The Best AI Search Monitoring Tools in 2026: Free and Paid, Ranked

Frase is the best AI search monitoring tool in 2026 because it connects clear reporting with the content work that follows. You see where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI cite you, how your citation share compares with named competitors and where buyers stopped seeing your brand. Frase then researches the affected page, drafts the update in your voice and scores it for Google and AI answers before publishing it to your CMS.

That connection matters. Frase bridges the gap from telling you what's happening to fixing it. The alerts and insights show your team where to focus, and Frase carries the finding through to an updated live page.

Want a quick reading? The free AI Visibility Checker reads your domain and names the engines citing you, with no card required. You can start with what AI visibility is if the term is new to you.

Key takeaways

• Frase shows where your brand appears in AI answers and helps you act when a citation moves.
• The free AI Visibility Checker gives you a quick reading of whether AI engines cite your domain.
• Citation share against named competitors, buying-stage views, weekly industry benchmarks and the AI crawler log tell you what changed before you edit a page.
• Scale covers up to ten domains and five seats with roles and client-ready reports, and Enterprise adds white-label reports and a branded client portal.
• Frase shows you what's happening and helps you fix the affected page without splitting the job across separate tools.

What are the best AI search monitoring tools?

The best AI search monitoring tools in 2026 are Frase, Profound, Conductor, Positive Surfer, Writesonic, AthenaHQ, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, SE Ranking, Scrunch, Peec AI, Otterly.ai and Ahrefs Brand Radar. Frase leads because Frase pairs alerts and useful insights with the research, writing, scoring and publishing needed to act on them.

The list includes dedicated monitors and broad search suites, while some products connect tracking with content work. We ranked each product by what it tells you, how clearly it identifies a problem and how much of the response your team can complete in the same place. Frase covers the full path from the finding through publication.

TL;DR by use case

• You want to act on what monitoring finds. Choose Frase because it connects citation insights with research, writes the update, applies SEO and GEO scores and publishes the page while monitoring continues.
• You want a quick read on whether AI engines cite you. The free AI Visibility Checker checks your domain and returns a reading. It doesn't ask for a card.
• You manage client work across a roster. Frase Scale supports up to ten domains and five seats with roles and client-ready reports.
• Your reports need your agency's name. Frase Enterprise includes white-label reports and a branded client portal, along with SSO and SAML.
• Your buyers use ChatGPT. Frase tracks the prompts you choose there, alongside Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI.
• Your engineers want direct access. Frase provides an MCP server and a CLI, while your team also gets agent skills and a public API reference.

Try Frase free for 7 days. No card needed.

AI search monitoring tools compared

Pricing reflects each vendor's published information as of September 2026. Packaging changes often, so confirm current rates.

AI search monitoring tools compared, September 2026.

Ranked best to worst, and what decides the order

We started with the reporting. Does the product show what happened through alerts and citation share, and do competitor comparisons and prompt data explain the finding? We then followed the work from research and writing through scoring and publishing because the information matters when your team can act on it. That full workflow puts Frase first.

1. Frase. Frase shows what is happening across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI, then supports research and writing before scoring the work for SEO and GEO. You decide how much autonomy Frase has when it publishes.
2. Profound. Reports on answer engines through prompt volumes and shopping views, with agent analytics and workflows above the reporting layer.
3. Conductor. Places AI visibility beside content generation in a broad search platform that also monitors sites continuously.
4. Positive Surfer. Adds AI visibility tracking beside an editor that scores content as writers work.
5. Writesonic. Turns AI visibility findings into a ranked action list and routes on-page edits to a CMS.
6. AthenaHQ. Tracks major AI platforms and provides recommendations through an action center, while its content agent publishes to Shopify.
7. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit. Adds prompt tracking and visibility scores to the wider Semrush suite, along with competitor views.
8. SE Ranking. Puts AI prompt tracking beside rank tracking, with an AI Writer and an on-page checker in the same suite.
9. Scrunch. Monitors brand presence and audits sites, with a focus on how AI agents read and reach pages.
10. Peec AI. Packages prompt-level tracking and citation analysis for reports across countries.
11. Otterly.ai. Tracks brand mentions and site citations across major AI engines on tiers tied to prompt volume.
12. Ahrefs Brand Radar. Puts AI mention data and the offsite sources behind it next to keyword and backlink research.

