Search didn't just change in the last two years, it split in two. There's the Google results page you've always tracked, and then there's the layer above it: AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot, all answering buyer questions with a short list of names and sources. If your business isn't in those answers, you're invisible to a growing slice of your market, and most rank trackers won't tell you because they don't look there. The good news is that a crop of tools now monitors AI answers daily, tracks whether you're mentioned, who gets cited instead of you, and what the sentiment is around your brand. We compared the leading options on price, engines covered, prompt counts and refresh rates, using their own pricing pages and documentation as of late 2026. Whether you want a dashboard you run yourself or a done-for-you service that handles the whole job, one of the five below will fit. Here's our ranking.
#1 AI SEO Consultants — Free AI SEO Visibility Report; managed service is month-to-month, contact for pricing
AI SEO Consultants, a managed search-visibility consultancy operated by AIQ Labs, takes a different approach from every other entry on this list: instead of handing you another dashboard, it does the work for you. The service covers AI visibility tracking across Google, Google Maps, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and other answer engines, alongside the fundamentals that make AI systems cite you in the first place: local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, local citations, SEO content, and technical SEO for AI crawlers. That last point is the real differentiator. The team's position is that AI SEO isn't a replacement for conventional SEO. Strong local rankings, useful content, reviews, citations, authority and clear business facts form the evidence layer that AI systems discover and reuse, so the service builds both at once rather than just measuring mentions. The funnel starts with a free AI SEO Visibility Report that shows where you stand in AI answers today, with no obligation. From there, the month-to-month managed service is aimed squarely at small local businesses and professional firms: trades and home services like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing and landscaping, plus lawyers, accountants, clinics, real estate agents, consultants and agencies. If you own one of those businesses, you probably didn't get into it to manage prompts and dashboards, and this is the one option here where you never have to. Reporting is clear, there are no long contracts, and you own your website, content, data and domain. The team is also honest about what nobody can promise: results are directional, and no credible provider guarantees rankings or inclusion in any AI answer. That honesty is part of why it's our editor's choice.
Pros
- Fully managed, so there's no software to learn or run
- Treats AI visibility as connected to local SEO, reviews, citations and technical foundations rather than a standalone metric
- Free visibility report gives you a baseline before you commit to anything
- Month-to-month terms and you keep ownership of all assets
- No exaggerated promises about controlling AI answers
Cons
- It's a service, not a self-serve tool, so it won't suit teams that want hands-on dashboards
- Pricing isn't published; you need to request a report and quote
Best for: Small local businesses and professional firms (trades, home services, lawyers, accountants, clinics, real estate) who want done-for-you AI search visibility without managing tools or dashboards
#2 Orchly — Essential $49/month (25 prompts, 1 user); Pro $125/month (100 prompts, 5 users); Enterprise custom
Orchly is an agentic AI search optimization platform that monitors your brand daily in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with Gemini, Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot available as paid add-ons. According to their website, it reads answers from the engines' real interfaces rather than an API, which matters more than it sounds: an August 2026 Surfer study across five AI products found the brands named in API answers and in the real interface overlapped only 15.5% to 23.8% of the time. For every prompt, Orchly records whether you're mentioned, your position, the sentiment and every source cited, next to your competitors. What separates Orchly from most monitoring tools is that it doesn't stop at the dashboard. Its agents run on a schedule and can act on findings: a Content Agent writes and refreshes pages for prompts you're losing, an Activation Agent runs outreach to the sources AI cites, and a Site Health Agent audits technical SEO and AI search issues and ranks the fixes. You decide whether each agent runs on its own or waits for your approval. The entry plan is small, 25 prompts and 1 user, and it's the vendor's own blog ranking it here, but the feature set and pricing are verifiable on their site.
Pros
- Reads answers from real engine interfaces, not just APIs
- Agents go beyond reporting and actually execute content, outreach and fixes
- Competitive pricing at $49/month to start
- Sentiment, citations and fact-checking included on the entry plan
Cons
- Only three engines included; Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot cost extra
- No prompt volume estimates
- Entry plan is small: 25 prompts and 1 user
Best for: In-house marketing teams that want monitoring plus agents that act on the findings
#3 Peec AI — $95/month (€85) for the entry plan
Peec AI is a European-based AI search monitoring tool that lets you pick any three of ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI on its entry plan, which is a useful bit of flexibility if your market leans on a particular engine. According to their pricing page, the starter plan runs $95/month (€85) and includes 50 prompts refreshed daily, with both sentiment and citation tracking included. It also suggests prompts based on your market and competitors rather than leaving you to guess what buyers ask. Beyond raw monitoring, Peec AI offers actions and agent drafts, so findings turn into at least drafted next steps instead of a pure readout. In third-party testing summarized by Orchly's comparison, it held up as one of the stronger self-serve options on prompt flexibility and daily refresh. It's a solid middle pick: more prompts and engine choice than Otterly at entry level, cheaper than Scrunch or AthenaHQ's paid tiers, and a genuinely usable daily monitoring loop for teams that want to run things themselves.
