Best AI Brand Visibility Software: Is AI Mentioning Your Business?

Run the check by hand first: ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude 15 to 25 customer-style questions, repeat each three times and log whether you are named. Paid tools start around $29 a month (OtterlyAI Lite, 15 prompts) and make sense only when you need daily tracking, competitor comparison or reports for a client.

The reason to start manually is that AI answers are generated afresh each time, so a single check is a coin toss. A tracker is mostly a machine for repeating the same checks on a schedule and storing the results. If you have not decided which questions matter, a tool will simply measure the wrong things faster.

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Step one: a free manual check that takes about an hour

You need three things: a list of prompts, a log sheet, and a clean start for each test. Use a new chat each time, signed out if you can, so that your own history does not colour the answer. Test in the assistants your customers use: ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude at least, plus Google's AI answers if your market relies on search.

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1. Write 15 to 25 prompts the way customers ask them. Mix four types: a plain service question ("who fits kitchens for rental landlords"), a comparison ("A or B for a small care agency"), a best-for question ("best nursery management software for a small setting"), and a branded question using your own name.
2. Run each prompt three times in new chats. Record whether you are named, in what position, and what the assistant says about you.
3. Note the sources if the assistant lists any. Those are the pages shaping the answer, and they are where your work should go.
4. Score the results: mention rate (how many of the 3 runs name you), average position, and accuracy of what is said about you.

Here is a filled-in log row, with made-up data, for a kitchen fitter. Prompt: "reliable kitchen fitter for a rental flat refit". Gemini: named in 2 of 3 runs, positions 3 and 5, one answer quotes an old price range. ChatGPT: named in 0 of 3; three competitors named each time. Claude: named in 1 of 3, position 4. Sources cited: two directories and one local news article. The takeaway is not "we are invisible". It is "we appear in Gemini, the old price needs fixing at its source, and ChatGPT cites three directories we are not in".

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What a good log sheet looks like

Keep the sheet to those columns. The "inaccuracies" column often turns up the most valuable fix, because wrong prices and old services are within your control: update the source page and the answer follows over time. If you want a fuller method, how to get recommended by ChatGPT and AI search covers the work that changes the answers.

When paid software starts to make sense

Manual checks scale badly. Twenty prompts across three assistants three times is 180 queries, about two hours a month by hand. A tool earns its fee when one of these is true.

• You need more than monthly snapshots. You are changing pages weekly and want to see movement.
• You track more than about 30 prompts, or several locations or product lines.
• You compare against three or more named competitors and want share of mentions, not impressions.
• You report to someone else: clients, a board, an investor.
• AI referrals are already visible in your analytics and you want to link them to prompts.

If none apply, stay manual. The sum below shows why.

A cost sum: manual against a Lite plan

Illustration. A care agency owner values her time at $40 an hour. Manual tracking of 20 prompts monthly takes 2 hours, so $80 of time. OtterlyAI Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts (the annual figure on its page is lower). It does not cover 20 prompts, so she would need to cut five or pay for a larger plan. Peec AI's Starter is $95 a month for 50 prompts. On pure arithmetic, Lite is cheaper than her time; but she must also read the output, and the tool's default engine list may leave out Gemini unless she buys an add-on.

1. Manual: 2 hours x $40 = $80 a month, plus the discipline to do it.
2. Lite: $29 plus about 30 minutes reading ($20) = $49 for 15 prompts on four engines.
3. Mid tier: $95 plus 30 minutes = $115 for 50 prompts.

The saving from a tool is real but small. The reason to buy is repeatability and history, not cost.

The trackers compared on price and prompts

These are list prices from each vendor's own page when I checked. They change often, and some prices are shown monthly and annual, so confirm on the page.

Notice the gap between the first rung of Otterly at $29 and Peec at $95: you pay for 35 more prompts and more monthly answers. For a firm that only wants 20 prompts, the real decision is whether the cheapest plan covers the engines you care about. If you already pay for an SEO suite, check it first: Semrush now bundles AI-visibility prompt tracking into its SEO and AI search plans, and Ahrefs sells Brand Radar, which tracks mentions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI answers. See the comparison of Semrush AI Visibility and Ahrefs Brand Radar.

What to ask before you pay for any tracker

• Which assistants are included in the plan price, and which are add-ons? Is Gemini one?
• How often does it re-run each prompt, and does it run each prompt more than once to smooth variation?
• Can I write my own prompts, or only pick from a list? (Profound's trial, for example, gives a recommended set and no customising.)
• Does it show the source pages cited, so I know where to act?
• Can I export results, and what happens to my history if I cancel?

A filled-in trial plan

Run one trial for 14 days, not three at once. Put in your 20 prompts from the manual sheet, so you can compare the tool's answers with your own. If the tool reports you absent where your manual checks found you present, that is a signal about how it queries (location, model version, or logged-in state), not about your visibility. Ask support to explain before you trust the dashboard.

