GEO Tools Compared
Generative engine optimization tools compared: purpose-built AI-visibility trackers versus Ahrefs and Semrush's bolt-on features, with real pricing.
Generative engine optimization tools split into two groups: purpose-built AI-visibility trackers such as Otterly.ai, Peec AI, and Profound that were built from scratch to monitor brand mentions and citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, and incumbent SEO suites such as Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush's AI Toolkit that added the same tracking as a bolt-on feature to their existing keyword-rank products.
"Generative engine optimization tools" is a crowded label covering two genuinely different products. Confusing them is the most common reason a business ends up paying for the wrong one.
Category 1: purpose-built AI-visibility trackers
These were built from the ground up to query AI engines on a schedule and log the results. The three most-referenced names are Otterly.ai, Peec AI, and Profound, with Scrunch as a newer entrant.
We checked each vendor's own pricing page directly on 2026-09-20 rather than trusting the aggregator round-ups that circulate on this topic, because two of them turned out to be wrong about what these companies actually publish:
- Otterly.ai publishes full self-serve pricing: Lite at $29/month (15 prompts, 4 engines), Standard at $189/month (100 prompts, adds API and MCP access), Premium at $489/month (400 prompts), and a custom Enterprise tier starting around $1,000/month. Extra engines beyond the core four (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot) are paid add-ons. Source: otterly.ai/pricing.
- Profound does not publish self-serve pricing at all. Its public pricing page shows only a free Trial plan (10 prompts, ChatGPT only, run once) and a custom Enterprise plan covering up to 9 AI engines including Claude and DeepSeek. A "self-serve Agency Growth plan" is mentioned in the FAQ with 400 credits per client workspace per month, but its price is not listed anywhere on the page. Source: tryprofound.com/pricing.
- Peec AI also keeps numbers off its public pricing page. It lists four tiers, Starter, Pro, Advanced, and Enterprise, by feature set only; getting an actual monthly price requires signing up or talking to sales. Source: peec.ai/pricing.
In short: only one of the three best-known GEO-native tools tells you the price before you talk to a salesperson. Budget for a sales call, not a self-serve signup, if you're evaluating Profound or Peec AI.
Category 2: incumbent SEO suites with AI tracking bolted on
Ahrefs and Semrush both added AI-visibility tracking to their existing keyword-rank platforms as a paid add-on rather than a from-scratch standalone product.
Ahrefs Brand Radar tracks six AI surfaces (AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Copilot) against a pool it describes as 455M+ monthly prompts. Its own custom-prompt tier starts at $50/month for tracking specific buyer questions, with an AI Visibility Index tier at $199/month for 83 prompts a day across all platforms. Source: ahrefs.com/brand-radar. Existing Ahrefs plan holders get some custom prompts included free, with limits that scale by tier.
Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is its own paid product inside the Semrush ecosystem, not a free tab bundled into existing rank-tracking plans: the base tier runs about €95/month billed annually for one domain and 25 custom prompts tracked daily across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, and Perplexity. Source: semrush.com/pricing/ai. The appeal is billing and login convenience, one vendor relationship instead of two, not a lower total price.
Which one to actually buy
If AI visibility is a curiosity you check monthly, the AI add-on for whichever suite you already pay for (Ahrefs or Semrush) means one login and one invoice instead of two, even though it's still a new charge. If it's becoming a real channel, Otterly.ai is the only purpose-built tool of the three that lets you see the real price before committing. Either way, a tool only tells you the score. For what's actually broken on the pages that AI engines are ignoring, that's what a GEO audit checks, and it's worth running before you commit to a monthly tracking bill. For the wider landscape of AI SEO tools beyond this GEO-specific slice, see AI SEO Tools, Honestly Tested.
Frequently asked
What do generative engine optimization tools actually measure?
They run a fixed set of prompts against AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Copilot on a schedule, then log whether a brand gets named, where it lands in the answer, and whether the engine links back to the brand's site as a source. That is the entire job: mention and citation tracking, not optimization itself.
Is a purpose-built GEO tool worth it, or is Ahrefs or Semrush's AI feature enough?
It depends on whether AI visibility is a side metric or a primary one. Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush's AI Toolkit are still separate paid add-ons, but they live inside a dashboard and login you may already have, which is a convenience, not a discount. A purpose-built tool like Otterly.ai or Profound tracks more prompts per dollar and adds features like agent-driven content recommendations, which matters more once AI traffic is a real revenue line, not a curiosity.
Which GEO tool is cheapest to start with?
Of the vendors with published self-serve pricing, Otterly.ai's Lite plan is the cheapest entry point at $29/month, covering 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot (otterly.ai/pricing, checked 2026-09-20). Ahrefs Brand Radar's custom-prompt tier starts at $50/month for existing Ahrefs customers (ahrefs.com/brand-radar, checked 2026-09-20).
Do any of these tools fix visibility problems, or only report them?
Most are report-only: they tell you whether you were mentioned or cited, not why you weren't. Profound and Scrunch are the exceptions that ship an agent layer meant to act on the findings, but even there the underlying fix, rewriting a page so an AI engine can parse and cite it, is still separate work.
Do I need one of these tools before running a GEO audit?
No, it's the other way around. A one-time GEO audit tells you why an AI engine currently ignores your site (missing structured data, no clear answer-shaped content, thin author information). A tracking tool only makes sense once you've fixed what an audit finds and want to watch the trend over time.
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Run a free GEO audit →Written by YaBaDo's AI agents and reviewed by a human before publishing. If you find something wrong, tell us and we will correct it.