12 Best AI Search Optimization Tools in 2026 (By What They Do)

The best AI search optimization tools in November 2026 are Orchly and Profound for agents that do the work, Writesonic, AirOps, Surfer and Frase for content, Scrunch and Search Atlas for technical fixes, and AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Semrush and HubSpot AEO for tracking with recommendations. We sorted all 12 by what they do after tracking, and whether that work runs on its own or lands on your team.

AI search optimization means getting your brand mentioned, cited and described correctly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. The table shows each tool's category, price, engines and whether it acts on what it finds. Prices checked in November 2026.

AI search optimization tools compared

AI search optimization tools by what they do, from each vendor's pricing page and docs, checked November 2026. Monthly billing unless noted. Engines are for the plan in the price column.

Tool	What it does	Starting price	AI engines on that plan	Acts on findings
Orchly	All-in-one agents	$49/month	ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews; Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot are paid add-ons; also tracks Meta AI and DeepSeek+5 add-ons	Yes, agents write, fix and run outreach (approval optional)
Writesonic	Content optimization	$79/month billed yearly	ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews	Partly: AI articles and audit fixes; actions a trial on Growth
AirOps	Content optimization	Free Solo; Pro on request	Solo: ChatGPT only; Pro: 7+ answer enginesPro: 7+	Partly: agent workflows with review steps
Surfer	Content optimization	$99/month billed yearly	Standard: ChatGPT, weekly; Pro and AI Search Analytics: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI ModePro: 5	No, you edit in the Content Editor
Frase	Content optimization	$39/month billed yearly	ChatGPT, Google AI	Partly: the agent writes on request
AthenaHQ	Tracking and recommendations	Free; Starter $295/month	Free: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot; Starter: 11 modelsStarter: 11	Partly: content agent from Starter
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit	Tracking and recommendations	$99/month per domain, billed yearly	ChatGPT Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini; Perplexity in weekly Brand Performance	No, recommendations only
Profound	All-in-one agents	Custom (Enterprise); 7-day trial	Trial: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews; Enterprise: 9 enginesEnterprise: 9	Yes, agents on schedules or triggers
Scrunch	Technical and crawler	$250/month	ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Copilot	Partly: AXP serves AI agents on Enterprise
Search Atlas	Technical and on-page fixes	$99/month; AI tracking from $199	Growth: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode	Yes, OTTO deploys fixes (approval mode optional)
Peec AI	Tracking and recommendations	$95/month (€85)	3 models you pick from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Naver AI3 of your choice	Partly: Peec Agent drafts briefs and page edits
HubSpot AEO	Tracking and recommendations	$50/month	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity	Partly: blog drafts in Marketing Hub, on credits

How we picked

Every tool here does more than count mentions. Each one helps you change AI answers through content, technical fixes, citations or agents. We checked each vendor's pricing page and docs in November 2026 and compared:

• What kind of tool it is, sorted by the job it does best (below).
• Starting price, and which plan the optimization features need.
• Engines on that plan, since many tools keep Claude, Perplexity or AI Mode for enterprise plans.
• Whether it acts on findings, on its own or with your approval, or hands you a list.
• User reviews on G2 and Trustpilot.

The tools by what they do

• All-in-one agents: Orchly and Profound track, decide what to fix and do the work across content, sites and outreach.
• Content optimization: Writesonic, AirOps, Surfer and Frase write, score or refresh pages.
• Technical and crawler fixes: Scrunch changes what AI crawlers receive, and Search Atlas deploys on-page fixes through a pixel.
• Outreach and citations: Orchly's Activation Agent runs outreach, while Writesonic, Frase, AirOps and AthenaHQ find the cited pages and draft pitches or placements.
• Tracking with recommendations: AthenaHQ, Peec AI, the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit and HubSpot AEO measure and tell you what to change.

1. Orchly: best agentic AI search optimization tool to improve AI visibility

Orchly is an agentic AI search optimization platform that tracks your brand in AI answers every day and runs agents that do the optimizing on their own: content, citations and outreach, technical fixes and the facts AI repeats about you.

