Last updated: 2026-10-01 · Prices verified on vendor sites on that date; pricing moves fast — verify before you buy.
Every tool below is a real product with a published pricing page — one-time service versus subscription platform, SMB versus enterprise buyer:
| Tool | What it is | Published entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Searchlight Audits | One-time AI visibility audit, PDF in 48h | $99 one-time | SMB owners who want one clear answer + fix list, no dashboard to learn |
| Otterly.AI | Self-serve AI search monitoring platform | $29/month | Small teams starting daily/weekly prompt monitoring on a budget |
| AthenaHQ | GEO analytics + recommendations platform | $95/month (annual) or $295/month (monthly) | Mid-market teams tying AI visibility to revenue data |
| Profound | Answer-engine intelligence platform | $99/month Starter (ChatGPT-only); $399/month Growth | Enterprise teams with dedicated analysts |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Add-on to the Semrush SEO suite | $99/month per domain (add-on, yearly) | Teams already working inside Semrush daily |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Add-on to the Ahrefs SEO suite | $199/month add-on (requires $129+/month base); $50/month Basic tier | SEO-led teams extending into AI visibility research |
Published entry prices, not equivalent packages — prompt volume, engine coverage, and update frequency differ by plan. Full dated table on our pricing page.
What each product actually does, from its own site and current independent reviews — no strawmen.
otterly.ai — self-serve AI search monitoring, launched as one of the first independent GEO trackers.
Otterly.AI is the cheapest way into always-on monitoring. You define a prompt library — the conversational questions your buyers actually ask — and Otterly re-runs them daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot (Gemini and Google AI Mode are add-ons on the entry plan). It reports brand mentions, link citations, sentiment, and share of voice against competitors, plus a GEO URL audit tool for individual pages. It's a dashboard, not a service: nobody writes the report for you, and it doesn't execute fixes.
athenahq.ai — GEO analytics with recommendations, founded by former Google Search and DeepMind engineers.
AthenaHQ pairs monitoring with action: mentions, citations, sentiment, and share of voice across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and others, with an Action Center that turns the data into prioritized content recommendations. Its GA4 and Shopify integrations tie AI citations to actual sessions and conversions. The catch: a credit model (one credit per AI response) means heavy multi-engine monitoring burns credits fast, API access is enterprise-only, and the starting price puts it out of casual reach for the smallest businesses.
tryprofound.com — answer-engine intelligence, the best-funded independent player in the category.
Profound is the deep-analytics end of the market: prompt volumes, response-level sampling, conversation volume data, and one of the broadest engine coverages in the category. The tradeoff independent comparisons keep noting: the data is the deepest in the field, but it assumes you have analysts to operationalize it. The $99 Starter tier is ChatGPT-only; Growth covers three engines; full multi-engine coverage is enterprise.
semrush.com — AI visibility inside the SEO suite you may already pay for.
If your team lives in Semrush, the AI Visibility Toolkit keeps AI mention and citation data next to your rank tracking, backlinks, and content tools — no new vendor to learn. It's an add-on priced per domain on top of a base Semrush subscription, with four engines covered (ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity).
ahrefs.com — LLM brand-mention tracking with Ahrefs' large prompt database behind it.
Ahrefs Brand Radar tracks AI mentions, cited pages, and competitor benchmarking across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude, backed by Ahrefs' large prompt index. The full add-on is $199/month on top of a base plan, with a $50/month Basic tier for lighter needs. It's a research and landscape view, not a strategy or execution layer.
getsearchlightaudit.com — this site. A one-time, done-for-you audit, not a platform.
Searchlight Audits is built for the business owner, not the analyst. We run real buying-intent queries on GPT, Gemini, and live web search, record verbatim what AI says about your business, check whether the facts are right, compare you against named competitors, and deliver a branded PDF within 48 hours with a prioritized fix list — quick wins first. The $99 AI Visibility Audit covers 20 checks; the $299 Full AI + SEO Audit adds the complete Google Search side and is currently waitlist-only; the $29/month plan re-tests your visibility monthly and alerts you to changes.
What we don't do: no self-serve dashboard, no API, no agency workspaces — if you need daily prompt re-runs you control yourself, Otterly.AI or AthenaHQ fit better. And we never promise what no one can: no guaranteed citations, rankings, or placement. Our 30-day money-back guarantee covers the work itself: fewer than three specific, actionable findings and you get a full refund.
Answer these three questions and the table narrows itself:
The single most important filter: any vendor promising guaranteed citations, guaranteed rankings, or "100% AI compatibility" is disqualified. Research on 1M+ AI citations (Muck Rack, May 2026) found 84% point to third-party sources the brand neither owns nor pays for — nobody controls the outcome, they only improve the odds. A trustworthy vendor tells you that upfront.
You don't need to take our word — or any vendor's — before spending money. Ask ChatGPT right now: "Who is the best [your trade] near me?" If your business isn't named, you have the problem this whole category measures.
Our free 60-second mini-check runs the same self-assessment our audits start from — no email required. Before you buy any audit, read what a GEO audit is, our methodology, and the full dated pricing comparison.
Short answers to the questions buyers ask before choosing a tool.
It depends on what you need. If you want a one-time, human-readable answer to "what does AI say about my business?" with a fix list, a one-time audit like Searchlight's $99 AI Visibility Audit is the cheapest entry. If you want ongoing self-serve dashboards that re-run prompts daily, Otterly.AI's Lite plan at $29/month is the lowest-priced monitoring platform. Enterprise teams with analysts typically buy Profound or AthenaHQ, which start around $95–$399/month and scale to custom enterprise pricing.
No. No honest vendor can guarantee that ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other AI assistant will mention or recommend your business. These tools measure where you stand today (mention rate, citation rate, share of voice versus competitors) and suggest fixes that improve your odds. Any vendor promising guaranteed citations or rankings should be treated as a red flag.
A one-time audit runs a fixed set of buying-intent prompts once and delivers a report with findings and a prioritized fix list — a snapshot. A monitoring tool re-runs prompts on a schedule (daily or weekly), tracks trends over time, and alerts you when competitors overtake you or AI answers about you change. Most small businesses start with an audit, fix what it finds, then monitor.
You can, and you should — ask ChatGPT "who is the best [your trade] near me?" and see what it says. Manual checks are free and revealing. What tools and audits add is scale and consistency: dozens of prompts run the same way every time, verbatim answer records, competitor comparison on the same queries, and a structured fix list. Our free 60-second mini-check gives you the quick manual version.
One-time agency audits typically cost $997–$1,997. Self-serve monitoring starts at $29/month (Otterly.AI Lite) and runs through $95–$295/month (AthenaHQ self-serve), $99/month (Semrush add-on per domain), $99–$399/month (Profound), and $199/month (Ahrefs Brand Radar add-on), up to custom enterprise pricing. Searchlight Audits charges $99 one-time for an AI Visibility Audit, $299 one-time for the Full AI + SEO Audit (currently waitlist-only), and $29/month for monitoring. Prices last checked 2026-10-01 — vendor pricing moves fast, so verify on each vendor's site.
Run the free 60-second mini-check first. If what you see worries you, the $99 AI Visibility Audit gives you the full picture: 20 real buying-intent checks across GPT, Gemini, and live web search, as a PDF in 48 hours.
Run the free mini-check