Published entry prices for AI visibility tools now run from $17 a month to $800, and the number on the plan card says little about what you receive. This guide lists 15 competitors plus Mentionova. Every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read on 28 October 2026; Peec AI and Profound were re-read on 29 October 2026. Where a price is not public, the table says so.
Start the 14-day trial, no card. Run your five most valuable buyer prompts on six engines.
What are the key takeaways?
- Entry prices run from $17 to $800 a month. Rankscale Essentials is $17/mo billed yearly only. Evertune Pro is $800/mo billed annually. Single-purpose trackers cluster between $29 and $99.
- A plan sells recorded answers, not prompts. Prompts times engines times runs is the real unit. Otterly's $29 Lite records 1,800 answers a month. Mentionova's $125 Starter records 300 at weekly cadence (both calculated).
- Profound no longer lists a paid self-serve brand plan. Its pricing page shows a free 7-day Trial and a custom Enterprise plan, nothing in between.
- The tracker-versus-platform line is no longer a price line. Writesonic's $79 plan includes 15 articles. Rankability's $97 plan includes 20 content projects. Check what is included, not the category label.
- Mentionova costs more than most trackers. Starter is $125/mo monthly ($99/mo billed annually) for 25 prompts on 3 engines. Otterly Lite is $29 and Peec Starter is $95. The difference pays for scored opportunities, briefs, CMS drafts and a weekly cadence, not for more recorded answers.
- Test before paying. Eight of the tools below, Mentionova included, offer a trial of 7 to 14 days. Run the same five prompts in each.
How much do AI visibility tools cost in 2026?
Published entry prices run from $17 a month (Rankscale Essentials, billed yearly only) to $800 (Evertune Pro, billed annually). Single-purpose trackers cluster between $29 and $99. Platforms that also brief and draft content start at $250 or more. Profound, AirOps and Bluefish publish no self-serve price. Every figure below was read on 28 October 2026.
| Tool | Entry plan and price | Prompts at entry | Engines at entry | Run frequency | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rankscale | Essentials $17/mo (yearly only; $20 list). Pro $99 ($84 annual) | 120 credits; Pro 1,200 credits (up to 4,800 answers) | 17+ | Hourly to monthly | 7-day free Pro trial |
| Otterly | Lite $29/mo | 15 | 4 (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot) | Daily | Free trial; length not stated |
| Peec AI | Starter $95/mo (monthly billing) | 50 (4,500 answers/mo) | 3 active models | Daily | 7 days |
| Promptwatch | Essential $95/mo | 50 (6,000 responses) | Multiple models | Daily | 7 days |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo, 1 project | 25 | ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode, Gemini (Prompt Tracking) | Daily | None for the standalone toolkit |
| SE Visible (SE Ranking) | Basic from $89/mo | 75 | 4 (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews) | Daily | 10 days |
| Rankability | Starter $97/mo | 100 AI queries | 11 platforms | Daily | 7 days, card required |
| Writesonic | Starter $79/mo billed annually | 50 | 3 | Not stated | "Start free, no credit card needed" |
| Ahrefs | Lite $129/mo (seat plan); Brand Radar index from $199/mo | 150 checks/mo included on Lite | Up to 6 platforms for custom prompts | Daily, weekly or monthly | Not stated on pages read |
| Scrunch | Core $250/mo (billing term not stated) | 125 (5,000 responses/mo) | 4 | Not stated | Not stated |
| AthenaHQ | Essential free (300 credits); Starter $295/mo (3,600 credits) | Credit-based | 11 models on Starter | Not stated | Free plan |
| Goodie | Core $295/mo | 110 | 5 | Daily | Not stated |
| Gauge | Growth $599/mo | 600 (54,000 answers/mo) | 3 (ChatGPT, AI Mode, Copilot) | Daily | Not stated |
| Evertune | Starter $60/mo plus 10% of media. Pro $800/mo billed annually | 5,000 credits; Pro 100,000 | 5; Pro 11 | Not stated | Not stated |
| Profound | Custom Enterprise; free Trial | Trial: 50 | Trial: 3; Enterprise up to 9 | Trial: daily for 7 days | 7-day Trial |
| Mentionova | Starter $125/mo ($99 annual) | 25 | 3 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google) | Weekly to monthly | 14 days, no card |
AirOps lists Solo, Pro and Enterprise plans with task counts and no dollar amounts. Bluefish returned a 404 for its pricing page on 28 October 2026 and sells by demo. Ahrefs counts checks, not prompts: one prompt on one platform in one location for one update is one check.