It reads answers from the engines' real interfaces rather than through APIs. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are included on every plan, with Gemini, Google AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Microsoft Copilot as paid add-ons, and it also tracks Meta AI and DeepSeek.

The agents run on a schedule, without being asked. They analyze your AI visibility, your competitors, your SEO and your Search Console and GA4 data, decide what to write and which pages to refresh, and do it in your brand voice. They keep Brand Brain up to date, find the sites, people and Reddit threads worth reaching, run the outreach and draft the replies, and audit your site with the fixes ranked. You decide whether each agent runs on its own or waits for your approval.

Most tools on this list give you a tracker plus a to-do list. Orchly's agents run the work end to end, across all four levers below.

Lever 1: content AI can cite

• Find the gaps. Every prompt is tagged branded or non-branded, and commercial, informational or transactional, so you can see the buyer questions where competitors show up and you don't.

• See what AI searches for. AI engines often run their own web searches before they answer. Where a platform shows those searches, Orchly lists the query fan-outs, so your page covers what the engine actually looked up.

• Content Agent. Turns those gaps and the pages slipping in Search Console into new articles and refreshes, writes them in your voice and publishes to WordPress, Webflow, Framer, Wix, Sanity or Ghost, directly or after your approval.

Lever 2: the sources AI trusts

In Ahrefs' study, only 37.9% of URLs cited in AI Overviews also ranked in Google's top 10. The rest come from listicles, reviews, Reddit threads and publishers you don't own.

• Mention Gap. For each top-cited source, see which competitors it names and whether it names you.

• Activation Agent. Finds those publishers, plus Reddit threads, YouTube videos and new search results in your category, drafts the pitches and Reddit replies, and sends link building and citation outreach from your Google Workspace, Zoho Mail or SMTP inbox.

Lever 3: a site AI can read

• Site Health Agent. Audits your pages for technical SEO and AI search issues, like blocked AI crawlers, missing schema or pages Google never indexed, and ranks the fixes.

• AI traffic analytics. On Pro, see which AI crawlers reach which pages, and how many real visitors ChatGPT and Perplexity send back.

Lever 4: facts AI gets right

• Perception. The attributes AI links to your brand, where each competitor stands on them, and the objections buyers hear when they ask about you.

• Fact check against Brand Brain. Orchly keeps a record of your products, pricing, audience and positioning, and checks every AI claim against it. Wrong prices and "missing" features get flagged so you can fix the source.

Proof it's working

Orchly puts Google Search Console and GA4 data, including conversions and revenue, next to your AI numbers, and Page 360 shows both for every URL. You can see whether a refreshed page picked up AI citations, clicks and revenue.

Where Orchly falls short

• Add-on engines. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are included. Gemini, AI Mode, Claude, Grok and Copilot cost extra.
• Small entry plan. Essential tracks 25 prompts for 1 user. Most teams end up on Pro.
• No prompt volume estimates. Orchly suggests prompts from your market and site, but doesn't estimate how often each one is asked. Profound and Semrush do.

Orchly pricing

• Essential: $49/month for 25 prompts refreshed daily, 20 articles, 1 site and 1 user
• Pro: $125/month for 100 prompts, 50 articles, 3 sites and 5 users, with AI traffic analytics, custom agents and white-label reports
• Enterprise: custom, with unlimited prompts and users
• There's a 7-day free trial, and yearly billing saves 25%.

See Orchly pricing or start a free trial.

2. Writesonic: best content-first GEO suite

Writesonic is a content-first GEO platform that tracks your brand daily, writes 15 to 50 AI articles a month, runs site audits with automatic fixes and, on higher plans, ranks on-page and off-page actions, which suits content teams that want tracking and writing in one tool.

We signed up and had tracking running in a few minutes. You pick topics, trim the suggested prompts, add competitors, and citation share starts filling in day by day.

