An AEO tool tracks how often AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini mention and cite your brand across a set of prompts, benchmarks you against competitors, and surfaces where you are losing the answer. It is the measurement layer of an Answer Engine Optimization program.

Do I need a paid tool to do AEO?

Not to start. You can manually run your priority prompts across the major engines and record where you are cited. A tool automates that tracking at scale and over time, which matters once you are managing many prompts or reporting to stakeholders.

Does a tracking tool improve my AI visibility?

No. Tracking tools measure your citation share; they do not change it. Improving visibility takes answer-first content, structured data, and third-party citations. The tool tells you whether that work is paying off.

What is the cheapest AEO tool?

Otterly.ai is the cheapest credible option, with a Lite plan at $29/mo covering 15 tracked prompts. Peec AI starts at $95/mo for 50 prompts. Note that Google Gemini and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons on Otterly, so factor those in if you need them.

What is the difference between a mention and a citation?

A mention is when an AI answer names your brand in the text. A citation is when the engine links your page as a source. Both matter, but citation tracking is more actionable because it tells you which of your pages, and which third-party pages, the engine actually trusts. Prioritize tools that track citations, not just mentions.

Which AEO tool is best for agencies?

Peec AI is the common agency pick because its plans include unlimited seats and usage-based credit tiers built for tracking multiple brands, starting at $245/mo for agencies. Profound is the choice when clients need enterprise depth and budget is not the constraint.

Best AEO Tools for Tracking Your Brand in AI Search (2026)

The short answer

The best AEO tools track how often AI answer engines cite your brand across the prompts your buyers use, and benchmark you against competitors. At the budget end, Otterly.ai starts at $29/mo. For agencies and serious multi-engine tracking, Peec AI is the sweet spot from $95/mo. At the enterprise end, Profound is the market standard, demo-led and roughly $400/mo and up. Just remember: a tool measures your AI visibility, it does not fix it. Choose one that tracks third-party citations, not only brand mentions, because that is where the answer is actually won.

Why you need an AI visibility tool

AEO is invisible in your normal analytics. A buyer who reads about you inside ChatGPT and converts the next day looks like direct or branded traffic. If you are not tracking citations directly, you have no idea whether AI engines recommend you or hand the answer to a competitor.

An AEO tool solves the measurement problem: it runs your priority prompts across the major engines on a schedule and reports where you are mentioned, where you are cited, and who beats you. That citation share, tracked over time, is the real scoreboard for AI search.

But here is the part vendors will not put in their sales deck, and it should shape which tool you buy.

2-6%

Share of the sources AI engines cite that belong to the brand's own website, across live brands we track in three unrelated verticals. The overwhelming majority of citations come from third-party sites.

Source: AEO Labs, aggregated AI citation tracking, 90-day window, 2026

If most of your AI visibility is decided on third-party sites, a tool that only counts whether your brand name appears in an answer is measuring the wrong thing. The tools worth paying for track the source URLs behind the answer, so you can see which third-party pages the engine trusts and go earn a spot on them. Keep that lens as you read the list below.

The best AEO tools in 2026

Prices and features move quickly in this category, so treat the numbers below as a 2026 snapshot and confirm current details with each vendor before you buy.

Otterly.ai

Otterly.ai is the budget-friendly entry point. Its Lite plan is $29/mo for 15 tracked prompts, Standard is $189/mo for 100 prompts, and Premium is $489/mo for 400 prompts. It tracks brand visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot with a clean, approachable interface. One thing to budget for: Google Gemini and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons, running roughly $9 to $149/mo depending on your plan.

Best for: small teams and first-time AEO tracking on a tight budget.
Watch out for: low prompt counts on the entry tier and paid Google add-ons.

Peec AI

Peec AI is the sweet spot for most serious programs. Self-serve plans run Starter $95/mo (50 prompts), Pro $245/mo (150 prompts), and Advanced $495/mo (350 prompts), with agency plans from $245/mo built on usage-based credits. Every paid plan includes unlimited seats, and annual billing takes 15 percent off. It tracks visibility, position, and sentiment across a broad set of engines including ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and Microsoft Copilot, and it tracks the source domains behind answers, not just mentions.

Best for: agencies and in-house teams that want multi-engine tracking, citation-source data, and competitor benchmarking without enterprise pricing.
Watch out for: prompt limits per tier, so scope your prompt set before choosing a plan.

Profound

Profound is the most established AI visibility platform and the enterprise standard. Pricing is demo-led rather than public: third-party sources cite historical signals around $99 and $399/mo, with current entry closer to $499/mo and custom enterprise tiers above that. It tracks brand presence across a wide range of AI engines, analyzes the sources those engines cite, and reports at the scale large teams need.

