Key takeaways
- Measurement is now a commodity. Most platforms track prompts and citations, so the real differences are crawler logs, traffic attribution, and whether the tool helps you fix what it finds.
- Compare cost per response, not cost per prompt. Billing units, engine add-ons, and check frequency change the real price a lot.
- Under $100 a month you can monitor. Between $100 and $500 you can usually monitor and act. Above that, you are buying enterprise services, security reviews, or multi-brand governance.
- Profound removed its public $99 and $399 plans in September 2026, so older roundups quoting them are stale.
- Every comparison source out there sells a competing product, including this network's recommendation of Promptwatch. Check pricing pages before you buy.
What you are actually buying
An AI visibility platform tracks whether your brand is mentioned and cited in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and other engines. It runs a set of prompts on a schedule, records the answers, and shows you mentions, citations, sentiment, and competitors.
That is the easy part, and it is why the market has 20-plus vendors selling roughly the same dashboard. The harder questions are the ones that decide which tool is worth paying for. Can it show whether AI crawlers can even read your site? Can it connect AI answers to visits and conversions? Does it help you write the page that fixes a gap, or does it hand you a chart and wish you luck?
One vendor comparison claims 18 of 21 platforms track prompts and citations, while only 13 read crawler logs. That is a vendor claim, so treat it as directional. But it matches what I see: the monitoring layer is cheap and everywhere, and the value sits above it.
Why engine coverage and sources-per-answer matter
Before picking a plan, understand how different engines behave, because it affects how many prompts and engines you need.
According to Promptwatch's average sources per response data, ChatGPT cites about 5 sources per answer when web search triggers, while Google AI Overviews cites about 10 and Perplexity almost exactly 10 every day. Copilot swung from under 2 to nearly 17 before settling at the low end, so judge it on monthly trends. With only about 5 slots in ChatGPT, tracking each engine separately is not optional. AI Overviews is the easier door for a newer domain.
The fan-out data is just as useful. Promptwatch's ChatGPT query fanout report shows average fanout query length fell from about 117 characters to about 53 between December 2025 and March 2026. Short, keyword-like queries are what the model searches for behind the scenes. A tool that surfaces the actual fan-out queries is more useful than one that only reports whether you were named.
If you want the wider context on which sources AI engines lean on, the Promptwatch Data hub has reports by industry and engine.
The pricing traps that skew every comparison
Lists of starting prices are misleading. Five things move the real number.
- Billing units differ. Peec AI and Otterly sell prompts, AthenaHQ sells credits where one credit is one AI response. Peec's Starter works out to about $0.021 per response, AthenaHQ's to about $0.082.
- Engines on the marketing page are not engines in your plan. Peec shows six and includes three on self-serve plans. Otterly includes four and charges for AI Mode, Gemini, and Claude. On Standard those add-ons cost $59, $59, and $109 a month, which takes a $189 plan to roughly $416 for all seven engines.
- Frequency costs money. LLM Pulse's daily checks cost 50 to 61 percent more than weekly ones. Scrunch checks every 72 hours after day 14.
- Data collection varies. Peec and Otterly scrape the consumer UI. API-only monitoring can differ from what real users see, so ask how answers are collected.
- Seats. Peec, Otterly, and Lumirank have unlimited users. Promptwatch and Scrunch cap seats by tier.
Entry-level pricing at a glance (October 2026)
These figures come from vendor pages and roundups. Several conflict between sources, so confirm on each pricing page.
| Tool | Entry price | What you get | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo (Lite) | 15 prompts, 4 engines | Lite has no API or MCP; extra engines are add-ons |
| HubSpot AEO | $50/mo | 25 prompts, 3 engines | Narrow engine set; 28-day trial is long though |
| AI Peekaboo | From $50/mo | Five engines, white-label reports on every tier, read/write API | Lighter on content execution |
| Lumirank | Free, then $29 and $99 | Pro has 100 prompts, 6 engines | No crawler logs |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | 50 prompts, 1 project, unlimited seats | 3 models on self-serve; API is Enterprise-only |
| Promptwatch | Free tier, then $95/mo | 50 prompts on Essential, all engines, API and MCP | Seats limited by tier; crawler logs start at Professional |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo | 25 prompts, 1 domain | Extra prompts and domains add up fast; no free trial |
| Otterly Standard | $189/mo | 100 prompts, API, MCP, Agent Analytics | Add-on engines raise the real price |
| Peec Pro / Promptwatch Professional | $245/mo | 150 prompts, 2 projects/seats | Compare which engines are included |
| Scrunch | $250-300/mo | SOC 2 Type II, AXP | Sources disagree on prompt counts |
| AthenaHQ | $295/mo | 3,600 credits | About $0.08 per response |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | $199-699/mo add-on | AI tracking beside Ahrefs data | Requires a paid Ahrefs plan |
| Profound | Custom (trial available) | Up to 9 engines, Agent Analytics | Vendr median contract around $35,250 a year |
Solo operators and tiny teams (1 to 5 people, under $100 a month)
You probably need one answer: am I showing up, and where am I losing to competitors? You do not need SOC 2 reports or custom dashboards.
Otterly.AI at $29 is the cheapest real entry point and covers four engines. Fifteen prompts is tight, but fine for one brand with a handful of money terms. It has a 7-day trial with no card.
Otterly.AI
AI Peekaboo starts at $50 and includes white-label reporting on every tier, which makes it unusually good for a freelancer reporting to a handful of clients.
Peec AI at about $95 is the clean-design option, and unlimited seats mean a founder can invite a contractor without paying more.
If you want to try before paying, Promptwatch has a free Explore plan with 10 prompts on ChatGPT only, and Essential at $95 unlocks all models plus site audit, content gap analysis, and API access. Its free AI Visibility Report also works as a no-login check on how ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity describe you.