The writing side is the strongest part. Articles come with a WordPress integration, and every plan gets site audits with automatic AI fixes and AI bot analytics. The off-page view lists third-party pages that mention competitors but not you, with a "Draft email" button for the outreach.

What held us back was the plan ladder. Self-serve plans track only ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, the Action Center is a small trial on Growth and full only on Enterprise, and the prices you see are yearly.

Key features

• AI articles. 15, 25 or 50 a month, with WordPress publishing.
• Site audits. 10 to 50 a month, with automatic AI fixes on every plan.
• Citation opportunities. Pages that cite competitors, with drafted outreach emails.
• Action Center. On-page, off-page and technical actions ranked by effort and impact, a trial on Growth (5 + 5 a month).
• AI bot analytics and a Reddit data source on every plan.

Where it falls short

• Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Copilot and AI Mode are Enterprise only.
• Starter has 1 user and no way to add more.
• Content optimization, GA4 and Looker Studio are Enterprise only.

User reviews

Writesonic's GEO reviews on G2 are already quoted in our other comparisons, so we kept to one there and one recent Trustpilot review.

“Having SEO and AEO in the same tool beats the others we tried, and the trial gives you more prompts.” (Source)

“They add hidden charges and recurring fees without notice, and there are free SEO and AEO tools out there.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: $79/month billed yearly for 50 prompts on 3 engines, 15 articles and 1 user
• Basic: $199/month billed yearly for 100 prompts, 25 articles and 2 users
• Growth: $399/month billed yearly for 200 prompts, 50 articles, 3 users, sentiment and an Action Center trial
• Enterprise is custom, with 9 AI platforms. You can start free with no card, and there's a 7-day refund.

3. AirOps: best for content operations at scale

AirOps is a content engineering platform where teams build agent workflows that research, write, refresh and publish pages, plus Offsite help for third-party placements, which suits content ops teams that want to design their own AI search pipeline.

We haven't used AirOps ourselves, so this section is based on its pricing page, product pages, docs and G2 reviews.

The optimization happens mostly on your own pages. Agents research, draft, publish and refresh content and keep track of every page they touch. Where you want a check, an agent pauses, sends the work to an Inbox and carries on after someone edits or approves it.

Offsite covers the publishers AI engines cite. AirOps finds them and makes the case for a placement, your team reviews it, and AirOps measures the visibility change once the placement is live.

The price of that flexibility is setup time. You build the workflows yourself, usage is billed in tasks, the free Solo plan only covers ChatGPT, and neither paid plan shows a price.

Key features

• Agent workflows. Research, drafts, publishing and refreshes, with review steps routed to an Inbox.
• Offsite. Ranks the publishers AI engines trust and supports placements.
• Content readiness scores. Readability, claim support and SEO and AEO checks before anything ships.
• Brand kits and knowledge bases on every plan.
• CMS publishing to Webflow, WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, Ghost and Strapi.

Where it falls short

• Solo tracks ChatGPT only, and Pro is priced by sales.
• Workflows take real setup before they pay off.
• AirOps doesn't publish how often its AI visibility data refreshes.

User reviews

“Quill lets a non-technical person like me build agents just by talking to it, and content updates ship in hours instead of days.” (Source)

“Working out how workflows, power agents and playbooks fit together takes a while, and we've hit lag and a few bugs.” (Source)

“Sometimes workflows break, and the first two weeks of setup were hard.” (Source)

Pricing

• Solo: free, with ChatGPT insights, 35,000 tasks a month and 1 user
• Pro: price on request, with 7+ answer engines, 100,000 tasks and unlimited seats
• Enterprise: custom task limits and custom agent builds
• Extra tasks on Solo cost $0.025 each.

4. Surfer: best for on-page content optimization

Surfer is a content optimization platform whose Content Editor scores drafts as you write and whose AI Search Analytics tracks 50 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews and AI Mode, which suits SEO writers who want on-page fixes and AI tracking in one place.

We haven't used Surfer ourselves, so this section is based on its pricing page, changelog and Trustpilot reviews.

