Best AEO Tools (2026): 7 Ways to Track Your Brand in AI Answers
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AEO tools show you where your brand appears in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI features, where competitors appear instead, and which pages those answers cite.
The short answer
On a small budget, Otterly.ai is the cheapest way in at $29/mo for 15 prompts. If you already pay for an SEO suite, check its AI add-on first: Semrush and SE Ranking both have one. Profound is built for large brands and doesn't publish prices.
Quick picks
| Tool | Best for | Entry price for AI tracking | Prompts |
|---|---|---|---|
 Otterly.ai | Small budgets | $29/mo billed monthly | 15 |
 Writesonic | Tracking plus content to fix the gaps | $79/mo billed annually | 50 |
 Surfer SEO | Writers who already optimize content | $82/mo billed annually | 50 |
 Peec AI | Choosing which AI models to watch | $95/mo billed monthly | 50 |
 Semrush | Teams already using Semrush for SEO | $199/mo billed monthly | 50 |
 SE Ranking | An SEO suite with an AI add-on | $218/mo billed monthly | — |
 Profound | Large brands that need many engines | Custom | — |
— means we couldn't find a published prompt limit for that plan.
How we chose
We checked each tool's official pricing and feature pages on October 9, 2026. We haven't tested these tools hands-on yet, so we don't rank them against each other. Each pick says who it suits instead.
The price shown is the cheapest published plan that includes AI visibility tracking. That is sometimes higher than a tool's cheapest plan overall.
What to look for
- Engines covered. Check that the assistants your customers use are included in the plan, not sold as add-ons.
- Prompts and refresh rate. More prompts tracked daily gives a steadier picture than a few prompts checked weekly.
- Citations. Seeing which pages an answer links to tells you what to improve or where to get mentioned.
- Competitors. Share of voice against named rivals is more useful than a single score.
- Price per prompt. Divide the plan price by its prompts to compare plans of different sizes.
Otterly.ai: best for small budgets
Tracks how often your brand and links appear in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot answers.
- Tracks
- ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot
- Entry plan
- Lite: $29/mo billed monthly
- Prompts
- 15
Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons. Every plan tracks prompts daily and includes link citation analysis.
Visit Otterly.aiRead the Otterly.ai profile
Source: otterly.ai
Writesonic: best for tracking plus content to fix the gaps
AI writing platform that also offers features for tracking how brands appear in AI answer engines.
- Tracks
- ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews
- Entry plan
- Starter: $79/mo billed annually
- Prompts
- 50
Starter also includes 15 AI-written articles and 10 site audits a month. Sentiment analysis starts on the Growth plan.
Visit WritesonicRead the Writesonic profile
Source: writesonic.com
Surfer SEO: best for writers who already optimize content
Content optimization tool that compares your draft with top-ranking pages, with AI visibility tracking on higher plans.
- Tracks
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Gemini
- Entry plan
- AI Search Analytics: $82/mo billed annually
- Prompts
- 50
Prompts refresh daily. Surfer’s cheaper Standard plan tracks 25 prompts weekly, on ChatGPT only, and its Discovery plan has no AI tracking.
Visit Surfer SEORead the Surfer SEO profile
Source: surferseo.com
Peec AI: best for choosing which AI models to watch
AI search analytics that tracks your visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice against competitors across chosen AI models.
- Tracks
- Any 3 of ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI
- Entry plan
- Starter: $95/mo billed monthly
- Prompts
- 50
Tracks visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice against competitors, with unlimited users.
Visit Peec AIRead the Peec AI profile
Source: peec.ai
Semrush: best for teams already using Semrush for SEO
All-in-one SEO platform for keyword research, site audits, rank tracking and competitor analysis, with AI search visibility tracking.
- Tracks
- ChatGPT and Google AI Mode
- Entry plan
- SEO + AI Search Starter: $199/mo billed monthly
- Prompts
- 50
$165.17/mo if billed annually. The price includes Semrush’s full SEO toolkit, so it isn’t a like-for-like comparison with tracking-only tools.
Visit SemrushRead the Semrush profile
Source: semrush.com, semrush.com
SE Ranking: best for an SEO suite with an AI add-on
SEO platform for rank tracking, site audits and keyword research, with an AI Search add-on for tracking visibility in AI answers.
- Tracks
- Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini
- Entry plan
- Core plan + AI Search add-on: $218/mo billed monthly
- Prompts
- No published limit found
$129/mo for Core plus $89/mo for the AI Search add-on. We couldn’t find how many AI prompts the add-on tracks on SE Ranking’s pricing page.
Visit SE RankingRead the SE Ranking profile
Source: seranking.com, seranking.com
Profound: best for large brands that need many engines
AI visibility platform aimed at larger brands, tracking answers across up to 9 AI engines on its Enterprise plan.
- Tracks
- Up to 9 engines on Enterprise, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot
- Entry plan
- Enterprise: Custom
- Prompts
- No published limit found
Prices aren’t published. A free 7-day trial covers 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
Visit ProfoundRead the Profound profile
Source: tryprofound.com
Side-by-side: price per tracked prompt
Plans bill differently and include different extras, so treat this as a rough guide, not a ranking.
| Tool | Plan | Price | Prompts | Per prompt |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writesonic | Starter | $79/mo billed annually | 50 | $1.58 |
| Surfer SEO | AI Search Analytics | $82/mo billed annually | 50 | $1.64 |
| Peec AI | Starter | $95/mo billed monthly | 50 | $1.90 |
| Otterly.ai | Lite | $29/mo billed monthly | 15 | $1.93 |
| Semrush | SEO + AI Search Starter | $199/mo billed monthly | 50 | $3.98 |
Left out: SE Ranking, where we couldn't find a prompt count, and Profound, which doesn't publish prices.
FAQ
What is AEO?
AEO, or answer engine optimization, is the work of getting your brand mentioned and linked in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews. It overlaps heavily with SEO, because these assistants still draw on pages they can find and trust.
Do I need a paid AEO tool?
Not to start. You can ask the main assistants the questions your customers ask and note who gets mentioned. A paid tool earns its cost when you need to track many prompts every day, across several engines, and against named competitors.
How many prompts should I track?
Our suggestion: start with the 15 to 50 questions that come closest to a buying decision in your niche, such as “best tool for X” or “X vs Y”. Add more once you know which ones move.
Are these the final prices?
They are the list prices each vendor published on October 9, 2026. Taxes, extra seats, add-on engines and extra prompts can raise the total, so check the vendor’s page before you buy.
Sources
All pages checked October 9, 2026.