Best AEO Tools in 2026: 9 Tools Compared
How we put this together: we compare official feature and pricing pages, app store listings, privacy policies and public user reviews. Prices change, so check the provider's site before you pay.
Key takeaways
- Profound is our pick for enterprise AEO, with the deepest AI visibility data across up to 9 engines.
- Otterly.AI is best on a budget, with AI mention monitoring from $29 per month.
- Peec AI is best for agencies and multi-market teams, with visibility, sentiment and share of voice from $95 per month.
- Scrunch AI is best for technical teams, with AI crawler diagnostics plus monitoring from $250 per month.
- Rankscale is best for startups, with multi-engine tracking from $20 per month and credits that roll over.
Quick comparison
| Name | Who it suits | Starting price | Free option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Profound | Enterprise AEO depth | $99 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 Peec AI | Agencies and multi-market teams | $95 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 Otterly.AI | Budget AI monitoring | $29 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 Scrunch AI | Technical crawler diagnostics | $250 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 Rankscale | Startups and pay-per-check | $20 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 AthenaHQ | Action-oriented mid-market teams | $295 per month | Yes | Visit |
 Goodie AI | High-volume prompt coverage | $399 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 Semrush AI Visibility | Teams already on Semrush | $99 per month | Free trial | Visit |
 HubSpot AEO | HubSpot ecosystem teams | $50 per month | No | Visit |
The best AEO tools
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the practice of getting your brand mentioned and cited when people ask AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity a question, rather than when they click a blue link. AEO tools track which prompts mention your brand, which sources the AI cites, how you rank against competitors, and what to fix on your pages. The category is also called GEO, for generative engine optimization, and the tools are largely the same. We compared nine tools on price, engine coverage, prompt volume and action features, using published pricing pages. Treat every visibility metric as a directional trend, not a precise measurement, since no tool in this category gives exact scores.
Profound is the category-defining AEO tool and our pick for enterprise teams. It combines Answer Engine Insights with AI agents that understand how your brand appears in AI search and execute optimisation work, with granular citation attribution and multi-brand tracking. Starter costs $99 per month billed yearly, Growth $399 per month, and Enterprise is custom.
Starter covers ChatGPT only, with Perplexity and AI Overviews added on Growth, and the dashboards are dense and analyst-oriented. For an enterprise with a dedicated operator, Profound offers the deepest data available.
- Deepest AI visibility data, with up to 9 engines on Enterprise
- Answer Engine Insights plus AI agents that act on gaps
- Granular citation attribution
- SOC 2 on Enterprise
- Starter at $99 per month covers ChatGPT only, with Perplexity and AI Overviews on Growth at $399 per month
- Enterprise plans priced on request
- Dense, analyst-oriented dashboards
Peec AI is the best AEO tool for agencies and mid-market teams tracking multiple countries. It tracks brand performance across AI search with visibility, position, sentiment, share of voice, citations and competitor data, with a straightforward dashboard and a low learning curve. Starter costs $95 per month, Pro $245 per month and Advanced $495 per month.
Starter covers 50 prompts across 3 of 6 engines, including ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity and Gemini. For a team that wants quick directional visibility without heavy onboarding, Peec AI is excellent.
- Visibility, position, sentiment, share of voice and citations in one dashboard
- Pick 3 of 6 engines per plan
- Multi-market and multilingual tracking
- Unlimited seats
- 7-day free trial
- Starter at $95 per month covers 50 prompts, with 150 on Pro at $245 and 350 on Advanced at $495
- No page audit on entry plans
- Annual billing saves about 15 percent
Otterly.AI is the best budget AEO tool. Its Lite plan costs $29 per month and covers 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and AI Overviews, with prompt research, AI-search analytics, content auditing and GEO optimisation in a clean, fast-to-set-up interface. Standard costs $189 per month and Premium $489 per month.
Fifteen prompts is a small set, so Otterly suits a solo founder or lean team tracking a focused topic list. For affordable AI mention monitoring, it is the best starting point.
- Cheapest entry point at $29 per month
- Covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and AI Overviews
- Prompt research, AI-search analytics, content auditing and monitoring
- Fast setup with a clean interface
- Lite covers only 15 prompts, with Standard at $189 and Premium at $489 per month
- Extras cost more
- Briefs but no full content drafts on entry plans
Scrunch AI is the best AEO tool for technical and engineering-led teams. Beyond monitoring how your brand appears across AI platforms, it diagnoses AI crawler behaviour and agent traffic, and its Agent Experience Platform can deliver AI-optimised content directly to AI agents. Starter costs $300 per month, or $250 per month billed annually, with Growth at $500 per month.
Entry plans cover 125 prompts but only 5 page audits, and crawler setup takes more work. For a team that wants diagnostics, not just a score, Scrunch is the strongest choice.
- Monitoring plus AI crawler and agent-traffic diagnostics
- Agent Experience Platform can deliver AI-optimised content
- Multi-brand and multi-region tracking
- SOC 2 Type II
- 7-day free trial
- Starter at $300 per month, or $250 billed annually, covering 125 prompts
- Only 5 page audits on entry plans
- More setup for crawler and log data
Rankscale is the best AEO tool for startups that want pay-per-check flexibility. Essentials costs $20 per month, with 17 plus engines on every plan, credits that roll over instead of expiring, and white label reporting from Growth. Pro costs $99 per month and adds product-level tracking beyond ChatGPT.
The feature set is smaller than Profound or Scrunch, and entry plans lack content generation. For a startup that wants multi-engine tracking on a tight budget, Rankscale is the best value.