My blunt advice at this tier: do not start with the cheapest plan if your category is competitive. Fifteen prompts burns out in a week. Start with 25 to 50 prompts, pick your engines, and spend the saved budget on actually publishing content.
Small and mid-size teams (5 to 20 people, $100 to $500 a month)
This is where the decision gets real. You have a content team, you want to prove the channel works, and you need more than a dashboard.
Ask three questions of every shortlisted tool:
- Can it show which AI crawlers visit my site and whether they hit errors?
- Can it tie AI referrals to conversions?
- Can it help produce the content that closes the gaps it finds?
Otterly Standard at $189 includes API, MCP, and Agent Analytics, but the engine add-ons inflate it. Peec Pro at $245 gives 150 prompts and 2 projects. Promptwatch Professional at $245 matches those numbers on prompts and adds crawler logs, visitor analytics, a knowledge base, and a few AEO articles; Business at $579 adds the automated Content Agent, state and city tracking, and Shopping Insights. Most monitoring-only tools stop before that point, which is the gap that matters once your team wants results rather than reports.
If you already live in an SEO suite, the add-on route is reasonable. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 for 25 prompts and one domain, and Ahrefs Brand Radar runs $199 per index or $699 for all platforms on top of an Ahrefs plan. The combined Ahrefs cost with a Lite plan lands around $328. You get familiar workflows. You also get fixed prompt sets and thinner AI-specific data than the dedicated tools.
Scrunch ($250 to $300) makes sense if brand protection and accuracy are the priority, and its SOC 2 Type II helps with procurement. AthenaHQ at $295 uses credits, so model the cost per response before signing.
Agencies managing multiple clients
Per-brand pricing punishes agencies. Look for unlimited projects, white-label output, and seat counts that match your team.
- AI Peekaboo includes white-label reporting on every tier and offers volume pricing for agencies with 10 or more brands.
- Otterly's Agency Partners get 150 prompts on Standard and 500 on Premium at the same price.
- Peec's agency tiers run $245, $495, and $795 on a credit model.
- Promptwatch's agency plans start at $199 (Kick-off), then $399 and $799, with unlimited projects and prompts, 10 seats, and all engines. They exclude the Content Agent and Knowledge Base, so check whether you need those for clients.
- LLMClicks is positioned around multi-client agencies with contact-for-pricing.
If you need an agency partner rather than a tool, 1001 SEO Media runs technical SEO, content, and GEO work for brands that would rather hand off execution.
Enterprise and multi-brand organizations (custom pricing)
Above roughly $500 a month, you are paying for security reviews, governance, service, and scale.
- Profound is the self-serve depth leader. It raised a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation on September 15, 2026 and, around then, dropped its $99 and $399 public brand plans. As of mid-October brands get a 7-day trial (50 preset prompts on 3 engines) or custom enterprise pricing covering up to 9 engines. Do not quote the old figures. Vendr's median contract is around $35,250 a year.
- Brandlight is enterprise-only, with no published pricing and typically a paid pilot first. It suits global multi-brand organizations that want a strategy partner.
- Conductor is quote-only with a median contract of roughly $48,950 a year.
- Bluefish is enterprise-only. Petra Labs starts at $15,000 a month for bespoke strategy and execution.
- Yext Scout fits enterprises with hundreds of physical locations.
Profound
Promptwatch also sits here for teams that want ISO/IEC 27001 and GDPR coverage with agentic content workflows and tailored enterprise terms, at lower cost than most custom-quote vendors.
Match the tool to the job
| If you need to... | Look at |
|---|---|
| Check visibility cheaply | Otterly Lite, Lumirank, HubSpot AEO |
| Report to clients under your brand | AI Peekaboo, Peec agency tiers, Promptwatch agency plans |
| See crawler logs and AI traffic | Promptwatch (Professional and up), Profound, Otterly Standard |
| Turn gaps into published content | Promptwatch Business, Leapd, Writesonic |
| Stay inside your SEO suite | Semrush AI Toolkit, Ahrefs Brand Radar |
| Protect against misinformation | Scrunch, Profound FactCheck |
| Govern many brands and markets | Brandlight, Profound, Conductor |
| Track local and multi-location visibility | Yext Scout, Promptwatch Business |
A short checklist before you pay
- List the engines your buyers actually use and confirm each is included in the plan, not just on the website.
- Convert the plan to cost per response at the check frequency you need.
- Ask whether answers come from the consumer UI or an API.
- Check whether crawler logs, API, and MCP are on your tier. Otterly's Lite has none; Peec keeps the API for Enterprise.
- Decide what happens after the insight. If your team cannot write and publish fast, pick a tool with content execution built in.
- Run the free trial with your real prompts, not the presets.
The vendor bias problem
The research behind this guide leans on comparison pages from Promptwatch, Otterly, Omnia, Indexly, and Humanswith. Every one of them sells a competing product, and the numbers in their tables occasionally disagree. Promptwatch's own Essential price shows as $95 on its site but $99 on Otterly's comparison page, for instance, and Scrunch's prompt counts differ by source. Treat all of it as a starting point and verify on the vendor pricing pages.
For more category listings to browse, the GEO software directory collects options beyond the ones covered here.
Bottom line
Solo and under $100: pick Otterly or AI Peekaboo and be honest about prompt limits. Growing team at $100 to $500: favor a platform that shows crawler activity and traffic, and can help you ship content, not just chart gaps. Agency: unlimited projects and white-label output matter more than any single metric. Enterprise: buy for governance and service, and ask for a pilot before a contract. In every case, spend the first trial week on your own prompts, not the demo set.