Every AI visibility tool has a price on its website, and almost none of those prices tell you what you will pay. One tool charges $29 and then $9 to $29 per extra AI engine. Another charges $39, but per location. A third gives you a generous prompt allowance at $99 and quietly leaves out Claude and Grok. And three of the best-known names in the category do not publish a price at all.
I run Searcherries, so I have an obvious interest in this comparison. I am not going to pretend otherwise, and I am not going to hide the places where we are not the cheapest option. What I can do is put the actual numbers next to each other, sorted by real entry cost, so you can pick a tool for the job you have rather than the job the pricing page describes.
All prices are list prices taken from the vendors’ pricing pages on September 22, 2026. Where a vendor publishes no price, I say so and quote what independent reviews report, labeled as such. Prices change; check the vendor before you buy.
Why the sticker price is not the price
Four patterns account for most of the gap between the advertised price and the invoice.
- Engines sold separately. Otterly’s $29 plan covers ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot; Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode are add-ons at $9–$29 per month each. Frase includes two engines at $49 and reserves Claude and Gemini for its $299 plan. Writesonic tracks three platforms on every self-serve plan and puts the other seven behind an Enterprise quote.
- Price per location, per domain or per seat. BrightLocal charges per location, which is fine for a dentist and expensive for a franchise. Semrush charges $99 per domain and from $45 per extra user. Ahrefs Brand Radar needs an Ahrefs subscription first, so the $50 custom-prompts add-on really starts at $179.
- Prompts you will not use. Peec AI, SE Visible and Semrush sell allowances of 25 to 450 prompts. If you track twelve customer questions, most of that allowance is paid for and idle.
- Bundles you did not ask for. Frase, Surfer and Writesonic wrap AI tracking around a content editor; Nightwatch wraps it around a rank tracker; BrightLocal around a local SEO suite. If you already own those tools, you pay twice.
14 AI visibility tools by entry price
Sorted by the lowest monthly price at which you can start tracking AI answers. Where a plan is only sold annually, the monthly equivalent is shown. Tools with a linked name have a full comparison page.
| Tool | Entry price | AI platforms on that plan | Prompts | Bundled or extra | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searcherries | $19/mo Starter ($15/mo annual); Pro $89/mo | 6 on every plan: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Grok | 10 question units/mo (3 platforms = 1 unit, all 6 = 2); 50 on Pro | Search Console, Bing, GA4 AI traffic, Wizard and MCP included | Free one-off report, 14-day trial |
| Otterly | $29/mo Lite ($25/mo annual); Standard $189/mo | 4: ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot. Gemini, Claude and AI Mode are add-ons ($9–$29/mo each) | 15 on Lite; 100 on Standard; +100 for $99/mo | GEO URL audits; API and MCP from Standard | Trial |
| BrightLocal | $39/mo per location (Track); Manage $49, Grow $59 | 2: ChatGPT and Google’s AI | Location-based tracking, not prompt-based | Local SEO suite: rankings, citations, GBP, reviews | Trial |
| Frase | $49/mo Starter ($39/mo annual); Scale $299/mo | 2 on Starter (ChatGPT, Google AI); Perplexity from $129/mo; Claude and Gemini from $299/mo | Not published per plan | AI articles, audits, Content Guard bundled | Trial |
| Writesonic | $79/mo Starter; Basic $199, Growth $399 | 3 on all self-serve plans: ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews. 10 on Enterprise | 50 / 100 / 200 | AI articles, site audits, Action Center bundled | Trial |
| Nightwatch | €79/mo Starter; Professional €159, Agency €399 | 6: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews | 50 prompts and 1,500 AI answers/mo on Starter | 500 keywords tracked daily; unlimited seats | 14-day trial, no card |
| Surfer | €82/mo AI Search Analytics (billed yearly); content plans €49–€299 | 5: ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini | 50 daily on AI Search Analytics; 25 weekly on Standard | Content Editor and audits on content plans | Trial |