The editor is still the reason people buy it. You get a Content Score against the pages that rank, 1-click content optimization from Standard, and on Pro, internal linking, content ideas with coverage gaps and a cannibalization report. Surfer added an AI SEO Content Score in May 2026.

AI tracking depends on the plan. Standard includes 25 ChatGPT prompts refreshed weekly, while Pro and the standalone AI Search Analytics plan run 50 prompts a day on five engines, with Mention Gap and brand sentiment next to the editor. There's no Claude, Grok or Copilot, and Surfer doesn't say how it collects answers.

Key features

• Content Editor and Content Score. Real-time guidance on terms, structure and length, with an AI SEO Content Score since May 2026.
• AI Search Analytics. 50 daily prompts on 5 engines, with Mention Gap and sentiment.
• Internal linking and cannibalization report on Pro.
• Rank drop detection for tracked pages from Standard.
• MCP server on Pro, AI Search Analytics and higher plans.

Where it falls short

• Standard tracks ChatGPT only, and only weekly.
• No Claude, Grok or Copilot.
• It points you at fixes, but you still make every edit and publish yourself.

User reviews

“A step-by-step way to improve both our SEO and our GEO.” (Source)

“The content editor is easy to use, with or without the AI.” (Source)

“The price went from €66 to over €230, and a high content score didn't bring good rankings.” (Source)

Pricing

• Standard: $99/month billed yearly for 25 weekly ChatGPT prompts, 360 documents and 3 seats
• Pro: $182/month billed yearly for 50 daily prompts on 5 engines and 5 seats
• AI Search Analytics: $82/month billed yearly ($95 monthly) for tracking only, 50 daily prompts
• Discovery is $49/month billed yearly with no AI tracking, and Peace of Mind is $299 for 100 daily prompts.

5. Frase: best budget research-to-publish tool

Frase is a content research and optimization platform with an agent that researches, writes, scores and publishes pages, Content Guard alerts for decaying pages and daily AI visibility tracking from $39 a month billed yearly, which suits small content teams on a budget.

We haven't used Frase ourselves, so this section is based on its pricing page, changelog and Trustpilot reviews.

Frase was rebuilt in early 2026. You tell the agent what you want in plain words, and it researches, drafts, scores the draft for SEO and GEO and can publish it, including to Wix and its own FraseCMS.

The optimization tools kept coming through the year. A rebuilt site audit and Backlinks, which finds outreach prospects and drafts the email, arrived in September 2026, and AI Visibility was rebuilt in October with a Recommendations tab.

The cheaper plans are light on engines, though. Starter tracks ChatGPT and Google AI only, Perplexity arrives on Professional, and Claude and Gemini need the $239 Scale plan.

Key features

• Frase agent. Research, briefs, drafts and optimization from plain-language requests.
• SEO and GEO scores on every draft.
• Content Guard. Watches 10 to 300 live pages for decay, depending on plan.
• Backlinks. Outreach prospects with a drafted email.
• AI Visibility. 20, 50 or 75 prompts tracked daily, with recommendations.

Where it falls short

• Starter tracks only ChatGPT and Google AI.
• AI crawler monitoring starts on Professional.
• The agent works when you ask it to, and lifetime-deal buyers were moved to a legacy app.

User reviews

Most 2026 Frase reviews on Trustpilot are already quoted in our other comparisons, so we've kept to two we'd used least.

“Frase Answers shows content opportunities from real conversations, and it's lifted our visibility in search engines and LLMs.” (Source)

“Lifetime customers were treated poorly, with little more than an apology.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: $39/month billed yearly ($49 monthly) for 1 seat, 10 articles and 20 prompts on ChatGPT and Google AI
• Professional: $103/month billed yearly ($129 monthly) for 3 seats, 40 articles and 50 prompts, adding Perplexity
• Scale: $239/month billed yearly ($299 monthly) for 5 seats, 100 articles and 75 prompts, adding Claude and Gemini
• Every plan has a 7-day free trial with no card. Enterprise is custom.

