For a small business, the AI visibility tools worth comparing first are OtterlyAI (from $29 a month), Peec AI and Rankscale (more depth), Ahrefs Brand Radar and SE Ranking (if you already pay for an SEO suite), and Seen42 (if you want the pages built and hosted as well as the tracking). Profound and AthenaHQ's paid plans are priced for larger teams. HubSpot's AI Search Grader is a free one-off check, not a tracker.
We make Seen42, so read this with that in mind. Prices, limits and features below come from each vendor's own pages on 2026-10-23; where a page did not show a price, we say so. Plans change, so confirm before you buy.
Which tools the assistants themselves name
Before writing this we asked ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews three buyer questions on 2026-10-20: the best AI visibility tools for small businesses, which tools track brand mentions in ChatGPT, and the best GEO tool for a small B2B SaaS without a marketing team. Across the 14 answers we received (Google AI Overviews failed on one question), the tools named most often were:
| Tool | Answers naming it (of 14) |
|---|---|
| OtterlyAI | 11 |
| Semrush | 11 |
| Peec AI | 8 |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | 7 |
| Profound | 7 |
| HubSpot (AI Search Grader and AEO features) | 5 |
| Rankscale | 4 |
| SE Ranking | 3 |
| ZipTie | 2 |
| AthenaHQ, Writesonic | 1 each |
| Seen42, Cituna, Scrunch | 0 |
This is one run per assistant on one day, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a ranking. It does tell you which names a buyer will hear, and it is why those tools are in this list. Seen42 is new and has not been named by any assistant yet; we track that ourselves and will say when it changes.
The shortlist at a glance
| Tool | Entry price on 2026-10-23 | Assistants at entry | Writes content | Way to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OtterlyAI | $29/month, 15 prompts | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; Gemini, AI Mode and Claude are add-ons | Free writing tools | Free trial |
| Peec AI | Starter €85/month, 50 prompts; priced on prompts × models × frequency | 3 models of your choice | Drafted page edits and briefs | Free trial |
| Rankscale | From $17/month (yearly billing); Pro $99/month | Nine engines on Pro, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, AI Overviews | No | 7-day trial of Pro |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Custom prompts from $50/month; 5 prompts included with paid Ahrefs plans | AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude available | Writing editor, sold separately | With an Ahrefs plan |
| SE Ranking AI Search Toolkit | Plans from $129/month ($103.20 on annual billing), plus the AI Search add-on from 200 prompts | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews | AI Writer | 14-day trial |
| ZipTie | From $25.65/month, configured by prompts and engines | Up to seven, including ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot | Paid add-on | 7-day trial |
| Writesonic | $79/month (annual), 50 prompts | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews | 15 articles a month | Free trial |
| AthenaHQ | Free tier with 300 credits; Starter $295/month | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot on the free tier | Articles, with publishing | Free tier |
| Profound | Free 7-day trial, then Enterprise (custom) | 3 on the trial, up to 9 on Enterprise | Through agents | Trial, then sales |
| HubSpot AI Search Grader | Free | OpenAI, Perplexity, Gemini | No (HubSpot AEO, $50/month, drafts posts) | One-off check |
| Seen42 | Free check, then $39/month, 15 prompts | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews on every paid plan | Comparison, facts and guide pages, hosted | Free plan |
What to compare
Prompts, assistants and how often each prompt is checked decide most of the price, so compare the number of answers you get a month, not only the number of prompts. AI answers vary from run to run, so whichever tool you pick, read the trend over several checks rather than a single result.
Check which assistants are included and which cost extra. OtterlyAI's $29 plan does not include Gemini or Claude. Ahrefs and SE Ranking sell AI tracking around an SEO subscription, which is good value if you need the SEO suite and poor value if you do not.
Look at what happens after the report. Many trackers now draft articles too: Writesonic, AthenaHQ, SE Ranking, ZipTie and Semrush all describe it, and Profound runs content agents. Ask who approves a draft, whether the tool publishes it, and where the page lives. Seen42 builds the page for a specific gap, checks every claim against your own facts, hosts it, and marks it on your trend. If you have writers and a CMS, you may not need this; if you do not, it is the whole job.
Check how mentions and citations are reported. A tool that merges "named in the answer" and "linked as a source" into one score hides which problem you have. Our guide to what AI visibility is explains why the two move independently.