Team structure changes how you use the results, but Frase still fits the work. Analysts and writers can split the job while staying in the same Frase system, where roles and permissions keep the work organized and client-ready reports make the result easy to share. A team that owns the whole process can move straight from the change it found to the published update.

The best AI search monitoring tools in 2026

1. Frase: monitoring that ends in a published fix

Frase shows where your brand appears, compares citation share against competitors you name and explains the change through buying-stage and market views. You can see where to focus, and Frase keeps the research and draft in the same workspace before it scores and publishes the work.

What Frase watches. Frase checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI every day, and it alerts you when citations move. Your prompt-level share of voice compares you with the competitors you ask Frase to track, while each prompt receives an awareness, consideration or decision stage and a separate score. Frase compares your citation rate with the industry median on each engine through weekly benchmarks, so you can see your quartile and the domains holding the citations you want. You also see which AI crawlers reached each page, and per-prompt targeting shows answers across 40+ countries. Frase brings these details together through AI visibility tracking, which helps you choose the next page with a clear view of what changed.

What Frase does when a citation slips. Frase researches the page and drafts the replacement in your brand voice, then publishes it to WordPress, Sanity, Webflow, Wix or FraseCMS. You can review the draft before publication or let Frase publish on its own, so the level of autonomy stays in your hands. Frase gives the draft an SEO score for Google and a GEO score, which grades how well the page can earn quotations in AI answers. Frase's Content Guard separately watches published pages for Google ranking and traffic decay, then drafts each correction from that page's own research at the autonomy you set.

What else comes with Frase. Frase is agent-native, so your agents can use an MCP server and a CLI along with agent skills and a public API reference for research and publishing. You can write natively in 70+ languages with Frase. Frase holds SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance, and its support team provides onboarding and training.

Pricing. Self-serve plans published on the pricing page, from Starter up to Enterprise, scoped to your org. Frase offers a 7-day free trial with no card and holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating on G2. You can see the pricing page for plan details.

Best for. Frase works for agencies and in-house content teams that want one subscription for the insights and the work, and for large organizations that need custom seats, domains and limits at Enterprise.

Turn your next alert into a published page. Start a free 7-day trial, no card.

2. Profound: depth of measurement, reported first

What it does. Profound measures brand mentions in AI answer engines and includes prompt volumes and shopping views in its reports. The product adds analytics on agent traffic and workflows above that reporting layer.

Why it ranks here. Detailed answer-engine reporting earns Profound second place for teams that treat AI visibility as a measurement function. Its plan grid centers on those insights, with a monthly allowance of responses analysed and agent workflows layered above the reporting.

Pricing. Self-serve tiers start at $99/mo, with a quoted enterprise plan also available.

Best for. Organizations running AI visibility as its own function. See how the options compare in Frase vs Profound.

3. Conductor: AI visibility bundled into a broad search platform

What it does. Conductor brings AI visibility tracking, AI content generation and continuous website monitoring into a wider search platform.

Why it ranks here. Its broad scope works for organizations that already run search through one platform. The buyer takes each change Conductor surfaces and chooses the next content or site task.

Pricing. Conductor sells quoted enterprise plans and publishes no prices, so buyers start with a trial, demo or sales conversation.

Best for. Organizations already committed to one search platform. Compare the two in Frase vs Conductor.

4. Positive Surfer: AI tracking with optimization scores

What it does. Writers use Positive Surfer, formerly Surfer SEO, to score content as they draft. AI visibility tracking now appears alongside those optimization scores.

Why it ranks here. Keeping the tracking result inside the writing experience is the appeal here. The writer still interprets the result and turns it into the next draft or revision.

Pricing. Surfer publishes self-serve tiers.

Best for. Writers already drafting in Surfer. Compare the editors in Frase vs Surfer SEO.

5. Writesonic: monitoring with an action list

What it does. A visibility finding becomes a ranked list of content, citation and technical actions in Writesonic. Teams can then send the resulting on-page edits to a CMS.