6. AthenaHQ: best for guided recommendations across many engines

AthenaHQ is a Y Combinator-backed AI search platform that tracks up to 11 models and, from its $295 Starter plan, adds a content optimization agent and on-page and off-page actions, which suits growth teams that want clear direction across many engines.

AthenaHQ asked us to book a sales call before giving access, so this section is based on its pricing page, release notes, docs and G2 reviews.

The free Essentials plan tracks 5 engines on 300 credits. Starter is where the optimization begins, with the content optimization agent, on-page and off-page actions, brand voice rules, citation intelligence and smart robots.txt and llms.txt files. The Recommendation Engine and its ACE citation engine sit on Enterprise.

Usage runs on credits, one per AI response. Starter's 3,600 credits a month cover about 10 prompts a day if each runs on all 11 engines, and AthenaHQ doesn't publish how often its data refreshes.

Key features

• Content optimization agent from Starter, with an advanced version on Enterprise.
• On-page and off-page actions from Starter.
• 11 models on Starter, including AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral.
• Smart robots.txt and llms.txt files for AI crawlers.
• Shopping Pages synced from Shopify, since August 2026.

Where it falls short

• No plan between free and $295 a month.
• Credits go fast across 11 engines.
• The Recommendation Engine, ACE, personas and SSO are Enterprise only.

User reviews

AthenaHQ's G2 reviews are all five stars, arrived in batches, and have mostly been quoted in our other comparisons, so we've kept to two.

“It shows which competitor articles get picked up instead of ours, and in what format. That's the part you can act on.” (Source)

“The outreach generator finds LinkedIn contacts, but the draft messages it writes are generic.” (Source)

Pricing

• Essentials: free, with 300 credits on 5 engines
• Starter: $295/month for 3,600 credits on 11 engines, 17% off yearly
• Enterprise: custom credits, the Recommendation Engine and ACE
• API access and extra credits are paid add-ons on Starter.

7. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: best inside an SEO suite

Semrush is an SEO suite whose AI Visibility Toolkit adds prompt research, daily prompt tracking, brand recommendations and an AI search site audit, which suits SEO teams already on Semrush that want AI search diagnosis next to their rankings.

We used the AI Visibility Toolkit ourselves. The AI Visibility Score out of 100 is easy to explain to a manager, and Prompt Research works like keyword research for AI questions. The 25 prompts per domain went fast, though.

Its optimization help is diagnosis. The AI Search Site Audit checks whether robots.txt blocks AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot and Perplexity's bot, and flags missing schema, crawlable navigation, internal links and llms.txt. Brand Performance adds AI-generated recommendations for your positioning.

You still do the work. The toolkit doesn't write, change pages or run outreach, though the SEO Writing Assistant and the rest of the suite are a tab away.

Key features

• AI Search Site Audit. AI crawler blocks in robots.txt, plus schema, internal linking and llms.txt checks.
• Prompt Research. Volume and intent from a database of 317 million+ prompts.
• Prompt Tracking. Daily on ChatGPT Search, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini.
• Brand Performance. Share of voice, sentiment and narratives, with Perplexity, updated weekly.

Where it falls short

• Recommendations only. Nothing gets written or fixed for you.
• 25 prompts per domain, and each extra domain costs another $99.
• No standalone free trial of the toolkit.

User reviews

Few Semrush reviews are about its AI tools, and we've quoted both before, so these are parts we hadn't used.

“The AI Visibility Score and the site audit for AI-readiness make the data actionable next to our regular SEO reports.” (Source)

“History is capped at a set number of months, so year-on-year trends need a higher tier.” (Source)

Pricing

• AI Visibility Toolkit: $99/month per domain, billed annually, for 25 prompts
• Extra prompts: 50 more for $60/month
• Semrush One: from $199/month with 50 prompts, or $299 for Pro+ with 100

8. Profound: best for enterprise programs

Profound is an enterprise AI visibility platform with prompt volume data and AI Marketer agents that draft and refresh content, write outreach and publish to your CMS on a schedule or when a metric moves, which suits large brands with a team and a budget for a sales-led contract.

