The verdict: if you want the work done, pick RunOctopus
For a business that wants to be named in AI answers and does not want to run the program itself, RunOctopus is the better choice than any tool on this page. Every other product here is software your team has to operate: pick the prompts, read the dashboard, decide what to fix, then write, approve and publish. RunOctopus does that work. Ollie (our AI) and our team research, write, publish and link pages on your own site, on Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce or Wix. It publishes on its own, so nothing sits waiting for your sign-off, and you can read anything that went live and ask for changes.
That is not a claim that the tools are weak. Several now write too. Profound sells agents that research and write. Gauge's Growth plan includes 18 publish-ready articles a month. Writesonic bundles an AI article writer with its tracking. The difference comes down to four things.
- We do the work and publish on our own. Ollie and our team research, write, publish and link the pages on your site. Nothing waits on you. A tool gives you a dashboard and a draft. We hand you live pages.
- We know your catalog and services. Ollie reads your products, collections and service pages first, so every new page is built from what you really sell and links into the pages that sell it.
- Proven on real clients. On All Angles Creatures, weekly Google clicks went from about 600 to about 1,400 between July 28 and October 10, 2026, and the site was the most-cited domain in every AI answer set we checked (61 and 80 citations). On Sterman Multifamily, ChatGPT named the firm on four of eight buyer questions. Both studies leave the misses in.
- Fully automated, and built from real inputs. Ollie does the work automatically from start to finish, and our team keeps watch. Every page is built from real inputs, not generic AI text: your own catalog or services, your own search data, the real questions buyers ask AI assistants, and facts checked before anything publishes. An AI writer given a keyword produces generic text about that keyword.
The tools below tell you where AI answers name you, and some will draft content for your team to finish. RunOctopus is the AI search optimization service that does the finishing: researched pages, published and linked on your site, with a report on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business.
The tools at a glance
Entry prices below are what each vendor publishes on its own pricing page, unless marked "reported," which means the vendor hides the number and we used a dated 2026 review. Yearly billing is cheaper on most of these. Treat every number as a starting point, not a quote.
| Tool | What it does | AI engines (entry plan) | Writes or publishes? | Entry price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | AI answer tracking plus agents that research, write and refresh content | Up to 9 on Enterprise. Trial covers ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews | Yes. Agents and AI Marketer write content | Free trial, then Enterprise quote |
| Peec AI | Prompt tracking, share of voice, sources, suggested actions | You choose 3 models. More cost extra | No | About $95/mo (reported) |
| Otterly.AI | Daily prompt tracking, citations, GEO audits | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot. AI Mode, Gemini, Claude as add-ons | No | $29/mo (15 prompts) |
| Scrunch | Tracking, page audits with fixes, an AI-friendly version of your site for agents | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Meta | No. Recommends fixes | $300/mo ($250 yearly) |
| AthenaHQ | Tracking plus a content optimization agent | 5 on the free plan, 11 on Starter | Partly. Its agent improves content | Free plan. Starter $295/mo |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | AI mentions inside the Ahrefs suite, custom prompts and a large prompt index | AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude | No | Custom prompts from $50/mo. Index from $199/mo |
| Semrush AI visibility | AI tracking inside Semrush plans, plus an AI Visibility Toolkit add-on | Multi-engine | Not in this toolkit. Semrush sells content tools separately | Starter plan $199/mo. Toolkit about $99/mo (reported) |
| Adobe LLM Optimizer | Enterprise tracking and recommendations, tied to Adobe's marketing stack | Major engines | Recommends changes | Annual license, 1,000 prompts minimum, quote only |
| Gauge | Tracking plus a content engine that writes from visibility gaps | ChatGPT, AI Mode, Copilot on Growth | Yes. 18 publish-ready articles a month on Growth | $599/mo |
| Rankscale | Low-cost tracking, audits and suggestions | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral and more | No | From $20/mo |
| Surfer AI Tracker | AI tracking sold alone or inside Surfer's content editor plans | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Gemini | Surfer helps you write and optimize. You publish | $82/mo yearly (tracker alone) |
| Writesonic | AI writer plus GEO tracking and site audits with AI fixes | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews (9 on Enterprise) | Yes. 15 to 50 AI articles a month by plan | $79/mo yearly |
| RunOctopus (Ollie) | A done-for-you service: our team and Ollie research, write, publish and link pages on your site | We report where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business | Yes, and it goes live on your site without waiting on you | $497/mo, one plan |
"Reported" prices come from dated third-party reviews because the vendor does not print the number. Profound removed its self-serve brand plans in September 2026. Peec shows plan names but renders prices only in its app. Semrush's own pricing page bundles AI tracking into its main plans and does not print the toolkit's add-on price.