Reading the results without fooling yourself

Three traps catch new users. The first is small samples: moving from 1 of 3 to 2 of 3 mentions is noise. Wait for at least four weeks of the same prompts before declaring a trend. The second is branded prompts: being named when someone types your own name proves little, because that is what assistants do. Weight your score to the unbranded questions. The third is the vanity share: a high mention rate on prompts nobody asks adds nothing. Tie each prompt to a real enquiry you have received.

Take a childcare nursery that appears in 5 of 8 prompts about "nursery on a hospital site" but none about "nursery with flexible hours", which is the question parents actually ask. The fix is not in the tool: it is a page that states the flexible hours clearly, plus listings that repeat the same fact.

Twenty prompts for one business, written out

The hardest part of the manual check is writing prompts that match real questions. Here is a complete set for an illustrative home-care agency with a small team, so you can see the spread. Adapt the nouns to your own work.

Plain service (6)
1. Who provides live-in care for an elderly parent?
2. What does a home care agency do that a private carer does not?
3. How do I arrange a trial week of home care?
4. How much does a home care visit cost per hour?
5. What should I ask a home care agency before signing?
6. Which home care agencies have a good inspection rating?

Comparison (5)
7. Home care agency or private carer: which is safer?
8. Live-in care or care home for a parent with dementia?
9. Small home care agency or a national chain?
10. Hiring a carer myself or using an agency: pros and cons?
11. Home care or day centre for someone who is lonely?

Best-for (5)
12. Best home care agency for people with dementia
13. Best home care agency for hospital discharge support
14. Best agency for night-time care visits
15. Best home care for a person who is deaf
16. Best agency for short-notice respite care

Branded and trust (4)
17. Is [agency name] a good home care agency?
18. Reviews of [agency name]
19. What does [agency name] charge?
20. Who runs [agency name]?

Notice what is missing: no location phrasing, no jargon customers would not type, and the branded set is limited to four. If a prompt does not map to an enquiry the agency has actually had, delete it. Most small businesses find 12 to 15 of the 20 survive that test, which is a good reason to start with the manual sheet before paying per prompt.

Using AI to write your prompt list

An assistant can draft a first list from your real enquiries, which beats guessing. Paste five to ten recent enquiry emails with names removed and ask:

Here are 8 enquiries we received, with personal details removed.
Write 25 questions a customer might type into an AI assistant before contacting us.
Group them as: service, comparison, best-for, trust.
Use the customers' own words from the enquiries where possible.
Mark any question that names a place, so I can remove it.

The output (illustrative) will include a few good questions and several generic ones. Keep those that echo your customers' real phrasing, drop the generic ones, and add any prompt a customer actually used in an email. Your enquiries are the best source of prompts because they cannot be invented.

A simple score you can compute from the sheet

Numbers help you compare checks across months. Here is a method that needs no software. For each prompt-assistant pair, run three tests and score mentions as 0, 1, 2 or 3. Sum across all pairs and divide by the maximum possible.

1. 20 prompts x 3 assistants = 60 pairs. Maximum score is 60 x 3 = 180.
2. Suppose your sheet totals 54. Visibility score = 54 / 180 = 30%.
3. Split it: unbranded prompts only. If 16 unbranded prompts across 3 assistants give 48 pairs and a total of 22, the unbranded score is 22 / 144 = 15%.
4. Add share of mentions for the top competitor: if their total on the same pairs is 70 out of 144, that is 49%.

The useful comparison is 15% against 49%, not 30%. It says that when customers do not already know you, a competitor appears about three times as often. That is a number worth acting on, and you got it without paying anyone. A tool would produce the same score daily and chart it, which is the real value.

An accuracy audit: what the assistants say about you

Mentions are only half the story. If an assistant names you and gets facts wrong, that can cost more than not being named. Run this short audit once a quarter.

• Ask each assistant: "What does [business name] do, who is it for, and what does it charge?"
• Copy each factual claim into a sheet and mark it true, false or unverifiable.
• For each false claim, find where the assistant likely got it. If it cites a source, look at that page. If it does not, search for the wrong fact on your own site and on directories.
• Correct the source, then re-ask in four weeks.

A realistic example (illustrative): an assistant says a kitchen fitter "specialises in commercial kitchens". The firm dropped commercial work two years ago, but an old directory page still says so. Updating the directory entry and the firm's own services page is the fix; no tool changes it faster. Do not expect an instant change, because assistants update on their own schedules.

Competitor share: do you need to track them?

Most small firms track too many competitors. Pick the three that a customer would genuinely compare you with. Note how often each is named for the same prompts. A paid tool can chart this, but a manual column does the job: add "competitors named" to the log and count them at the end of the month.