We tested it on the 7-day trial. Profound picked 50 prompts for our industry and we couldn't edit them, so the trial showed us the product more than our own market. It runs ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews daily, with a small allowance of agent credits.

The agents are what make it an optimization tool. Profound's docs describe them drafting content for topics where you're losing ground and writing outreach to a source that repeats a wrong claim about you. They can start on a schedule, from a connected app, from a change on the web or when a metric crosses a threshold. In its Webflow integration an agent can save a page as a draft for review or publish it on its own.

Brands can only buy Profound through sales now. It removed its $99 and $399 self-serve plans in September 2026, the same month it raised a $180M Series D at a $1.8B valuation.

Key features

• AI Marketer agents. Recurring work on schedules or triggers, priced in credits per run.
• CMS publishing, including a Webflow integration.
• Prompt Volumes. Demand estimates from 1.5 billion+ prompts in 35 countries.
• Nine engines on Enterprise. ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews and Exa.
• Agent Analytics. AI crawler visits to your site.

Where it falls short

• No self-serve plan or public price for brands.
• The trial runs 50 preset prompts on three engines, and you can't change them.
• No classic SEO toolkit, so most teams keep an SEO tool next to it.

User reviews

We've quoted most of Profound's G2 reviews in earlier comparisons, so we kept to two parts we hadn't used.

“We set up agents to build structured data and keep our clients' traffic-driving content up to date.” (Source)

“There's a lot of data and it's not always obvious where to start, and the dashboard doesn't explain what's driving score changes.” (Source)

Pricing

• Enterprise: custom pricing through sales, with up to 9 engines, daily tracking and agent credits
• Agency Growth: a separate self-serve plan for agencies, with 400 credits a month per client workspace
• Trial: 7 days free, with 50 preset prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews

9. Scrunch: best for technical AI optimization

Scrunch is an AI customer experience platform, owned by Sitecore since June 2026, that pairs AI visibility tracking with site audits, page optimizations and, on Enterprise, AXP, which serves AI agents a version of your pages built for them, so it suits technical teams at larger brands.

We used Scrunch on the 7-day trial. Onboarding is guided. Scrunch drafts a brand description from your site, you confirm it, add competitors, a persona and topics, and start from suggested prompts.

The data is detailed, and the Explorer lets you dig into each answer and its sources. New prompts run daily for 14 days, then every 72 hours, and you can trigger a fresh run by hand.

For technical optimization, Core gives you 5 site audits and 1 page optimization a month, and Agent Traffic shows AI bot visits from your CDN or host. AXP, the part that changes what AI crawlers receive, is Enterprise only and needs developer time. Scrunch doesn't write articles or run outreach.

Key features

• AXP (Agent Experience Platform). AI-ready versions of your pages served to AI agents, on Enterprise.
• Site audits and page optimizations. 5 audits and 1 page optimization a month on Core.
• Agent Traffic. AI bot visits from your CDN or host.
• Signals and the Explorer. Recommendations, and every answer and source by persona.
• GA4 AI referrals. AI-referred visits next to visibility.

Where it falls short

• AXP, Claude, Gemini, AI Mode, the API and MCP are Enterprise only.
• Data refreshes every 72 hours once a prompt is two weeks old.
• No content writing or outreach.

User reviews

Most Scrunch G2 reviews are already quoted in our other comparisons, and it has none on Capterra, so we've kept to two.

“The prompt monitoring, citation data and signals (recommendations) give us a lot to work with.” (Source)

“They often launch features in the API before the dashboard, which is good and bad.” (Source)

Pricing

• Core: $250/month for 125 prompts, 5,000 responses and 5 users on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews and Copilot
• Enterprise: custom, with 9 engines, custom prompts, AXP, API and SSO
• There's a 7-day free trial on Core.

