Every AI search visibility tool promises to show you how ChatGPT talks about your brand. Very few lists tell you what it takes to get the first number on screen. We set up four trackers on the same small website on the same day, and the hard parts were prompt minimums, missing engines and trial fine print, not the dashboards.
Why AI Search Visibility Needs Its Own Tracker
An AI search visibility tool sends a fixed list of prompts to AI engines and records whether the answers mention or cite your brand. A classic keyword rank tracker can’t do that, because an AI answer has no page two. Either you are in the answer or you are not. Measuring that is the first step of generative engine optimization, the work of getting cited in AI answers.
Most marketing teams can’t see that yet. Semrush’s 2026 AI Visibility Index says 45% of marketing leaders cannot accurately measure their brand visibility in AI answers, and only 9% have tools that track all the relevant metrics across platforms (Semrush, June 26, 2026). Semrush sells one of the trackers on this page, so read that as a vendor survey, not a census.
So which tracker should you trust with that job? We picked the four we could open without a card: Otterly.AI, Writesonic’s AI Search Tracking, SE Ranking and Semrush. Each one draws the line between free and paid in a different place.
Key Takeaways
Only 9% of marketing leaders have tools that track every AI visibility metric they need (Semrush 2026 AI Visibility Index). In our October 21, 2026 test, Otterly.AI covered the most engines from $29/month, Writesonic was the only one without a prompt minimum, SE Ranking put AI prompts next to keyword rankings, and Semrush keeps prompt tracking in a $99/month toolkit with no trial.
Quick Picks: Which AI Search Visibility Tool for Which Budget
Otterly.AI was the cheapest way we found to track four AI engines at once, at $29/month for 15 prompts, while SE Ranking’s Core plan lists 100 tracked prompts next to 2,000 keywords for $103.20/month billed annually (SE Ranking pricing). Your best pick depends on what you already pay for.
| If you want… | Pick | Why, from our test and the pricing pages |
|---|---|---|
| The lowest monthly price for four engines | Otterly.AI | Lite: $29/month, 15 prompts, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot |
| To track only your own few prompts | Writesonic | No prompt minimum at setup; we tracked exactly 5 |
| Keyword rankings and AI prompts in one project | SE Ranking | Project setup asked for keywords and at least one prompt on the same screen |
| AI tracking inside a suite you already use | Semrush | AI Visibility Toolkit: $99/month, 25 prompts, no free trial |
| The widest list of engines on paper | Writesonic Enterprise | Custom plan listing 9 AI platforms |
Want the bigger picture first, including AI audit and content tools? Our roundup of AI SEO tools we tested covers those jobs. This page sticks to one job: tracking what AI answers say about you.
How We Tested 4 Trackers on One Small Site
We set up all four AI visibility trackers on October 21, 2026, with one work account, Google sign-in and no card, on a small marketing website our own team runs. The market was United States and English in every tool, and we chose five prompts before opening any of them:
- What are the best AI SEO agencies in Taiwan?
- How can I get my website cited by ChatGPT?
- What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
- What are the best tools to track AI search visibility?
- How do I optimize content for Google AI Overviews?
The first prompt names our own home market, which is why it is so specific. Not every tool got the same amount of work, and we would rather say so up front:
- Otterly.AI and Writesonic ran all five prompts, and we read their first reports.
- SE Ranking got one of the five prompts, plus one tracked keyword, during project setup.
- Semrush got one tracked keyword in Position Tracking on Google, on a free account.
Why the difference? Because the free paths are different. Otterly and Writesonic are trackers first. SE Ranking and Semrush are SEO suites, and their AI features sit inside larger plans.
We copied every number straight from the screen and kept masked screenshots. We didn’t press any button that changes billing. Prices on this page come from our test where we saw them in the app, and from each vendor’s pricing page as it read on October 23, 2026, where we didn’t.
A note on money: Indie Stack Lab may add affiliate links to some tools later. Affiliate links are labeled, and they don’t change what we tested or wrote down.
Otterly.AI: Four Engines Included, a 15-Prompt Minimum to Start
Otterly.AI’s base plan checks four engines for every prompt: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. In our test, all four answered all five prompts, and the trial ran 7 days with no card.
Setup: the 15-prompt wall
Sign-up with Google asked only for profile and email. Otterly then suggested eight competitors on its own and replaced the brand name we typed with one it built from the domain.
