AI engine optimization software tracks how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews mention and cite your brand, then shows which pages and sources drive those answers. Starting prices in this list run from $29 per month for Otterly.AI Lite to $295 per month for AthenaHQ Starter and Goodie Core, while Profound sells Enterprise by quote only. Prompt limits matter more than the headline price: entry plans cover 16 prompts on Otterly.AI, 25 on the Semrush toolkit, 50 on Peec AI and 125 on Scrunch Core.
We compared 8 options for top ai engine optimization software for seo. Each profile below lists the price, free plan, pros and cons as published by the company.
On this page
Top ai engine optimization software for seo: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Profound | Enterprise teams that need deep AI search data | quote only | Free trial (7 days) | Visit |
| 2 | Peec AI | SEO teams that want clear daily tracking | $95 per month | No | Visit |
| 3 | Scrunch | Teams that want audits and bot traffic data together | $250 per month | Free trial (7 days) | Visit |
| 4 | Otterly.AI | Solo marketers and small teams on a tight budget | $29 per month | Free trial | Visit |
| 5 | AthenaHQ | Teams that want the widest engine coverage | $295 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Goodie | Brands that want tracking plus content fixes in one tool | $295 per month | Free trial (7 days) | Visit |
| 7 | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Teams that already use Semrush for SEO | $99 per month | No | Visit |
| 8 | Ahrefs Brand Radar | Research across a very large prompt database | $199 per month | No | Visit |
The 8 best top ai engine optimization software for seos, in detail
Profound
Best for: Enterprise teams that need deep AI search data
Profound is the best known name in AI engine optimization. Brands get a free trial with 50 prompts run daily for 7 days across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, then move to a custom Enterprise plan. That plan covers up to 10 answer engines, including Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek and Google AI Mode, with tailored prompt plans, all-time history, CSV and JSON exports, an API, SSO and SOC 2 compliance.
- The product is built around an AI Marketer that works from credits, with agents that research, write and report, plus Prompt Volumes data on what user
- Agent Analytics reads CDN and log data to connect AI crawler visits with the answers that follow.
- The 7-day trial uses a fixed prompt set chosen by Profound and keeps no history, so treat it as an evaluation rather than a monitoring plan.
Pros
- Tracks up to 10 answer engines on Enterprise
- includes AI Marketer agents that research, write and report
Cons
- No self-serve price for ongoing use
- the free trial has no history, exports or API access
Peec AI
Best for: SEO teams that want clear daily tracking
Peec AI is a Berlin based AI search analytics platform that runs your prompts daily through the models you choose and reports visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice against competitors. Starter costs $95 per month for 50 prompts, 3 active models, 1 project and about 4,500 AI answers a month. Pro costs $245 per month for 150 prompts and 2 projects, while Advanced costs $495 per month for 350 prompts, 5 projects and multi-country tracking.
- Annual billing takes about 15 percent off each tier.
- The platform also covers AI shopping, with SKU level tracking, catalog uploads from Shopify or a CSV file, and source analytics.
- Gap analysis finds sources that name competitors but not you.
- The main limit is model choice: you pick 3 models from ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini and Naver AI, and each extra model costs $30
Pros
- Published prices with unlimited users on every plan
- daily tracking with gap analysis and recommended actions
Cons
- Only 3 active models at a time on self-serve plans
- API access starts on the $245 Pro plan
Scrunch
Best for: Teams that want audits and bot traffic data together
Scrunch, now part of Sitecore, is an AI search visibility platform covering monitoring, analysis and optimization. Core costs $250 per month and includes 125 unique prompts, 5,000 responses a month, 5 site audits a month, 1 brand workspace, 5 user licenses and 4 engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot. Enterprise is custom priced and adds 9 engines, the Agent Experience Platform, full audits, API access and SSO.
- What sets Scrunch apart is the bot side of the product.
- It shows a live feed of AI bots crawling your site, separates AI crawler visits from human visits, and runs page level audits that flag technical obst
- Query fan-out analysis shows how AI turns one question into related questions, but Core allows only 1 page optimization and 5 audits a month.
Pros
- Combines prompt monitoring, site audits and AI bot traffic analytics
- 350 custom prompts on the entry plan
Cons
- The Agent Experience Platform and API access are Enterprise only
- Core covers 1 brand workspace and 1 country
Otterly.AI
Best for: Solo marketers and small teams on a tight budget
Otterly.AI is the lowest cost way into AI engine optimization in this list. Lite costs $29 per month for 16 prompts and 2,000 credits a month, with 4 of 7 engines, daily tracking, 1 workspace and 3 recommendations a week. Standard costs $189 per month for 120 prompts and 15,000 credits, with unlimited workspaces, API and MCP access and a Data Studio connector.
- Premium costs $489 per month for 403 prompts and 50,000 credits, and Enterprise is custom from 1,000 prompts.
- Every plan covers ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude as add-ons.
- One credit is one prompt checked once on one engine, and a Claude answer counts as 3 credits.
- Extra credit packs can be added on Standard and Premium but not on Lite.
Pros
- Cheapest entry price in this list
- unlimited team members on every plan
Cons
- API and agent analytics are not on the Lite plan
- Gemini, AI Mode and Claude cost extra credits
AthenaHQ
Best for: Teams that want the widest engine coverage
AthenaHQ is the only tool in this list with a free plan. Essential is free with 300 credits a month across 5 models: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot. Starter costs $295 per month, or $245 per month billed annually, with 3,600 credits a month, visibility across 11 models including AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral, unlimited topics and prompts and a 1-month credit rollover.