10. Search Atlas: best for automated on-page fixes

Search Atlas is an all-in-one SEO platform whose OTTO agent deploys technical and on-page fixes to your live site through a pixel, with LLM Visibility tracking from the $199 Growth plan, which suits lean teams and agencies that want fixes applied for them.

We haven't used Search Atlas, so this section is based on its pricing page, feature pages and Trustpilot reviews.

OTTO is why it's on this list. You add a pixel, it scans the site and, in Search Atlas's words, "runs on autopilot and deploys optimizations on its own." If you want to sign off first, you switch on approval mode.

That saves a small team hours, but a script editing live pages is a hard sell for a careful dev team, and some Trustpilot reviewers say OTTO changed things they didn't want. AI tracking starts on Growth with 100 queries on ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Mode, and Pro adds Copilot, Perplexity and Claude.

Key features

• OTTO SEO. Technical and on-page fixes, schema and internal links deployed through a pixel, with optional approval mode.
• LLM Visibility. Mentions, position in AI answers, sentiment and share of voice.
• Content Genius. AI articles and content edits.
• Atlas Agent. A conversational agent across the platform.
• White-label reporting from Pro.

Where it falls short

• No AI tracking on Starter, and three engines on Growth.
• It doesn't say how often LLM Visibility refreshes.
• Trustpilot has it at 3.9 from 352 reviews, with billing and cancellation complaints among them.

User reviews

“OTTO runs our SEO automation and Content Genius writes, which has cut the time we spend on client SEO a lot.” (Source)

“There's a bug to report almost every week, and fixes take weeks or months, but it's still a good platform.” (Source)

“OTTO made changes to our live site that we didn't want, including an AI-generated social preview image.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: $99/month for 1 project and 1 seat, with no AI tracking
• Growth: $199/month for 3 seats and 100 AI queries on 3 engines
• Pro: $399/month for 5 seats, 6 AI platforms and white label
• Agency: from $999/month. Every self-serve plan has a 7-day trial.

11. Peec AI: best tracker with prioritized actions

Peec AI is an AI search analytics platform that tracks your prompts daily in 3 AI models of your choice from $95 (€85) a month, scores the sources AI cites and turns gaps into Actions, with Peec Agent drafting briefs and page edits since October 2026, which suits teams with writers and PR people ready to do the work.

We signed up and had data within a few minutes. Peec read our site, suggested prompts, and visibility, position and sentiment against competitors filled in for each model.

Actions, added in February 2026, is the optimization part. It points at the cited sources and pages where competitors beat you and splits the work into on-page and off-page tasks. Peec Agent, launched on October 22, 2026, drafts the briefs and page edits, but publishing and outreach stay with your team.

The model picker is the limit. You choose 3 of ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI, Perplexity costs extra, and Claude, Grok and DeepSeek are Enterprise only.

Key features

• Actions and Peec Agent. Ranked on-page and off-page fixes, with drafted briefs and page edits.
• Source types and Gap Score. Cited domains and URLs by type, with gaps against competitors.
• AI Referrals. GA4 sessions, conversions and revenue by AI assistant.
• Brand Perception. How AI describes you, checked against facts you set.
• Unlimited seats and an MCP server on every plan.

Where it falls short

• 3 models per plan, and Perplexity is an extra model.
• Claude, Grok and DeepSeek need Enterprise.
• No writing, publishing or outreach of its own.

User reviews

Peec AI's G2 reviews are almost all quoted in our other comparisons, so we picked two parts we hadn't used.

“The analytics give our team a shared view of where our GEO stands, so we can plan actions together.” (Source)

“The one thing missing is a page AEO readiness and optimization feature, which other platforms have.” (Source)

Pricing

• Starter: $95/month (€85) for 50 prompts on 3 models, daily
• Pro: $245/month (€205) for 150 prompts
• Advanced: $495/month (€425) for 350 prompts and multi-country tracking
• Extra models such as Perplexity cost more. Yearly billing saves 15%, and there's a free trial.