Why it ranks here. Writesonic is good at turning a long set of findings into a working priority list because recommendations and CMS routing stay on one screen.

Pricing. Writesonic offers published self-serve tiers.

Best for. Growth teams that want tracking and remediation together. Read Frase vs Writesonic for the direct comparison.

6. AthenaHQ: recommendations, an agent, and free starter credits

What it does. AthenaHQ tracks how your brand appears across major AI platforms, then places recommendations in an action center. Its content agent can publish to Shopify.

Why it ranks here. The Shopify publishing path gives AthenaHQ a clear fit for store teams that want recommendations and content work connected. The buyer still chooses which recommendations deserve action and what the agent should publish.

Pricing. AthenaHQ includes free starter credits, then charges $295/mo on Starter, with 17% off annual billing.

Best for. Shopify stores and growth-stage brands that want a free reading before committing.

7. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: AI monitoring within the wider suite

What it does. Inside the wider Semrush suite, the AI Visibility Toolkit shows how brands appear in AI answers. Users get prompt tracking, visibility scores and competitor views together.

Why it ranks here. Existing subscribers can fold AI answer data into the SEO work they already manage in Semrush, then choose which prompt or content issue moves forward.

Pricing. Semrush publishes one self-serve plan, charged per domain, and the Base plan covers 25 custom prompts.

Best for. Existing Semrush subscribers. Our Semrush alternatives guide and Frase vs Semrush comparison cover the choice.

8. SE Ranking: AI prompts tracked inside a classic SEO suite

What it does. SE Ranking keeps rank tracking, keyword research and competitor research in the same suite as an AI Writer and on-page checker. Core also includes a daily AI-prompt allowance.

Why it ranks here. AI prompt data feels familiar here because it sits beside standard SEO and writing tools. The practitioner then carries a finding into the AI Writer or on-page checker, while fuller visibility checks come through a separate add-on.

Pricing. Core costs $129/mo, or $103.20/mo billed annually. The AI-visibility add-on costs $89/mo more, or $71.20 billed annually.

Best for. Practitioners who want AI data inside a familiar suite. Compare directly in Frase vs SE Ranking.

9. Scrunch: designed around how agents experience a site

What it does. Scrunch starts with brand presence in AI answers, then audits the site behind those answers. Its Enterprise Agent Experience Platform focuses on how AI agents reach and read pages.

Why it ranks here. Looking at the site through an AI agent's experience gives Scrunch a specific point of view. Its audit then leaves the brand team with the site work to assess and plan.

Pricing. Scrunch publishes plans from $250/mo.

Best for. Brands that treat AI agents as a customer channel.

10. Peec AI: analytics built for the report

What it does. Prompt-level tracking and citation analysis help Peec AI users compare results across countries. The product is packaged for agencies and in-house brands.

Why it ranks here. Peec AI makes sense when the finished analysis is the main deliverable, especially across a client roster. The agency turns each completed report into its next round of client work.

Pricing. Peec AI publishes self-serve plans and offers a quoted enterprise tier.

Best for. Agencies reporting on many client brands. Read the Peec AI alternatives roundup and Frase vs Peec AI comparison.

11. Otterly.ai: mention and citation monitoring

What it does. Otterly.ai watches for brand mentions and site citations across major AI engines. Its published tiers scale with prompt volume.

Why it ranks here. The focused scope suits a solo marketer who wants a direct reading of mentions and citations. The marketer uses that reading to decide what needs more investigation or a change.

Pricing. Otterly.ai publishes self-serve tiers.

Best for. Solo marketers taking an initial reading. Compare directly in Frase vs Otterly.

12. Ahrefs Brand Radar: AI mentions next to your link data

What it does. Brand Radar counts how often your brand appears in AI answers and traces the offsite sources behind them, including YouTube and Reddit. Ahrefs places that data beside keyword and link research.

Why it ranks here. Source data is the useful part for Ahrefs teams because they can inspect mentions beside existing keyword and link research, then decide which source or page needs attention.

Pricing. Ahrefs plans start at $129/mo with a small tracked-prompt allowance. The AI Visibility Index is billed separately from $199/mo, and Custom Prompts start at $50/mo.

