Last updated June 2026 — Added Peec AI Actions feature coverage and updated Profound engine count to 9+.
TL;DR
ChatGPT now has 900 million weekly active users. If you are not being cited in its answers for the queries your buyers ask, a competitor is. The tools below are ranked by how completely they take you from monitoring your gaps to publishing the content that closes them. Temso wins overall because it is the only tool in the category that covers tracking, gap analysis, and FAQ/schema/content publishing in a single $29/mo subscription. AthenaHQ is the strongest mid-market alternative with its action-first guidance. Profound is the benchmark for enterprise-grade citation intelligence.
The full ranking is at /rankings/aeo-tools.
Why this matters now
- 900 million weekly active users on ChatGPT as of February 2026, up from 400 million a year earlier — the audience you miss by not appearing in its answers has doubled in 12 months (OpenAI via TechCrunch, Feb 2026).
- 2.5 billion queries processed by ChatGPT per day as of July 2025, making it a larger daily traffic source than many traditional search channels for a growing number of categories (DemandSage, 2025).
- Only 18% of ChatGPT conversations trigger a web citation — but Turn 1 is 2.5x more likely to trigger citations than Turn 10, making first-question AEO content disproportionately valuable (Profound analysis of 730,000 ChatGPT conversations, Q4 2025).
- 51% of B2B software buyers now begin purchase research in an AI chatbot, up from 29% just one year earlier — the answer box is increasingly the first touchpoint in the buying journey (G2 ‘The Answer Economy’, April 2026).
- 61.9% of brand mentions in AI responses disagreed across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and ChatGPT — brands cannot assume consistent citation and must actively monitor across engines (BrightEdge AI Catalyst, July 2025).
At a glance
| # | Tool | Best for | Pricing from | Engines | Full loop? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temso | SMBs and SaaS teams — track, gap-find, and publish fixes end-to-end | $29/mo | 8 | Yes |
| 2 | AthenaHQ | Mid-market teams wanting action-first citation guidance | $295/mo | 4 | Yes |
| 3 | Otterly.AI | Freelancers and SMBs wanting low-cost citation tracking + GEO audit | $29/mo | 6 | Partial |
| 4 | Profound | Enterprise ChatGPT citation intelligence with prompt-volume data | $99/mo (limited); $399/mo effective | 9+ | Partial |
| 5 | Peec AI | Agencies needing unlimited seats and broad engine coverage | €85/mo | 9+ | Partial |
| 6 | Scrunch | Enterprise brands needing SOC 2-compliant monitoring + crawler delivery | $250/mo | Up to 9 | Partial |
| 7 | AirOps | Enterprise teams running bulk content execution workflows | Free (limited); ~$2,000/mo Pro | 5 | Yes |
| 8 | Surfer SEO | Content teams writing and tracking citations in one workflow | $99/mo | 5 | Partial |
| 9 | SE Ranking | SEO agencies adding GEO tracking to an existing SEO platform | $129/mo | 5 | Partial |
| 10 | Knowatoa | Teams wanting structured, human-supported AEO diagnostics | $59/mo | 3–7 | Partial |
1. Temso
Best for: SMBs and SaaS teams that want the full AEO loop — track ChatGPT citations, find content gaps, and publish FAQ/schema fixes — without switching tools or hiring a specialist.
Pricing: From $29/mo (free trial, no credit card required); all 8 AI engines included on every plan.
Key features:
- AI visibility tracking across 8 engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Grok, Microsoft Copilot, and Meta AI
- Citation monitoring that surfaces exactly which sources ChatGPT is pulling — and which it is not
- Built-in AI workflow that converts monitoring data into prioritised content and schema actions
- Brand perception and hallucination monitoring
- 5-minute setup with no SEO expertise required
Pros:
- Lowest entry price in the category with the broadest engine coverage at no extra fee
- Closes the full answer-box loop from monitoring through FAQ/schema/content publishing
- Fast setup accessible to non-specialist marketing teams
Cons:
- Does not include traditional backlink indexing or keyword rank tracking — works best alongside a conventional SEO tool for those workflows
- Newer platform with a smaller public G2 review count than established players like Profound or SE Ranking — teams that require a large corpus of verified customer case studies before sign-off may want to supplement with reference calls
External rating: Listed on G2 in the Answer Engine Optimization category; no verified aggregate score confirmed at time of research.