| Peec AI | $95/mo Starter (€89); Pro $245, Advanced $495 | Multiple engines; coverage varies by plan | 50 / 150 / 350 | Unlimited seats; Looker connector on top tier | 7-day trial, no card |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99/mo per domain (billed annually) | 4: ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | 25 daily | Extra users from $45/mo; also sold inside SEO + AI Search plans from $165/mo | 7-day trial |
| SE Visible | $99/mo Basic ($79/mo annual); Core $189/mo | 6: ChatGPT, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini | 200 on Basic; 450 on Core | Unlimited seats; $89/mo add-on for SE Ranking users | 10-day trial |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Custom prompts from $50/mo on top of an Ahrefs plan (Lite $129/mo); AI Visibility Index $199/mo; all models $699/mo | 6: AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot; Claude on higher tiers | 5–20 custom prompts on standard plans; 83/day on the Index | Requires an Ahrefs subscription for custom prompts | No |
| Profound | Not published; Enterprise after a demo | 3 on trial; 9 on Enterprise | 50 daily on trial; custom | Agents on credits, API, SSO | 7-day trial |
| BrightEdge | Not published; reviews report $25,000–$150,000+ per year | 4 as publicly stated: ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Copilot | Custom | Enterprise SEO platform with Autopilot | No |
| Adobe Brand Visibility | Not published; quote from Adobe sales, reported minimum around 1,000 prompts | Major AI platforms; see Adobe documentation | Enterprise volumes | Adobe Experience Manager integration | No |
Three things stand out. Only four tools include six AI platforms on their entry plan: Searcherries, Nightwatch, SE Visible and Ahrefs Brand Radar, and the last two of those start at $99 and $179. Six tools bundle something unrelated to AI visibility into the entry price. And the three enterprise vendors, Profound, BrightEdge and Adobe, cannot be compared on price at all because they do not publish one.
Cost per AI platform
The simplest way to normalize entry prices is to divide by the number of AI platforms you get on that plan. This rewards tools that include everything and penalizes per-engine add-ons. Peec AI and the enterprise vendors are left out because they do not publish a platform count for the entry plan.
| Tool | Entry price | Platforms included | Per platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Searcherries | $19 | 6 | $3.17 |
| Otterly | $29 | 4 (7 with add-ons, roughly $29 + 3 × $9–$29) | $7.25 |
| Nightwatch | €79 | 6 | €13.17 |
| SE Visible | $99 | 6 | $16.50 |
| Surfer | €82 | 5 | €16.40 |
| BrightLocal | $39 per location | 2 | $19.50 |
| Frase | $49 | 2 | $24.50 |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99 | 4 | $24.75 |
| Writesonic | $79 | 3 | $26.33 |
On this measure Searcherries is first by a wide margin, at about $3 per platform against $7 for Otterly and $13–$26 for everyone else. That is the number I would use if your question is “does AI recommend us?”, because the answer differs by platform and you want all of them.
Cost per tracked prompt
Now the measure where Searcherries is not first. Divide the entry price by the prompts included and the picture changes, because several tools sell volume.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts included | Per prompt |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE Visible | $99 | 200 | $0.50 |
| Writesonic | $79 | 50 | $1.58 |
| Nightwatch | €79 | 50 | €1.58 |
| Surfer | €82 | 50 | €1.64 |
| Peec AI | $95 | 50 | $1.90 |
| Searcherries | $19 | 10 questions on 3 platforms (or 5 on all 6) | $1.90 (or $3.80) |
| Otterly | $29 | 15 | $1.93 |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99 | 25 | $3.96 |
SE Visible wins this table outright: 200 prompts for $99 is $0.50 a prompt, and nothing else is close. Searcherries lands in the middle at $1.90 per question on three platforms, or $3.80 on all six. If you need hundreds of prompts, that is the honest conclusion: buy volume from SE Visible or, at higher tiers, Peec AI, and accept that Claude and Grok are not in SE Visible’s list.
The counterargument is that prompt counts are the metric vendors most like to sell and buyers least often use. A single well-written customer question, checked on a schedule across six platforms, tells you more than fifty variations of it checked on three.
What you get at $20, $50, $100 and $500
Around $20 a month
One option: Searcherries Starter at $19. One project, ten question units, all six platforms, competitors and citations from real answers, Google Search Console, Bing and GA4 AI traffic connected, five Wizard questions and MCP access. Enough for one brand in one market.
