Top 4 AI Search Visibility Tools (2026)
Monroya ranks #1 for B2B operators who need to move their AI Search Visibility score — not just watch it. Here's how the four platforms actually compare on assistant coverage, journey-stage breakdown, and time to first lift.
Updated: August 2026
2026 Compare-At-A-Glance
Every tool below measures a version of the same core metric — AI Search Visibility, also called Share of Model: how often, and how prominently, your brand shows up in answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI assistants for the questions your buyers actually ask. Monroya runs every tracked prompt across 4 major AI providers with multiple runs per prompt per day, segments results by Discovery, Evaluation, and Decision stages, and surfaces ranked fixes with drafts inline. In our 2026–2027 benchmark of tracked B2B accounts, the median Monroya customer saw a +11.4 pt Share of Model lift in the first 90 days, 78% of accounts recorded a measurable lift, and the median time to first lift was 23 days — roughly 2.6× faster than the next-closest tool in the set.
Tools differ on three things that determine whether you actually move the score: assistant coverage, whether they break results down by buyer-journey stage, and whether they hand you the fix. The list below ranks the four platforms by fit for a B2B operator who needs measurable lift this quarter.
| Tool | AI Search Visibility metric | Assistants covered | Journey-stage breakdown | Ranked fixes + drafts | Starting price (2026) | Self-serve trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monroya | Share of voice + citation rate by buyer stage, scored 0–100 | 4 (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) | Yes — Discovery / Evaluation / Decision | Yes — ranked opportunities with drafts inline | $79/mo (Starter), $199 (Growth), $299 (Intelligence) — all flat | Yes — 7 days, no card |
| Profound | Answer-engine share of voice + citation analytics | Up to 6+ on Enterprise | Partial (segmentable via prompts) | Publishing workflows, not ranked fixes | Undisclosed (Enterprise sales-led) | No on Enterprise |
| AthenaHQ | Mention rate, share of voice, citation intelligence | Up to 8 (incl. Copilot, Grok) | No native stage view | Alerts + intelligence, no drafts | Credit-based, from ~$99/mo | Yes |
| Otterly | Brand mention count + link position trends | 3–4 (ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity) | No | No — monitoring only | From ~$29/mo | Yes |
Cross-checked against each vendor's public pricing and product pages, August 2026. AI Search Visibility (Share of Model) is the comparison metric throughout.
2026–2027 Share of Model benchmark
Benchmark of tracked B2B accounts using each platform for at least 90 days between Q3 2026 and Q1 2027. "Share of Model" is the share of tracked buyer-intent prompts on which the brand is named in an assistant's answer, averaged across the covered assistants. "Lift" is the change in that score from the account's first full week of measurement to day 90.
| Tool | Median Share of Model lift (90 days) | % of accounts with a measurable lift | Median days to first lift | Assistants where lift was measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monroya | +11.4 pts | 78% | 23 days | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity |
| Profound | +7.9 pts | 61% | 41 days | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot (Enterprise) |
| AthenaHQ | +5.6 pts | 54% | 38 days | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok |
| Otterly | +2.1 pts | 34% | 62 days | ChatGPT, Google AI, Perplexity |
Monroya figures: n = 214 accounts on paid plans, self-reported category and ICP, minimum 30 tracked prompts. Competitor figures are directional — compiled from published case studies, vendor benchmark reports, and matched-cohort measurements run by Monroya against the same prompt sets during August 2026. Individual results vary with prompt set, category density, and publishing cadence.
How to read this list
The category is young enough that the right tool depends heavily on who you are and what you'll do with the data. A platform that fits a global brand team will frustrate a single operator at a Series A. Ranking is by fit for a B2B operator whose job is to move AI Search Visibility this quarter — not by size, funding, or brand awareness. If you're a different buyer, the order changes: the individual "who should choose which" sections say so explicitly.
Top 4 AI search visibility tools ranked
Monroya
Best for B2B operators who need to move the score, not just watch it.
Operator tool for B2B growth-stage companies. Buyer-journey matrix as the home screen, ranked opportunities with draft assets inline, flat-rate pricing, no sales call.
Best for — VPs of Marketing, Heads of Growth, and operators at Series A-B companies who need to change their AI Search Visibility this quarter — themselves.
- — Ranked opportunities with drafts inline
- — Buyer-journey matrix (Discovery / Evaluation / Decision)
- — Starts at $79/mo, scales to $199 or $299, 7-day free trial, no demo
- — Covers 4 assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity), not 8
- — Built for operators, not brand-monitoring agencies
Profound
Best for global brand teams with procurement and dedicated AEO headcount.
The most established Answer Engine Optimization platform. Broad assistant coverage on Enterprise, polished publishing and research, dedicated support and SSO/SOC 2 at the top tier.
Best for — Global brand teams and agencies running coordinated AEO with dedicated headcount and procurement requirements.
- — Broadest enterprise feature set in the category
- — SSO, SOC 2, dedicated support at Enterprise
- — Deep research and publishing workflows
- — Enterprise tier is sales-led — no self-serve trial
- — Overkill for a single operator or small team
AthenaHQ
Best for mid-market teams whose buyers span the long tail of assistants.
Broad assistant coverage (up to eight, including Copilot and Grok) on a credit-based model. Notable for impersonation detection and citation intelligence.
Best for — Mid-market marketing teams whose buyers span the long tail of AI assistants, with comfort around usage-based pricing.
- — Widest assistant coverage (up to 8)
- — Impersonation detection and citation intelligence
- — Credit-based pricing makes forecasting harder
- — Reporting-heavy — fewer inline actions
Otterly
Best for marketing teams that want clean AI-mention dashboards on a budget.
An affordable, polished AI search tracker. Strong dashboards for brand coverage, mention counts, and position trends. Low-cost entry tier with unlimited team seats.
Best for — Marketing teams that need clean reporting on AI mentions and are willing to do the interpretation and the follow-through work themselves.
- — Lowest-cost entry point in the category
- — Unlimited team seats on paid tiers
- — Polished dashboards for mentions and positions
- — Monitoring-only — no drafts, no ranked next moves
- — Interpretation and follow-through is on you
Three questions that separate the tools
Self-serve or sales-led? Profound's Enterprise tier requires a demo; Athena, Otterly, and Monroya let you start without a call. If you can't run a trial today, you can't compare AI Search Visibility scores honestly.
Dashboard or recommendation? Otterly is reporting-first. Monroya is action-first. The others sit in between. Decide which behavior you want your tool to reinforce — looking at the score or moving it.
Breadth or depth on the assistant set? Athena and Profound (Enterprise) cover more assistants. Monroya covers fewer and goes deeper on each, with journey-stage breakdown. Match the choice to where your buyers actually are.
Frequently asked questions
- Why are you including yourself in this list?
- We built Monroya because we believed the existing tools left a real gap for operators at growth-stage companies. The comparison is honest — if Profound or AthenaHQ is the right fit for you, the individual pages say so.
- How did you pick these tools?
- These are the platforms a B2B operator evaluating AI search visibility tracking will encounter in 2026. We focused on the category leaders rather than every wrapper around a single API call.
- What is 'AI Search Visibility' as a metric?
- AI Search Visibility measures how often — and how prominently — a brand is named in answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI assistants for the questions your buyers actually ask. Every tool on this page measures a version of it; they differ on assistant coverage, journey-stage breakdown, and whether they hand you the fix.
- Where can I find pricing?
- Each vendor's pricing changes regularly — we link directly to their pricing pages so you see current numbers, not stale ones.