- Cheapest multi-engine tracking at $20 per month for Essentials
- 17 plus engines on every plan
- Credits roll over
- White label from Growth
- 7-day free trial on Pro
- Smaller feature set than Profound or Scrunch
- No content generation on entry plans
- Newer vendor with a smaller ecosystem
AthenaHQ is the best AEO tool for teams that want visibility data paired with ready-to-ship fixes. Its free Essential tier lets you test with your own data before paying, and Starter at $295 per month covers 9 models with citation analysis, hallucination detection and optimisation recommendations.
At 3,600 credits per month, with one credit per AI response, it is the priciest per answer on this list. For a mid-market team that wants actions, not just monitoring, AthenaHQ is worth the premium.
- Free Essential tier with a $25 credit to test with your own data
- Starter at $295 per month with 9 models
- Citation analysis, hallucination detection and optimisation recommendations
- GA4 and Search Console integrations
- $295 per month buys 3,600 credits, with one credit per AI response, making it the priciest per answer on this list
- Recommendation engine sits on Enterprise
- Credit-based usage adds a learning curve
Goodie AI is the best AEO tool for brands that want tracking wired to optimisation actions at volume. Explorer costs $399 per month and covers 120 prompts across up to 12 LLMs, with Pro at $999 per month billed annually adding SKU-level tracking and revenue attribution. MCP access supports deeper integrations.
The entry price is steep, and product-level views need Pro. For a brand tracking many prompts across many engines, Goodie is the strongest high-volume option.
- High-volume prompt coverage, with 120 prompts on Explorer at $399 per month and 250 on Pro at $999
- Up to 12 LLMs including ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
- MCP access and revenue attribution on higher tiers
- 7-day free trial
- $399 per month entry is steep
- Self-serve Core at $399 per month has no SKU-level view
- Product-level tracking needs Pro
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is the best AEO option for teams already paying for Semrush. It layers AI visibility onto the SEO suite you already run, with a 289 million plus prompt database, daily updates and coverage of ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. The add-on costs $99 per month per domain, with Semrush One from $199 per month.
You need a Semrush subscription too, and the entry toolkit covers only 25 prompts. For an SEO team that wants AI tracking in one dashboard, it is the most convenient choice.
- Adds AI visibility to an existing SEO suite
- $99 per month add-on per domain, or Semrush One bundle from $199 per month
- 289 million plus prompt database
- Covers ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot
- Add-on only, so you need a Semrush subscription too
- Entry toolkit covers 25 prompts
- Google-first coverage is weaker on some engines than pure-play tools
HubSpot AEO is the best AEO tool for teams already inside HubSpot. It ties AI visibility to your CRM data, so you can connect AI mentions to contacts and campaigns, and it costs $50 per month standalone, or comes included with Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise. It covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
Entry covers 25 prompts across 3 models, with no Google AI Overviews coverage and no page audit. For a HubSpot team getting started with AEO, it is the easiest first step.
- All-in-one AI visibility tied to CRM data
- $50 per month standalone, or included with Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise
- Covers ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity
- Easy start for HubSpot teams
- No free plan
- Entry covers 25 prompts across 3 models
- No Google AI Overviews coverage
- No page audit on entry plans
How we picked these
We compared price, engine coverage, prompt volume, citation depth and action features, and we included pure-play AEO tools plus the major SEO suites that added AI visibility. We noted where pricing is per domain, per prompt or per credit, since the unit you pay for varies more in this category than in any other.
Compare the unit, not the headline price
AEO pricing hides the real cost in different units: prompts, answers, credits or domains. Otterly at $29 per month covers 15 prompts, Peec at $95 covers 50, Scrunch at $250 covers 125, and AthenaHQ at $295 buys 3,600 answers. Work out what your prompt list costs on each tool before choosing, and remember that a tool that also writes content bundles that work into the same price.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AEO tool overall?
Profound is best for enterprise depth, Peec AI is best for agencies and multi-market teams, and Otterly.AI is best on a budget. Rankscale is best for startups, and Semrush is best for teams already on Semrush.
What is AEO, and how is it different from SEO?
SEO optimises for search result rankings and clicks. AEO optimises for being mentioned and cited when AI tools answer a question directly. The two overlap, but AEO needs prompt tracking, citation analysis and content structured for AI answers.
Are AEO and GEO the same thing?
Largely yes. AEO stands for answer engine optimization and GEO for generative engine optimization, and they describe the same software category: tracking and improving brand visibility in AI answers. Vendors use the terms interchangeably.
How much do AEO tools cost?
Entry prices in October 2026 run from $20 per month for Rankscale and $29 for Otterly, through $50 for HubSpot, $95 for Peec, $99 for Profound and Semrush, $250 for Scrunch and $295 for AthenaHQ, up to $399 for Goodie. Prompt, answer and credit limits vary, so compare the unit, not just the price.
Can AEO tools guarantee my brand appears in ChatGPT?
No. No tool can guarantee an AI mentions your brand, and visibility metrics are directional trends, not exact scores. Tools help you track, diagnose and improve, but the AI's answer depends on its training data, citations and reasoning.
Which AEO tool is best for agencies?
Peec AI is best for agencies, with multi-market and multilingual tracking and unlimited seats. Rankscale offers white label reporting from Growth, and Semrush suits agencies already on its platform.
Sources we checked (9)
Online Jobs is an independent blog about careers, online work, learning new skills and the tools that help people earn. More about us.
Keep reading
All posts
Best White Label SEO Companies
We compare the best white label SEO companies and tools in 2026 for agencies, from fulfilment services to branded reporting platforms, margins and prices.
Best Webinar Software
We compared the best webinar software for 2026 on price, attendee limits, automation and ease of use, to help you host better live sessions with confidence.
Best Web Scraping Tools
Compare the best web scraping tools in 2026, from no-code Octoparse and Browse AI to Apify, Firecrawl, Bright Data, Zyte, ScraperAPI and free Scrapy, with prices.