Below $25, Stripe fees eat too much margin. Above $25, we'd be gating real-world use. A 50-prompt one-off rankings audit costs $12.50.

One call, every AI model. Track visibility, sentiment and trends, by MCP or API.

Install in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or Codex with one line, or call the REST API in any language, same credit balance, same data. ~$0.05 per model per call, not $89 a month. Pay only when you query.

$1 free on signup
Credits never expire
No subscription
MCP native

Get $1 free, try it Install MCP

live · pay per check

1. You ask your AI, in plain English
Is Penflow the AI models’ top pick for blog tools?

2. Cite42 MCP asks every model for you
→ ChatGPT · Claude · Perplexity · Gemini

3. You get back, in plain English
Ranks 2nd on Claude, 3rd on ChatGPT,
4th on Perplexity — not on Gemini yet.

WHAT YOU CAN ASK

One API key. Seven ways to query AI search.

Rankings, competitor compare, citations, sentiment, keyword research, and trends, each is one call. Ask in plain language or call the endpoint directly; same key, same credit balance.

AI search
Ask every AI model at once.
The primitive the whole API is built on. Pass a prompt, get back the full prose answer from each model, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, in one clean response.
POST /v1/search
You ask“What’s the best AI blog tool in 2026?”
You get{ "chatgpt": "…", "claude": "…", "citations": ["…"] }
Read more →
AI brand rankings
See how your brand ranks.
Mention rate, average position, and share-of-voice across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini, clean data, not a dashboard you have to scrape.
POST /v1/rankings
You ask“How often does AI mention Penflow, and where?”
You get{ "mention_rate": 0.70, "avg_position": 3 }
Read more →
AI competitor compare
See who AI picks instead.
Drop your brand plus up to 10 competitors and a prompt set. Get a side-by-side picture of who AI names first, and who it names with you.
POST /v1/compare
You ask“How do Tabbly, NorthCRM and Slate compare?”
You get{ "northcrm": 0.92, "tabbly": 0.71, "slate": 0.38 }
Read more →
AI citations
See if AI cites your URLs.
Citations are the new backlinks. Pass any URL and see which questions cite it, on which models, and how often, so you know what to refresh.
POST /v1/citations
You ask“Is my blog post getting cited by AI?”
You get{ "cited": true, "prompts": 3, "citations": 4 }
Read more →
AI sentiment
See how AI talks about you.
Positive, neutral, or negative breakdown per model, with the exact phrases pulled out, so you catch a model trashing you before a customer asks it.
POST /v1/sentiment
You ask“How does AI talk about my brand?”
You get{ "positive": 0.62, "neutral": 0.30, "negative": 0.08 }
Read more →
SEO Keywords
Get the keyword data too.
AI visibility is half the picture, you still need the keywords people type. Search volume, CPC, competition, and ideas. No DataForSEO XML, no second vendor.
POST /v1/keywords
You ask“What’s the search volume for ‘ai blog tool’?”
You get{ "volume": 4400, "cpc": 3.12, "ideas": ["…"] }
Read more →
Google Trends
Track demand with Trends.
Interest over time, related and rising queries, regional breakdown. No flaky scrapers, no waitlist. Spot rising topics before they peak.
POST /v1/trends
You ask“Is interest in ‘GEO’ rising right now?”
You get{ "trend": "rising", "rising_queries": ["…"] }
Read more →

WHAT WE QUERY

Five AI models. One call.

Every check fans out across the AI surfaces that actually answer your customers' questions, real API calls with web search enabled, plus Google's AI Overviews from the live SERP, not scraped guesses.

ChatGPT
OpenAI
Web search on
The highest-traffic AI surface
Claude
Anthropic
Web search tool
Cited, source-grounded answers
Perplexity
Perplexity Sonar
Web-grounded
Always answers from live sources
Gemini
Google
Google Search grounding
Google's own model layer
Google AI Overviews
Google Search
Live SERP
The AI summary atop Google results

Query one model or all five in a single call. Each returns the same normalized JSON shape, mention, position, sentiment, competitors, and the sources it cited, so you compare across models without writing a parser per provider.

PRICED FOR THE BOTTOM OF THE MARKET

Real scenarios. Real numbers.

Real workflows, real call counts, real totals. Audit, monitor, or build, see what each looks like before you commit.

founder pre-launch
Validate a launch positioning
Run 30 category prompts once to map AI's current view of your space. All four models per call. Decide your launch angle in an afternoon. 30 calls · $8.40 total, or $2.10 against a single model.
indie content site
Plan a quarter of content
Run content-gap analysis on 50 topic ideas across all four models. Pick the 12 best topics for the quarter. 50 calls · $14.00 total.
AEO consultant
Run a one-off client audit
A 100-prompt brand audit for a client onboarding, every call spans all four models. Generate a polished report. Charge $1,500. 100 calls · $28.00 total.
Claude Code user
Ad-hoc research from your editor
"Hey Claude, what does AI say about [topic]?" 60 ad-hoc calls a week across every model. Pay only for what you use. 60 calls · $19.20 / week.
wrapper / vertical SaaS
Build a niche AI visibility tool
Ship "AI visibility for Shopify stores" and route customer queries through our API. Volume discount kicks in at $1k/mo. 25,000+ calls/mo · 20% off, dedicated SLA.

HOW WE COMPARE

Existing platforms price out the people who need this most.

The funded incumbents are great products built for enterprise sales motions. They cannot economically serve indie founders, small agencies, or AI agents. We can.

