AI visibility tools show how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews talk about your brand. This guide explains the metrics, how to run a free manual audit first, and how to pick a platform that turns the numbers into fixes.
Updated October 7, 2026. Vendor prices checked against each vendor's own pricing page.
An AI visibility tool measures how often and how favorably AI answer engines mention and cite your brand. It runs a fixed set of prompts through ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, records who gets named and which URLs get cited, and reports your share of voice against competitors.
Many AI visibility platforms now go one step further: they turn gaps into work, such as new answer pages, schema fixes, and third-party mentions, and then re-measure. Some, like Profound, use AI agents your team runs; others, like Dooza, do the work for you. That is the difference between knowing you are invisible and becoming visible.
| Metric | Definition | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Mention rate | % of tracked prompts where your brand is named | The core visibility number |
| Citation rate | % of answers that link to your URLs | Drives AI referral traffic |
| Share of voice | Your mentions ÷ all brand mentions for the prompt set | Shows competitive position |
| Average position | Where you appear in lists and recommendations | First-named brands get chosen more |
| Sentiment | How positively the answer describes you | Catches wrong or negative framing |
| Cited sources | Domains and URLs the engine relies on | Tells you where to earn mentions |
| AI crawler access | Whether search bots like OAI-SearchBot can reach you | Blocked bots cannot cite you |
| AI referral traffic | Sessions from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, and others | Connects visibility to revenue |
Before buying any tool, run the audit by hand once. Backlinko's Matt Kenyon makes the case directly:
Before you go spending money on an automated AI visibility tracker, you should understand how large language models think, work, and what makes them valuable lead generation channels.
But even better is getting your brand mentioned by name in the actual answer. And if you can get both a direct mention and a citation, that’s perfection.
His method, condensed:
The manual audit is the right first step. It stops working when you need 50+ prompts, several engines, weekly re-runs, and a record over time. That is when a platform pays for itself.
| Type | Examples | What you get | What you still need |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI marketing platforms with agents | Profound | Deep multi-engine data, prompt volumes, agent analytics, and Agents that research, write, and publish with approval | Budget and a team to run the agents and review the work |
| Trackers with optimization or content features | Scrunch AI, AthenaHQ | Share of voice, sources, plus page optimizations, content generation, or a content optimization agent | A team to run them and act on the output |
| Trackers | Peec AI, Otterly.ai | Share of voice, sources, sentiment, recommended actions | Writers, SEO, outreach |
| SEO-suite add-ons | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Ahrefs Brand Radar | AI mentions next to SEO data | Same as trackers |
| Done-for-you service | Dooza | Tracking, citation map, and fixes done by Ranky and Dooza engineers | Approvals from you |
Score each tool 1–5 on these criteria and weight them to your situation:
A team with no writers should weight actionability at 3x. A team with an agency already producing content can weight coverage and history higher.
Prices below were checked October 2026 on each vendor's own pricing page and change often.
Competitor prices are from each vendor's own pricing page, checked October 7, 2026: Otterly.ai, Peec AI, Scrunch AI, AthenaHQ, and Profound. Always price your exact prompt count and engine list.
Dooza is an AI-native company that builds AI products and services for small businesses. For AI search, Ranky does the work. Ranky tracks how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews answer the prompts your buyers ask, maps which sources those answers cite, and then does the fixes: it drafts and publishes answer-ready pages, fixes schema, and flags the third-party threads worth joining, all behind your approval. Every Dooza product starts with a refundable pilot — 100% refund within 14 days.
In practice, a Dooza month looks like this:
If you are comparing against enterprise tools, read the best Profound AI alternative and Dooza vs Profound.
Next, learn how AI citations work and how to track Google AI Overviews.
Book a free pilot call. We will scope a pilot that builds your prompt set and baseline and ships the first fixes, with a 100% refund within 14 days.
An AI visibility tool tracks how often and how favorably AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews mention and cite your brand, usually by running a fixed set of prompts on a schedule.
Yes. Run 10 to 20 prompts manually in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google using temporary or incognito mode, log mentions, sources, and sentiment in a spreadsheet, and re-run the audit monthly.
Mention rate, citation rate, share of voice against competitors, average position, sentiment, cited sources, AI crawler access, and AI referral traffic.
Most growing brands should start with 30 to 100 unbranded, buying-intent prompts close to revenue, plus a small set of branded prompts to check accuracy.
A tracker reports where you appear. Many platforms also turn gaps into work: Profound's Agents research, write, and publish with approval, and Scrunch AI and AthenaHQ sell content features, all run by your team. Dooza does that work for you, with Ranky and Dooza engineers publishing fixes with your approval, then re-measuring.
Published prices range from a free plan (AthenaHQ Essential) and $29 per month (Otterly.ai Lite) to custom enterprise contracts (checked October 7, 2026). Dooza pricing depends on the product, and every Dooza product starts with a refundable pilot (100% refund within 14 days).
Automate your business with AI employees that work 24/7. Start with a refundable pilot: 100% refund within 14 days.
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Start with a refundable pilot — 100% refund within 14 days. A Dooza engineer scopes it with you on a free 30-minute call. Pricing depends on the product; see pricing.
Refundable pilot · 100% refund within 14 days · No contracts