Best AI Visibility Tools (2026): Profound, Peec, Otterly, and More Compared
A new category of martech exists because a new question exists: when ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Mode answers a buyer’s question, are you in the answer? AI visibility tools (the category also answers to GEO or AEO tracking) monitor exactly that - and because the category is two years old, pricing and quality vary wildly and every vendor claims the crown.
This is a neutral comparison. We do not sell an AI visibility tool. Every price below was verified on the vendor’s own pricing page in August 2026 - where a vendor does not publish numbers, we say so instead of guessing.
The comparison table
| Tool | Verified pricing (Aug 2026) | Engines covered | Prompt volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | Lite $29/mo; Standard $189/mo; Premium $489/mo (15% off annual) | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; Claude and Gemini/AI Mode as paid add-ons ($9-$439/mo) | 15 / 100 / 400 prompts |
| Profound | Starter $99/mo; Growth $399/mo (both billed yearly); Enterprise call-only | Starter: ChatGPT only; Growth: 3 engines; Enterprise: up to 9 | 50 / 100 / custom prompts |
| Peec AI | Starter, Pro, Advanced tiers + Enterprise - exact figures load dynamically; confirm on their page | ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini | Varies by tier |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Add-on to Ahrefs: $398/mo (select platforms) or $699/mo (all platforms) | AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok + YouTube/TikTok/Reddit | 2,500 custom prompt checks/mo (all-platforms tier), on a 475M+ monthly prompt database |
| Semrush AI SEO | Folded into the Semrush suite (AI Visibility Index and AI SEO dashboard); pricing not published separately | Suite-dependent | Suite-dependent |
Three pricing patterns worth noticing. First, prompt volume is the real product - every vendor meters it, and a “cheap” plan tracking 15 prompts answers a much smaller question than 400. Second, engines are upsells: Profound’s $99 tier watches ChatGPT only, and Otterly sells Claude coverage as an add-on - check that the engines your buyers actually use are in the tier you are quoted. Third, billing terms hide in the fine print: Profound’s listed prices assume annual billing.
Who each tool fits
- Otterly.AI - the low-commitment entry. $29/month is the cheapest verified way to see the category work on your own brand: 15 prompts, four engines, daily tracking. Grow into Standard if the data earns it.
- Profound - the enterprise-lean pick. The credit-based agents, SSO/SOC2 tier, and agency orchestration features aim at large brands; the $99 ChatGPT-only Starter is best read as a sampler for that motion.
- Peec AI - built around SEO and content-team workflows, with the broadest default engine list including AI Mode and AI Overviews. Get the current number from their pricing page before comparing - it is not verifiable statically.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar - the suite play. If your team already lives in Ahrefs, $398-$699/month adds AI answers plus YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit monitoring on a very large prompt database - and your SEO and AI data share one roof. As a standalone purchase it is priced against much cheaper dedicated tools.
- Semrush AI SEO - same logic on the other big suite; evaluate inside a Semrush trial rather than from third-party price lists.
The honest caveats (read before buying any of them)
Every tool in this category shares four limitations that the sales decks do not lead with. One: they sample synthetic prompt panels, not real user conversations - no vendor sees what actual buyers ask ChatGPT. Two: each tool picks its own prompts and schedule, so two tools will report different visibility numbers for the same brand and both will be “right.” Three: AI answers are non-deterministic - the same prompt can name you at 9am and skip you at noon, so treat scores as trends, not truths. Four: measurement is not improvement. A dashboard tells you that you are absent from answers; it does not make you present in them.
That last point is the budget question. These tools measure; the work that moves the number is the unglamorous kind we covered in does llms.txt actually work and how to get your SaaS recommended by ChatGPT: crawlable pages that answer real buyer questions, and third-party mentions on the pages AI systems cite. If the choice is $400/month of measurement or $400/month of content that earns citations, early-stage teams should usually pick the content and measure lean.
The free-and-lean alternative
Before any subscription, two measurements cost nothing:
- Track the traffic side in GA4. AI referral visits from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini are identifiable today - our step-by-step GA4 guide builds the AI channel and its blind-spot caveats.
- Run a manual panel monthly. Ten buyer questions, asked in each major assistant, logged in a spreadsheet. Crude, but it is the same method the tools automate - and it tells you whether you have a visibility problem worth $189/month to monitor. Context for why this matters now: AI Overviews are already reshaping B2B traffic.
The half no tool measures: what happens when an AI-referred buyer lands. They arrive mid-conversation, with the next question already formed. Chat that answers it in the moment - and attribution that ties the visit to revenue - is how AI visibility becomes pipeline instead of a dashboard.
Frequently asked questions
What are AI visibility tools?
Software that monitors how AI assistants and answer engines mention, cite, and recommend your brand, by running tracked prompt panels on a schedule and reporting share of answers, citations, and competitor presence.
How much do they cost?
Verified as of August 2026: from $29/mo (Otterly Lite) and $99/mo (Profound Starter, ChatGPT only, annual billing) up to $398-$699/mo (Ahrefs Brand Radar add-on) and call-only enterprise tiers. Prompt volume drives price everywhere.
Which is best for a startup?
Otterly’s $29 Lite plan is the cheapest verified entry; Ahrefs shops can test Brand Radar in their existing stack; Profound targets enterprise workflows.
Can I track AI visibility free?
The traffic side, yes - GA4 segmentation - plus a manual monthly prompt panel. Paid tools add systematic panels, competitor share, and citation sources.
The bottom line
AI visibility tooling is real, useful, and young: verified prices run from $29 to $699+ a month for different depths of the same core job, and every tool measures a synthetic approximation of a non-deterministic system. Buy measurement once you have something to measure - a deliberate effort to earn AI citations - and size the spend to the decision it informs. The dashboard is the scoreboard; the content, the mentions, and what your site does with the click remain the game.
See the after-the-click half live: Marqeable answers AI-referred buyers with website chat grounded in your business, follows up through automations, and ties those visits to revenue with attribution.
Marqeable runs your campaigns, answers every visitor, text, and email in seconds, and turns them into booked jobs and meetings - even at 9pm on a Saturday. We’re in private beta with a small early cohort. Get early access