What does the price actually buy: prompts, engines or run frequency?
A plan sells recorded answers: prompts times engines times runs. Otterly's $29 Lite covers 15 prompts on four engines, tracked daily. Peec's $95 Starter covers 50 prompts on three chosen models, daily. Mentionova's $125 Starter covers 25 prompts on three engines, run weekly to monthly. Compare the answer count, not the plan name.
| Plan | Answers per month | How it is derived |
|---|---|---|
| Rankscale Essentials ($17, yearly) | up to 480 | 120 credits at about 0.25 credit per engine per prompt (calculated from the vendor's credit rate) |
| Mentionova Starter ($125) | about 300 | 25 prompts x 3 engines x 4 weekly runs (calculated); 75 if run monthly |
| Otterly Lite ($29) | about 1,800 | 15 prompts x 4 engines x 30 days (calculated) |
| Peec Starter ($95) | 4,500 | Vendor figure: 50 prompts x 3 models, daily |
| Rankscale Pro ($99) | up to 4,800 | 1,200 credits (vendor figure) |
| Scrunch Core ($250) | 5,000 | Vendor figure: 5,000 responses a month |
| Promptwatch Essential ($95) | 6,000 | Vendor figure: 6,000 responses |
| SE Visible Basic ($89) | about 11,250 | Vendor figure: 75 prompts daily, about 11,250 answers |
| Gauge Growth ($599) | 54,000 | Vendor figure: 600 prompts daily, 54,000 answers |
Mentionova records fewer answers per dollar than every other plan in that table. Say that plainly before comparing anything else. A weekly run samples each prompt about four times a month on each engine. That reads trends over weeks, not single-day swings. If you need daily samples, buy a daily tracker.
Sample size still matters for every tool on the list. SparkToro and Gumshoe's study, published 28 January 2026 and updated 28 June 2026, found less than a 1-in-100 chance that two runs of the same prompt return the same brand list. Rand Fishkin wrote that visibility percentage "across dozens to hundreds of prompts run multiple times" is a reasonable metric. The research is not peer reviewed, and co-researcher Patrick O'Donnell works at Gumshoe.ai, a disclosed conflict. The practical reading: a daily tool gives you more samples per prompt, and a weekly tool needs more weeks.
Running a prompt by hand in Mentionova draws no agentic tasks. The 100 tasks on Starter pay for the work around the data: briefs, drafts, audits.
Which tools don't publish a price?
Profound lists a free 7-day Trial and a custom Enterprise plan, with no paid self-serve brand tier. Bluefish publishes no pricing page, and AirOps lists plan names and task counts but no dollar amounts.
Profound. The Trial runs 50 prompts daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, with one language and no prompt customization. Enterprise is custom and lists up to 9 answer engines, SSO/SAML and SOC 2. The page's FAQ mentions a self-serve Agency Growth plan with 400 credits a month per client workspace but states no dollar amount.
AirOps. Solo covers ChatGPT insights with 35,000 tasks. Pro covers 10+ engines with 100,000 tasks. Enterprise is custom. The page offers a 14-day free trial of Scale features.
Bluefish. No public pricing page was found. Treat it as custom, demo only.
Do you need a tracker or a platform?
Buy a tracker when the output is a report that someone else acts on. Buy a platform when you want gaps turned into briefs and drafts inside the same product. Content features now start as low as $79 (Writesonic, 15 articles), so check what is included rather than the category label.
Three price bands show up in the table:
- $17 to $129: Rankscale, Otterly, Writesonic, SE Visible, Promptwatch, Peec, Rankability, Semrush and Ahrefs Lite. Most are tracking-first. Rankability ($97, 20 content projects) and Writesonic ($79, 15 articles) bundle content work.