The prompt step is where Otterly makes you commit. The page said it “recommends” 15 prompts, but the Next button stayed disabled at 5 and at 14. It turned on at exactly 15. We kept our five and added ten suggestions to get through. If you only care about a handful of questions, plan for 15 anyway, because Lite tracks exactly 15.
What the plans add
Otterly’s pricing page lists Lite at $29/month for 15 prompts, Standard at $189 for 100 and Premium at $489 for 400, all with “Daily tracking frequency” and unlimited team members (Otterly.AI pricing). Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude are add-ons, priced per plan:
- On Lite: Google AI Mode $9/month, Gemini $9/month, Claude $29/month.
- On Standard: $59, $59 and $109 a month.
- On Premium: $149, $149 and $439 a month.
So all seven engines on Lite come to $76 a month by our arithmetic. Standard and Premium can also add 100 prompts for $99 a month; Lite can’t.
Is Otterly the right first tracker? For a small site that wants the widest engine view per dollar, we think so. For the prompt-by-prompt citation table and a longer setup walkthrough, see our Otterly.AI vs Writesonic comparison.
Writesonic: No Prompt Minimum, Three Platforms on the Starter Trial
Writesonic was the only tracker with no prompt minimum at all, so it tracked exactly our five prompts, and its Starter trial covered three platforms: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. There is no free tier for AI search tracking; the trial is a trial of a named paid plan.
Setup: clearing 24 suggestions
Writesonic picked five topics for us and pre-selected 24 of 30 suggested prompts. Clearing them meant opening each topic in turn. Why bother? Because a suggested prompt you never chose still lands in your report. After that, we added our five with “+ Add prompt,” and nothing forced us to add more.
The first report analyzed “5 answers across 3 AI platforms and 5 prompts.” To get past it, we had to pick a plan and press “Start free trial.” The banner then said the account would “automatically be upgraded to your Starter plan,” while billing showed “Payment method: No card added.” Honestly, those two lines belong on the same screen.
What the plans add
Writesonic’s pricing page lists Starter at $79/month billed annually, Basic at $199 and Growth at $399, and all three track the same three platforms (Writesonic pricing). Here’s the catch, though: the plans differ in answers as well as prompts.
- Starter: 50 prompts, “50 answers tracked daily,” 1 project.
- Basic: 100 prompts, “300 answers tracked daily,” 1 project.
- Growth: 200 prompts, “600 answers tracked daily,” 2 projects.
Our trial dashboard showed 15 answers for 5 prompts, three per prompt. Before you pick Starter for 50 prompts, ask Writesonic how its daily answer allowance maps onto three platforms. Only Enterprise, a custom plan, lists “All 9 AI platforms,” including Perplexity, Claude, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Mode.
For everything else Writesonic does, from articles to audits, our Writesonic review goes deeper.
SE Ranking: Keyword Rankings and AI Prompts in One Project
SE Ranking was the only tool that put keywords and AI prompts on the same setup screen, and it would not launch the project without at least one prompt. Its 14-day trial needed no card and capped us at 20 AI prompts and 750 tracked keywords.
Setup: one prompt is mandatory
The project wizard asked for the website, a brand name and a location. The location defaulted to Taiwan, and we had to switch it to the United States by hand. Check that field before you launch, or your first week of data tracks the wrong market.
Next came keywords and prompts together. We removed the 18 suggested keywords and added one of our own. The prompt box then refused to stay empty: “You need to enter some prompts to track results within the platform.” We added one of our five prompts, and the screen confirmed “1 of 20 remaining prompt limits will be used.”
What did the project look like afterward? The overview showed Google USA rankings plus AI widgets for AI Overview, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Results were still collecting when our test log closed, so we can’t tell you what SE Ranking reported for that prompt.
What the plans add
SE Ranking’s pricing page lists Core at $103.20/month billed annually, with “2k keywords & 100 prompts to track daily,” and Growth at $223.20/month with 5k keywords and 250 prompts (SE Ranking pricing). Monthly billing shows $129.00 and $279.00 instead.
A separate AI Search add-on costs $71.20/month on annual billing ($89.00 on monthly billing) and lists 200 prompts. The page names three engines for that add-on’s AI Results Tracker: AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT. It doesn’t explain how those prompts relate to the ones in Core, so ask before you stack the two.
If you mostly need classic rank tracking and want AI prompts as a side panel, SE Ranking is the tidy option. Our SE Ranking review covers its audit, backlink and keyword tools from the same trial.
