The best AI visibility tools split into two camps: prompt-based trackers that sample AI answers, and log-based tools that measure real crawler hits in your server traffic.
The best AI visibility tools in 2026 are Profound, Peec AI, Otterly, Scrunch, and citAEOtion. Profound, Peec AI, Otterly, and Scrunch are prompt-based: they ask AI models sample questions and count mentions. citAEOtion is log-based: it reads real server traffic and classifies every AI crawler hit (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended) at $34.99 per month.
Quick answer: AI visibility tools measure whether AI systems see and cite your site. Prompt-based tools (Profound from around $99/mo billed yearly, Otterly from $29/mo, Scrunch from $300/mo, Peec AI priced by annual credits) run sample prompts against ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and track how often your brand appears. That is sampling, so results shift with prompt wording and model changes. citAEOtion is log-based at $34.99 per month: it installs a lightweight collector on WordPress, reads actual server requests, and reports which AI bot hit which URL, when, how often, and with what HTTP status. Measured crawler activity, not estimated mentions. citAEOtion also ships white-label reports and agency plans, with a Founders Club that locks 25 percent off agency pricing.
Two ways to measure AI visibility
Every tool in this category answers one question: are AI engines finding your content? They answer it in two very different ways.
Prompt-based trackers send a list of questions to models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews, then record whether your brand or URL shows up in the generated answers. This is useful for share-of-voice style reporting, but it is a sample. Change the prompt, the region, or the model version and the numbers move. You are watching a poll, not a headcount.
Log-based measurement skips the guessing. AI systems have to fetch your pages before they can quote them, and every fetch lands in your server traffic as a real request from a named bot. citAEOtion reads that traffic and tells you exactly which crawlers came, what they took, and how often. If GPTBot pulled 340 pages last week and ClaudeBot ignored your pricing page, you see it as a fact, not an estimate. See the approach on the how it works page, or read the full case for prompt-based vs log-based AI visibility.
Best AI visibility tools compared
| Tool | Data source | Starting price | Agency / white-label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | Prompt-based sampling of AI answers | around $99/mo (billed yearly) | Enterprise and custom |
| Peec AI | Prompt-based sampling of AI answers | Priced by annual credits | Agency plans, white-label reports |
| Otterly | Prompt-based sampling of AI and search answers | $29/mo (Lite) | Agency Partner, branded Looker reports |
| Scrunch | Prompt-based, with some agent attribution | $300/mo | Agency packages |
| citAEOtion | Log-based, real crawler hits | $34.99/mo | White-label reports, agency plans, Founders Club 25% locked |
Prices reflect each vendor's published plans in 2026. Profound publishes Starter at around $99 per month billed yearly and Growth at around $399 per month. Otterly lists Lite at $29, Standard at $189, and Premium at $489 per month. Scrunch lists Starter at $300 per month, or $250 billed annually. Peec AI sells by annual credit bundles rather than a flat monthly rate.
Profound
Profound is the enterprise name in prompt-based AEO. It monitors ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, tracks brand mentions, and reports sentiment and citations. The data is polished and the dashboards are strong. The trade-off is cost and method: it starts at around $99 per month billed yearly and jumps to around $399 for the Growth tier, and the core signal is still sampled answers rather than counted requests. Read the direct breakdown on citAEOtion vs Profound, or see the wider list of Profound alternatives.
Peec AI
Peec AI targets SEO teams and agencies with prompt tracking, competitor comparisons, and white-label client reporting. It prices by annual credits, so your cost scales with how many prompts you run across how many brands. Good fit for agencies that want branded mention reports. Still a sampling method underneath. Compare them head to head in citAEOtion vs Peec AI, or browse other Peec AI alternatives.
Otterly
Otterly is the cheapest entry point in the prompt-based group, with a Lite plan at $29 per month covering 15 search prompts. That prompt cap is the catch: real coverage lives on the $189 Standard and $489 Premium tiers. Otterly runs an Agency Partner program with Looker Studio reports branded for clients. See the full breakdown in citAEOtion vs Otterly.
Scrunch
Scrunch sits at the premium end, starting at $300 per month. It monitors AI platform answers and layers on some agent traffic attribution, but the headline metric is still how your brand shows up in sampled AI responses. For most WordPress site owners the price is hard to justify against a log-based tool that costs a tenth as much. Read the side-by-side in citAEOtion vs Scrunch.
citAEOtion, the log-based pick
citAEOtion is the GA for AI. A lightweight collector installs on WordPress, then the dashboard shows which bots hit which pages, when, how often, the HTTP status returned, and the category of each crawler: AI Training, AI Search, AI Assistant, or Data Scraper. Because it reads real server traffic, it catches bots the prompt tools never test for, including Amazonbot and Bytespider. It is $34.99 per month for a single site, with multi-site and agency plans and up to 29 percent off annual billing. Agencies can send white-label reports, and the Founders Club locks 25 percent off agency plans forever for a limited number of seats. For teams that manage many client sites, the agency plans are the fastest way to prove AI crawl coverage to clients with real numbers.
How big is this traffic? AI crawler requests now make up a measurable and growing share of automated web traffic, as tracked publicly by Cloudflare Radar. If that traffic is hitting your site, you want to count it, not poll for it.
How to choose
Pick a prompt-based tool if your only job is brand-mention reporting for a big budget and you accept sampling error. Pick log-based citAEOtion if you want to know, as fact, which AI systems crawl your pages and which ignore them, for $34.99 per month. Many teams run citAEOtion first because ground-truth crawl data tells you where to fix content before you pay to sample mentions.
Head-to-head comparisons and alternatives
- citAEOtion vs Profound
- citAEOtion vs Peec AI
- citAEOtion vs Otterly
- citAEOtion vs Scrunch
- Profound alternatives
- Peec AI alternatives
- Prompt-based vs log-based AI visibility
What is an AI visibility tool?
An AI visibility tool measures whether AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews can find, crawl, and cite your website. Some tools sample AI answers for brand mentions; others measure the crawler requests hitting your server.
What is the difference between prompt-based and log-based tracking?
Prompt-based tracking asks AI models sample questions and counts how often your brand appears in the answers, which is a sample. Log-based tracking reads your server traffic and counts the actual crawler visits from bots like GPTBot and ClaudeBot, which is a census.
What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?
Among log-based tools, citAEOtion is $34.99 per month for a single site. Among prompt-based tools, Otterly Lite is $29 per month but covers only 15 prompts. citAEOtion measures real crawler hits rather than a small prompt sample.
Which AI visibility tool is best for agencies?
citAEOtion offers white-label reports, multi-site and agency plans, and a Founders Club that locks 25 percent off agency pricing for limited seats. Peec AI and Otterly also offer agency reporting, but on a prompt-sampling method rather than real crawl data.
Do I need a prompt-based tool and a log-based tool?
Many teams start with log-based citAEOtion to confirm which AI crawlers actually reach their pages, then add a prompt tool only if they need brand-mention share reporting. Crawl data is the foundation, since a page no bot fetches cannot be cited.
Compare plans on the pricing page or start with a live demo.