- $250 to $300: Scrunch Core ($250), AthenaHQ Starter ($295) and Goodie Core ($295).
- $399 to $800: Writesonic Growth ($399), Gauge Growth ($599) and Evertune Pro ($800). Gauge and Evertune both sell content or ad execution on top of tracking.
Mentionova sits at $125 on Starter and $400 monthly ($320 annual) on Scale. The platform part is the opportunity engine: gaps are rescored nightly on a 0 to 100 scale across gap, reach, effort and heat, and each opportunity ships with a brief and, on request, a draft pushed to WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Sanity or a webhook. For a longer tool-by-tool ranking, see best AI visibility tools.
Why do the same tools quote different prices?
Five things move the number: billing term, add-ons, units, bundling and currency. A plan card shows the cheapest combination. Add the second engine, the extra seat or the second domain and the price changes. Read the add-on table before you read the plan card.
- Billing term. Otterly Standard is $189 monthly and $160 on annual billing. Rankscale Essentials is $17 only if you pay for a year. Evertune Pro is $800 only on annual billing. Mentionova Starter is $125 monthly and $99 annual.
- Add-ons. Otterly sells +100 prompts for $99 a month and a Claude add-on at $29, $109 or $439 a month depending on tier. Semrush's toolkit charges $99 for an extra domain or location, $60 for 50 more prompts and $99 for an extra user license.
- Units. Ahrefs sells checks. Claude uses 8 checks per update, so the same allowance tracks fewer Claude prompts. Rankscale sells credits at about 0.25 credit per engine per prompt. Athena sells credits. Gauge sells answers.
- Bundling. Ahrefs Lite at $129 is an SEO subscription with 150 checks a month included. Brand Radar's AI Visibility Index starts at $199 a month per index. The page also shows $699 a month for all models. Semrush One bundles SEO and AI prompts from $199 a month.
- Commission and fees. Evertune's $60 Starter adds an Ads Agent fee of 10% of media spend.
For the Semrush and Ahrefs bundles in detail, see Semrush AI Toolkit vs Ahrefs Brand Radar vs a dedicated platform.
Where does Mentionova sit, and where is it not the cheapest?
Mentionova Starter is $125 a month, or $99 billed annually, for 25 prompts on 3 engines. That is more than Otterly Lite ($29) and more than Peec Starter ($95 monthly). It buys scored opportunities, briefs, CMS drafts and an agent workflow, not a higher count of recorded answers.
| Brand plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Prompts | Engines | Agentic tasks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $125 | $99 | 25 | 3 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google) | 100 |
| Scale | $400 | $320 | 100 | 6 (adds Claude, Gemini, Reddit) | 500 |
| Enterprise | $999 | $799 | 250 | 6 | 2,500 |
All three brand plans include 1 workspace and 3 seats. Agency plans: Launch is $250 monthly ($200 annual) for 3 client workspaces and 50 prompts. Growth is $999 ($799 annual) for 10 workspaces and 200 prompts. Agency Enterprise is custom, with 50 workspaces and 600 prompts. Source: Mentionova's plans overview in the docs, read 28 October 2026.
What the price buys:
- Nightly opportunity scoring (0 to 100) with a brief per opportunity.
- CMS drafts to WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Sanity or a webhook.
- A 42-check site audit, 38 connectors, and an MCP server with 56 tools.
- On Scale and above: Reddit as a tracked engine and the v1 API.
Where it is not the best buy:
- You want daily runs. Mentionova refreshes weekly, and runs can be set to every two weeks or monthly.
- You want the lowest cost per tracked prompt. Otterly Lite, Peec and Promptwatch all cost less per answer.
- You need panel-modeled prompt volumes. Mentionova has none.
- You need more than three engines on the entry plan. Starter has three.
Alternatives pages: Otterly alternatives and Peec alternatives. Full tier detail is on the pricing page.
How do you test any tool before paying?