Semrush: AI Engines in the Picker, Prompt Tracking in a Paid Toolkit
Semrush lists ChatGPT and Gemini as engine choices next to Google, but its knowledge base says tracking prompts in ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode or Gemini needs an AI Visibility Toolkit subscription (Semrush KB: Prompt Tracking), which Semrush lists at $99/month for 25 prompts (Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit). On a free account, we only got as far as the picker.
What we saw on the free account
Sign-up ended on a plan page offering a 7-day Pro+ trial that becomes $299/month; the free path was the smaller “Skip trial” button. In Position Tracking, the search engine choices included Google, ChatGPT and Gemini. We set up Google only, with one keyword, against a limit of 10 keywords.
Could the free account have started a ChatGPT campaign? We didn’t try, so we can’t say. The account’s subscription page listed AI visibility and prompt tracking only under paid plans. One AI touch did work for free: Site Audit gave our site an AI Search Health (beta) score of 95%.
What the AI Visibility Toolkit adds
Semrush’s toolkit page says it costs $99 a month, includes 25 prompts for Prompt Tracking, and “does not currently offer a free trial” (Semrush KB: AI Visibility Toolkit). The same page lists the paid extras:
- 50 more prompts for $60 a month.
- An extra domain for Brand Performance at $99 per domain per month.
- A second user license at $99.
Semrush One bundles the SEO and AI toolkits into Starter, Pro+ and Advanced, with 50, 100 and 200 prompts. The in-app subscription page priced those at $199, $299 and $549 a month.
Prompt Tracking reports AI Visibility, Mentions, Owned Sources, Topic Volume and Average Position, and only desktop searches are supported. Position works differently in each engine. In Google AI Mode, the knowledge base says the answer itself counts as position 1 and citations follow as 2, 3 and so on.
For the rest of the free account, see our Semrush SEO tools review, and for Copilot and the AI writing tools, our rundown of Semrush’s AI tools, free and paid.
AI Engines Covered, Side by Side
ChatGPT was the only engine included in the entry offer of all four AI visibility trackers, and Microsoft Copilot came standard in just one of them, Otterly.AI. The table combines what we saw in each app with what each pricing page says.
| AI engine | Otterly.AI | Writesonic | SE Ranking | Semrush |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Included | Included | Widget in our trial project | Prompt Tracking (paid toolkit) |
| Google AI Overviews | Included | Included | Widget in our trial project | Not named; Semrush One lists “Google Search” |
| Google AI Mode | Add-on | Enterprise only | Widget in our trial project | Prompt Tracking (paid toolkit) |
| Gemini | Add-on | Included | Widget in our trial project | Prompt Tracking (paid toolkit) |
| Perplexity | Included | Enterprise only | Widget in our trial project | Listed on Semrush One plans |
| Microsoft Copilot | Included | Enterprise only | Not shown in our trial | Not listed on the pages we read |
| Claude | Add-on | Enterprise only | Not shown in our trial | Not listed on the pages we read |
Semrush’s subscriptions page says AI Visibility on Semrush One “covers Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini” (Semrush KB: Subscriptions), while its Prompt Tracking page names ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Gemini. We list both, and we’d confirm with Semrush before buying for one engine in particular.
Which engine should you care about most? Start with the one your customers already use. In Otterly’s first report, ChatGPT produced more than half of all citations for our prompts, so a tracker without ChatGPT would have missed most of the picture. To see how each engine picks its sources, read our guides to how ChatGPT search finds sources and how Google AI Overviews work.
Pricing, Trials and Prompt Limits Compared
Entry prices for the four trackers ran from $29/month at Otterly.AI to $103.20/month billed annually at SE Ranking, and the prompt allowances ranged from 15 to 100. Trials were just as uneven: 14 days at SE Ranking, 7 days at Otterly and Writesonic, and none for Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.
| Otterly.AI | Writesonic | SE Ranking | Semrush | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Lite, $29/month | Starter, $79/month billed annually | Core, $103.20/month billed annually | AI Visibility Toolkit, $99/month |
| Prompts in entry plan | 15 | 50 | 100 | 25 |
| Next tiers | Standard $189 (100), Premium $489 (400) | Basic $199 (100), Growth $399 (200) | Growth $223.20 (250) | Semrush One: Starter $199 (50), Pro+ $299 (100), Advanced $549 (200) |
| Trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days of a paid plan, no card | 14 days, no card | No trial for the toolkit |
| Trial allowance | 50 prompts | 50 prompts | 20 prompts, 750 keywords | Not applicable |
| Prompt minimum at setup | 15 | None | 1 | Not tested |
| Tracking frequency | Daily | Daily | Daily | Daily for Prompt Tracking |
What does a single prompt cost? Here is our own arithmetic on the entry plans, using the monthly figure each page shows:
- SE Ranking Core: $103.20 for 100 prompts, about $1.03 per prompt, with an SEO suite included.
