Best AI SEO Tools in 2026: 14 Tools Compared by Use Case

Quick Answer

The best AI SEO tools depend on the job: trackers like Profound, Peec AI and Otterly.AI show how AI answers mention your brand, suites like Semrush, Ahrefs and SE Ranking add AI tracking to SEO data, and Surfer, Clearscope and Frase optimize content. Entry prices on the vendors' own pages run from $20 a month (Rankscale Essentials) to $300 a month billed monthly (Scrunch Starter), and AthenaHQ offers a free plan. Before you pay, open the free AI reports in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

AI SEO Tools Compared at a Glance

Vendors call these products AI SEO software, AI visibility tools, LLM tracking tools or generative engine optimization tools, but they do three different jobs: tracking what AI engines say about your brand, adding AI data to an SEO suite, and optimizing pages.

The table covers 14 tools in the order of the sections below. Descriptions, AI platforms and prices come from each vendor's own pricing and product pages, checked in September 2026. Prices change often, so confirm them before you buy.

"Monthly" is the price when you pay month to month; "annual" is the per-month price when billed yearly. Where a vendor only shows an annual-billed price, the table says so.

AI Visibility Trackers (LLM Tracking Tools)

These AI visibility tools run a fixed set of prompts on AI engines on a schedule and record what the answers say about your brand. Cost usually depends on prompts or credits and on the engines included. Our guide to AI visibility tools for brands covers this category in more depth.

Profound

Profound tracks prompts and AI responses, with "Agents" credits and unlimited domains.

• Best for: teams starting with ChatGPT and adding engines later.
• AI platforms: Starter covers ChatGPT only; Growth adds Perplexity and AI Overviews; Enterprise lists 9+ engines, adding Gemini, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek and Claude.
• Price and trial: Profound's pricing page lists Starter at $99 a month billed yearly (50 prompts), with no monthly-billed price shown. Starter and Growth come with a free trial.
• Watch-out: the entry plan does not cover Perplexity or AI Overviews.

Peec AI

Peec AI runs daily prompt tracking with unlimited seats and regions, and each plan includes three engines of your choice.

• Best for: agencies and teams tracking several markets.
• AI platforms: pick three of ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode and AI Overviews; Enterprise adds Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Llama and Grok.
• Price and trial: Peec AI's comparison page lists Starter at €89 a month (50 prompts); check Peec AI's pricing page for your currency. The trial needs no credit card.
• Watch-out: Gemini and Claude are Enterprise-only, so choose your three engines carefully.

Otterly.AI

Otterly.AI tracks AI answers daily in 50+ countries with unlimited users, and it also tracks ChatGPT Ads.

• Best for: small teams that want daily tracking at a low entry price.
• AI platforms: ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot included; Claude, AI Mode and Gemini as paid add-ons.
• Price and trial: Otterly.AI's pricing page lists Lite at $29 monthly or $25 a month billed annually (15 prompts), with a free trial.
• Watch-out: 15 prompts is a small sample, and engine add-ons raise the cost.

Scrunch

Scrunch tracks prompts, citations and AI agent traffic and audits pages. Its "Agent Experience Platform" serves an AI-friendly version of a site.

• Best for: larger brands that want citation and agent traffic data together.
• AI platforms: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Meta.
• Price and trial: Scrunch's pricing page lists Starter at $300 monthly or $250 a month billed annually (350 prompts), with a 7-day trial and no card required.
• Watch-out: it has the highest entry price among these trackers, so it fits teams that will use the larger prompt allowance.

AthenaHQ

AthenaHQ is credit-based: one credit equals one AI response, so cost depends on how many prompts you run on how many engines.

• Best for: trying broad engine coverage before paying.
• AI platforms: the free tier covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot; Starter adds AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.
• Price and trial: AthenaHQ's pricing page lists a free plan ($0, 300 credits) and Starter at $295 monthly or $245 a month billed annually.
• Watch-out: 300 credits go quickly when many prompts run across five engines.

Rankscale

Rankscale is also credit-based, at about 0.25 credits per query per engine, and unused credits roll over.

• Best for: a low entry price with a credit model that scales.
• AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Claude, Grok and Copilot.
• Price and trial: Rankscale's pricing page lists Essentials at $20 a month and Pro at $99, with 15% off annual billing and a 7-day trial on Pro only.
• Watch-out: you cannot trial Essentials, and credit use grows with every engine you query.

SEO Suites With AI Search Tracking

If you already pay for an SEO suite, price its AI features before adding another subscription. In these four, the AI part is often a separate plan, toolkit or add-on.

Semrush

Semrush plans are now SEO, Starter, Pro+ and Advanced. AI prompt tracking starts on Starter ("SEO + AI Search") with 50 prompts a day. A separate AI Visibility Toolkit covers visibility benchmarking, prompt research, prompt tracking and an AI Search Site Audit.