Run the same five buyer prompts in every trial, three times each, and compare mentions, cited sources and wording. Trials of 7 to 14 days are enough for that protocol. Do not judge a tool on a dashboard demo; judge it on your prompts.
| Vendor | Trial on 28 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Mentionova | 14 days, no card, 5 prompts, 1 workspace, all six engines |
| AirOps | 14-day free trial of Scale features |
| SE Visible | 10 days |
| Profound | Free 7-day Trial: 50 prompts daily on 3 engines |
| Peec AI | 7 days |
| Promptwatch | 7 days on Essential and Professional |
| Rankability | 7 days, card required |
| Rankscale | 7-day free Pro trial |
| AthenaHQ | Free Essential plan (300 credits) |
| Writesonic | "Start free. No credit card needed." |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | No free trial for the standalone toolkit |
| Ahrefs, Scrunch, Goodie, Gauge, Evertune | No trial stated on the pages read |
The method for the prompts is in How to check if ChatGPT mentions your brand: a 20-prompt method. Free checkers from Ahrefs and Semrush give a one-time snapshot without any plan.
Where does each number come from?
Every price was read on 28 October 2026 unless noted. Vendor pages: otterly.ai/pricing, rankscale.ai/pricing, promptwatch.com/pricing, visible.seranking.com, rankability.com/pricing, writesonic.com/pricing, scrunch.com/pricing, athenahq.ai/pricing, higoodie.com/pricing, withgauge.com/pricing, evertune.ai/pricing, peec.ai/pricing and peec.ai/geo-report (re-read 29 October 2026), tryprofound.com/pricing (re-read 29 October 2026), airops.com/pricing, ahrefs.com/pricing, ahrefs.com/brand-radar, and mentionova.com/docs/billing/plans-overview. Semrush: semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-visibility-toolkit. Bluefish: bluefishai.com/pricing returned 404.
SparkToro (sparktoro.com), published 28 January 2026. Figures marked "calculated" are our arithmetic from the vendors' published plan limits. Prices change often; confirm on the vendor page before you buy.
What do people ask about AI visibility tool pricing?
How much does Profound cost in 2026?
Profound publishes no self-serve price for brands. The pricing page lists a free 7-day Trial (50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and a custom-priced Enterprise plan, as of 29 October 2026. See Profound alternatives.
What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?
By published monthly price, Rankscale Essentials is cheapest at $17 a month, but it is billed yearly and gives about 480 answers a month. Otterly Lite at $29 a month covers 15 prompts on four engines, tracked daily. Athena's Essential plan is free with 300 credits.
How much does Peec AI cost?
Peec's pricing page lists Starter at $95 a month for 50 prompts, Pro at $245 for 150 prompts and Advanced at $495 for 350 prompts, on monthly billing, each with 3 active models run daily. Enterprise is custom. Read on 29 October 2026.
Why is Mentionova more expensive than Otterly?
Mentionova Starter is $125 a month ($99 annual) against Otterly Lite at $29. Otterly records more answers per dollar and runs daily. Mentionova adds nightly opportunity scoring, briefs, CMS drafts and a weekly cadence. If you only need monitoring, Otterly or Peec is the cheaper fit.
Does Semrush or Ahrefs include AI visibility tracking?
Both sell it, with different gates. Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 a month for 25 prompts, and Semrush One bundles 50 to 200 prompts with SEO from $199 a month. Ahrefs includes 150 to 600 custom-prompt checks a month on Lite and above and sells Brand Radar indexes from $199 a month.
Are there free AI visibility tools?
Yes, for snapshots. Ahrefs and Semrush both run free AI visibility checkers, and Semrush's allows 3 uses a day without an account. HubSpot's AI Search Grader is free and one-time. AthenaHQ's Essential plan is free with 300 credits. None replaces repeated tracking.
How many prompts do I need?
It depends on your markets, products and languages. Entry plans range from 15 prompts (Otterly Lite) to 600 (Gauge Growth). Mentionova's trial uses 5 prompts, which is enough to compare tools on your five most valuable buyer questions.
Start the 14-day trial, no card. Run your five most valuable buyer prompts on six engines.