Best for: enterprise teams that need comprehensive, well-supported tracking and have budget for it.
Watch out for: no public pricing and a demo-led sales motion, so expect a sales call before you see real numbers.

Scrunch AI

Scrunch AI starts around $250/mo and focuses on brand and PR use cases: narrative control, hallucination detection, and brand-accuracy monitoring across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and Overviews, and Meta. It includes citation tracking, page audits, and agent-traffic monitoring, which makes it a strong fit for teams whose priority is how AI describes them, not just whether it names them.

Best for: brand and comms teams focused on AI narrative accuracy and monitoring.
Watch out for: it is priced and positioned for brand teams, so evaluate whether you need narrative monitoring or pure visibility tracking.

Ahrefs Brand Radar

If you already live in Ahrefs for SEO, Brand Radar folds AI-mention tracking into the suite you know. AI platform indexes cost $199/mo for a single platform or $699/mo for all six, and Brand Radar requires an active Ahrefs base subscription (from $129/mo), so the realistic all-in cost for full coverage is around $828/mo. In return you get coverage of six AI platforms plus social and video monitoring across YouTube, TikTok, and Reddit, and third-party citation tracking drawn from a very large prompt database.

Best for: teams already invested in Ahrefs who want AI tracking alongside traditional SEO data.
Watch out for: the base-subscription requirement makes the true cost of full coverage higher than the headline add-on price.

Price comparison at a glance

Here is where each tool starts, by monthly entry price. Ahrefs Brand Radar is shown at its single-index add-on price; remember it also requires an Ahrefs base subscription, pushing full coverage to roughly $828/mo.

Entry price by tool. Lime bars are self-serve, transparent pricing; dark bars are enterprise or add-on models. *Ahrefs Brand Radar also requires an Ahrefs base subscription, so full coverage runs closer to $828/mo. Profound is demo-led; the figure is an approximate entry point.

Full comparison

Tool	Best for	Entry price	Engine coverage	Tracks citations
Otterly.ai	Budget, first-time tracking	$29/mo	ChatGPT, AIO, Perplexity, Copilot (Gemini add-on)	Yes
Peec AI	Agencies, multi-engine	$95/mo	ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, AI Mode, Copilot	Yes
Profound	Enterprise, comprehensive	~$399/mo+ (demo-led)	Broad, multi-engine	Yes
Scrunch AI	Brand and PR monitoring	~$250/mo	ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, Meta	Yes
Ahrefs Brand Radar	Existing Ahrefs users	$199/mo add-on (+ base)	6 platforms + social/video	Yes

How to choose

Whichever you choose, the fundamentals are the same. Match the tool to how you actually work:

On a tight budget or just testing the waters: start with Otterly.ai. It is cheap enough to prove the concept before you commit.
Running AEO for clients or several brands: Peec AI. Unlimited seats and credit-based tiers are built for it, and it tracks the citation sources you need.
Enterprise with budget and stakeholders to satisfy: Profound. Depth, breadth, and support at scale.
Brand or PR team worried about how AI describes you: Scrunch AI, for narrative and accuracy monitoring.
Already all-in on Ahrefs: Brand Radar, so your AI data sits next to your SEO data.

Across all of them, prioritize coverage of the engines your buyers actually use, tracking of citations and not just mentions, competitor benchmarking on the same prompts, and a prompt set built around real buyer questions rather than vanity keywords.

Watch: what AEO is before you buy a tool

If you are new to the space, this short explainer from Ahrefs covers what Answer Engine Optimization is and why it matters, which is worth understanding before you spend on tracking.

Key takeaways

The best AEO tools measure your mention and citation share across AI engines; they do not improve it.
Otterly.ai is the budget pick ($29/mo), Peec AI the agency sweet spot ($95/mo), Profound the enterprise standard (roughly $400/mo and up).
Prioritize tools that track third-party citation sources, not just brand mentions, because that is where most of your AI visibility is decided.
Watch for hidden costs: Otterly charges extra for Google engines, and Ahrefs Brand Radar needs a base subscription on top of the add-on.
A tool tells you the score. Content, structured data, and third-party citations change it.

Tools measure, strategy moves the needle

Every tool here answers the same question: where do you stand in AI search today. None of them change the answer. Improving your citation share takes answer-first content, structured data, and third-party citations, which is the work itself, not the measurement of it.

That is where we come in. An AI visibility audit from AEO Labs gives you the baseline, and our program does the optimization the tools can only measure. If you are new to the space, start with what Answer Engine Optimization is.