	Cite42	Incumbent platforms
Pricing model	Pay per call, $0.05–$0.45 · $25 minimum, never expires	Monthly subscription, typically from $89/mo
Per-model coverage	All 4 AI models, pay per model, query as few as one	Typically per-model add-ons on top of the base plan
API access	API & MCP first. Console is optional.	Dashboard-first; API on higher tiers
Onboarding	2-minute signup. Email + Stripe → API key.	Workspace and brand setup
MCP / agent support	Native to Claude Code, Cursor, MCP agents	Limited or plan-gated
One-off use	Pay only when you query	Subscription-based; no pay-per-call tier

Comparison reflects typical incumbent AI-visibility platforms based on publicly available product and pricing information as of May 2026. All trademarks belong to their respective owners; Cite42 is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them. Details may have changed, check each provider’s site for current pricing.

CAN YOU TRUST THE DATA?

Real model calls. Consistent methodology. Numbers you can stand behind.

You're making decisions on this data, and maybe billing clients for it. Here's exactly how it's produced, so you know it holds up.

Real API calls, never scraped
Every result comes from the providers' official APIs with web search enabled, not screen-scraping or simulated answers. The data reflects what the models actually return, with the live web behind them.
Consistent methodology over time
Same prompt phrasing, same model settings, same search config on every call. That consistency is what makes your week-over-week trends comparable, change the method and the trend line lies.
Structured detection, not vibes
Brand mention, position, and sentiment are extracted with a structured LLM-as-judge pass, benchmarked at >95% accuracy on presence and >88% on sentiment. You get clean fields, not a paragraph to eyeball.
Cross-customer cache = cheaper and steadier
When common prompts are queried by many customers, we serve a shared cached result. That keeps the price low, and it means two customers checking the same prompt see the same answer, not random drift.

PRICING

Priced like an API reference, not a SaaS plan.

One tier: pay per call. Credits never expire. No surprise upgrades, no per-model add-ons.

Cite42

Pay per call

~$0.05/model & up

$25 minimum deposit. Credits never expire.

Pay only when you query. No monthly cost.
Query all 4 AI models, or pick one and pay less
API & MCP first. Console is optional.
2-minute signup. Email + Stripe → API key.
Native to Claude Code, Cursor, MCP agents
$1 free on signup to test before you deposit

Get $1 free, try it

Incumbents

$89–$2,000/mo

Flat monthly subscription, whether you query or not.

Mandatory monthly subscription, even for one-off use
Per-model add-ons, $30–$165/mo each
Dashboard-first; API gated to enterprise
Workspace setup, brand onboarding, sales call
MCP only on paid agency plans

Per-request: search $0.40 · rankings $0.35 · compare $0.35 · citations $0.25 · sentiment $0.45 · keywords $0.20 · trends $0.05 · usage free

ESTIMATE YOUR COST

What will it cost you?

Pick the call you'll make, choose how many models to check and how many requests, and see your exact cost. No tiers, no seats, just usage.

Configure

What kind of call?

Different jobs cost different amounts per model. Brand rankings is the most common.

AI surfaces to check

Each model is priced separately. Select all you want every prompt checked against.

Requests

How many requests you make. A quick check is 1; an agency audit might be 100+.

150100150200

Your estimate

$0.07

1 call · 1 model × 1 request · paid once, never expires

Incumbents chargeflat monthly, query or not$89–$2,000/mo

ChatGPT$0.07

In credits: 7
Repeat queryⓘ: free

Get $1 free, try it

$25 minimum deposit · credits never expire

QUESTIONS

Things people ask before signing up.

Yes, that's exactly why we built it as an AI search data API, not a brand tracker. The most common use cases (research, content planning, citation lookup, feeding agent workflows) don't require you to be a known brand. Brand tracking is one feature, not the only one.

Same underlying data, fundamentally different business model. Incumbents are subscription-led with $89–$2,000/mo floors. Cite42 is pay-per-call, MCP/API-first, $25 minimum that never expires.

Close, not identical. We use each model's official API with web search enabled. API-mode responses correlate strongly with consumer responses for trend tracking, but consumer mode has personalization, memory, and A/B tests that the API doesn't replicate. For directional research, citation discovery, and content planning, what most customers actually need, this is what every serious tool in this space does.

If two customers query the same prompt against the same models on the same day, we run the call once and serve both customers from the cache. Bigger network, cheaper data for everyone. Common B2B SaaS prompts have 70–90% cache hit rates at scale.

Reading your own past results is free, forever. We only charge for fresh queries.

Below $25, Stripe fees eat too much margin to break even. Above $25, we'd be gating real-world use, a 50-prompt one-off rankings audit costs $12.50.

Sign up with a verified email and we credit your account with $1, enough to run a few real calls (rankings checks across all four models, or citation lookups) before deciding whether to deposit. One grant per account; not stackable.

A minimal one, credit balance, API keys, request logs, usage breakdown. We deliberately don't build a heavy analytics UI; the whole point is that you query the data into your own tools.

START IN TWO MINUTES

One key. Every AI model. ~$0.05 per model per call.

No subscription, no sales call. Sign up, get $1 free, and make your first call across every AI model in minutes.

Get $1 free, try it Install MCP

One call, every AI model. Track visibility, sentiment and trends, by MCP or API.

One API key. Seven ways to query AI search.

Ask every AI model at once.

See how your brand ranks.

See who AI picks instead.

See if AI cites your URLs.

See how AI talks about you.

Get the keyword data too.

Track demand with Trends.

Five AI models. One call.

Real scenarios. Real numbers.

Validate a launch positioning

Plan a quarter of content

Run a one-off client audit

Ad-hoc research from your editor

Build a niche AI visibility tool

Existing platforms price out the people who need this most.

Real model calls. Consistent methodology. Numbers you can stand behind.

Real API calls, never scraped

Consistent methodology over time

Structured detection, not vibes

Cross-customer cache = cheaper and steadier