• Best for: teams that already run their SEO in Semrush.
• AI platforms: Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini "and additional platforms."
• Price and trial: on Semrush's pricing page the SEO plan is $139 monthly or $117.33 a month billed annually, with no AI prompts. Starter is $199 monthly or $165.17 billed annually, and the AI Visibility Toolkit alone is $99 a month. Plans have a 7-day trial, but Semrush's knowledge base says the toolkit has none.
• Watch-out: the SEO plan has no AI prompt tracking, so compare Starter with the standalone toolkit.

Ahrefs Brand Radar

Ahrefs Brand Radar tracks brand mentions in AI answers, checks custom prompts daily and includes AI crawler analytics, with YouTube, TikTok and Reddit source tracking in beta.

• Best for: brands that want AI mention tracking across seven named engines.
• AI platforms: AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Claude.
• Price and trial: Ahrefs' pricing page lists Starter at $29 a month and Lite at $129. Brand Radar AI starts at $199 a month, custom prompts start at $50, and annual billing saves "up to 17%." Ahrefs Free offers basic site data, and no free trial was listed.
• Watch-out: the $29 Starter price is not the cost of AI tracking, since Brand Radar AI and custom prompts are priced separately.

SE Ranking and SE Visible

SE Ranking's AI Search add-on tracks AI results and competitors and includes the SE Visible dashboard. SE Visible is also sold on its own, with daily refresh.

• Best for: SEO teams on a mid-range budget that want AI tracking in the same suite.
• AI platforms: the add-on covers AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity; standalone SE Visible covers those plus Gemini.
• Price and trial: SE Ranking's pricing page lists Core at $129 monthly or $103.20 a month billed annually. The AI Search add-on costs an extra $71.20 a month billed annually (more on monthly billing), and SE Visible Basic is $99 a month for 200 prompts. SE Ranking has a 14-day trial with no card; SE Visible has a 10-day trial.
• Watch-out: the add-on is priced on top of Core, so compare the total with standalone SE Visible.

Search Atlas

Search Atlas is built around OTTO, which applies technical and on-page fixes and content automation on managed sites. Plans are credit-based.

• Best for: agencies and site owners who want fixes applied, not just reported.
• AI platforms: Growth covers ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode; Pro and higher add Copilot and Perplexity.
• Price and trial: Search Atlas's pricing page lists Starter at $79 monthly or $950 a year without LLM tracking, and Growth at $159 a month. There is a 7-day trial plus an onboarding call.
• Watch-out: automated changes reach your live site, so decide who reviews what OTTO applies.

AI Content Optimization and Writing Tools

These AI search optimization tools focus on the page itself, with prompt or citation tracking added. A better-scored page is not automatically one AI engines cite, so read our guide to LLM SEO for the strategy before choosing an editor.

Surfer

Surfer combines a content editor, audits and AI writing with an AI Tracker that checks 10 to 100 prompts, refreshed daily or weekly. It also sells a standalone AI Search Analytics plan.

• Best for: writers who want optimization and AI tracking in one tool.
• AI platforms: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overview and Gemini.
• Price and trial: Surfer's pricing page lists Discovery at $49 a month billed annually and AI Search Analytics at $82 a month billed annually. Surfer's help docs describe a 7-day free trial of Pro.
• Watch-out: tracker allowances range from 10 to 100 prompts, so check the count and refresh rate on your plan.

Clearscope

Clearscope tracks prompts, pages, topic explorations and drafts, and shows "query fan-out," the searches an AI runs to build an answer.

• Best for: content teams that plan pages around the questions behind AI answers.
• AI platforms: ChatGPT and Gemini, plus Google search.
• Price and trial: Clearscope's pricing page lists Essentials at $129 a month (50 prompts), with no annual price shown and a 14-day trial.
• Watch-out: Perplexity, Claude and Copilot are not among its listed platforms.

Frase

Frase writes and audits content and tracks AI citations, with 50 to 500 prompts depending on the plan.

• Best for: small content teams that want writing and citation tracking at a low entry price.
• AI platforms: Starter and Professional cover ChatGPT and Google AI; Scale adds Perplexity, Claude and Gemini.
• Price and trial: Frase's pricing page lists Starter at $49 monthly or $39 a month billed annually, with a 7-day trial and no card required.
• Watch-out: Perplexity, Claude and Gemini tracking require the Scale plan.

Writesonic

Writesonic combines AI article writing with GEO features: prompt and answer tracking, site audits and, on Growth and above, an "Action Center."

• Best for: teams that want generative engine optimization tracking and AI writing in one subscription.
• AI platforms: Starter, Basic and Growth cover ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews; Enterprise covers 10 platforms, adding Perplexity, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Copilot, Meta AI and AI Mode.
• Price and trial: Writesonic's pricing page lists Starter at $79 a month billed annually. There is a free trial with no card, but no free plan.
• Watch-out: Perplexity and AI Mode appear only in the Enterprise platform list.

Free AI SEO Tools: Google and Bing Reports

Two free reports come from the search engines' own data rather than from prompts a vendor runs. They are easy to overlook and the right place to start.