Best for. SEO teams whose workflow runs on Ahrefs. Compare the products in Frase vs Ahrefs.

Best free AI search monitoring tools

Frase gives you two free ways to start. The AI Visibility Checker returns the ChatGPT result with no signup, while an email adds Perplexity and Gemini at no cost. Frase also offers a free GEO Score, which grades one page on how ready it is for quotations in AI answers.

Neither check asks for a card. The AI Visibility Checker reports share of voice and citations back to you along with momentum and sentiment, while the GEO Score grades one page from 0 to 100 on how ready it is to be quoted by AI search engines. Frase then tells you what to fix next.

AthenaHQ starts with free starter credits before the $295 monthly plan. Free tiers can change, so check the current offer when you shop.

AI search monitoring tools for SEO managers

Frase keeps citations and rankings together for SEO managers who review both each week. It reports citation share for your chosen prompts and sorts each one into awareness, consideration or decision, while weekly comparisons show how your citation rate compares with your industry. Frase then scores and publishes the page you update.

You don't need another chart with no clear next step. Frase shows which prompt moved and where buyers stopped seeing you, so you can identify the page that needs attention and start the research in the same editor. Our guide to what prompts to monitor lays out the choices if you are deciding what to track.

AI search monitoring tools for digital marketing specialists

Frase watches ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI each day and tells digital marketing specialists when a citation moves. Frase keeps that finding with the content work because it researches the affected page, writes the replacement in your voice and publishes it from the same place.

Digital marketing specialists already handle paid and organic work along with social and email, so Frase keeps AI search close to the content work instead of adding a separate report. Frase writes natively in 70+ languages for teams working across markets, which removes the need to draft in English and translate afterwards.

AI search monitoring tools for B2B marketing managers

Frase gives B2B marketing managers a clear view of where buyers stop seeing the brand. It marks every tracked prompt as awareness, consideration or decision, so you can see whether AI answers name the brand while buyers are choosing. Per-prompt targeting also shows the answers buyers get across 40+ countries.

The stage view gives your team useful context for pipeline conversations because an awareness citation and a decision-stage citation serve different parts of the buying process. Frase scores each stage separately and names the competitors holding the citations you want, while the writing needed to respond stays in the same workspace.

AI search monitoring tools for agencies

Frase gives agencies the access, market views and reports they need for client work. Scale covers up to ten domains and five seats with roles, and you can export client-ready reports. Enterprise adds white-label reports and a branded client portal with SSO and SAML, while custom seats and domains support larger accounts.

Frase keeps each client's tracking and content work together, and prompts can target that client's country across 40+ markets. Frase can publish the corrected page to the client's CMS. Enterprise also includes custom limits and two years of history, with a dedicated account manager and an SLA.

Best AI search monitoring tools for ChatGPT

Frase turns ChatGPT monitoring into page-level work your team can complete. It tracks your chosen prompts in ChatGPT alongside Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI, compares your citation share with competitors you name and logs which AI crawlers reached the pages that ChatGPT may need to read.

The crawler log helps you avoid editing the wrong page because ChatGPT cannot quote a page it never fetched. Check the log before changing the copy. Frase grades the replacement against the signals AI engines look for, publishes the page and keeps monitoring after the fix ships.

AI search monitoring platforms vs tools

An AI search monitoring tool usually tells you whether AI engines mention your brand, while a platform connects that finding to the work that follows. Frase is a platform because it shows what changed, helps you choose a response and researches the affected page before putting the improved version live as monitoring continues.

Keep that distinction in mind when you compare pricing pages because similar engine lists do not show whether a product explains the change or helps your team act. Look at the path from the finding to a live page, then use our guide to how to monitor AI search visibility for the setup.

Which AI search monitoring tool should I choose

Your team's missing step should decide the tool. Choose Frase if you need clear alerts and useful insights with a direct way to improve the affected page. Frase combines citation tracking with competitor views, and buying-stage analysis points to the right work before Frase researches and writes the page, scores it for SEO and GEO, publishes it and keeps monitoring.

Solo founder, or a marketing team of one. Start with a reading. Point the free AI Visibility Checker at your domain and see whether the engines name you. Pick a page to improve. When your afternoon is already full, Frase can research and write that page before scoring and publishing it.