- Writesonic Starter: $79 for 50 prompts, about $1.58, billed annually.
- Otterly.AI Lite: $29 for 15 prompts, about $1.93, billed monthly.
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: $99 for 25 prompts, about $3.96.
Per-prompt math flatters the bigger plans, though. If you only need 15 prompts, Otterly’s $29 is still the smallest bill on this page. And Writesonic’s $79 is the monthly share of a $948.00 yearly charge, which is what its billing page showed us.
What the First Reports Showed
Our site scored 0% in both trackers that returned results on day one: Otterly.AI showed 0% brand coverage across 244 citations, and Writesonic showed 0% AI visibility, ranking us 6th of 6 brands. SE Ranking and Semrush were still collecting data when our test log closed.
Otterly’s per-engine totals across our five prompts tell you how differently the engines behave:
- ChatGPT: 130 citations.
- Perplexity: 50 citations, exactly 10 on every prompt.
- Google AI Overviews: 36 citations.
- Microsoft Copilot: 28 citations.
The full prompt-by-prompt breakdown lives in our Otterly.AI vs Writesonic test, so we won’t repeat it here.
What surprised us was how much the two trackers agreed on sources. Both put Google’s own guide to generative AI features among the most cited pages, and Otterly counted it 7 times. That guide says Google’s AI features “are rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems” (Google Search Central). Writesonic’s list added a Reddit r/SEO thread, a YouTube video, Medium and several SEO vendors.
Is a 0% score a bad sign for the tool? No. It’s the honest starting line for a small site, and the main reason to track at all.
What These Tools Could Not Tell Us After One Day
After one day, none of the four AI visibility trackers could show a trend, because each account held a single day of data. Three more gaps came from what we chose not to pay for.
Here is what stays unknown, and why:
- Trends over time. All four tools describe daily tracking, but a single day can’t show movement. We can’t tell you how stable each tool’s numbers are from one day to the next.
- Add-on engines. We didn’t buy Otterly’s AI Mode, Gemini or Claude add-ons, or any Writesonic plan above the Starter trial.
- SE Ranking’s AI results. The prompt was still collecting when our log closed.
- Semrush Prompt Tracking. It needs the paid AI Visibility Toolkit, which has no trial.
Why publish before those gaps close? Because the setup rules, minimums and prices are what decide your first purchase, and those we saw in full. We’ll add trend data to this page once we have it.
How to Choose an AI Visibility Tracker: 5 Questions to Ask
Pick the tracker whose engines, prompt allowance and trial rules match your situation; in our test, those three things separated the four tools far more than their dashboards did. These five questions are our judgment, drawn from the setups above.
- Which AI engines do your customers use? If Perplexity or Copilot matters, Otterly includes both; Writesonic only lists them on Enterprise.
- How many prompts do you really need? Write the list before you open a tool. Otterly makes you start at 15, SE Ranking at 1, and Writesonic at whatever you type.
- What happens when the trial ends? Writesonic’s banner talked about an automatic upgrade, while Otterly’s billing page simply said “Trial ends in 7 days.” Read the billing page on day one.
- How often does the data refresh? All four describe daily tracking, but Writesonic’s plans also cap answers per day.
- Do you already pay for an SEO suite? If you do, compare its AI add-on with a standalone tracker, prompt for prompt.
Tracking only shows you the gap. Closing it is content work, and our guide on how to rank in ChatGPT is the next step. If you need enterprise tools such as Profound, Peec AI or AthenaHQ, see our Peec AI vs Profound vs AthenaHQ comparison. And if you would rather hire someone to close the gap, start with our comparison of GEO agency types and costs.
References
- Semrush: 2026 AI Visibility Index press release
- Otterly.AI: Pricing
- Writesonic: Pricing
- SE Ranking: Subscription plans
- Semrush Knowledge Base: AI Visibility Toolkit
- Semrush Knowledge Base: Prompt Tracking
- Semrush Knowledge Base: Subscriptions
- Google Search Central: Optimizing for Generative AI Features