan; each extra model is a paid add-on. Claude only on Enterprise.
- Pricing model: Prompts times models, monthly or annual (15% off). Source · Proofsource vs Peec AI
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
AI visibility add-on to the Semrush SEO suite: brand performance, prompt tracking and an AI search site audit.
- Best for: Teams already on Semrush that want AI visibility in the same workspace.
- Watch out: No trial. 25 tracked prompts at the base price.
- Pricing model: Add-on license per user, on top of Semrush. Source · Proofsource vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Ahrefs Brand Radar
AI mention tracking inside Ahrefs, built on a database of hundreds of millions of prompts plus your own.
- Best for: Teams that want a market-wide view from a large prompt database without writing prompts.
- Watch out: Database prompts are modeled from search keywords, not your buyers' exact questions, unless you pay for custom prompts.
- Pricing model: Prompt database subscription, or prompt packages billed per check. Source · Proofsource vs Ahrefs Brand Radar
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Scrunch
AI search monitoring plus an Agent Experience Platform that serves AI agents an optimized version of your site.
- Best for: Brands that want to change what AI agents receive from their site, not only measure it.
- Watch out: Highest published entry price here. Claude and Gemini only on Enterprise.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompts and responses; Enterprise custom. Source · Proofsource vs Scrunch
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
SE Ranking
SEO suite with an AI Search toolkit that tracks brand mentions and citations in AI answers.
- Best for: Teams that want rank tracking and AI visibility in one SEO tool, with a trial first.
- Watch out: AI features sit inside a broader SEO plan; no fix workflow is published.
- Pricing model: SEO plan plus an optional AI Search add-on. Source · Proofsource vs SE Ranking
- Last checked: Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
Writesonic
AI search visibility platform with SEO and content tools: tracking, AI articles, site audits and agentic workflows.
- Best for: Teams that want content production and AI visibility tracking in one tool.
- Watch out: Perplexity and Claude only on Enterprise. Listed prices are per month, billed annually.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompts, users and projects; prices shown billed annually (20% saving). Source · Proofsource vs Writesonic
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
Rankscale
Credit-based AI search visibility tracker with brand dashboards, citations, sentiment and query fan-out analysis.
- Best for: Agencies that want many brand dashboards, white-label sharing and a wide engine list at a published price.
- Watch out: Credits, not prompts: what you can track depends on how many engines you pick and how often each term runs.
- Pricing model: Monthly credits (about a quarter credit per engine query) with rollover; 15% off yearly. Source · Proofsource vs Rankscale
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
Siftly
GEO platform that tracks AI answers and adds content, citation outreach and social distribution.
- Best for: Small teams that want a free plan, then content and outreach on top of tracking.
- Watch out: Engines grow with the plan: 3 on Starter. Claude only on Enterprise.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompts, responses and geographies; 20% off annual. Source · Proofsource vs Siftly
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
AIclicks
AI search visibility tracker with an AI agent and AI-optimized articles.
- Best for: Teams that want to choose their engines at a published price, with daily tracking.
- Watch out: The 3-day trial is the shortest here. Starter covers 1 website and 3 models.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompts and number of models; up to 29% off yearly. Source · Proofsource vs AIclicks
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
AthenaHQ
AI search platform for tracking and acting on visibility, with content and citation agents.
- Best for: Teams that want 11 engines on a self-serve plan with unlimited seats.
- Watch out: Cadence is not published; credits set how many answers you get. API access costs extra on Starter.
- Pricing model: Credits (1 credit = 1 AI response); 17% off annual. Source · Proofsource vs AthenaHQ
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
Knowatoa
AI search visibility monitoring with competitor gaps, cited sites and sentiment alerts.
- Best for: Teams that track several sites on one account and want all 7 engines on a mid-priced plan.
- Watch out: Question limits per plan are not on the pricing page. Starter covers 3 engines.
- Pricing model: Tiers with a shared question limit; limits not shown on the pricing page; annual pricing available. Source · Proofsource vs Knowatoa
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
ZipTie
Usage-based AI search tracker: you pay per prompt and engine, with unlimited seats and projects.
- Best for: Agencies with many clients on light cadences, since price follows prompts and engines, not seats or projects.
- Watch out: No Claude. Prices are estimates you build in a calculator, not fixed plans.
- Pricing model: Pay per prompt slot and engine; up to 20% off annual. Source · Proofsource vs ZipTie
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
Promptwatch
Self-serve AI search tracking with content production: agent credits, content gap analysis and AEO articles.
- Best for: Agencies and teams that want daily tracking with several projects on one account.
- Watch out: 4 models per plan, so covering more engines means choosing which to leave out.
- Pricing model: Tiers by prompts, projects and seats. Source · Proofsource vs Promptwatch
- Last checked: Oct 5, 2026
Proofsource
AI intelligence platform that shows which buyer questions name your brand, who gets named instead, and drafts the fix for each gap.
- Best for: Teams that want to know whether a change in AI visibility is real before acting on it, and want the fix drafted.
- Watch out: 4 engines on the self-serve card; Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI are enabled on a call (Book a demo) or on Managed. Above 1,000 brands, Book a demo for a volume price.
- Pricing model: One price card for everyone: a brand fee by cadence plus a price for each question on each engine, bought at self-serve checkout; Managed, where our team runs it for you, is priced through Get a demo. See pricing
Which AI visibility tool is best for your kind of team?
Three shortlists cut the same facts by the question buyers ask most often:
- For agencies managing many clients: Client workspaces, white-label reports, API and how each tool prices a roster.
- For small teams on a budget: The cheapest published entry plans, the longest free trials and what costs extra.
- Tools that track all four engines: Which plans cover ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews together.