Google Search Console: Generative AI Report

Google's Search Console documentation explains that clicks from AI Overviews and AI Mode are counted inside the normal Performance report, under "Web," and cannot be separated out. The Generative AI performance report, rolled out worldwide on Aug 31, 2026, shows impressions only for AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no clicks, CTR or position.

You can filter the report by page, country and device, which makes it a quick way to see which pages appear in Google's AI features.

Bing Webmaster Tools: AI Performance

Bing's AI Performance announcement describes a report, in public preview since Feb 10, 2026, that counts citations across "Microsoft Copilot, AI-generated summaries in Bing, and select partner integrations." It shows total citations, cited pages and grounding queries, but no clicks.

Bing added Citation Share, Intents, Topics and Compare in June 2026. Because the data comes from Bing itself rather than a prompt list you write, it is a useful cross-check against any paid tracker.

How to Choose an AI SEO Tool

Tracking AI answers is one piece of managing your online presence as a whole, so start with the question you need answered, then match the budget. Many teams only need one group of tools.

Choose by goal

• "Do AI answers mention or cite us?" Use a tracker, and check which engines your plan includes.
• "We already pay for an SEO suite." Price its AI option first, such as Semrush Starter, Ahrefs Brand Radar AI or the SE Ranking add-on.
• "Our pages need work." Use a content optimizer such as Surfer, Clearscope or Frase.
• "We want fixes made for us." Look at Search Atlas OTTO, with a clear review step.
• "We have no budget." Use Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and AthenaHQ's free plan.

Choose by budget

Questions to ask before you buy

• Which AI engines does the plan you can afford include?
• How many prompts or credits do you get, and how often do they refresh?
• Does it separate citations (your page is a source) from mentions (your brand is named)?
• Can it track the countries you sell in?

What AI SEO Tools Cannot Do

AI SEO software measures and suggests, but it cannot make an AI engine choose your page. Google's guidance on AI features says "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."

What gets cited is content worth citing, often on third-party sites. Muck Rack's "What is AI reading?" study (May 2026, more than 25 million links across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini) found that earned media made up 84% of AI citations, with journalism alone at 27%. Our guide on how to get press releases cited in AI search covers the practical side.

Answers also change between runs, so any single check is a snapshot. RedPress plans from $279 include an AI visibility report that runs search terms built from a press release on Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. It separates citations (a source is a page where the release was published) from mentions (the brand is named without a matching source) and dates every result; read about campaign-level AI citation tracking for the details.

FAQ — AI SEO Tools

Which AI tool is best for SEO? No single tool wins, because they do different jobs. Suites like Semrush, Ahrefs and SE Ranking fit teams already doing SEO; trackers like Profound, Peec AI and Rankscale fit brand monitoring; Surfer, Clearscope and Frase fit content work.

Can you do SEO with AI? Yes, for parts of the work: research, drafting, audits and tracking. Google's AI optimization guide still recommends unique, expert, non-commodity content plus technical SEO basics.

Can ChatGPT do SEO? It can help you brainstorm and draft, but it does not report your rankings or AI citations. To appear in ChatGPT search, note that OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that block OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links."

What is AI SEO called now? Common names are generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO) and LLM SEO. Google treats it as SEO: its AI optimization guide says "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search (including its generative AI capabilities)." Our LLM SEO guide explains the strategy.

Are there free AI SEO tools? Yes. Google Search Console's Generative AI performance report shows AI impressions, Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance shows citations, and AthenaHQ has a free plan with 300 credits.

What is the difference between AI visibility tools and SEO tools? SEO tools focus on traditional rankings and site health, while AI visibility tools, also called LLM tracking tools, check what AI engines say in response to set prompts. Semrush, Ahrefs and SE Ranking now offer both.

How much do AI SEO tools cost? On vendor pages checked in September 2026, the cheapest paid plans here run from $20 a month (Rankscale Essentials) to $300 a month billed monthly (Scrunch Starter).

Can an AI SEO tool get my brand cited in ChatGPT or Google's AI answers? No tool can promise that. Tools show where you stand; citations depend on content worth citing and on coverage from sources AI engines draw on.

Summary

AI SEO tools do three jobs: tracking AI answers, adding AI data to an SEO suite, and optimizing content. Pick by the question you need answered, and confirm prices on the vendor's page.

Key takeaways:

• Trackers such as Profound, Peec AI and Rankscale record what AI engines say about your brand.
• Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking and Search Atlas add AI tracking to SEO suites, often as a separate plan or add-on.
• Surfer, Clearscope, Frase and Writesonic optimize content and also track prompts or citations.
• Engine coverage often depends on plan tier, and entry prices run from $20 to $300 a month.
• Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools offer free first-party AI reports.

Bottom line: Start with the free Google and Bing reports, then add the one tool that matches your main job and budget. Treat every result as a dated snapshot, and put your effort into content and coverage worth citing.

Ready to earn the coverage these tools measure? See RedPress plans from $169 →