Key takeaways
- Entry-level AI visibility tools cost roughly $29 to $100 a month in 2026. Serious multi-model tracking for a small store usually lands between $95 and $250 a month.
- Price follows prompts, AI models and markets. Catalogue size barely matters, so count categories and countries, not SKUs.
- Headline prices hide add-ons. Otterly Lite at $29 can reach about $47 once extra engines are added, and Ahrefs and Semrush often need a base plan underneath.
- Published prices conflict across review sites because of currency, annual billing and vendor bias. Always confirm on the vendor's own pricing page.
- Tracking alone does not sell anything. Budget for fixing content and product data too, or pick a tool that helps with that.
What you are actually paying for
An AI visibility tool runs a set of prompts ("best running shoes under $120") across AI engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, then reports whether your brand or products show up, in what position, and which sources got cited.
That means the bill is basically multiplication: prompts x AI models x markets x how often it runs. A store with 300 SKUs does not need 300 prompts. It needs a prompt set per product category and per country. A store selling skincare in two countries might need 40 to 80 prompts. That is a mid-tier plan, not an enterprise one.
One more detail from Promptwatch Data: engines cite very different numbers of sources. ChatGPT cites about 5 sources per web-search answer, while Google AI Overviews and Perplexity cite about 10. So a prompt on one engine is not equal to a prompt on another, and tools that bundle "one price, all engines" are not always comparable.
2026 price comparison
These are published starting prices gathered from vendor-authored comparisons and public pricing pages. Currency and billing terms vary, so treat them as ballparks.
| Tool | Entry price | What you get | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo (Lite) | 15 prompts, daily, 4 engines | AI Mode, Gemini and Claude cost extra; Standard is $189 for 100 prompts |
| Ranketta | EUR 29/mo (Tracker), EUR 79/mo (Starter) | 2 to 3 models, SKU tracking | Vendor wrote the comparison that lists it |
| Peec AI | about $80 to $95/mo | 50 prompts, 3 models, daily | Price varies by source, currency and billing |
| Promptwatch | $95/mo (Essential) | 50 prompts, all models, daily | Content Agent starts at Business |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo | 25 prompts, 1 domain | SEO plus AI bundles run $165 to $456 |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | custom prompts from about $50/mo; index from $199/mo | Check-based packages | Needs a base Ahrefs plan, totals can pass $600 |
| AthenaHQ | free tier, then $295/mo | Credit-based, 11 models | Credits are not recurring daily prompts |
| ZipTie | $69/mo | 500 checks a month | Check-based, not prompt-based |
| Profound | $99 (ChatGPT only) to custom | Enterprise depth | Full coverage is a custom quote |
A few of these deserve a closer look.
Otterly.AI
Otterly is the cheapest widely listed paid entry at $29 a month. Maya's own cost example adds a couple of $9 add-ons for extra platforms and lands near $47 a month. Good for a first audit, thin for a store with several categories.
Peec AI is the usual pick for small in-house teams: 50 daily prompts, three models you choose, and a product catalogue view from Shopify or Google Merchant Center. Sources quote anywhere from $80 to $95 a month depending on currency and billing term, so check the current page.
Semrush makes sense mainly if you already live in it. The standalone AI Visibility Toolkit is listed at $99 for 25 prompts and one domain, but SEO plus AI Search bundles start higher.
Ahrefs Brand Radar stacks on top of an existing Ahrefs subscription. If you do not already pay for Ahrefs, the all-in cost is the number to compare, not the add-on price.
Where Promptwatch fits
Promptwatch starts at $95 a month on Essential (50 prompts, all supported AI models, daily tracking, Agent Chat, Brand Narrative, visitor analytics and site audits). Unlike monitoring-only trackers, it also traces where AI gets its answers and, on Business at $579 a month, adds the Content Agent, ChatGPT Shopping insights and Ads Radar. For a small store, Essential or Professional ($245) is the realistic range. Confirm current numbers at promptwatch.com/pricing, or run the free AI visibility report first.
Three realistic budgets
Under $50 a month: a first audit
Otterly Lite, Ranketta Tracker or a cheap annual plan from tools like Keyword.com or Rankscale. Expect 15 to 30 prompts. Enough to learn whether ChatGPT knows your brand exists. Not enough to track more than one or two categories.
$90 to $250 a month: the sensible small-store range
Peec AI Starter, Promptwatch Essential, Semrush's toolkit or Professional-tier plans give you 50 to 150 prompts, daily runs and several models. This is where most small ecommerce brands should start. Fifty prompts split across five categories gives you about ten per category, which is a workable sample.
$250 to $600 a month: when you outgrow tracking
Here you pay for faster refresh, more markets, local targeting, shopping data or content generation. Check whether you need these before paying. A single-country store with one product line rarely does.
Hidden costs to budget for
- Extra engines. Some plans charge separately for AI Mode, Gemini or Claude.
- Base subscriptions. Ahrefs and Semrush AI features sit on top of their SEO plans in many configurations.
- Credits versus prompts. AthenaHQ's 3,600 monthly credits are not 3,600 daily prompts.
- Refresh frequency. Promptmonitor and LLM Pulse have cheaper tiers that run weekly or twice weekly. Daily tracking costs more.
- Currency and annual billing. Annual plans typically take around 15 to 17% off, and euro prices differ from dollar prices.
- Fixing the gaps. Tracking tells you that you are missing. Rewriting product pages, cleaning your feed and publishing comparison content costs time or money.
Product-level tracking is the ecommerce twist
A brand mention only says an assistant knows your name. A SKU or product view says which items made the shortlist.
Among the comparisons we reviewed, only Ranketta and Peec AI list SKU-level tracking on their pricing pages. For the rest, ask the vendor. Be careful reading that list though: it comes from Ranketta, which is itself a vendor.
Shopping surfaces matter too. Promptwatch's ChatGPT shopping data shows product cards appear on only a low single-digit share of web-search responses, concentrated in commercial and transactional prompts. So for most stores, tracking commercial prompts like "best X under $Y" is more useful than paying for a dedicated shopping module on day one.
How to pick without overspending
- List your product categories and the countries you sell in. Multiply by 8 to 15 prompts each.
- Pick the engines your buyers actually use. ChatGPT first, then Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.
- Start on the cheapest plan that covers that prompt count daily, ideally with a trial.
- Run it for 30 days on your real product list. Check whether the answers it reports match what you see in the real interfaces.
- Only upgrade when you hit a concrete limit, such as prompts, markets or the need to publish content.
A caution on sources: the price tables above come from Ranketta, Triple Whale, Maya, Rankability and ESEO Space. Two of those are vendors competing in this market, and published prices disagree (Peec alone shows up at EUR 85, $80, $89 and $95). Verify everything on the vendor's page.
Is it worth it for a small store?
If AI assistants are already recommending products in your category, yes, at least for a month or two of data. Pew Research found an 8% click rate when a Google AI summary appeared versus 15% without one, so shoppers who never reach your site will not show up in GA4. A $95 plan costs less than a single day of modest ad spend for many stores.
But visibility tools do not attribute revenue. Pair them with your normal ecommerce analytics, and treat the tool as a way to find gaps, not as proof of sales.
If you want to compare more options, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com lists many of the trackers above.
Bottom line
Plan on $29 to $100 a month for a pilot and $95 to $250 a month for a setup you can actually work from. Count categories and markets before you look at pricing pages, confirm each price directly with the vendor, and start with the smallest plan that covers your real prompt set.