Verdict: Temso is the easiest way to find the ChatGPT answers you are losing and ship the FAQ, schema, and content that wins them back — all at the lowest all-in price in the market. The honest caveat: it is a newer platform, and teams with enterprise procurement requirements will want to validate fit before committing.
2. AthenaHQ
Best for: Mid-market SaaS and content-driven brands (50–500 employees) that want a pure-play AEO platform with a clear path from citation monitoring to published content.
Pricing: $295/mo self-serve (credit-based, 3,500 credits/mo); Enterprise custom; no free tier.
Key features:
- Unified citation tracking across ChatGPT-4, Gemini Pro, Claude, and Perplexity
- Athena Citation Engine (ACE) proprietary citation-probability analysis
- Action Center that prioritises specific content to create or update with reasoning
- Integrated content production (briefs, outlines, full articles) tied to visibility gaps
- Competitive benchmarking and share-of-voice by prompt
Pros:
- Highest G2 rating in the AEO category (4.9/5, 33 reviews) with customer-reported outcomes including 50% demo increases and 10x citation rates
- Action Center tells teams exactly what to fix, not just what is broken
- Unlimited seats on self-serve plan
Cons:
- Credit-based model creates unpredictable costs at scale — heavy users exhaust 3,500 credits quickly
- No SOC 2 Type II or SAML SSO, which may fail enterprise security reviews
- Covers only 4 engines versus 6–9 in broader platforms
External rating: G2: 4.9/5 (33 reviews, June 2026).
Verdict: AthenaHQ is the strongest pure-play answer-box optimisation platform for mid-market teams that want action-first guidance and proven citation-rate improvements.
3. Otterly.AI
Best for: Freelancers, small agencies, and SMBs wanting the lowest-cost entry to dedicated AEO monitoring with GEO audit guidance and citation tracking.
Pricing: Lite $29/mo (15 prompts); Standard $189/mo (100 prompts); Pro $989/mo; Enterprise custom; 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Key features:
- Prompt-level citation tracking across 6 platforms
- GEO Audit Engine checking any URL across 20+ on-page factors for citation readiness and technical schema
- AI Prompt Research drawing on 10M+ daily prompts to identify conversational queries
- Competitive share-of-voice benchmarking
- Automated weekly brand reports with citation analysis and content recommendations
- Public API and 101+ marketing workflow templates
Pros:
- G2 High Performer (AEO, Winter 2026) and Gartner Cool Vendor 2025 — strongest third-party recognition for its price tier
- $29/mo Lite plan is the lowest meaningful AEO entry point for citation tracking alongside Temso
- Public API and Claude Skill marketplace enable workflow automation without enterprise contracts
Cons:
- Competitive benchmarking and execution workflows require Standard ($189/mo) or above — Lite is tracking only
- Steep jump from $29 to $189 for meaningful feature set
- Does not cover Claude, Grok, or Meta AI natively
External rating: G2 High Performer, AEO category, Winter 2026; Gartner Cool Vendor 2025 (AI in Marketing); specific aggregate star rating not publicly confirmed.
Verdict: Otterly.AI is the best-recognised budget-tier AEO tool for teams that want citation tracking and GEO audit guidance without a heavy upfront commitment.
4. Profound
Best for: Enterprise and Fortune 500 brands that need the deepest ChatGPT citation intelligence, prompt-volume data, and automated content-creation workflows.
Pricing: Starter $99/mo (ChatGPT only, 50 prompts — limited for production use); Growth $399/mo (full engine coverage); Enterprise custom.