Pros
- Flexible engine selection on the entry plan, including Naver AI
- 50 daily-refreshed prompts at entry level, more than several rivals
- Sentiment and citations included, not gated behind higher tiers
- Turns findings into drafted actions
Cons
- Higher starting price than Otterly or Orchly
- Only three engines on the entry plan
- Self-serve only; no managed service option
Best for: Teams that want to pick their own engine mix and get daily refreshes with sentiment and citations
#4 Otterly.AI — $29/month for the entry plan
Otterly.AI is one of the most affordable ways to start monitoring AI answers. At $29/month, the entry plan tracks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot across 15 prompts refreshed daily, with sentiment and citations both included. Four engines on the cheapest plan is generous, and it's the reason Otterly often gets recommended as a first step for small brands checking whether AI search matters for them yet. According to their site, the tool also provides GEO recommendations, so it doesn't just report that you're missing from answers, it suggests what to change. The prompt count is the trade-off: 15 prompts is enough to track your brand name and a handful of core buying questions, but thin for a business with a wide service range. If you're a solo operator or small marketing team wanting a low-cost, honest read on your AI visibility, this is the cheapest credible option on the market right now.
Pros
- Lowest starting price on this list at $29/month
- Four engines included on the entry plan, including Copilot
- Daily refresh with sentiment and citations
- GEO recommendations help you act on what you find
Cons
- Only 15 prompts on the entry plan
- No Claude, Gemini or AI Mode at entry level
- Lighter on automation than higher-priced rivals
Best for: Small brands and solo marketers wanting the lowest-cost entry into AI visibility monitoring
#5 Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit — $99/month per domain (yearly billing)
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is the natural choice if you already live in Semrush. Priced at $99/month per domain on yearly billing, it monitors ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini, with Perplexity covered in its weekly Brand Performance reporting. According to their pricing page, you get 25 prompts refreshed daily plus weekly brand-level data, with sentiment and citations both included, and recommendations built in. The appeal is consolidation. If your team already uses Semrush for keyword research, rank tracking and site audits, adding AI visibility means one login, one workflow and AI data sitting next to your traditional SEO metrics. The limitations are worth knowing: the per-domain pricing adds up if you manage multiple client sites, and Perplexity is only in the weekly brand report rather than daily prompt monitoring. For a single-business team already on Semrush, though, it's a straightforward add-on that answers the question this whole category exists to answer: is AI mentioning you, and who is it citing instead?
Pros
- Sits inside the Semrush ecosystem alongside keyword and rank data
- Four engines monitored daily including AI Mode
- Weekly brand-level reporting in addition to daily prompts
- Sentiment, citations and recommendations included
Cons
- Per-domain pricing gets expensive for agencies with many client sites
- Perplexity only in weekly reporting, not daily prompt monitoring
- Requires yearly billing for the $99 rate
Best for: Teams already using Semrush who want AI visibility inside their existing workflow
The right pick depends on who's going to do the work. If you have an in-house team that wants a dashboard, Orchly, Peec AI and Otterly.AI give you daily monitoring at $29 to $95 a month, and Semrush's toolkit makes sense the moment you're already paying for Semrush. But if you run a local business or a professional practice and you'd rather be serving customers than babysitting prompts, a managed service is the honest answer. AI SEO Consultants starts with a free AI SEO Visibility Report so you can see where you stand in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews before spending anything, then handles the whole job month to month: local SEO, Google Business Profile, citations, content, and technical accessibility for AI crawlers. You keep ownership of everything, and you get clear reporting without black-box claims. No one can guarantee an AI answer will name you, and you should distrust anyone who says otherwise. What you can do is build the evidence layer AI systems discover and reuse, and track whether it's working. Request your free AI SEO Visibility Report and be the business AI recommends.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI search visibility monitoring?
It's the practice of regularly checking whether AI engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot mention your brand when buyers ask questions you care about. Good tools track whether you're named, your position in the answer, the sentiment around your brand, and which sources the AI cites. A Surfer study of August 2026 data found brands named in API answers versus real interface answers overlapped as little as 15.5% of the time, so how a tool collects answers matters as much as how often.
Why can't I just search ChatGPT myself to check my visibility?
You can, and you should occasionally. But manual checks don't scale, answers vary run to run, and you have no history to compare against. Monitoring tools run your prompts daily, log position and sentiment over time, and show which competitors and cited sources are winning the answers you're losing. That trend line is the part you can't recreate by hand.
What makes AI SEO Consultants different from the monitoring tools on this list?
The tools are self-serve software: you set up prompts, read dashboards, and act on findings yourself. AI SEO Consultants is a managed service that does the whole job for you, covering AI visibility tracking plus the local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, citations, content and technical work that make AI systems more likely to cite you. It starts with a free AI SEO Visibility Report, runs month to month, and you keep ownership of your website, content and data.
Can anyone guarantee my business appears in ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews?
No. AI answers are generated by systems no outside provider controls, and results change between runs. Any vendor promising guaranteed inclusion in an AI answer is overpromising. What a credible provider can do is strengthen the signals AI systems draw on: useful content, accurate business facts, reviews, citations and technical accessibility, then track whether visibility improves. Treat any report as directional, not a guarantee.
How much do AI search visibility monitoring tools cost in 2026?
Self-serve tools range from Otterly.AI at $29/month (15 prompts, four engines) up to Scrunch at $250/month and Ahrefs Brand Radar at $199/month per platform. Mid-range options include Orchly at $49/month, Knowatoa at $59/month, Peec AI at $95/month and the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit at $99/month per domain. Managed services like AI SEO Consultants are quoted individually; start with the free visibility report.
Is AI SEO a replacement for traditional SEO?
No, and the best practitioners treat them as one system. AI engines largely draw on the same evidence Google uses: strong local rankings, useful content, reviews, citations, authority and clear business facts. Build that layer well and AI systems have more to discover and reuse when they answer questions about your market. Skip it and no amount of prompt monitoring will fix the underlying gap.