The essentials
- What they do: automatically put a set of questions to several AI assistants, record the brands cited and the sources used, and track the trend.
- Criteria: assistants covered, number of questions tracked, reading frequency, source detection, competitor tracking, language and local market.
- Tools: Otterly ($29), Qwairy (€79 excl. VAT), SE Ranking (€79 add-on), Ahrefs Brand Radar (€179 add-on), Semrush (€190), Scrunch ($300); GreenRed includes 10 questions across 5 AIs in its €69 excl. VAT plan.
- 2026 pricing: from $29 to $300 per month at entry level for specialist tools, €179 to €190 for SEO suite modules, on quotation for enterprise platforms.
- The shared limit: none of them has access to the assistants' internal data; all of them work by repeated questioning, and therefore by sampling.
Tracking visibility in generative AI answers has become a real need as assistants take a growing share of searches. A category of tools has appeared to meet it. This article explains what they measure, how to tell them apart, what they cost and when a manual method is enough. The measurement approach itself is described in tracking visibility on ChatGPT and Perplexity.
What these tools really measure
No vendor has access to the assistants' internal data. They all work the same way: they automatically put a set of questions to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Mistral, Google's AI previews (AI Overviews, AI Mode) and sometimes Copilot, Grok or DeepSeek at regular intervals, then analyse the answers to extract the brands cited, their order of appearance and the sources referenced. This is sampling, with the limitations that implies: answers vary from one run to the next, per-user personalisation cannot be reproduced, and actual query volumes remain unknown. The "AI search volumes" that several vendors now offer are extrapolations; a tool that measures citation frequency on a sample is doing what is technically possible.
The selection criteria
| Criterion | What to check | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Assistants covered | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity at minimum; Claude, Mistral (Le Chat) and Google's AI previews depending on your customer base | Answers differ a great deal from one model to another |
| Local market | Questions in your language, localised answers | Many tools are calibrated for English |
| Number of questions | From 10 to 350 at entry level, unlimited with some vendors that bill by credit | Determines how fine the tracking is |
| Reading frequency | Daily with most vendors in 2026 | Base decisions on a weekly or monthly trend; day-to-day variability dominates |
| Repetitions per question | At least three | Without them the reading measures chance |
| Source detection | The pages cited, not just the brands | This is what makes the tracking actionable |
| Competitor tracking | Comparative share of voice | The gap counts more than the absolute value |
| Export and API | Into an existing dashboard | Avoids one more tool to open |
The tools and their prices in 2026
Entry prices checked on 16 October 2026 on the official pricing pages, excluding tax. The market now bills by number of questions ("prompts") or by credit, with each additional engine often an add-on.
| Tool | Type | Entry price | What the entry plan includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly.AI | GEO specialist | $29 per month | 15 questions, 4 engines; Gemini, AI Mode and Claude as add-ons |
| Qwairy (France) | GEO specialist | €79 excl. VAT per month (€65 billed annually) | Unlimited questions, 2,500 credits, around 18 engines; limited free plan |
| Rankscale | GEO specialist | $99 per month (Pro plan) | 1,200 credits, more than 9 engines |
| SE Ranking | SEO suite add-on | €79 per month on top of the €109 Core subscription | 200 questions; ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | SEO suite add-on | From €179 per month on top of Ahrefs Lite at €119 | Brand mention tracking in AIs |
| Semrush | SEO and AI bundle | €190 per month (Starter) | 50 questions per day, Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini |
| Scrunch | Specialist platform | $300 per month ($250 billed annually) | 350 questions, 7 engines |
| AthenaHQ, Goodie | Specialist platforms | Around $295 per month | Several thousand credits or around a hundred questions; free plan at AthenaHQ |
| Profound | Enterprise platform | On quotation after a 7-day trial | Large accounts |
| GreenRed | All-in-one marketing management | €69 excl. VAT per month (Pilotage), 14-day trial | 10 questions across 5 AIs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Mistral), with SEO, Google Ads, social media, Google Business Profile, GA4 or Matomo and an action plan in the same subscription |
| The manual method | Spreadsheet | €0, 15 to 30 minutes a quarter | Micro-businesses and small companies with lower stakes |
Meteoria (France) and Peec AI did not display clear pricing on their page at the time of checking. The market is consolidating: Profound raised $180 million in September 2026, HubSpot acquired XFunnel in 2025, and SEO suites now sell AI tracking as an add-on at over €79 per month.
