The best AI visibility tools in 2026: dashboards and pay-per-call options compared

The AI visibility tools most teams shortlist in 2026 are Ahrefs Brand Radar and the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit if you already use one of those SEO suites, and dedicated trackers such as Peec AI, OtterlyAI, Profound and Scrunch if you want a daily dashboard of how your brand shows up in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Cite42 is the option without a subscription: you pay per check and run it from your own code or from inside Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor.

Which one fits depends on whether you want to look up any brand in a big prompt database or track your own questions, how fresh the data must be, and whether results belong in a team dashboard or in your own scripts and AI assistant. This guide compares what each AI search visibility tool tracks, which AI engines it covers and what it costs.

Cite42 publishes this guide and is one of the seven tools in it. We checked every other tool's features and prices on its official pricing pages and help docs on October 6, 2026, rather than buying their plans. Prices in this space change often, so follow the links before you buy.

The best AI visibility tools for different teams

• Ahrefs Brand Radar: looking up any brand or competitor across more than 400 million AI prompts, with custom prompt tracking included in Ahrefs plans from Lite.
• Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: teams already working in Semrush who want prompt research, share of voice and daily prompt tracking in one place.
• Peec AI: marketing teams that want a focused daily dashboard with unlimited users.
• OtterlyAI: small teams and agencies that want the cheapest daily tracker, with API and MCP access from the Standard plan.
• Profound: enterprises that need broad engine coverage, SSO and full data exports under one contract.
• Scrunch: teams that want AI monitoring alongside page audits and AI agent traffic, with Claude and Meta AI on every plan.
• Cite42: developers and people working in AI assistants who want brand and citation checks on their own prompts, billed per call with no subscription.

Comparison at a glance

Sources are linked in each section below, and the cost section puts per-call prices, plans and add-ons on the same workload.

How we picked and what to compare

We started from the tools AI assistants already recommend. On October 6, 2026 we asked ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini for the best tools to track a brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. All three named Ahrefs Brand Radar and the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit first, and Perplexity and Gemini added Peec AI, OtterlyAI and Profound. In a wider sample on October 5, Semrush was named by all five AI tools we asked, Profound by four and Peec AI by three (raw responses).

Four differences matter more than feature lists:

• Their prompts or yours. Ahrefs and Semrush keep large databases of prompts they've already run, so you can look up any brand with no setup. Every tool here also tracks prompts you write yourself.
• Which AI engines. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are covered almost everywhere. Claude, Copilot, Google AI Mode and Meta AI vary by tool and plan, and some are paid add-ons.
• How fresh. Dashboards track your prompts daily. Ahrefs' AI chatbot index refreshes monthly. Cite42 checks when you ask, or weekly or monthly on a tracker.
• Where the data goes. A dashboard suits a weekly marketing review. If you want results in a spreadsheet, a script or an AI assistant, check which plan unlocks the API or MCP server.

Ahrefs Brand Radar: look up any brand in a huge prompt index

Ahrefs Brand Radar tracks how brands appear in AI answers using an index of more than 400 million search-backed prompts, built from People Also Ask questions in Ahrefs' keyword database. According to Ahrefs' help center, it covers Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, and tracks Claude on custom prompts. You can search any brand, product or competitor with no setup, compare share of voice, see the pages AI answers cite, and check visibility on YouTube, Reddit and TikTok too.

Custom prompts, which you write and track on a daily to monthly schedule, are included with Ahrefs plans from Lite up. The AI indexes are add-ons: $199 a month per platform, or $699 a month for all platforms with 2,500 custom prompt checks included (as of October 2026). The AI chatbot index refreshes once a month and the AI Overviews index every few days. Brand Radar data is also available through the Ahrefs API and its MCP server.

Pros

• The largest ready-made prompt index here, so you can benchmark competitors before writing a single prompt.
• Sits next to Ahrefs' backlink and keyword data, which helps if your team already lives in Ahrefs.

Cons

• The full AI index is an add-on on top of an Ahrefs plan, and all platforms cost $699 a month.
• Chatbot data in the index updates monthly, so fast-moving questions belong in custom prompts.

Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: AI tracking inside Semrush

The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit adds AI search reporting to Semrush: a visibility overview, competitor research, prompt research (Semrush calls it "keyword research for AI"), brand performance with share of voice and sentiment, daily prompt tracking, and an AI search site audit. Its prompt database holds more than 317 million prompts and responses across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Brand performance reports cover Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and update weekly (data sources).