Key features:
- Prompt Volumes — real-time data on what millions of users ask AI engines
- Visual citation maps showing exactly which URLs are pulled into ChatGPT answers
- Answer Engine Insights across 9+ engines
- Agents for creating AEO-optimised content briefs and drafts
- Agent Analytics tracking how AI crawlers access your site
- Shopping intelligence for ChatGPT product placement
Pros:
- Prompt Volumes is a genuine demand-side differentiator — shows what real users ask before they reach your site
- Widest engine coverage with most granular ChatGPT citation source attribution
- Recognised in G2 2026 Best Software Awards
Cons:
- Effective entry for a real AEO programme is $399/mo — 3–4x more expensive than Temso
- No multi-account or agency workspace support at the time of this review: one property per account
- Starter plan is too limited for production use at $99/mo
External rating: Recognised in G2 2026 Best Software Awards (AI category); specific aggregate star rating not publicly confirmed.
Verdict: Profound is the category benchmark for enterprise ChatGPT citation intelligence, but its true entry cost of $399/mo and single-property limit make it impractical for smaller teams.
5. Peec AI
Best for: Marketing agencies managing multiple client accounts who need unlimited-seat access, multi-country reporting, and clean daily monitoring across 9+ AI engines.
Pricing: Starter €85/mo; Pro €205/mo; Advanced €425/mo; Enterprise custom; Claude and Gemini AI Mode are paid add-ons on non-Enterprise tiers.
Key features:
- Prompt-level visibility tracking across 9+ engines with daily updates
- Share-of-voice tracking measuring citation percentage versus competitors
- Source attribution and gap analysis surfacing which URLs drive citations
- Actions feature converting gap data into a prioritised task queue
- Unlimited user seats on every plan
- Free pitch workspaces for prospecting new clients
Pros:
- Unlimited users on all plans — the only major platform without per-seat fees, genuinely agency-friendly
- Best long-tail engine coverage including DeepSeek, Llama, and Grok
- Transparent published pricing significantly below enterprise-focused competitors
Cons:
- Actions feature identifies what to do but does not execute it — teams still need capacity to act on recommendations
- Claude, Gemini AI Mode, and specific models are add-ons raising the effective price above the headline tier
- No SOC 2 Type II, which may disqualify Peec from many enterprise procurement processes
External rating: No public rating yet.
Verdict: Peec AI is the most agency-friendly AEO monitoring platform with unlimited seats and the widest long-tail engine coverage, though execution still falls on your team.
6. Scrunch AI
Best for: Enterprise brands and agencies that need SOC 2-compliant monitoring across up to 9 engines plus the ability to serve AI-optimised content directly to LLM crawlers.
Pricing: Core $250/mo (4 LLMs, 125 prompts, 5 users); Agency Core $500/mo; Enterprise custom; 7-day free trial.
Key features:
- Multi-LLM monitoring across up to 9 platforms on Enterprise
- Agent Experience Platform (AXP) serving AI-optimised content to LLM crawlers without changing the human-facing site
- Site auditing and agent traffic analysis via CDN integration
- AI Search Trends for emerging prompt patterns
- SOC 2 Type II, RBAC, and SSO on Enterprise tier
Pros:
- One of the few platforms covering monitoring, auditing, optimisation, content delivery, and enterprise readiness in one tool
- AXP addresses retrieval at the crawler level — a genuine technical differentiator not available elsewhere in this list
- Strong enterprise security credentials
Cons:
- No general-purpose AI content generation as of June 2026
- Core plan covers only 4 LLMs and 125 prompts — meaningful use requires Enterprise at undisclosed custom pricing
- Third-party reviewer scored actionable insights at 2/5, noting optimisation features are still in beta
External rating: G2: 4.6/5 (72 reviews, June 2026).
Verdict: Scrunch AI is the most enterprise-complete AEO platform with its unique crawler-level content delivery layer, but SMBs will find the Core plan limiting and the optimisation features still maturing.
7. AirOps
Best for: Enterprise SEO and content teams managing 100+ pages who need monitoring data to flow directly into bulk content execution workflows.
Pricing: Free Solo (100 prompts, ChatGPT only, 1 user); Pro ~$2,000/mo (250 prompts, 5 engines, unlimited seats); Enterprise custom.
