Tooling landscape
AI visibility tools, compared.
Five tiers. Pick by what your team will act on.
AI visibility tools range from free spreadsheets to custom-priced enterprise platforms and done-for-you services. This page lays out the tiers, each vendor's listed prices and coverage with a link to the source, and a framework for choosing.
By Sri · Last reviewed: October 2026
Disclosure
Lynceus is one of the vendors on this page. We sell a free check, a paid audit and a done-for-you engagement, so we have a commercial interest in how this comparison reads. To keep it fair, every price and feature listed for another vendor comes from that vendor's own public page, linked on its card below, as checked on 22 October 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, we say so rather than estimate.
The frame
Tools surface gaps. Someone has to close them.
Most tools in this category do the same core job: run a set of prompts against AI assistants, capture the answers, and report whether and how a brand appears and which sources are cited. Price tracks prompt volume, the number of assistants covered, team features, and how much of the follow-up work the vendor takes on.
The common mistake is buying more measurement than you can act on. A dashboard that lists twenty gaps nobody has time to fill is worth less than a spreadsheet tracking the two you will actually close this quarter. Pick the tier that matches the work your team can do with the results.
The five tiers
What each tier actually delivers.
Free and DIY
A fixed set of buyer questions run by hand in each AI assistant, with the verbatim answers logged in a spreadsheet. It costs nothing but time, and our audit guide walks through it in about ninety minutes. It is the right first step for anyone who has not yet confirmed that AI answers matter in their category. The weakness is discipline: manual measurement only works if someone keeps repeating it. Full method at /ai-visibility-audit-guide.
Free checkers
Quick lookups that show what AI answers already say about a domain. The Lynceus free check is one: it shows the AI search answers that already mention your domain (mostly Google AI Overview, some ChatGPT), with mention counts, sentiment and any whole sentences written about you. It does not run your own prompts. Good for a first snapshot; not a substitute for tracking your own question set over time.
Self-serve tracking software
Dashboards that run a prompt set on a schedule across several assistants and report presence, sentiment and cited sources. OtterlyAI, Peec AI, AthenaHQ and Evertune publish self-serve monthly prices, from $29 to $495 a month across their listed plans. The main differences are prompt allowance, which assistants are covered, and how many projects or users are included. Each vendor's listed terms are below.
Enterprise platforms
Custom-priced contracts with larger prompt volumes, more assistants, SSO and dedicated support. For brands, Profound lists a free trial and custom Enterprise packages; OtterlyAI, Peec AI, AthenaHQ and Evertune all list an Enterprise tier as well. Several now include AI agents that draft content or ads as part of the platform, so the old line between "measurement tools" and "action tools" has blurred.
Done-for-you services
A team that measures and then does the work: writing pages, adding claims, earning citations. Bluefish lists a full-service option, retooled SEO agencies offer variations, and Lynceus's Optimization Engagement is $2,499 a month with a three-month minimum. The difference from software agents is that people own the output and are accountable for it.
Listed prices and coverage
What each vendor publishes.
Monthly prices in US dollars as shown on each vendor's page on 22 October 2026, before any annual discount. Plans and prices change often; follow the source link before you decide.
OtterlyAI
- Plans
- Lite $29, Standard $189, Premium $489 per month; Enterprise custom
- Coverage
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot; Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as add-ons
- Notes
- Lite includes 15 search prompts. Lists citation source tracking, brand sentiment and optimization recommendations.
- Source
- otterly.ai/pricing
Peec AI
- Plans
- Starter $95, Pro $245, Advanced $495 per month; Enterprise custom (annual)
- Coverage
- 3 models of your choice on self-serve plans; Enterprise lists up to 13 models
- Notes
- 50, 150 and 350 prompts on the three self-serve plans, unlimited users, daily tracking.
- Source
- peec.ai/pricing
AthenaHQ
- Plans
- Starter $295 per month; Enterprise custom
- Coverage
- Lists ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral
- Notes
- Starter includes 3,600 credits a month (1 credit = 1 AI response). Offers an AI agent and a Shopify integration for publishing content.
- Source
- athenahq.ai/plans
Evertune
- Plans
- Starter $60 per month; Pro $800 per month billed annually; Enterprise custom
- Coverage
- Starter tracks up to 5 models; Pro lists all major models
- Notes
- Starter includes 5,000 prompt credits and an Ads Agent; Pro adds a Content Agent and AI retargeting. Ads Agent pricing is a share of media spend.
- Source
- evertune.ai/pricing
Profound
- Plans
- For brands: free 7-day trial, Enterprise custom. For agencies: a self-serve Agency Growth plan (price not shown on the page as checked)
- Coverage
- Trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews; Enterprise lists up to 9 answer engines
- Notes
- Sells an "AI Marketer" agent that researches and writes, priced in credits, alongside visibility tracking.
- Source
- tryprofound.com/pricing
Bluefish
- Plans
- No public pricing found
- Coverage
- Lists 10+ LLMs tracked daily
- Notes
- Offers a full-service option: custom audits, strategy and execution from its own team.
