Proofsource vs TopCited
TopCited's distinctive move is before publication: it simulates how AI may rank a draft and rewrites until it scores well. Proofsource measures what the engines actually say after, on four engines including Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
Proofsource and TopCited in five facts
Price
- Proofsource
- Free trial, then plans from $9 a month (5 questions on ChatGPT, weekly)
- TopCited
- Starter $29, Advanced $129 and Pro $399 a month[1]
Free trial
- Proofsource
- 2 days free, 4 engines, no card
- TopCited
- 7 days on every paid plan; a payment method is collected at checkout[1]
AI engines covered
- Proofsource
- 4 on the trial, up to 4 on a paid plan
- TopCited
- Monitors ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Grok[2]
How often answers are re-read
- Proofsource
- Daily, weekly or monthly, you choose
- TopCited
- Daily monitoring queries; weekly reports[2]
Seats
- Proofsource
- Unlimited team members
- TopCited
- Not published
What TopCited is, and who it is for
Optimize before you publish. TopCited's CORE method scores every draft from 0 to 100% for AI ranking fit, simulates how AI systems may rank and cite it, and rewrites until it is optimized.[3]
Monitoring alongside. It also tracks citations and share of voice daily across its monitored LLMs and sends weekly GEO health reports.[2]
Credits across tools. Each plan includes a monthly credit pool for engine runs, URL analyses, optimizations, SEO audits and content generation, with monitoring and brand limits.[1]
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.
Proofsource and TopCited, fact by fact
Each TopCited cell links to the page it came from. Where TopCited does not publish a detail, the cell says so instead of guessing.
| Question | Proofsource | TopCited |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free trial, then one price card at self-serve checkout: each brand pays daily ($28 a brand a month) or weekly ($7), plus each question on each engine, plans from $9 a month (5 questions on ChatGPT, weekly). No overage charges | Starter $29, Advanced $129 and Pro $399 a month[1] |
| Free trial | 200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free. No card, no sales call | 7 days on every paid plan; a payment method is collected at checkout[1] |
| AI engines covered | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews on the trial. Paid plans pick from those 4, each priced per question; Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Meta AI are enabled on a call | |
| How often answers are re-read | Daily or weekly, chosen per plan; daily is one answer per question per engine per UTC day. The trial reads every engine on 2 consecutive days | Daily monitoring queries; weekly reports[2] |
| Seats | Unlimited team members on every plan. The agency workspace is free, with client workspaces, scoped members and Client Viewer seats set up on a call | Not published |
| How a number is measured | A 95% Wilson interval on every percentage; alerts wait until a change clears it | Share of voice as the percentage of AI responses citing your brand versus competitors[2] |
| What it does about a gap | Each gap names the pages the engine cited instead, with a draft fix held for your approval | Pre-publish draft scoring, AI ranking simulation and iterative rewrites[3] |
Where each shines
Both tools are built well for different teams. Each point is a strength, read from that vendor's own pages.
Where TopCited shines
- Scoring before content goes live. TopCited scores drafts against a simulated AI ranking before publication, which Proofsource does not do.[3]
- Gemini and Grok monitored. Its monitored set includes Gemini and Grok. Proofsource paid plans can add Grok, priced per question; Managed covers Gemini.[2]
- Low entry price. Starter is $29 a month.[1]
Where Proofsource shines
- Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. Proofsource reads ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews. TopCited's monitoring FAQ lists ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok.[2]
- Measured answers, not simulated ones. Proofsource reports what the engines actually answered, with a 95% Wilson interval beside every percentage.
- No card for the trial. 200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free. No card, no sales call. TopCited collects a payment method when its trial starts.[1]
Proofsource or TopCited: the fair verdict
Pick TopCited if your bottleneck is writing pages AI will cite, and you want drafts scored and rewritten before they go live.
Pick Proofsource if you need to know what ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews actually say about your category today, and which pages they cite instead of yours.
Choose TopCited if you want
- Scoring before content goes live
- Gemini and Grok monitored
- Low entry price
Choose Proofsource if you want
- Perplexity and Google AI Overviews
- Measured answers, not simulated ones
- No card for the trial
Already using TopCited?
You do not have to choose on day one. Here is how teams run Proofsource beside TopCited and decide on their own data.
Keep TopCited running
Nothing about trying Proofsource needs you to stop TopCited. Your history and reports there stay where they are.
Bring your questions across
Export or copy the prompts you track in TopCited and add them as buyer questions in Proofsource, so both tools ask the same things.
Run both side by side
Read the two for the same days on your own domain. Where the numbers differ, Proofsource shows the answers and the pages each engine cited, so you can see why.
Keep what serves your team
Many teams keep one tool for reporting and another for fixes. Pick on your own evidence, not on a comparison page.
Proofsource or TopCited: what buyers ask
What's the best tool to test many different ways buyers phrase a question in ChatGPT and see which ones mention my brand?
When we asked AI engines this, some answers named TopCited, which monitors prompts daily and scores content before publishing. Proofsource runs your buyer questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows which ones name you and who gets named instead.
Does TopCited need a credit card for its trial?
Yes. A payment method is collected at checkout, and the first charge is on day 7 unless you cancel.
Which LLMs does TopCited monitor?
ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude and Grok, according to its features FAQ.
Where each fact about TopCited comes from
- TopCited pricing FAQ, read Oct 5, 2026.
- TopCited features, read Oct 5, 2026.
- TopCited homepage, read Oct 5, 2026.
Vendors change their pages. If a TopCited fact here no longer matches their site, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it.
Your own trial settles this faster than any comparison page.
200 answers. 25 Prompts/Question. Top AI engines. 2 days. Free. No card, and the report is about your domain: which buyer questions name you, who gets named instead, and what to fix.