How to choose an AI visibility tool

Choose an AI visibility tool by six things: which AI engines it tracks, how many prompts you get, how often they refresh, how each engine's answers are collected, whether you can read the stored answers, and the total price with add-ons. Prices range from about $29 a month for a starter plan to custom enterprise contracts.

We make one of these tools, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to make it useful anyway: the criteria apply to every tool, the prices are as published on each vendor's site, and the recommendations say where someone else is the better buy.

Six questions that separate the tools

1. Which engines, and which cost extra?

The main surfaces are Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Some tools add Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek or Meta AI. Many include three or four engines in the base price and sell the rest as add-ons, which can double the bill. Count the engines your buyers actually use, then price those.

2. How many prompts?

A prompt is one tracked question. 15 to 25 is enough to see the shape of one market. Agencies and brands with several product lines need hundreds. Check whether the limit is per account or per brand, and what extra prompts cost.

3. How often do they refresh?

Answers change between runs, so a trend needs repeated scans. Daily refresh gives a readable trend in weeks; weekly refresh needs a couple of months. Both work. Know which one you're paying for.

4. How is each engine collected?

Some tools collect what the consumer app shows; others ask the engine's API. API answers can differ from the app with different models, settings and sources. Neither is wrong, but the vendor should tell you which engine is collected which way.

5. Can you read the stored answers?

Every number should trace back to the text the engine wrote and the pages it cited. If a tool shows a score but not the answers behind it, you can't check it or explain it to a client.

6. What else do you need around it?

Knowing you're not cited is step one. Fixing it means content, rankings and technical checks. Some teams want that in one tool; others already have an SEO suite and want only the AI layer.

Seven options, with prices

Prices were checked on each vendor's pricing page on 22 October 2026, and each tool name links to the page we used. They change often, so open it before you buy.

A few notes the table can't hold:

• Otterly.AI gives the most prompts per dollar at the low end. Its add-on engines are priced per plan, so the Standard plan with Gemini, AI Mode and Claude added costs noticeably more than the headline.
• Profound doesn't publish prices for its main plans. Expect a sales process.
• Scrunch includes Claude and Meta AI in the base price, which is unusual.
• Semrush and Ahrefs make sense if you already pay for them: the AI layer sits next to keyword and backlink data you use anyway. As a first purchase, the base plan makes them the most expensive route.
• SE Ranking's pricing page lists AI Search as an add-on and also shows prompt limits inside its plans; check which applies to the plan you'd buy.

Where Ranksmile fits, and where it doesn't

Ranksmile tracks five engines on every paid plan, stores every answer whole, and keeps mentions and citations apart per engine and per prompt. The same plan includes daily Google rank tracking, a site audit that checks whether AI crawlers can reach you, and a content editor with WordPress publishing. Claude, Grok and DeepSeek are add-ons at €10 a month each on Growth.

Where others are the better buy:

• You need hundreds of prompts cheaply. Growth has 25, Scale 50, Agency 100. Otterly's Standard plan has 100 for less than our Agency plan.
• You need Microsoft Copilot or Meta AI. We don't track them.
• You need white-label reports, SSO or a public API. We don't offer them yet.
• You want a long track record. We're a young company. The 7-day trial exists so you can judge the data rather than our word.

Which one to pick

• Just checking whether you have a problem: do it by hand first. This method takes an afternoon.
• Tight budget, many questions: Otterly.AI Lite or Standard.
• Already pay for Semrush or Ahrefs: try their AI add-on before buying another tool.
• Enterprise brand, many markets, a procurement process: Profound or Scrunch.
• Small team or agency that wants AI visibility, rankings, audit and content in one place: Ranksmile.

Whichever you choose, run it for a month before deciding. One scan is a sample, and a tool earns its place by the trend it shows you, not by its first report.