Where each tool sits
The useful way to sort these products is not by price but by how much of the work they take off your plate. Read the diagram from top to bottom: each band does everything the band above it does, plus more.
An honest look at each tool
Profound. Enterprise tracking that now writes
Profound is the best-funded company here. It raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation in September 2026, co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins. Its tracking covers up to nine answer engines on Enterprise: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews and Exa. It also stopped being a pure dashboard. Profound now describes itself as a workbench where marketers use agents to research, write and report, and its AI Marketer refreshes stale content. In September 2026 it also dropped its self-serve brand plans, so a brand now gets a free trial and then an Enterprise quote.
Peec AI. Clean tracking for marketing teams
Peec tracks prompts, share of voice and the sources AI engines cite, with unlimited users on every plan. Each self-serve plan lets you choose three AI models, and more models cost extra. Peec's site lists Starter, Pro, Advanced and Enterprise but shows prices only after you sign in. Dated 2026 reviews put Starter at about $95 a month for 50 prompts and Pro at about $245 for 150. It suggests actions but does not write for you.
Otterly.AI. The cheapest way to find out where you stand
Otterly's Lite plan is $29 a month for 15 prompts, tracked daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google AI Mode and Gemini are $9 add-ons on Lite, and Claude is a $29 add-on. Standard is $189 for 100 prompts. It includes GEO audits and recommendations. It does not write pages.
Scrunch. Tracking plus a version of your site for AI agents
Scrunch tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews, and Meta. Starter is $300 a month ($250 billed yearly) with 350 custom prompts and five page audits that come with suggested fixes. Its distinctive piece is AXP, which serves an AI-friendly version of your site to AI agents. It does not write new pages.
AthenaHQ. Tracking with an agent that improves content
AthenaHQ has a free Essential plan covering five engines and a $295 Starter plan covering eleven, including Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral. Starter adds a content optimization agent, on-page and off-page actions, and robots.txt and llms.txt management. It is closer to a service than most tools here, but your team still drives it.
Ahrefs Brand Radar. AI mentions inside a suite you may own
Brand Radar tracks how brands show up in AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, with Claude available too, alongside YouTube and Reddit. Custom prompts start at $50 a month and are included with paid Ahrefs plans from Lite up. The AI Visibility Index, a large pre-collected prompt set, starts at $199 a month. It reports, it does not write.
Semrush AI visibility. Tracking next to your existing SEO data
Semrush, now owned by Adobe, builds AI tracking into its main plans (Starter is $199 a month with 50 daily prompts) and sells an AI Visibility Toolkit add-on that 2026 reviews put at about $99 a month per domain, on top of a Semrush plan. Semrush sells content writing tools separately. If your team lives in Semrush already, this is the path of least resistance.
Adobe LLM Optimizer. For companies on Adobe's stack
Adobe sells LLM Optimizer on an annual license priced by tracked prompts, with a 1,000-prompt minimum and no public price. It tracks AI answers and recommends changes, and it fits best where Adobe already runs the website and marketing. It is an enterprise purchase made through sales.
Gauge. Tracking plus 18 articles a month
Gauge is the clearest example of a tracker that writes. Its Growth plan, $599 a month, tracks ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Copilot and includes a content engine that writes 18 publish-ready articles a month from the gaps it finds. Gauge lists publishing to Webflow, Framer, Sanity and GitHub. Enterprise adds more engines and a custom article count.
Rankscale. Tracking on a small budget
Rankscale starts at about $20 a month (yearly billing) and runs to $780 for its Enterprise tier, covering ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI surfaces, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Mistral and more. It offers audits and suggestions, not writing.
Surfer AI Tracker. Tracking from a content editor
Surfer sells AI Search Analytics on its own at $82 a month billed yearly, covering ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Mode, AI Overviews and Gemini with 50 prompts. Its main product is still the content editor and AI writing assistant, with plans from $49 to $299 a month billed yearly, and 1-click internal linking on Pro. You write and publish, Surfer guides and scores. We cover it in more depth in our Surfer SEO comparison.