Where is Proofsource weaker than the others?
Plainly:
- 4 engines at self-serve checkout. Rankscale, AthenaHQ and Knowatoa put more engines on a published self-serve plan.
- Some engines need Managed. Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI are covered on Managed, where our team does the work, priced through Get a demo.
- No prompt database to browse. Proofsource generates questions for each topic and shows an AI search volume estimate per question; Ahrefs and Semrush let you browse a market-wide database of prompts.
Where it is stronger: every percentage carries a 95% Wilson interval, so you can tell a real change from a noisy day, and each gap comes with the pages that won it and a drafted fix. The trial runs 25 questions on all four standard engines, so you can check both claims on your own brand. Daily or weekly, chosen per plan; the trial runs 2 scans about a day apart.
What should you ask any AI visibility tool before you buy?
- Which engines, by name, on my plan? A count hides gaps. If your buyers use Claude or Perplexity, check that it is in the plan you are buying, not an add-on or an Enterprise extra.
- Whose questions? A prompt database shows the market. Your own buyer questions show your pipeline. The best setups use both.
- How sure is each number? AI answers vary from run to run. Without an interval, a drop could be noise.
- What happens after the score? Look for the pages each engine cited and a concrete next step, not only a chart.
- Can AI crawlers read your site? A tool that checks crawler access saves you from writing content no engine can fetch.
The terms are defined in the AI visibility glossary, and what each kind of tool does is on the AI visibility tool, AEO tool and GEO tool pages.
How did we build this comparison?
- We ran 20 category questions on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and counted which tools the answers named. Those are the tools on this page, in that order.
- We read each vendor's own pricing and product pages on and . No third-party roundups, no guesses. Where a page renders prices only in the browser, we kept the figure from our first read and say so in the source date.
- Where a vendor does not publish something, the cell says so. Where we got something wrong, write to hello@proofsource.co and we will correct it.
More head-to-heads are on the compare page.
- Profound pricing www.tryprofound.com/pricing, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Otterly.AI pricing otterly.ai/pricing, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Peec AI pricing peec.ai/pricing, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-toolkit, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Ahrefs pricing ahrefs.com/pricing · Ahrefs Brand Radar ahrefs.com/brand-radar, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Scrunch pricing scrunch.com/pricing, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- SE Ranking pricing seranking.com/pricing.html · SE Ranking AI visibility tracker seranking.com/ai-visibility-tracker.html, read Oct 4, 2026 and Oct 5, 2026
- Writesonic pricing writesonic.com/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- Rankscale pricing rankscale.ai/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- Siftly pricing siftly.ai/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- AIclicks pricing aiclicks.io/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- AthenaHQ pricing www.athenahq.ai/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- Knowatoa pricing knowatoa.com/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
- ZipTie pricing ziptie.ai/pricing/, read Oct 5, 2026
- Promptwatch pricing www.promptwatch.com/pricing, read Oct 5, 2026
Each vendor's own pricing or product page, read on the date shown. Proofsource's facts render from its own pricing source. Spot an error? Write to hello@proofsource.co and we will correct it.
What buyers ask about AI visibility tools
What is the best AI visibility tool?
There is no single best one; it depends on the job. Profound suits enterprises that want the widest panel, Otterly.AI the smallest fixed budget, Peec AI and AIclicks teams that want to pick engines, Semrush and Ahrefs teams already in those suites, Scrunch brands that want to change what AI agents see, Rankscale and ZipTie agencies with many brands, and Proofsource teams that want intervals and drafted fixes.
Which AI visibility tool is cheapest?
Of the month-to-month plans on this page, Otterly.AI publishes the lowest entry price, for 15 prompts. Rankscale lists an Essentials plan, billed yearly only, that works out lower per month. ZipTie is usage-based and can cost less for a few prompts. Siftly and AthenaHQ have free plans. Prices change often, so every one links to its source with the day we read it.
Which AI visibility tools have a free trial?
Proofsource (2 days of full AI visibility, no card), Profound (7 days, 3 engines), Scrunch (7 days on Core), Rankscale (7 days of Pro), Siftly (7 days on any paid plan, no card), ZipTie (7 days, no card), SE Ranking (14 days, no card), Promptwatch (7 days on Essential and Professional), AIclicks (3 days, no card), and Otterly.AI, Peec AI, Writesonic and Knowatoa (offered, length not stated on their pricing pages). AthenaHQ has a free plan instead. Semrush's knowledge base says its toolkit has no trial.
Which tools track all four platforms in one dashboard?
ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews together: Proofsource on the trial and in every plan's default four, Rankscale from Pro, AIclicks on Pro if you pick those four, AthenaHQ from Starter, Knowatoa from Growth, Promptwatch on any plan if you pick those four as its 4 models, Otterly.AI with its paid Claude add-on, and Ahrefs Brand Radar. Profound, Peec AI, Scrunch, Writesonic and Siftly need Enterprise for Claude. SE Ranking and ZipTie do not track Claude.
Which AI visibility tools publish confidence intervals?
Of the tools compared here, only Proofsource publishes an interval with each figure. The others do not publish one on the pages we checked. That does not mean their numbers are wrong; it means you cannot see how far they could move.
Do I need an AI visibility tool, or can I check by hand?
You can type your questions into ChatGPT and see what comes back. The trouble is that answers change from run to run and engine to engine, so a handful of manual checks cannot tell a real shift from noise. A tool asks many times, on several engines, and keeps the record.
How did you choose which tools to include?
We asked ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews 20 questions about this category and counted the AI visibility tools their answers named. The 15 named most often are on this page, in that order, with Proofsource added last on the same terms.
Test the shortlist on your own brand.
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.