GEO specialist or management tool: how to decide
A specialist tool such as Qwairy or Scrunch goes further on GEO alone: more questions, more engines, detailed analysis of cited sources. It is the right choice if AI visibility is your main focus and you track dozens of questions. However, it does not track your traffic, your Google rankings, your campaigns or your Google Business Profile: it has to be added to your tool stack.
GreenRed takes the opposite approach: focused GEO tracking on your 10 key questions and 5 AIs, included in a subscription that costs less than most standalone GEO tools and links AI visibility to the rest of your marketing (AI referral traffic, SEO rankings, action plan). For an SME that wants to know whether it is cited and what to fix, this is often enough; for an agency tracking 200 questions per client, a specialist is still needed. The overview of marketing tools can be found in the best digital marketing tools in 2026.
The manual method, often sufficient
- Fix ten to twenty questions: shortlisting, comparison and expertise, written the way a customer would ask them.
- Choose three assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, in a neutral session with no history.
- Repeat each question three times: to smooth out the variability of the answers.
- Note four things: brands cited, order, sources used, justification given.
- Consolidate in a spreadsheet: one row per question, one column per quarterly reading.
- Decide: every absence points to content to produce, every source cited points to a page that works.
This protocol takes about thirty minutes a quarter and produces most of what a €100-a-month tool supplies. It becomes insufficient beyond fifty or so questions, or for multi-client tracking. The competitive reading is covered in share of voice in AI.
What no tool replaces
- Analysing the sources cited: knowing that a competitor is cited is useless without reading the page that earns them the citation.
- Fixing the content: the tools measure, they don't write the missing answers.
- Entity consistency: inconsistencies between directories, listings and your site are fixed by hand.
- The link to commercial results: no tool connects a citation to a signed customer; that reconciliation happens in the CRM.
- The complementary metrics: AI referral traffic in GA4 and brand searches in Search Console, to be tracked alongside; see GEO KPIs.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's GEO tracking brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
What do GEO tracking tools measure?
They automatically put a set of questions to several AI assistants at regular intervals, then record the brands cited, their order and the sources referenced. None has access to the models' internal data: all of them work by sampling, with the limits that implies.
How much does an AI visibility tracking tool cost?
In October 2026, from $29 per month (Otterly, 15 questions) to $300 (Scrunch, 350 questions) for entry-level specialist tools, €79 excl. VAT for Qwairy, €79 to €190 for SEO suite add-ons (SE Ranking, Ahrefs, Semrush), and on quotation for enterprise platforms such as Profound. GreenRed includes 10 questions across 5 AIs in its Pilotage plan at €69 excl. VAT per month.
Which GEO tool should an SME choose?
If AI visibility is the main focus, a specialist such as Qwairy covers more questions and engines. If the goal is to know whether the brand is cited on its key questions while also managing SEO, campaigns and social media, an all-in-one tool such as GreenRed is enough and costs less than a standalone GEO tool.
What criteria should you use to choose?
The assistants covered, support for your language, the number of questions tracked, the reading frequency and the number of repetitions per question, detection of source pages rather than brands alone, competitor tracking, and the ability to export into an existing dashboard.
Is a tool essential?
Not for a micro-business or a small company with lower stakes: a manual reading of ten to twenty questions put three times to three assistants, once a quarter, takes thirty minutes and supplies the essentials. A tool becomes useful beyond fifty or so questions, or for multi-client tracking.