Before you sign up for an AI visibility platform, ask these 12 questions about engines, prompts, refresh rate, data access, content and real cost.
Short answer: the tools look alike in demos, but they differ in which AI engines each plan covers, how many prompts you get, how often those prompts are re-run, whether you can see the raw answers and sources, and what happens after a gap is found. Prices for a first plan run from $29 to $99 a month on vendor pages we checked on 5 October 2026, and add-ons can double that. Use the questions below in every demo and trial.
Why traditional SEO tools only cover part of this
Rank trackers measure where your pages appear in a list of links. AI assistants answer with a short list of brands and a few cited sources, so the question becomes "are we named, and why or why not?" Some SEO suites now measure this too – Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit and Ahrefs Brand Radar both track brand mentions in AI answers – so this isn't "SEO tools vs AI tools". It's about whether the tool you pick measures the right things in enough depth. If you'd like to run the checks by hand before buying anything, the AI visibility tracking playbook shows how.
12 questions to ask any AI visibility platform
Coverage
1. Which AI engines does each plan include? Ask for the list per plan, not the list on the homepage. The answer usually involves ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot, and coverage often depends on the plan. Otterly.AI, for example, includes ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot on every plan, and sells Claude, AI Mode and Gemini as add-ons (Otterly.AI pricing).
2. How does it count a "mention", a "recommendation" and a "citation"? A passing mention, a top recommendation and a link to your site are different outcomes. Ask how each is scored and whether sentiment is included.
3. How many prompts do I get, and how often are they re-run? AI answers vary, so refresh rate matters. Daily checks give about 30 data points a month per prompt, weekly checks about 4. Surfer's AI Tracker, for instance, refreshes weekly on its Standard plan and daily on Pro and above (Surfer).
4. Can I track non-branded prompts, countries and languages? The growth is in questions like "best [category] for [use case]", where buyers don't yet know your name. Check that you can write your own prompts and set the market.
Data you can trust
5. Can I see the full answers and the sources they cite? A score without the underlying answers is hard to act on. You need the text and the URLs that each engine cited.
6. How do you handle answers that change from run to run? Ask whether they run prompts more than once and how they smooth the results.
7. Can I export the data? CSV at minimum. An API or a Looker Studio connector matters if you report across tools. These often sit on higher plans.
From insight to action
8. Does it explain why a competitor is named instead of us? The most useful tools show the source pages behind each answer and point out the ones that name competitors but not you.
9. Does it help create the content, and what is that content based on? Some tools stop at a brief, some draft a full article. Ask whether drafts are grounded in your own product facts or written from general model knowledge, and how you edit them.
10. Can it publish to our CMS, and can we hold drafts for review? Ask which CMSs are supported on which plan, and whether you can approve every post before it goes live.
Cost and commitment
11. What will my real setup cost? Price the prompts, engines, domains and seats you actually need. Semrush's toolkit is $99 a month per domain with 25 tracked prompts, and extra domains cost $99 each (Semrush). Otterly.AI starts at $29 for 15 prompts and adds engines as paid add-ons.
12. Can I test it before paying, and how do I leave? Policies differ. Wellows offers a 7-day free trial (Wellows), while Semrush says its AI Visibility Toolkit has no free trial. Ask about cancellation and whether you keep your data and content.
A quick scorecard for demos
Area | Red flag | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
Engines | One or two engines, or key engines only as add-ons you didn't price | The engines your buyers use, listed per plan |
Refresh | Weekly or "on demand" for prompts you care about | Daily on the prompts that matter, with history |
Evidence | A score with no answers or sources | Full answers, cited URLs and exports |
Action | A list of gaps and nothing else | Source-level reasons, plus briefs, drafts or publishing |
Cost | Entry price only | A quote for your real prompts, engines and domains |
For a side-by-side of four named tools, see Wellows vs Peec AI vs Otterly vs Semrush AI Toolkit, and for the wider market, AI SEO Tools: The Definitive Overview.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AI visibility different from traditional SEO?
SEO aims for a high position in search results. AI visibility measures whether an assistant names or cites your brand in its answer. They overlap: answers that use live search draw on pages search engines can find.
Which AI engines should a visibility tool cover?
The ones your buyers use. For most teams that means ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity, with Claude or Copilot in some markets. blogawesome, for example, tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, so check any tool's list against your audience.
Is it enough to track my brand name?
No. Branded prompts show how AI describes you. Non-branded prompts ("best [category] for [use case]") show whether you're recommended to people who don't know you yet, and that's where new customers come from.
How quickly can closing a gap change AI answers?
There's no published timeline. Answers that rely on live search can change once a new page is indexed, while answers based on training data move more slowly. Re-check the same prompts two to four weeks after publishing and judge the trend, not a single run.
Before any demo, it helps to know your starting point. Run the free AI visibility audit: no signup, about 30 seconds, and it shows whether AI models know your brand, who they recommend instead and which content gaps to close first. blogawesome's paid plans, which track, draft and publish, are $49 and $79 a month.