One simple trick I use to check AI visibility without paying for tools is to make a list of seed prompts and run them regularly. Think of these as your own test keywords. For example, write down 20 to 30 buyer-intent questions your audience might ask an AI assistant, such as “best [your product category] for small businesses” or “how to fix [problem your service solves].” Enter these into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity once a week and save the full responses.

Instead of just checking if your brand appears, copy and paste the answers into a document or spreadsheet. Over time, you’ll notice patterns: when your brand is mentioned, when it isn’t, and which competitors show up most often.

If you want to get a little GEO nerdy, you can track this semi-automatically: paste each AI response into a spreadsheet and use CTRL+F or a formula to check if your brand name appears. Add a date column, and you have a makeshift AI visibility log. It is not as slick as a paid tracker, but it gives you actionable trend data and keeps you honest about whether your content is breaking into the AI conversation.

Top Ai Visibility Tools 2026

The first ai tracking tool I discovered was Dejan’s tools. It gave a good quick overview of how your brand is being picked up by LLMs.

I’ve done the best I can at trying to review these tools by testing them myself.  The problem is that most of them do not have freemium models – probably because they are too expensive to run thousands of potential freemium accounts. For the tools I could not afford, I asked friends who had paid accounts for the tools to give me an overview.

This space is moving rapidly. You only have to search for ‘AI visibility trackers Reddit’ to see lots of new tools being developed, along with the number of people spamming threads with their tools.

Here are a few of the main players in the space. I’ll update this post as I test new tools.

Tools are in no particular order, until this post ranks #1 and I start charging for each position for extra LLM visibility haha.

Beamtrace

Beamtrace is a newer tool in the AI visibility tracking space, focusing more on ‘AI visibility’ than on traditional search rankings. Rather than tracking where a site ranks, it checks if brands show up in AI-generated answers on platforms like ChatGPT. Support for more large language models is being added over time. So, the main question changes from ‘What position am I in?’ to ‘Is my brand even being recommended?
Based on my experience, Beamtrace tracks things like:

• brand mentions in AI-generated responses
• competitor visibility
• citation and source references
• prompt-level monitoring
• visibility changes over time
• sentiment tied to brand mentions

The interface is clean and easy to use, especially for agencies, SaaS companies, and marketing teams. It works more as a monitoring and reporting tool, rather than trying to copy traditional keyword rank trackers for AI search.

What stands out is that Beamtrace recognizes how unpredictable AI search results can be. Many platforms still show ChatGPT rankings as if they work like Google search results, but in reality, they are much less stable. Answers can change often based on prompts, conversation history, sources, and model updates.

Even so, I would treat the data as a general guide, not as final proof. Tools like this help you spot trends, track competitors, and see if your brand shows up in AI-generated answers. I wouldn’t rely too much on exact ‘rankings’ in large language models yet.
For anyone looking into the growing GEO and AI visibility software market, Beamtrace seems like a solid option to try.
You can get 30% with discount code: BEAMTRACE30

Writesonic

Writesonic is built for actionable AI visibility optimization across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini. It doesn’t stop at reporting where your brand appears; it shows why you’re ranking the way you are and what to do about it.

Writesonic surfaces content gaps, citation opportunities and technical issues automatically, with guided workflows to act on every opportunity inside the platform. Ideal if you want GEO + SEO + content execution in one hub rather than switching between multiple tools.

While most tools simply monitor mentions, Writesonic focuses on making visibility improvable, not just measurable. Pricing is transparent and scales mainly for Enterprise teams and Mid-Market segments.

Semrush position tracking (AI visibility)

Semrush’s AI Search Visibility Checker feels a bit like peeking behind the curtain without paying for the whole show. You toss in your domain, choose your poison, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and it spits out a snapshot of where your brand’s name is popping up (or not) in AI-generated answers.

What I like is how it doesn’t just pat you on the back when you show up; it also points out the awkward silences and those moments when your competitor is hogging the spotlight. The tool examines whether mentions are linked, unlinked, positive, or not so flattering. Is it as deep as a full-blown AI tracking suite? Nah. But if you’re an SEO who just wants a fast gut check on your AI share of voice or you need proof to take upstairs when asking for budget, it delivers the goods without a lot of fuss.

Use position tracking to flag keywords that trigger AI Overviews and whether your pages are included. Great for benchmarking competitors on the same terms.

Looking at the examples on SEMrush, they give you some pointers for what to go after; long tail keywords for example where you could rank in the top 3 positions in Google or Bing and be picked up by LLMs.

Ahrefs (AI Overview filtering)

In Site Explorer > Organic Keywords, filter by the AI Overview SERP feature to find pages and queries where AIOs appear so you can prioritize optimization.