Around $50 a month
Otterly Lite at $29 if you want daily checks on 15 prompts across four engines and do not need Gemini or Claude. BrightLocal Track at $39 if you run a single location and need citations and reviews more than AI coverage. Frase Starter at $49 if you came for the writing tools and two AI engines are a bonus.
Around $100 a month
This is the crowded tier. Searcherries Pro at $89 gives unlimited projects and 50 question units, which suits an agency with a handful of clients. SE Visible at $99 gives 200 prompts on six platforms with unlimited seats. Semrush’s toolkit at $99 gives 25 prompts on four platforms, which only makes sense if you already live in Semrush. Peec AI at $95 gives 50 prompts and the best-looking reports of the group. Writesonic, Nightwatch and Surfer sit just under $100 with a content editor or rank tracker attached.
$500 and up
Peec Advanced ($495), Otterly Premium ($489), SE Visible’s top tier ($519) and Ahrefs Brand Radar for all models ($699 plus an Ahrefs plan) are volume plans for agencies and multi-brand teams. Above that, Profound, BrightEdge and Adobe Brand Visibility are enterprise contracts with API access, SSO, agents and account management. If you need those, the price is a procurement conversation, not a pricing page.
The honest part about Searcherries
Searcherries is the cheapest way to track all six major AI platforms, and it is the only tool on this list that puts Search Console, Bing and GA4 AI traffic in the same project at the entry price. That is the whole pitch, and the tables above support it.
Here is what the $19 does not buy. It does not buy hundreds of prompts; ten question units is a focused set, not a research database. It does not buy a rank tracker, a content editor, local listings management, an API or SSO. It does not track Microsoft Copilot or Google AI Mode. If any of those is the reason you are shopping, one of the other thirteen tools is a better fit, and the alternatives pages say which.
What it does buy is the answer to the first question every business has about AI search: are we recommended, who is recommended instead, which pages do the answers cite, and is any of it turning into visits. For most small businesses, SaaS teams and lean agencies, that is the job, and $19 is the right size for it.
Free options before you pay
Before paying anyone, use what you already have. Google Search Console reports clicks and impressions from Google’s AI features inside its performance data, and Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI performance report. Ahrefs and Semrush both offer free one-off AI visibility checkers. I covered all of them in the best AI visibility tools for local businesses.
Searcherries also runs a free one-off AI visibility report for your website before you start a trial. None of the free options track on a schedule or cover every platform, which is where the paid tools start earning their price.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest AI visibility tool?
Among tools that track all major AI platforms, Searcherries is the cheapest at $19/mo with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude and Grok included. Otterly is $29/mo for four engines with Gemini, Claude and AI Mode sold as add-ons. Per prompt, SE Visible is the cheapest at $99/mo for 200 prompts.
Is there a free AI visibility tool?
Google Search Console reports clicks and impressions from AI features, Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI performance report, and Ahrefs and Semrush offer free one-off checkers. Searcherries runs a free one-off AI visibility report before the 14-day trial. None of the free options give you scheduled tracking across platforms.
Why do AI visibility tools vary so much in price?
Four things drive the price: how many AI platforms are included by default, how many prompts are checked and how often, what else is bundled (content writers, rank trackers, local SEO suites), and whether the vendor sells to enterprises with API, SSO and account management. A $19 tool and a $50,000 contract can track the same six platforms.
How many prompts do I actually need?
Most small businesses and SaaS teams get useful data from 5–20 well-written customer questions checked on a schedule. Hundreds of prompts make sense for agencies with many clients or brands with many product lines. Count the questions you would genuinely act on before paying for a large allowance.
Do I need daily checks?
Rarely. AI answers vary between runs, so what matters is a consistent schedule and enough history to see a trend, not a daily refresh. Searcherries checks the primary question most often and additional questions on a regular schedule; that is enough to compare periods fairly.
Conclusion
Decide what you are paying for before you compare prices. If it is platform coverage, Searcherries at $19 is the cheapest by a factor of two and the only one under $100 with Claude and Grok included. If it is prompt volume, SE Visible at $99 is the value pick. If it is a bundle with writing, rank tracking or local SEO, pay for the bundle you will use. And if you need an enterprise contract, none of the published prices apply to you anyway.