The toolkit costs $99 a month and includes 25 prompts for daily tracking and one domain for brand performance. Fifty extra prompts cost $60 a month, and each extra domain $99 a month (pricing details). Semrush One, which bundles the toolkit with Semrush's SEO tools, starts at $199 a month. There is no free trial (as of October 2026).

Pros

• Prompt research works like keyword research, which makes it easier to choose prompts worth tracking.
• One login for SEO and AI search reporting.

Cons

• 25 tracked prompts on the base plan fill up quickly.
• Claude and Copilot are absent from Semrush's coverage lists, and Semrush's MCP server exposes its SEO data rather than the toolkit's (MCP comparison).

Peec AI: daily tracking for marketing teams

Peec AI is a dedicated AI search analytics dashboard. Each self-serve plan tracks prompts daily on three AI models you choose, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or Copilot, with unlimited users. Starter has 50 prompts, Pro 150 and Advanced 350 across five projects. Enterprise opens every model, up to 13 including Claude, and adds API access (plans and current prices).

Reports show visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice against competitors, plus the sources AI answers cite and suggested prompts built from your keywords. Peec AI also runs an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and other assistants.

Pros

• Unlimited users on every plan, so the whole marketing team can use it.
• Clear daily reporting on visibility, sentiment and cited sources.

Cons

• Three models per plan; each additional model costs extra.
• The REST API is limited to Enterprise customers (API docs).

OtterlyAI: the lowest dashboard entry price

OtterlyAI tracks brand mentions and citations daily in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot on every plan, with Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude available as add-ons. Its pricing starts at $29 a month for 15 prompts on Lite, then $189 a month for 100 prompts on Standard and $489 for 400 on Premium, with 15% off annual billing (as of October 2026). Every plan includes GEO URL audits, and new users get a free trial.

API and MCP access start on Standard, each with 2,000 requests a month, so an assistant can read your brand reports and citations or add prompts. The MCP comparison covers how that works.

Pros

• The cheapest way to get a daily AI visibility dashboard.
• Copilot is included on every plan.

Cons

• Lite has 15 prompts and no API or MCP access.
• Gemini, AI Mode and Claude are paid add-ons; Claude adds $109 a month on Standard.

Profound: enterprise AI visibility programs

Profound sells AI visibility monitoring mainly as an enterprise contract. Its pricing page lists a free seven-day trial that tracks 50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, and a custom Enterprise plan that tracks up to nine answer engines, including Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Copilot, DeepSeek and Claude. Enterprise adds API access, CSV and JSON exports, all-time history, SSO and SOC 2 compliance, and Profound runs an MCP server for Enterprise customers.

Pros

• Broad engine coverage and enterprise controls in one contract.
• A free trial lets you see the reporting before talking to sales.

Cons

• No public price for the plan most teams would actually use.
• The trial has no API access.

Scrunch: monitoring plus page audits and agent traffic

Scrunch combines prompt monitoring and citation tracking with page audits and AI agent traffic monitoring. Every plan covers ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta AI. Starter costs $250 a month billed annually, or $300 month to month, for 350 prompts, five page audits and three users. Growth is $417 a month billed annually, or $500 month to month, for 700 prompts (pricing, as of October 2026). There's a seven-day free trial with no credit card.

Scrunch's Data API, which exports metrics and full answers, is part of the custom-priced Enterprise plan. The API comparison covers it.

Pros

• Claude and Meta AI on every plan, which few dashboards include.
• Page audits and AI bot traffic sit beside the visibility data.

Cons

• The highest entry price among the self-serve dashboards here.
• Programmatic access needs an Enterprise contract.

Cite42: pay-per-call checks without a subscription

Cite42 is a pay-per-call API and MCP server for AI visibility. You give it a prompt and a list of brands, pick any of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, and it returns which brands each answer mentioned, in what order, and which sources it cited. There is no subscription and no monthly fee: you top up a prepaid balance (minimum $25.00), the balance never expires, and you pay only for successful calls. A verified signup includes $1.00 of free credit.

Each AI engine is priced separately, from $0.01. A brand check costs $0.05 on ChatGPT alone, $0.08 on ChatGPT and Perplexity, and $0.20 across all five. The pricing page lists every tool.