- Source
- bluefishai.com/
Lynceus (us)
- Plans
- Free check; Visibility Audit $497 one-time; Optimization Engagement $2,499 per month, three-month minimum
- Coverage
- Free check: AI search answers that already mention your domain (mostly Google AI Overview, some ChatGPT)
- Notes
- The audit runs a 50+ prompt set with a five-competitor benchmark. The engagement is done-for-you: we write the pages and chase the citations.
- Source
- lynceus.app/pricing
Measurement standards
Compare the metrics, not just the dashboards.
Vendors define their headline numbers differently, so two tools can report different visibility for the same brand. The IAB has published Measuring Visibility in the AI Era, which it describes as the industry's standardized set of measurement guidelines for tracking brand and publisher visibility in AI-powered discovery platforms.
When you shortlist tools, ask each vendor how its metrics map to that framework, how many times it samples each prompt, and whether it separates branded from unbranded questions. For how we measure, see how to measure AI visibility.
The choice framework
How to pick the right tier.
If you're measuring for the first time
Start free. Run the Lynceus free check or another free checker for a first look, then run a manual audit of your own questions. Pay for software only once you know the gap is real and someone on your team will act on the results every month.
If you have people who can act on findings
Self-serve tracking software is usually enough. Compare the prompt allowance against the size of your question set, confirm the assistants your buyers use are covered on the plan you can afford, and check whether the tool reports which sources are cited, not only whether you are mentioned.
If nobody has time to act on findings
A dashboard you cannot act on is a cost, not an asset. Either budget the time internally, use a platform whose agents draft content for review, or hire a done-for-you service. Judge any service by what it ships each month, not by its reports.
If you're enterprise-scale
Talk to the Enterprise tiers. Multiple brands, products, languages or regions push you past most self-serve allowances, and procurement will want SSO, data exports and support terms. Ask each vendor how many times it samples each prompt and how it handles run-to-run variation; answers differ between runs, so single samples are noisy.
Head-to-head comparisons with Lynceus: Profound, Peec AI, OtterlyAI, Evertune, AthenaHQ, Bluefish and SEO agencies.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best AI visibility tools in 2026?
It depends on your budget and on whether your team can act on what a tool finds. For a first look: free checkers, including the Lynceus free check, plus a manual audit. For self-serve tracking: OtterlyAI, Peec AI, AthenaHQ and Evertune publish monthly plans. For enterprise contracts: Profound and the Enterprise tiers of the others. For done-for-you work: services such as Bluefish's full-service option, retooled SEO agencies, or Lynceus. Lynceus is one of the vendors compared on this page.
How much do AI visibility tools cost?
As listed on vendor pricing pages on 22 October 2026: OtterlyAI from $29 a month, Evertune from $60, Peec AI from $95, and AthenaHQ from $295. Evertune's Pro plan is $800 a month billed annually. Profound lists a free trial and custom Enterprise pricing for brands, plus a self-serve plan for agencies, and Bluefish publishes no prices. Lynceus offers a free check, a $497 one-time audit and a $2,499-a-month engagement. Prices change; check each vendor's page before you buy.
Is there an industry standard for measuring AI visibility?
The IAB has published Measuring Visibility in the AI Era, which it describes as the industry's standardized set of measurement guidelines for brand and publisher visibility in AI-powered discovery platforms. It is a useful reference when comparing how vendors define and report their metrics.
Should I use a free tool or pay for software?
Use the free options first to confirm that AI answers matter in your category and that your brand has a gap worth closing. Move to paid software once you know the gap is real and someone will act on monthly results. Software bought before either is true tends to go unused.
Can ChatGPT or Claude be used as the measurement tool itself?
Yes, with limits. You can run your questions by hand in each assistant and log the answers, which is the method in /ai-visibility-audit-guide, or automate the asking through the assistants' APIs. That covers collecting answers. You still have to categorize them, track changes over time and compare against competitors yourself, which is the part paid tools automate.
Do AI visibility tools also fix the problems they find?
Increasingly, partly. Several platforms now include AI agents that draft content or campaigns: Profound's AI Marketer, Evertune's Content Agent and Ads Agent, and AthenaHQ's agent and Shopify publishing integration. Drafts still need review by someone who knows the product. Services such as Bluefish's full-service option, agencies, or Lynceus's engagement put people on the work instead.
What features should I look for in an AI visibility tool?
Five things. Coverage of the assistants your buyers actually use, on the plan you can afford, since some vendors sell assistants as add-ons. A prompt allowance large enough for your question set. Citation source tracking, so you see which pages are cited, not only whether you are mentioned. Competitor comparison. And repeated sampling or scheduled re-runs, because answers vary from run to run.
How do AI visibility tools differ from traditional SEO tools?
SEO tools measure rankings, backlinks, on-page factors and keyword demand in search engines. AI visibility tools measure whether and how a brand appears in AI-generated answers and which sources those answers cite. The underlying work overlaps, since clear, well-structured, authoritative content helps both, but the measurements are different and most brands need both. See /ai-traffic-vs-google-traffic for why they are not substitutes.
Start free, then decide
Free check. Five minutes.
A real first baseline.
The free Lynceus check shows the AI search answers that already mention your domain (mostly Google AI Overview today, some ChatGPT): mention counts by surface, sentiment, and any whole sentences written about your brand. Use it to decide whether AI visibility deserves more investment in your category, before you commit to paid software or a service, ours or anyone else's.