The tools
OtterlyAI was named in 11 of the 14 assistant answers in our check, level with Semrush. Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Gemini and Google AI Mode are $9 a month each on Lite and Claude is $29, so a five-assistant setup comparable to Seen42's costs $67. Standard is $189 for 100 prompts. Choose it to track many prompts at a low price, when you will write the pages yourself.
Peec AI goes deeper on analytics: prompt discovery, source and gap analysis, brand perception, crawler analytics and shopping. Its plans are priced on tracked prompts multiplied by active models and frequency: Starter is €85 a month for 50 prompts on three models, Pro €205 and Advanced €425. The pricing page showed us euros; Peec's product reference lists $95, $245 and $495. Its Optimize area can now draft edits to your existing pages and briefs for new ones. Choose it if you want the richest reporting and have a team to act on it. Our Seen42 vs Peec AI comparison goes into detail.
Rankscale lists nine engines on its Pro plan ($99 a month, 1,200 credits) and sells an Essentials plan from $17 a month on yearly billing. It adds page audits, and its homepage describes an AI readiness score. Rankscale says it does not write content itself. Choose it for broad engine coverage at a mid price.
Ahrefs Brand Radar comes with paid Ahrefs plans (five custom prompts and 150 checks a month on Lite) and scales up from $50 a month for custom prompts, with an AI Visibility Index benchmark from $199 a month for one platform. Its AI Content Helper, a separate product, is a writing editor. It covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with Claude available. Choose it if you already use Ahrefs.
SE Ranking sells its AI Search Toolkit as an add-on to a plan. Plans start at $129 a month, or $103.20 a month on annual billing, and the add-on starts at 200 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews; its plans page shows the add-on price for your region. There is a 14-day trial, a free visibility checker with five checks a day, and an AI Writer that drafts full articles. Choose it for AI tracking folded into an SEO suite.
ZipTie prices a plan from the prompts you monitor and the engines you run them on, from $25.65 a month on its Starter plan, across up to seven engines, with a 7-day trial on three of them. A paid add-on drafts briefs and full pieces. Choose it if your needs are specific enough to benefit from a configurator.
Writesonic bundles tracking with its writing tools: $79 a month on annual billing for 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, with article generation included. Choose it if you want one subscription for tracking and drafting and will review every draft yourself.
AthenaHQ has a free tier with 300 credits on five assistants and a Starter plan at $295 a month with 3,600 credits across eleven models. Its content workspace generates articles and can publish them. Choose it for the free tier, or for a larger team that wants wide model coverage.
Profound is an enterprise platform: a free 7-day trial of 50 fixed prompts on three engines, then custom Enterprise pricing with tracking on up to nine engines, agents, an API and SSO. Agencies have a separate plan. Choose it if you have the budget and the team. Our Seen42 vs Profound comparison covers the detail.
HubSpot's AI Search Grader is a free one-time check that asks OpenAI's GPT, Perplexity and Gemini about your brand and returns a score out of 100 after a short form. Run it once to see what the assistants currently say. Tracking over time is a separate product, HubSpot AEO, at $50 a month, which also drafts blog posts from the gaps it finds.
Semrush appeared in 11 of the 14 assistant answers as the all-in-one option. Its AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 a month per domain, with no free trial, and Semrush One, which combines its SEO and AI search tools, starts at $199 a month. Its Content Toolkit, from $60 a month, drafts articles.
Seen42 checks the prompts your buyers ask on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews, shows who is named and cited instead of you, and builds and hosts comparison, facts and guide pages from your own facts. Paid plans start at $39 a month for 15 prompts; the Free plan checks 10 prompts once on ChatGPT and Gemini. Growth is $89 for 25 prompts and 8 pages a month, Pro $189 for 50 prompts and 15 pages; the Free plan checks 10 prompts once and shows 3 in full. It does not cover Copilot and has no API. Choose it if you are a small team without a content function and want the page for each gap built, checked and hosted rather than added to a to-do list.
How to choose
If you want low-cost tracking and will write the pages yourself, start with OtterlyAI. If you already pay for Ahrefs or SE Ranking, switch on their AI tracking before buying anything else. If you want broad engine coverage and audits, look at Rankscale or ZipTie. If you want a free baseline today, run HubSpot's grader and AthenaHQ's free tier. If nobody on your team has time to write and publish the pages the reports ask for, try Seen42.