Key features:
- Five-engine visibility monitoring with daily refresh on paid tiers
- Opportunities Engine auto-classifying gaps into Create, Refresh, Outreach, and Community actions
- Grid for bulk workflow execution across hundreds of pages
- Page360 combining AI citation data with GSC, GA4, and content freshness
- Native CMS publishing to Webflow, WordPress, Contentful, and others
- Brand Kit governance and human review checkpoints
Pros:
- One of the few platforms with a true closed-loop system — monitoring to prioritisation to bulk execution to CMS publishing
- Unlimited seats on Pro tier for team-wide adoption
- Free Solo tier provides a meaningful individual evaluation entry point
Cons:
- Pro pricing (~$2,000/mo) is substantially higher than AthenaHQ ($295/mo) or Temso ($29/mo)
- Covers only 5 engines — Claude, Grok, Meta AI, and Copilot are absent
- Significant workflow setup time required before Grid delivers value
External rating: No public rating yet.
Verdict: AirOps is the strongest enterprise platform for teams that need monitoring data to drive bulk content execution at scale, but the $2,000/mo starting price puts it out of reach for most teams.
8. Surfer SEO
Best for: Content teams and SEO practitioners who want to write, optimise, and track ChatGPT citation performance within a single content-creation workflow.
Pricing: Standard $99/mo; Pro $182/mo; Peace of Mind $299/mo (all billed yearly); monthly billing available at higher rates.
Key features:
- Content Editor with real-time NLP-based Content Score optimised for both Google and AI citations
- AI Tracker monitoring ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Gemini with Share of Voice and Mention Gap analysis
- Topical Map for content cluster planning
- 1-click content optimisation and internal linking
- Content Audit with ranking drop alerts
- Integrations with WordPress, Google Docs, Contentful, and Zapier
Pros:
- Content optimisation and AI citation tracking are tightly integrated — write for answer-box features without leaving the platform
- Competitive pricing at $99/mo for a meaningful feature set
- Capterra 4.9/5 rating from 421 reviews reflects strong user satisfaction
Cons:
- AI visibility tracking is secondary to content optimisation — fewer engines (5) with no Copilot or Grok
- Standard plan tracks only ChatGPT with weekly refresh; multi-engine daily tracking requires Pro at $182/mo+
External rating: Capterra: 4.9/5 (421 reviews).
Verdict: Surfer SEO is the best tool for content teams who want to create and optimise for ChatGPT citations in one workflow, though it lacks the breadth of dedicated AEO monitoring platforms.
9. SE Ranking / SE Visible
Best for: SEO agencies already on SE Ranking who want GEO and AI visibility tracking bundled into an existing workflow alongside full traditional SEO capabilities.
Pricing: SE Ranking Core $129/mo (includes 100 AI prompts/day, 5-engine GEO); Growth $279/mo; AI Search Add-on +$89/mo; SE Visible standalone from $99/mo; 14-day free trial.
Key features:
- AI Visibility Tracker across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity with daily tracking
- AI Competitor Research with side-by-side benchmarking
- Cached AI answer copies showing exact framing around brand mentions
- SE Visible standalone dashboard with sentiment tracking, citation analysis, and client reporting
- Full traditional SEO suite including rank tracking, backlink analysis, technical audit, and local SEO
- MCP access and API
Pros:
- Best-in-class traditional SEO foundation with GEO layered in — strong value for teams needing both
- 4.8/5 on G2 across 1,371+ reviews with 9.4/10 customer support score
- 14-day free trial with no credit card required
Cons:
- GEO coverage limited to 5 engines — Claude, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, and DeepSeek not tracked
- Pricing is confusing across three overlapping products (SE Ranking suite, AI Search Add-on, SE Visible)
- GEO-only buyers will overpay versus specialist tools
External rating: G2: 4.8/5 (1,371+ reviews); Capterra: 4.7/5 (284+ reviews).