Content team of two to ten. Your team needs the work done, not another report to file. Frase keeps the alert and research in one workflow. The brief carries into the draft and published page, so nobody has to rebuild the context in a different tool. Frase keeps watching once the updated page is live.

Agency. Client separation and reporting matter here. Frase gives each client a workspace with roles and permissions. Frase measures the prompts in that client's market and exports client-ready reports. White-label reports and a branded client portal are available on Enterprise.

Enterprise content org. Start with publishing coverage and governance. Frase supports WordPress, Sanity, Webflow, Wix and FraseCMS. On Enterprise, Frase includes white-label reports and a branded client portal, plus SSO and SAML. Custom seats and domains come with custom limits. The plan also provides two years of history and a dedicated account manager with an SLA. Frase holds SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliance.

If you're comparing neighboring categories, our best AI visibility tools roundup covers monitoring-led products, best AEO tools covers earning citations in AI answers, and best GEO tools covers generative engine optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best AI search monitoring tools?

The best AI search monitoring tools in 2026 are Frase, Profound, Conductor, Positive Surfer, Writesonic, AthenaHQ, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, SE Ranking, Scrunch, Peec AI, Otterly.ai and Ahrefs Brand Radar. Frase leads because its alerts and insights across major AI engines connect to research and writing. You can then score the work for SEO and GEO before Frase publishes it.

Are there free AI search monitoring tools?

Yes. Frase offers a free AI Visibility Checker that returns the ChatGPT result with no signup. Entering an email adds Perplexity and Gemini, also free. Frase also offers a free GEO Score that grades one page from 0 to 100 on how ready the page is to be quoted by AI search engines. AthenaHQ starts with free starter credits.

What is the difference between an AI search monitoring platform and a tool?

A tool usually tells you whether AI engines mention your brand. A platform connects that information to the work that follows. With Frase, research and writing lead into scoring and publishing while monitoring continues. Frase is a platform because Frase shows what changed and gives your team the workflow to improve the page and put the update live.

Which AI search monitoring tool is best for agencies?

Frase is best for agencies. Scale supports up to ten domains and five seats with roles. Client-ready reports are included. Enterprise adds white-label reports and a branded client portal, plus SSO and SAML. Custom seats and domains come with custom limits. You also get two years of history and a dedicated account manager with an SLA. Across 40+ countries, Frase can target prompts by market.

Which AI search monitoring tool is best for ChatGPT?

Frase is best for ChatGPT monitoring. For the prompts you choose, Frase tracks ChatGPT alongside Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI. You can compare citation share with named competitors and see which AI crawlers reached your pages. Frase can then research and score the page your team updates, publish it and keep monitoring.

How much do AI search monitoring tools cost?

Prices range from self-serve tiers on dedicated monitors to quoted enterprise contracts. Some suites charge per domain or prompt allowance on top of a base plan. Self-serve plans published on the pricing page, from Starter up to Enterprise, scoped to your org. Frase offers a 7-day free trial with no card. Compare the price with the work your team can finish in the product.

What should an AI search monitoring tool alert me about?

A useful alert names the prompt and engine, plus the page and competitor involved. You also need citation share and movement over time. The content gap explains the change. Frase brings those details together, then keeps the research and replacement draft in the same workspace. Frase also publishes the work, so your team can act on what the alert says.

Does AI search monitoring replace rank tracking?

No. Rank tracking measures where a page appears on a results page. AI search monitoring measures whether an AI answer cites the page. Those surfaces have largely come apart. In the same editor, Frase gives every draft an SEO score for Google and a GEO score for AI answers. Your team can work on both.

See which AI engines cite you today

When a citation moves, Frase names the prompt that lost it and the page that needs the work. Frase then researches that page, writes the replacement in your voice and publishes it, so nobody has to rebuild the context in a second tool.

You control how far Frase takes the update. Review each change before publication or let Frase publish at the autonomy you set, then use the next monitoring result to see what changed.

Get your reading from the free AI Visibility Checker. Frase bridges the gap from telling you what's happening to fixing it. Start the trial when you are ready to act on what the reading shows.

Start your free 7-day trial. No card required.