- Entry prices run from $29 a month to custom contracts, yet three leading tools cost about $1.90 a month per tracked prompt at their cheapest plan.
- Default engine coverage differs more than price: Gemini, Perplexity and Claude are add-ons at several vendors.
- Pick a tool that separates mentions from citations and scores sentiment.
- Newer tools go past tracking: they diagnose why you were skipped and suggest what to fix.
What does an AI visibility tracking tool actually do?
An AI visibility tracking tool runs a fixed set of buyer questions through AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity every day. It records whether your brand was named, whether your site was linked as a source, where you were placed in the answer, and how the answer described you.
AI visibility is how often, how high and how favourably AI engines name your brand when buyers ask about your category. Checking it needs automation, because 47.5% of the sources these engines cite change from one day to the next, based on our 13-day tracking experiment in 2026.
A tool that scans daily catches that churn. A person checking once a week misses most of it.
We sort these tools into three layers, and we use that framing for the comparison below. Many tools stop at the first layer, and the gap between them shows up after the first month of charts.
- Tracking. Daily scans, mention and citation rates, and share of voice against competitors you name.
- Diagnosis. Sentiment per engine, your position inside each answer, the hidden searches behind an answer, and whether AI crawlers can read your site.
- Action. Prioritised recommendations, the third-party sites to approach, and drafts of the content that would get you cited.
What should you check before choosing one?
Check six things before comparing prices: which engines the base plan covers, how many prompts you get, whether citations are tracked apart from mentions, how often scans run, whether sentiment is scored, and whether the tool tells you what to do next. The cheapest plan on paper often fails the first check.
Engine coverage matters most. In our 50-prompt study, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini named the same brand only 21% of the time, and over half of all brand mentions came from a single engine.
- Engines in the base plan. Confirm ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are included, not sold as add-ons.
- Prompt allowance. A prompt is one buyer question the tool asks every day; 15 covers one product category, 50 or more covers several.
- Citations apart from mentions. A mention is your name in the answer, while a citation is a link to your page as the source.
- Daily scans. Weekly scans miss most of the day-to-day movement in what gets cited.
- Sentiment. In our 23-day study, the most-mentioned brand was also the least warmly described, so a mention count alone can mislead you.
- A next step. Recommendations, outreach targets or drafts turn a chart into work you can do this week.
How do the top AI visibility tools compare in November 2026?
Five paid tools cover the market from indie budgets to enterprise contracts. At their cheapest plans, three of them cost almost the same per tracked prompt, so the real differences are minimum spend, which engines are included, and how far past tracking each one goes.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts at entry | Engines included | Layers covered | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Rescue | $29/month (Lite), 5-day free trial | 15 | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews on every plan | Tracking, diagnosis and action: sentiment per engine, head-to-head comparison, query fan-out, AI crawler checker, outreach targets with pitch drafts, research-first article drafts | Solo founders and small SaaS teams |
| Otterly.ai | $29/month (Lite) | 15 | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot; Gemini, AI Mode and Claude cost extra | Tracking plus light diagnosis on Lite (3 recommendations a week); API and MCP access from Standard at $189 | Agencies that want API access on higher tiers |
| Peec AI | $95/month (Starter) | 50 | 3 active models chosen from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI; Perplexity on Enterprise | Tracking with detailed analytics; unlimited team seats | Teams that track a chosen set of engines |
| Scrunch | $300/month, or $250/month billed annually | 350 | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, Meta AI | Tracking and diagnosis: buyer personas, page audits | Mid-size and enterprise marketing teams |
| Profound | Custom (Enterprise); free 7-day trial | 50 on the trial | Trial: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews. Enterprise: up to 9 engines | Tracking, diagnosis and action: AI Marketer credits, Agent Analytics, ChatGPT Shopping | Enterprises with SSO and compliance reviews |
| Manual spreadsheet | Free | As many as you can run by hand | Any, entered by hand | Tracking only | A first check before paying |
Prices come from each vendor's public pricing page, checked on 1 November 2026: Otterly.ai pricing, Peec AI pricing, Profound pricing and Scrunch pricing. Vendors change plans often, so confirm before you buy.