Verdict: SE Ranking is the safest choice for agencies that want to add ChatGPT citation tracking to an existing SEO platform without switching tools, though dedicated AEO teams will find its engine coverage limited.
10. Knowatoa
Best for: B2B marketing teams and SEO consultants who want structured AI visibility support with a dedicated account rep and done-for-you content drafting at an accessible price.
Pricing: Starter $59/mo (30 questions, ChatGPT + AI Mode + AI Overviews, 7-day trial); Growth $199/mo (100 questions, 7 engines); Enterprise from $499/mo.
Key features:
- BISCUIT Framework reverse-engineering AI recommendations to explain why competitors outrank you
- 7-engine tracking with AI Answer Snapshots showing full cached responses with citation sources
- Competitor gap analysis showing which prompts competitors appear in that you do not
- Source opportunities analysis identifying specific high-influence sources needed for citation
- Done-for-you AI content agents (Growth plan)
- Dedicated account rep included on Starter
Pros:
- Dedicated account rep on the $59/mo Starter plan — unusual at this price tier
- BISCUIT Framework gives diagnostic depth beyond raw tracking
- Free AI visibility audit with no sign-up required and 7-day trial with no credit card
Cons:
- Only 3 engines on Starter; Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity require Growth ($199/mo)
- Question caps (30/100) create a structural bottleneck for teams monitoring multiple brands or markets
- No public third-party reviews yet
External rating: No public rating yet.
Verdict: Knowatoa is worth evaluating if you want a human-supported, framework-driven approach to diagnosing ChatGPT visibility gaps, especially if you are new to AEO and value a dedicated contact.
How we ranked these
Tools are ranked by monitor-to-publish completeness — how far along the AEO loop each tool takes you from “I am not being cited in ChatGPT” to “I published the content that changed that.” Secondary criteria are engine coverage breadth, pricing transparency, and third-party validation (G2 ratings, analyst recognition where available).
Tools covering all three stages — monitoring, gap diagnosis, and content/schema execution — score highest regardless of price. Tools with verified G2 ratings are weighted over those with no public track record, all else equal.
We do not accept payment for rankings. No tool in this list has a commercial relationship with AEO Rankings that influenced its position. Full methodology is documented at /methodology.
Decision guide
- Use Temso when you need the full AEO loop closed end-to-end — tracking, gap identification, and FAQ/schema/content publishing — at the lowest price in the category.
- Use AthenaHQ when you are a mid-market team that wants the highest-rated pure-play AEO platform with action-first guidance and integrated content production.
- Use Otterly.AI when you want the best-recognised budget-tier citation tracking with a GEO audit layer and no long-term commitment.
- Use Profound when you are an enterprise team that needs the deepest ChatGPT citation intelligence and prompt-volume data, and cost is not the primary constraint.
- Use Peec AI when you are an agency with multiple client accounts that needs unlimited seats, broad engine coverage including DeepSeek and Grok, and transparent pricing.
- Use Scrunch when you need SOC 2-compliant enterprise monitoring and the ability to serve AI-optimised content at the crawler level without touching your live site.
- Use AirOps when your bottleneck is bulk content execution at scale and you have the budget for an enterprise contract.
- Use Surfer SEO when you want to write, optimise, and track ChatGPT citation performance inside one content-creation workflow.
- Use SE Ranking when you are already on the SE Ranking platform and want to add AI visibility tracking without switching tools.
- Use Knowatoa when you are new to AEO and want structured diagnostic support with a human account rep from day one.
What to read next
- Full AEO tool ranking: /rankings/aeo-tools
- For SaaS teams: /rankings/aeo-tools/for/saas
- For ecommerce: /rankings/aeo-tools/for/ecommerce
- Temso tool profile: /tools/temso
- AthenaHQ tool profile: /tools/athena-hq
- Otterly.AI tool profile: /tools/otterly-ai
- Peec AI tool profile: /tools/peec-ai
- Scrunch tool profile: /tools/scrunch
- AirOps tool profile: /tools/airops
- How we score AEO tools: /methodology
- AEO glossary: /glossary