Writesonic. An AI writer with tracking built in
Writesonic now bundles GEO tracking with its AI article writer on every plan. Starter is $79 a month billed yearly and tracks ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, with 15 AI articles a month and site audits with AI fixes. Enterprise tracks nine engines. There is a free trial but no free plan. Our Writesonic comparison goes through it line by line.
RunOctopus (Ollie). A team that does the work on your site
RunOctopus is not a tracker with a writing feature. It is a done-for-you service. Ollie and our team read your site, your products or services and your market, then research, write, publish and link pages on your own site. It works on Shopify, WordPress, WooCommerce and Wix. Pages link into your real product, collection and service pages, and some include interactive tools such as calculators. It publishes on its own, so nothing waits on you, and you can read anything that went live and ask for changes. We also report on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business, so the measurement and the publishing sit in the same place. It is $497 a month on one plan. You can see the results we publish, misses included, in our case studies.
Our AI answer reporting is part of the service, not a prompt lab with API exports. If you want that too, keep a tracker alongside us (see below).
Who should pick a tool instead
Pick a tool if you have a marketer or writer who wants to run the program and do the writing in-house, or if all you want is a dashboard. For a cheap first read, Otterly.AI ($29 a month) or Rankscale (from about $20) will do. Teams already paying for Ahrefs or Semrush should start with the tracking they already have. Large companies with an in-house content team and enterprise budget are Profound's and Adobe's customers. If your site runs on Webflow or Framer and you want software that drafts articles for your team to review, Gauge or Writesonic fit. Everyone else, especially owners and small teams with no time to run any of this, is better served by having the work done, and that is what we do. For a broader view of service options, see what to expect from an AI SEO agency.
Can you use a tool and a service together?
Yes. Some of our clients keep a dedicated tracker because their marketing team likes its dashboard, and that is a sensible setup. The tracker tells the team what AI answers say. We build and publish the pages that give those answers something better to cite. The two do not overlap much. If you are weighing the bigger picture first, our page on how GEO differs from SEO explains why the same pages tend to help in both, and our guide to AI visibility tools covers what to look for in a tracker in more detail.
Most AI visibility tools now measure well, and several write. Profound, Gauge and Writesonic all create content. But every one of them is software your team still has to run. For a business that wants to be named in AI answers without running the program, RunOctopus is the better choice: a team and Ollie researching, writing, publishing and linking pages on your own site, with results published in our case studies.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI visibility tool?
An AI visibility tool runs a set of questions (prompts) through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, and other AI systems on a schedule, then reports whether your brand was named or linked, where it appeared, and how you compare with competitors. Profound, Peec AI, Otterly.AI, Scrunch, AthenaHQ, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush, Adobe LLM Optimizer, Gauge, Rankscale, Surfer and Writesonic all do this.
Which AI visibility tools also write content?
As of October 2026, Profound (through its agents and AI Marketer), Gauge (18 publish-ready articles a month on its Growth plan) and Writesonic (15 to 50 AI articles a month by plan) all write content. AthenaHQ has a content optimization agent, and Surfer pairs its tracker with a content editor and AI writing assistant. In each case your team runs the software and decides what goes live.
How much do AI visibility tools cost?
Entry prices run from about $20 a month (Rankscale) and $29 (Otterly.AI) to $295 (AthenaHQ Starter), $300 (Scrunch Starter) and $599 (Gauge Growth). Peec AI is reported at about $95 a month. Profound and Adobe LLM Optimizer are quote-only for brands. RunOctopus is $497 a month on one plan, and that covers the work as well as the reporting.
What happened to Profound's $99 and $399 plans?
Profound removed its self-serve plans for brands in September 2026. Its pricing page now shows a free trial and a custom Enterprise plan. The same month it raised a $180 million Series D at a $1.8 billion valuation.
Does RunOctopus track AI answers like these tools do?
We report on where ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini name your business, as part of the service. It is not a standalone prompt lab, so a dedicated tracker will go deeper on custom prompts, competitor dashboards and exports. What we add is the work itself: pages researched, written, published and linked on your site.
Should I buy a tool or a done-for-you service?
Buy a tool if you have a marketer or writer who will act on what it finds every week. Buy a service if nobody on your team has that time. A cheap tracker plus no one to act on it tends to produce accurate reports and no change.