Best AI visibility tools in 2027: what tracks ChatGPT and AI Overviews, and what it costs

GEO (generative engine optimization) and AEO (answer engine optimization) are the two names for the same emerging job: making sure a brand gets mentioned or cited when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google's AI Overviews a question a search engine used to answer. The category is barely two years old, which shows in the pricing pages: several vendors gate the real number behind a demo call, and the aggregator posts that rank for "GEO tools" often quote figures that no longer match what the vendor actually sells. Everything below was checked against each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.

The comparison table

Entry plans on monthly billing, checked against each vendor's own pricing page in September 2026. Profound's pricing page currently lists no self-serve paid tier at all: the $99/$399 figures still common in "best GEO tools" roundups describe a structure it has since retired. Scrunch has also consolidated to a single Core plan; older posts quoting a separate "Growth" tier are describing a retired structure too.

The cheapest way in

Otterly AI Lite at $29 a month is the lowest self-serve entry point built specifically for this job: 15 prompts, daily tracking, across four AI platforms, with unlimited team members even on the cheapest plan. It is a real dedicated tool, not a stripped-down trial.

Cheaper still, if it applies to you: Ahrefs Custom Prompts tracking is included free with any Ahrefs Lite plan or above. If you already pay for Ahrefs research, this is the honest first stop before buying anything new.

If you already pay for a research tool

Every major incumbent added AI-visibility tracking to its lineup in the past year. Before adding a new subscription, check whether the tool you already have covers it:

• Ahrefs: Custom Prompts free with Lite and above; the standalone AI Visibility Index, which benchmarks any brand against 456M+ real prompts with no setup, starts at $199 a month.
• Surfer: AI Search Analytics is sold both as a standalone plan ($95 a month) and bundled into its Standard tier and above.
• Semrush: the AI Visibility Toolkit is a separate line item at $99 a month per domain, not bundled into the core Pro/Guru/Business plans.
• Moz Pro: an AI Visibility Dashboard with tracked prompts is included from the Standard tier ($99 a month) upward, with more dashboards and prompts on Medium and Large.

None of these match a dedicated platform's prompt depth or multi-brand reporting, but for a single site checking whether it shows up at all, an add-on you are already paying for is the cheaper first move.

The dedicated platforms, and the prices that don't hold up anymore

Peec AI and Otterly AI are the two dedicated platforms with pricing anyone can actually check without booking a call: both list real self-serve tiers with a 15% annual discount, and both scale by number of tracked prompts and platforms rather than by seat. Scrunch is self-serve too, now at a single $250 Core plan (125 prompts, five site audits a month, one brand workspace) with Enterprise above it.

Profound is the outlier worth flagging directly: its own pricing page shows a free 7-day trial (50 prompts a day across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews), then jumps straight to a custom Enterprise quote. The full head-to-head is in Peec AI vs Profound. The $99 "Standard" and $399 "Enterprise" figures that populate most "best GEO tools" listicles describe a self-serve structure the product no longer offers: treat any roundup still quoting those numbers as unchecked.

What these tools can't tell you

• Every score is a sample, not a census. No tool queries every possible prompt a real person might type; they track a defined set and extrapolate. Two tools measuring the "same" visibility can disagree.
• Scoring methods are not standardised. A "visibility score" from one vendor is not comparable to another's: treat each as internally consistent, not cross-vendor truth.
• This category will keep restructuring. Two of the eight tools on this page changed their entire pricing structure within the past year. Recheck before you budget past the current billing period.

Free ways to check, before you pay

Before any subscription, it costs nothing to just ask ChatGPT and Perplexity directly whether they know your brand, and to run Ahrefs' free AI Overviews Tracker and AI Visibility Checker on a handful of your own keywords. The full free-tier breakdown, including what each free check actually caps you at, is in free ways to check your AI visibility.

If the real problem is not being cited

Every tool on this page answers one question: are you showing up in AI answers right now? None of them make you more likely to show up. Being cited depends on having content an AI model can actually point to: specific, evidenced, grounded in your own site's context, not generic restatement of what everyone else already published.

GrowGanic combines keyword research, article writing, scoring, publishing, rank tracking and content refreshes in one engine. It starts from a domain, reads the public site, and researches real search demand in that market. Every article is grounded in the site's own context and in evidence the engine can cite, then scored and published to a connected CMS or to a hosted GrowGanic blog. With a Google Analytics property connected, the engine reads how organic visitors engage with each article and uses that to order future topics. It has no AI-visibility tracking of its own, so it answers a different question than the tools above: it is the production side, not the measurement side. Try the free tier (affiliate link), which gives you one article with no card.

The verdict, by situation

Frequently asked questions

Related

Last reviewed 20 October 2026. This category restructures often: prices are re-checked monthly. Spotted one out of date? Tell me.