Cite42 is built for developers and for people who already work in AI assistants. Its hosted MCP server at https://mcp.cite42.dev signs in with OAuth from Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT (developer mode), Codex and Cursor, so you can ask "Which invoicing tools does Perplexity recommend, and which pages does it cite?" in the chat and get structured data back. The same tools work as a REST API in your own code:

• AI visibility: mention rate and average first-mention position for each brand, per AI engine.
• Citations: every source URL the answers cited, and whether a page you're watching appears.
• Sentiment and competitor comparisons: how answers describe a brand against named rivals.
• Trackers: up to 30 prompts rerun weekly or monthly with stored history, which you can also set up and review in the Cite42 dashboard.

The same balance pays for keyword volume and Google Trends. Answers come from official APIs with web search on, Perplexity's own search and live Google results, so they can differ from a signed-in app session (methodology). The founder's post on tracking AI visibility without a subscription explains why Cite42 bills this way.

Pros

• No subscription: a one-off check costs well under a dollar per prompt, and unused balance stays in your account.
• Covers Claude alongside ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews, and you pay only for the engines you pick.
• Works inside Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor, so research and writing happen in the same place.

Cons

• No prompt database: you see only the prompts you or your trackers run.
• Trackers run weekly or monthly with no daily option, and Copilot, Google AI Mode and Meta AI are outside its coverage.
• No agency features such as client workspaces or white-label reports.

What a small tracking program costs

Take 20 buyer prompts tracked across five AI engines:

• Cite42: a weekly tracker costs $16.00 for a four-run month of brand rankings, or $32.00 with a citations check on the same prompts. Running those prompts daily through the API would cost about seven and a half times the weekly figure.
• OtterlyAI: Standard, at $189 a month, tracks up to 100 prompts daily on four engines, with Gemini, AI Mode and Claude extra.
• Semrush: the $99 toolkit tracks 25 prompts daily, so 20 prompts fit with room for five more.
• Scrunch: Starter tracks 350 prompts on seven engines from $250 a month billed annually.
• Ahrefs: custom prompts come with plans from Lite, and the AI indexes add $199 to $699 a month.

For a handful of prompts checked weekly or monthly, or a one-off audit, paying per call is much cheaper. For daily tracking of dozens of prompts with a shared team dashboard, a flat plan wins. The Cite42 figures are calculated from current prices, and the tracking guide walks through a real 11-prompt baseline run.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best AI visibility tools in 2026?

The tools AI assistants name most often are Ahrefs Brand Radar, the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Peec AI, OtterlyAI, Profound and Scrunch. Ahrefs and Semrush suit teams already using those SEO suites, and the dedicated trackers suit daily dashboard reporting. Cite42 suits developers and AI assistant users who want pay-per-call checks without a subscription.

Which tools track my brand in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews?

Ahrefs Brand Radar, the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, OtterlyAI, Scrunch and Cite42 cover all three. Peec AI lets you pick three models per plan, and Profound adds Perplexity on its Enterprise plan. For Claude as well, Scrunch includes it on every plan, Cite42 and Ahrefs custom prompts cover it, and OtterlyAI sells it as an add-on.

Is there an AI visibility tool without a monthly subscription?

Yes. Cite42 charges per successful call with no subscription: you top up from $25.00, the balance never expires, and a brand check across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews costs $0.20. The dashboards in this guide are monthly or annual plans, though OtterlyAI, Peec AI, Profound and Scrunch offer free trials.

What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?

For occasional checks, a pay-per-call tool costs least: Cite42 charges $0.05 for a ChatGPT-only brand check and $0.20 across five AI engines, with no monthly fee. For a daily dashboard, OtterlyAI Lite costs $29 a month for 15 prompts on ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot (as of October 2026).

Can I check AI visibility from inside Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes, through an MCP server. Cite42's hosted server at https://mcp.cite42.dev runs new checks from Claude, ChatGPT, Codex or Cursor, and Ahrefs, OtterlyAI, Peec AI and SE Ranking offer MCP access to their own data. The AI visibility MCP comparison explains what each one can do.

Start with the prompts that matter

Write down five questions your buyers would ask an AI assistant, and check them before you commit to a tool. If you want a dashboard, run those prompts through two free trials and compare the answers and sources each one shows. If you'd rather check from Claude, ChatGPT or your own code, create a free Cite42 account for $1.00 of starter credit and follow the docs. The API comparison and the MCP comparison cover the developer options in more depth.