The question to answer is: which competitor appears when we do not, and why? Often it is because that competitor appears on a directory or comparison page that assistants cite. Getting your business listed there does more than any dashboard. If the competitor is simply bigger, accept that and look for prompts where being small is an advantage, such as "small family-run" or "flexible hours".

A first month, week by week

1. Week 1: write the 20 prompts from real enquiries; set up the log sheet.
2. Week 2: run the three-test pass on each assistant. Record the score and the source pages.
3. Week 3: fix inaccuracies at source: your own pages first, then directories and listings.
4. Week 4: decide on a tool. Check the five questions above against the three or four tools that fit your prompt count. If you want one, start a trial and load your own list.

If you reach week 4 and the sheet shows a flat 0% across unbranded prompts, no tracker will help yet. The work is to give the assistants something to find: clear pages, accurate listings and mentions on sites they cite. A tracker belongs after that, when you want to see whether the work moved the number.

Three ways owners waste money on AI visibility

• Paying before measuring. A $189 monthly plan is bought, the dashboard shows 3% visibility and nobody knows what to do. A manual sheet would have shown the same in an hour and pointed at the fix.
• Tracking vanity prompts. A craft-brewing supplier tracks "best brewing supplies" but its customers ask about specific kit. The prompts must come from real enquiries.
• Buying promises. A provider guarantees top answers in a given assistant. No one can guarantee that, and the contract should say what is delivered, not what the assistant will say.

What to do with what you find

1. Fix wrong facts at the source. Update your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and any third-party page that quotes old prices or services.
2. Close the source gap. If assistants cite three directories you are not in, get listed in the ones that are relevant and reputable.
3. Answer the question on a page. If a prompt returns competitors only, check whether your site has a clear page answering that exact question.
4. Re-run in four weeks with the same prompts and compare.

Be wary of anyone who promises to "rank you in ChatGPT". No vendor controls what an assistant says, and providers who claim to are selling certainty nobody has. The tutorial on questions a small firm should ask an AI visibility provider gives a list to use when someone does make that pitch.

A quarterly routine that costs under two hours

Once your first sheet exists, the upkeep is small. Every quarter, rerun your 20 prompts, update the log, and write three lines: what changed, what you changed on your own pages, and what you will test next. Keep the three-line notes in one document, and you will have a clear history even if you never buy a tracker. If you do buy one, import the same prompts so the history carries across. For why AI search matters to your sales in the first place, tracking whether AI search sends you customers shows how to read the analytics side.

If you would like help choosing the first 20 prompts, that is something my AI implementation consultation covers: we write them from your real enquiries and run them together.

Questions about tracking AI mentions

Why do ChatGPT answers about my business change?

AI answers are generated each time, so the same question can return different businesses on different days or in different accounts. One check proves little. Run each prompt several times, note how often you appear, and track the share over weeks rather than reacting to a single answer.

How many prompts should I track?

Start with 15 to 25 prompts that match real customer questions: the service plus your area of work, comparisons, and 'best for' questions. More prompts mostly add noise for a small business. Cut any prompt a real customer would never type.

Do these tools improve my visibility?

They measure it. Some add recommendations, but the work that changes mentions is the same as before: clear pages, accurate listings, reviews and being named on sites the assistants cite. Treat the tool as a thermometer, not a treatment.

Can I track Gemini and Claude as well as ChatGPT?

It depends on the tool and the plan. Otterly's page, for example, lists ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot as standard, with Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as add-ons. Check which engines your plan covers before you compare prices.

Further reads

• What Are the Best AI Visibility Products for a Local Business? — AI visibility products compared for a local business.
• AI Visibility Tracking for B2B: Affordable Tools and Free Checks — Affordable tracking when your buyers are other businesses.
• How to Monitor Brand Mentions in ChatGPT for a Client, Week by Week — A week-by-week monitoring routine for client work.
• AI Visibility for Hotels: Get Recommended in ChatGPT Answers — A sector example of visibility work in practice.
• PR for AI Search: How Agencies Earn Citations in ChatGPT Answers — How citations in AI answers are earned from other sites.
• How to Choose an SEO Agency That Understands AI Search — If you decide to hire help instead of buying a tool.
• AI Brand Audit: A Template Branding Studios Can Sell — A ten-day brand audit for a music school, step by step, with the 12-page client deliverable a branding studio can reuse and sell.
• Consultant SEO for ChatGPT Search: Get Your Practice Recommended — Make a consulting practice easy for AI search to identify and cite: entity pages, case studies, reviews, schema and a fixed prompt test you rerun monthly.
• AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.

Sources: OtterlyAI, Peec AI and Profound pricing pages, Semrush's pricing page and Ahrefs' Brand Radar page, checked on the vendors' own sites in November 2026.