Key takeaways
- Most budget trackers either charge extra for Google AI Mode or quietly track AI Overviews or the Gemini app instead. Check the plan, not the feature page.
- The cheapest options that include AI Mode in the base plan start around EUR 20 to EUR 49 a month (Rankscale, LLM Pulse). Otterly is cheaper on paper but needs an add-on.
- Under $100 you get monitoring. If you also want crawler logs, content generation and traffic attribution, you will likely outgrow this tier quickly.
- Prices below come from third-party roundups, many written by competing vendors. Confirm every number on the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
Why AI Mode needs its own tracker
Google AI Mode is not AI Overviews with a different label. AI Overviews sit above the classic results as a short summary. AI Mode is a conversational tab with multi-turn answers, and it cites different sources. Omnia reports from its own dataset of nearly 30 million citation events that 63% of AI Mode citations go to domains no other engine cited for the same prompt. That is a vendor figure, not independent research, but the direction matches what most people see when they compare surfaces side by side.
So a tool that tracks ChatGPT and Perplexity well can still tell you nothing about AI Mode. And plenty of tools that advertise "Google AI tracking" really cover AI Overviews only. Before comparing prices, ask one question: does this plan return real AI Mode answers and citations?
What the citations look like
Promptwatch's data on Google AI Mode citation share for June 2026 (May 31 to Jun 26, month to date) shows why this matters for tool selection. google.com took 7.31% of all AI Mode citations, more than YouTube (2.88%) and Reddit (2.52%) combined. It rose from 4.24% in May. Counting YouTube, Google-owned properties hold over 10% of citations, because AI Mode often answers with Maps listings, Business Profiles and Google support content. No independent site in the top 17 passed 1%.
Two practical consequences. First, your tracker should report citations by domain, including Google's own properties, or you will miss where citations actually go. Second, the report's advice is to compete with narrow pages that each fully answer one question, which is a content job, not a tracking job. Trackers tell you where you stand. They rarely fix it.
What to check before you pay
- AI Mode in the base plan or an add-on. This changes the real price by $9 to $89 a month depending on the vendor.
- Real interface data or an API proxy. Answers and citations from the user-facing surface can differ from API outputs.
- Refresh rate. Weekly is fine for trend lines. Daily matters when you are testing changes.
- Prompt limits. 50 prompts is a pilot, not a program.
- Citation detail. Do you see source URLs, or only a yes/no mention?
Comparison table
Prices are as reported in third-party roundups from 2026 and may be stale. Treat them as a starting point.
| Tool | Reported entry price | AI Mode in base plan? | Refresh | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rankscale | From EUR 20/mo | Yes | Weekly | Cheapest real AI Mode coverage |
| Cloro | Lite $30/mo (37,500 credits) | Credit-based | On demand | Pay-per-check testing |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo plus about $9 AI Mode add-on | Add-on | Daily | Budget multi-engine monitoring |
| Nightwatch | $39/mo (one source) or EUR 79/mo yearly (another) | Yes or add-on, sources conflict | Daily | Local and classic rank tracking |
| LLM Pulse | From EUR 49/mo | Yes, every plan | Daily | AI Mode first |
| Orchly | Essential $49/mo | Paid add-on | Varies | Multi-platform basics |
| Rankshift | $59/mo | Yes | Weekly | Competitive displacement |
| AI Rank Lab | Starter $69/mo (10,000 credits) | Credit-based | Varies | Credit-based checks |
| ZipTie | From about $25.65/mo, usage-based | Yes | Usage-based | Technical SEOs |
| Peec AI | $95/mo (50 prompts, 3 models) | One of 3 selectable models | Daily | In-house teams |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo per domain | Yes | Daily or weekly | Existing Semrush users |
The cheapest options that really cover AI Mode
Rankscale
Rankscale is the lowest published price in the roundups that actually include AI Mode in the base plan, at EUR 20 a month, with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Copilot alongside. The tradeoff is weekly refresh, so it is a trend tool rather than a debugging tool.
LLM Pulse
LLM Pulse puts AI Mode on every plan from EUR 49 a month, and one of the roundups prices it at roughly EUR 0.045 per answer. Its own guide calls the EUR 49 to $99 band the sweet spot for most teams, which is self-interested but reasonable. If AI Mode is your priority surface, this is the cleanest fit under budget.
Otterly.AI
Otterly was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in 2025 and has the lowest headline price at $29 a month. But AI Mode is a paid add-on, reported at about $9, so budget $38 or so. It is a sensible pick for solo marketers who want several engines in one dashboard.