Our per-prompt figure divides each entry price by its prompt allowance: $29 for 15 prompts is $1.93 a prompt at both $29 tools, and $95 for 50 is $1.90 at Peec AI. Scrunch works out at $0.71 a prompt on annual billing, but only after a $250 monthly minimum.
Which tool fits your situation?
Match the tool to your budget, your team and the engines your buyers use, not to the longest feature list. A one-person SaaS paying $29 a month needs different things from an agency reporting on a dozen client brands, or an enterprise whose security team approves every vendor.
- Solo founder, small team or small agency. Lead Rescue Lite covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews daily for $29 a month, with 15 prompts and 5 article drafts; its Growth ($99) and Pro ($199) plans add more prompts, unlimited brands and white-label PDF reports for clients.
- Agency that needs an API. Otterly.ai Standard ($189) includes API and MCP access and unlimited workspaces.
- Specific engines only. Peec AI Starter ($95) lets you choose 3 active models from 6 and add unlimited teammates.
- Enterprise with a security review. Scrunch Enterprise offers SAML and OIDC sign-in, and Profound Enterprise lists SSO, SAML and SOC 2 compliance.
- Not sure yet. Run the free manual method below for two weeks before paying for anything.
What can AI visibility tools do beyond counting mentions?
The newer tools explain why you were skipped and help you fix it. Expect sentiment per engine, your position inside each answer, the hidden searches behind an answer, checks on whether AI crawlers can read your site, and lists of third-party sites worth getting featured on.
Query fan-out is when an AI engine splits one question into several hidden searches before answering, so your page competes in searches you never targeted. Google uses the term for how AI Mode builds its answers, and our guide to query fan-out shows how to find those searches.
Outreach lists exist because AI engines lean on other people's pages. Across 7,409 citations from 606 answers in our study, the brand being asked about received just 2 to 4% of citations, while other companies' blogs and sites were the largest source on every engine.
- Sentiment per engine. What ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity each like about you and hold against you.
- Position distribution. How often you are named first, second or lower in answers that mention you.
- Crawler access. Whether GPTBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot can read your pages, or whether your server blocks them.
- Outreach targets. Sites cited in answers that name a competitor and skip you, ideally with a pitch you can send.
- Drafting. Article drafts that start from the sources AI already cites, which you review before publishing.
Can you track AI visibility without paying for a tool?
Yes. Run the same 10 to 15 buyer questions through ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity in fresh chats, then log whether your brand appears, where it is placed, and which competitors are named instead.
Pew Research Center put it plainly in its June 2025 headline: "34% of U.S. adults have used ChatGPT, about double the share in 2023".
Your buyers are already asking these engines, so even a manual check is worth doing.
Our walkthroughs for checking ChatGPT by hand and checking Perplexity by hand cover the exact steps. Start a fresh conversation each time, so earlier answers don't colour the result.
The free method stops scaling quickly. In our experience, 15 prompts across 3 engines take 30 to 45 minutes by hand, and a monthly check misses most of the trend.
Quick win: run the manual method for two weeks first. It tells you whether your prompt list is worth automating before you spend anything.
How many prompts should you track?
Start with 15 to 30 prompts for one product category: a few early research questions, several comparison questions and a few ready-to-buy questions. That is enough to see a pattern within two weeks.
Add more once you know which questions your buyers ask, since every extra prompt runs on every engine every day.
Which AI engines matter most for a B2B SaaS?
Track ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity at minimum, because they draw on different sources. Across 606 answers in our citation study, ChatGPT favoured help docs and research, Gemini favoured blog posts and YouTube, and Perplexity favoured Reddit and forum threads.
Covering all three shows you which kind of content to invest in, rather than guessing from one engine.
How much should you budget for AI visibility tracking?
For one brand, $29 to $100 a month covers daily tracking of the main AI engines at November 2026 prices. Budget more only when you need many brands, several hundred prompts, API access or enterprise sign-in.
Before paying, test any tool's trial on your real prompts, not its demo data.
Once you have picked a tool, our guide on how to track brand visibility in AI search covers which metrics to watch and how often.
Lead Rescue tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews daily from $29 a month, shows what each engine says about you, and drafts the outreach and articles that close each gap. Start a free 5-day trial, no card needed.