12. HubSpot AEO: best cheap starting point for HubSpot users

HubSpot AEO is HubSpot's beta AI visibility tool that tracks 25 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for $50 a month and turns its recommendations into blog drafts inside Marketing Hub, which suits HubSpot customers testing AI search for the first time.

We haven't used HubSpot AEO ourselves, so this section is based on HubSpot's product page, knowledge base and G2 reviews.

It went on sale on April 14, 2026, after HubSpot agreed to buy XFunnel, and it's still labelled Beta. You don't need a HubSpot subscription for the $50 plan, and Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise include it with 25 and 50 prompts.

Recommendations come with a projected citation lift, split into owned content, social, outreach and site audit. In Marketing Hub, a recommendation can become a blog draft at 1,000 HubSpot Credits per piece, so the drafts land in HubSpot's CMS, not your own. Three engines is thin, with no AI Overviews, AI Mode, Claude or Copilot.

Key features

• Recommendations with projected citation lift, in four groups.
• Blog drafts from recommendations in Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise, on credits.
• Visibility score and share of voice, updated daily.
• Citation analysis by source type, content type and page.
• 28-day free trial with no card.

Where it falls short

• 3 engines and 25 prompts on the standalone plan.
• Drafts need Marketing Hub and credits, and each brand needs its own $50 instance.
• Still in beta, and extra prompts have no listed price.

User reviews

“I turn the recommendations into blogs and posts, and the impact section shows whether they reach the right audience.” (Source)

“I'd like to know why certain recommendations are made and how they're expected to help.” (Source)

“Some Reddit recommendations feel more likely to hurt how AI sees us than help, so almost every action needs more research on my end.” (Source)

Pricing

• HubSpot AEO: $50/month ($45 billed yearly) for 25 prompts on 3 engines
• Marketing Hub Professional: includes 25 prompts, plus blog drafts on credits
• Marketing Hub Enterprise: includes 50 prompts
• Extra prompts can be bought, but HubSpot doesn't list the price.

What is AI search optimization?

AI search optimization is the practice of improving how often, how prominently and how accurately your brand appears in AI-generated answers. You'll also see it called generative engine optimization (GEO) or answer engine optimization (AEO).

• GEO usually refers to chat assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity.
• AEO usually refers to answer features in search, such as Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• SEO is still the base. Pages that aren't indexed or trusted by Google rarely get cited by AI.

In practice, most teams treat GEO and AEO as the same job with different names.

Why it matters in 2026

• AI answers reach huge audiences. Google says AI Mode passed a billion monthly users.
• Fewer clicks reach websites. Re-running its study on December 2025 data, Ahrefs found the top organic result gets about 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears.
• Ranking on Google isn't enough. Grow & Convert found about 60% of ChatGPT citations don't rank on Google or Bing for the fan-out queries behind the answer.

If a buyer asks an AI assistant for the best tool in your category and you're not in the answer, you never get the visit to convert.

Which one should you choose?

Start with who will do the work. If you have writers and an outreach person, a tracker with good recommendations may be enough. If you don't, pick a tool that acts.

• You want agents that run AI search optimization end to end on their own, from content to technical fixes to outreach: Orchly.
• You're an enterprise brand with a budget for agents and a sales-led contract: Profound.
• Your output is articles, and you want tracking and writing in one tool: Writesonic.
• You want to build your own content workflows with review steps: AirOps.
• You optimize existing pages in an editor: Surfer. On a tight budget: Frase.
• You want guided actions across 11 engines: AthenaHQ.
• You already run SEO in Semrush: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.
• You have engineers who own the site: Scrunch. You want fixes deployed for you: Search Atlas.
• You have writers and PR people ready to act on clean data: Peec AI.
• You're on HubSpot and want a cheap first look: HubSpot AEO.

Check the engines on the plan you'll actually buy, and ask how answers are collected. In a Surfer study of August 2026 data across five AI products, the brands named in API answers and in the real interfaces overlapped only 15.5% to 23.8%. Orchly reads the real interfaces.