Otterly.AI
Rankshift
Rankshift lists AI Mode in the base plan at $59 a month with weekly refresh and a focus on which competitors displace you in answers. Useful if your question is "who is taking my spot?" more than "am I there?"
ZipTie
ZipTie prices by usage (prompts times engines) from around $25.65 a month, and pairs each AI check with the organic top 10 for the same search. That is handy when you want to see rankings and AI citations on one screen. Heavier tracking pushes the price up, with one roundup listing a Standard plan at $84.15 for 1,000 checks.
Mid-range picks near the $100 ceiling
Nightwatch
Nightwatch is strongest where classic rank tracking and local SEO matter. The roundups disagree on price: $39 a month in one, EUR 79 a month billed yearly (EUR 99 monthly) in another, and an AI add-on in a third. Check the live pricing page. It is also euro-priced in at least one source.
Peec AI
Peec AI starts at $95 a month for 50 prompts on three models you choose, and AI Mode is one of the options. That works out around $0.021 per check in one analysis. It is polished, but with only three model slots you will be making tradeoffs.
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
At $99 a month per domain, this makes sense mainly if your team already lives in Semrush and wants AI Mode in the same reporting.
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is where "under $100" gets slippery. One source says the Core plan is $129 plus an $89 AI Search module. Another says platform plans start around $65 with an AI add-on at $71.20 for 200 prompts. Either way, with AI Mode you are likely near or over $100 once the add-on is included. Worth it if you also need audits and backlinks.
Tools that look cheap but need care
- Credit-based plans (Cloro, AI Rank Lab) are fine for testing, but credits burn fast when you track many prompts daily.
- Free tools mostly give a snapshot, not history. Omnia's roundup makes the same point: free runs out when you need competitor benchmarks or an explanation for a shift.
- Keyword.com advertises AI and rank tracking from very low entry prices, but check which engines the cheap tier covers.
A reminder on sources: the comparison pages these prices come from were written by vendors (KIME, Omnia, LLM Pulse, Geoptie and others), and each ranks itself well. The numbers are useful. The rankings are marketing.
When under $100 stops being enough
Tracking tells you the score. It does not tell you why, and it does not publish the page that would change it. At some point you will want three things the cheap tier mostly lacks: AI crawler logs to see whether bots can read your pages, visitor analytics to see whether AI sends traffic and conversions, and a way to produce content aimed at the gaps.
Promptwatch is the end-to-end option for that stage. It monitors the real interfaces of ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and others, then traces citations, flags content gaps, and its Content Agent writes and publishes pages to WordPress, Webflow or Framer. The Essential plan is $95 a month (50 prompts, daily tracking), so it lands inside this budget, though crawler logs and the Content Agent start on Professional ($245) and Business ($579). Confirm current pricing at promptwatch.com/pricing. There is a 7-day free trial on monthly billing and a free AI visibility report if you want to check where you stand first.
For a wider shortlist, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists more tools by category.
How to choose by situation
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest possible spend, AI Mode must be included | Rankscale | EUR 20, base plan, weekly refresh |
| AI Mode is the main surface | LLM Pulse | On every plan, daily |
| Solo marketer, several engines | Otterly.AI | Cheapest entry, remember the add-on |
| Rankings plus AI citations together | ZipTie | Pairs AI checks with organic top 10 |
| Local SEO focus | Nightwatch | Precision and local tracking |
| Tracking plus action and measurement | Promptwatch | Crawler logs, content gaps, content publishing |
| Already paying for an SEO suite | Semrush or SE Ranking | Keep reporting in one place |
A simple buying process
- Write down 20 to 50 prompts your buyers would really type into AI Mode, including comparison and "best X for Y" questions.
- Run a trial on two tools using the same prompts and compare the citations, not just the mention rate.
- Check whether source URLs and Google-owned citations (Maps, Business Profiles, YouTube) are reported.
- Calculate the true monthly cost with the AI Mode add-on and the prompt volume you need.
- Review after 60 days. If you are reading dashboards but not shipping pages, the tool is not the bottleneck.
Final thought
For pure AI Mode monitoring on a tight budget, Rankscale and LLM Pulse are the cleanest picks, and Otterly works if you accept the add-on. If you can stretch to the $95 range and want something that also helps you fix gaps instead of just reporting them, put Promptwatch's trial next to Peec AI and see which one changes what you publish.