Here’s what the overview looks like. Note: the deep dives are only available on higher-tier accounts.

There is NO WAY i’m paying ahrefs fees for the this full tracking.

As AI-powered search traction, the pressure is mounting on rank tracking tools to keep pace.

Tim Soulo, co-founder of Ahrefs, has expressed concerns about the increasing reliance on AI-based rank trackers, particularly those built on custom prompts. He suggests that many tools might not really truly reflect how visible your content is in AI-driven searches. Basically, set prompts only give you a narrow view, when the reality the fan-out queries LLMs use is huge.

In contrast, Ahrefs’ Brand Radar utilizes an extensive, existing index of prompts, drawn from a 110-billion-keyword database, to offer a broad, unbiased measurement of AI visibility, with plans to soon add custom prompt tracking functionality.

This shift reflects a growing industry push for transparent and representative data in rank tracking, addressing the limitations of manipulable metrics in an AI-dominated digital era.

Promptwatch

Promptwatch is one of those tools SEOs like me are excited about because it tracks whether your brand is even part of the AI conversation, instead of assuming traditional rankings tell the whole story.

Promptwatch monitors brand mentions across big AI models (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.), flags content gaps where you’re missing, and shows you where your competitors are getting picked up by AI answers when you’re not. What I appreciate most is its prompt-testing feature: you can feed in real-world questions and see how different models respond, which helps you tweak your content or messaging for better visibility.

Surfer SEO’s AI Tracker

Surfer’s AI Tracker fills a gap that most SEOs have been trying to patch together manually. Instead of endlessly running prompts through ChatGPT or Google’s AI Overviews to see if your site shows up, the tool automates the process and turns it into clear visibility reports.

You can track brand mentions and keyword coverage across major AI engines, see the actual snippets where you’re cited (or left out), and spot competitor mentions stealing the spotlight.

In practice, it’s easy to set up and interpret, which is rare for a new category of SEO software. The Tracker even accounts for LLM quirks by running prompts multiple times and averaging results, so you’re not chasing anomalies. For SEOs already using Surfer, it feels like a logical evolution: the same workflow you trust for classic SERPs, now extended into AI-driven search.

Peec AI

Peec AI is purpose-built for multi-engine AI visibility reporting. It monitors mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AIO/AI Mode, and more, then rolls everything into share-of-voice and sentiment views. Agencies like it because reports are structured and exportable. If you want clean dashboards over a heavy content suite, Peec is a strong “plug-in and see trends” option.

Unfortunately, the pricing was too ridiculous for me to check the software myself.  These tools think they can charge silly money by saying ‘we work with enterprise brands’.

LLMrefs

LLMrefs focuses on the essentials: Did you show up? Where? For which prompts? It’s a lean, go-wide tracker that covers major AI engines without burying you in knobs and dials. If you’re starting AI visibility from zero and want signal over sizzle, LLMrefs is a pragmatic first step before moving into deeper optimization tooling.

I set up a free account and ran some test for one of my pages – freelance link builder.   We are ranking in their tool below FatJoe – no sign of my page on SEO Doctor.

The tool works by searching a load of related prompts like below:

SE Ranking

SE Ranking splits AI tracking into clear lanes—Google AI Overviews, conversational “AI Mode,” and cross-engine monitoring (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini).

It highlights when your brand is cited, what’s linked, and which competitors appear when you don’t. If you already use SE Ranking, this adds an AI layer without requiring a complete overhaul of your existing platform. Bonus: strong local SEO options if you care about specific markets.

Keyword.com

Keyword.com brings its rank-tracking DNA to AI. You can see how often your brand is mentioned in ChatGPT and when AI Overviews appear for your target terms, then compare against competitors and track sentiment. For teams who already trust Keyword.com for classic rankings, the AI module makes it easy to view “SERP + AI” in one place and avoid fragmented reporting.

Otterly AI

Otterly automates checks across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, then aggregates frequency, citations, and sentiment into a single dashboard. It’s built for marketers who don’t want to babysit prompts all day but still need reliable alerts when visibility changes. The interface is straightforward, and setup is fast, handy for lean teams.

Nightwatch

Nightwatch now tracks how you appear in ChatGPT and Claude responses, right alongside your traditional Google/Bing positions. If you want one tool to compare “classic SEO” and “AI visibility” side by side, this hybrid approach is efficient. You can monitor by location, follow rank distribution metrics adapted for LLMs, and keep daily tabs without reinventing your reporting stack.

AI rank tracking isn’t about a new vanity metric. It’s how you keep your brand in the answers your buyers see first. Start with one or two tools, wire them into your reporting rhythm, and iterate. Do that, and you’ll stay visible, no matter where the clicks go next.