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How to choose AI visibility tools
Shop AI visibility tools on engines you can defend in a meeting, share of voice against named rivals, and citations. Then ask whether the tool explains why you lost and how to get mentioned next time.
The five criteria that actually matter
An AI visibility tracker answers a different question than an SEO rank tracker. SEO tools tell you where you sit on Google’s blue links. An AI visibility platform tells you whether ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity name your brand, and who they name instead.
- Engines you can defend in a meeting. At minimum: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. One-engine samples are a demo.
- Share of voice against named competitors. “You were mentioned” is not enough. You need who else was mentioned, how often, and on which buying prompts.
- Citations, not just mentions. A useful tracker shows the URLs and hosts that won the cite so you know what to fix.
- A playbook, not a dashboard screenshot. Ranked moves: on-site copy, pages to publish, listings to earn.
- What → why → how. A good tool does not stop at a mention chart. You need the raw data for whether you were mentioned and/or cited on a prompt (what), an interpretation of why a brand is or is not mentioned or cited (why), and a path from that reasoning to getting mentioned or cited next time (how). Most trackers sell the what. The why and the how are the job.
How current AI visibility tools score
This is our reading of public pages as of 2026-09-08. We did not hands-on test Profound, Peec, or Otterly. “Partial” means the page advertises part of the job, or the cheap SKU is missing an engine.
| Capability | CompeteScan | Otterly Lite | Profound Starter | Semrush Toolkit | Ahrefs Brand Radar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT + Gemini + Perplexity on the cheap SKU | Yes. All three on Free and Starter. | Partial. Gemini is an add-on. | No. ChatGPT only. | Yes, on the Toolkit page. | Yes on Lite and above. |
| Share of voice vs named rivals | Yes | Yes (visibility index) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shows citations | Yes | Yes (link citations) | Yes | Mentions and reports | Yes (cited pages) |
| Ranked playbook | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Entry price | Free, then $49/mo Starter | $29/mo Lite | $99/mo Starter, billed monthly | $99/mo Base | $129/mo Lite |
Traps I see when people shop AI visibility tools
- ChatGPT-only “starter” SKUs. Profound Starter is honest about this. It is still the SKU most comparison blogs treat as “Profound.”
- Gemini as an add-on. Otterly Lite looks cheap until you add Gemini.
- SEO-suite bundling. Backlinks and site audits are useful. They do not tell you if Gemini recommended your rival.
- Sticker prices that hide the invoice. Some vendors put a cheap number on the page and move the real cost into add-ons, yearly-only SKUs, or a sales call. Otterly Lite looks like $29 until Gemini, Claude, and AI Mode are add-ons from $9 to $439 a month by plan. Profound Starter is $99 billed monthly; Growth is $399 billed yearly; Enterprise is a sales call. Semrush Toolkit Base is $99, then scheduled reports are extra ($10 and $20 a month). Ask what the invoice looks like with the engines and report you actually need.
If you want the shopping matrix with Peec included, use best AI visibility tools. If Semrush or Ahrefs is the live question, read our comparison of the two here.
Run the free AI visibility audit.