- Enterprise is custom priced and adds the Athena Citation Engine, the advanced content agent, multi-region support and SSO.
- The platform turns monitoring into work through an Action Center with on-page and off-page actions, content recommendations, a content agent, knowledg
- The credit model is the catch: one credit equals one AI response, and some engines cost 5 credits per response, so a broad prompt set will use the 3,6
- API access and extra credits are extra-cost add-ons on Starter.
Pros
- Free Essential plan with 300 credits
- Starter covers 11 models with unlimited topics and prompts
Cons
- Credit costs vary by engine, so heavy use burns the allowance fast
- API access is an extra-cost add-on on Starter
Goodie
Best for: Brands that want tracking plus content fixes in one tool
Goodie describes itself as a full-stack answer engine optimization platform, and the difference from pure trackers is the action layer. Core costs $295 per month billed annually, or $354 billed monthly, for 110 prompts across 5 engines, 50 optimization actions a month, 1 brand, 2 countries and 2 languages. Pro costs $999 per month billed annually for 250 prompts across 8 engines and 100 actions, while Enterprise is custom and reaches up to 14 engines with 500 or more prompts, revenue attribution, SSO, SOC 2 and a dedicated strategist.
- The agents are the selling point: an AEO content writer, content optimization, blog generation, outreach, a technical agent that repairs llms.txt and
- Brand Command checks every claim AI makes about your brand against facts you set.
- The entry price is high for a small team, and the widest engine list, including Claude, sits on Enterprise.
Pros
- Every plan includes the full research, monitor, act and measure loop
- agents write and optimize content from monitoring gaps
Cons
- Support is email only below Enterprise
- Claude, Meta AI, DeepSeek and Grok are Enterprise only
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Best for: Teams that already use Semrush for SEO
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is the add-on route into AI engine optimization for teams that already run Semrush. The standalone toolkit costs $99 per month per domain and includes 25 tracked prompts, 1 project, 1 Brand Performance domain, 300 daily AI visibility reports and an AI-ready site audit of up to 100 pages. Semrush One bundles the same features, with Starter at $199 per month for 50 prompts and Pro+ at $299 for 100 prompts.
- Prompt Research works like keyword research for AI, with topic volume, difficulty and intent, and the site audit flags issues that stop AI crawlers re
- The limits are the story: 25 prompts is a small list, 50 more prompts cost $60 per month, each extra domain costs another $99 per month, and each extr
- Semrush says the toolkit has no free trial.
Pros
- Sits beside the SEO data many teams already use
- prompt research works like keyword research for AI
Cons
- Only 25 tracked prompts on the entry tier
- priced per domain, so multi-brand tracking multiplies the cost
Ahrefs Brand Radar
Best for: Research across a very large prompt database
Ahrefs Brand Radar takes a different approach from the daily trackers in this list. Instead of only running prompts you write, it lets you research any brand across more than 558 million organic prompts in the Ahrefs database, then track your own AI prompts on top. Brand Radar AI is available as a standalone tool from $199 per month per platform index, or $699 per month for all platforms including 2,500 custom prompt checks.
- Custom prompt packages start at $50 per month for 2,500 checks.
- Every Ahrefs plan also includes a small Brand Radar allowance: Lite includes 150 checks a month for 5 prompts, Standard includes 300 checks for 10 pro
- The data sits next to Site Explorer, Keywords Explorer and Site Audit.
- The drawback is cost: full coverage is $699 per month before the base plan, and the chatbot index refreshes about once a month, so it suits benchmark
Pros
- Research any brand across 558 million organic prompts in the Ahrefs database
- custom prompt packages start at $50 per month
Cons
- Index pricing is per platform, so full coverage costs $699 per month
- the chatbot index refreshes about once a month
How we chose
We opened each vendor pricing page on 12 November 2026 and took the starting price, prompt allowance, engine list and free option from that page. Where a page did not render its prices in text, we used the figures the vendor publishes on the same page as confirmed by independent checks in October and November 2026. We compared plan limits side by side and kept only tools with a live homepage and a published pricing page. We did not run the tools, so this list reflects what vendors publish, not measured performance. Prices change often, so confirm the live page before you buy.
Which tool fits your team size and budget
| Team size and budget | First pick | Monthly cost | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo marketer, under $50 a month | Otterly.AI Lite | $29 | 16 prompts and 4 engines cover one brand with daily tracking |
| Small team, $50 to $150 a month | Peec AI Starter or Semrush toolkit | $95 to $99 | 50 prompts on Peec AI, or 25 prompts beside existing SEO data on Semrush |
| Growing team, $150 to $300 a month | Scrunch Core or AthenaHQ Starter | $250 to $295 | Audits and bot traffic on Scrunch, or 11 engines and a free start on AthenaHQ |
| Mid-size brand, $300 to $1,000 a month | Goodie Core or Peec AI Advanced | $295 to $495 | Content agents on Goodie, or 350 prompts and Looker Studio on Peec AI |
| Enterprise, custom budget | Profound Enterprise | quote only | Up to 10 engines, API, SSO and dedicated support |
Frequently asked questions
What is AI engine optimization software?
AI engine optimization software tracks how your brand appears in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews. It runs prompts through those engines, records mentions, citations, sentiment and share of voice, then shows which pages and sources drive the answers so you can fix content and technical gaps.
How is AI engine optimization different from SEO?
SEO focuses on ranking in search results pages, while AI engine optimization focuses on being mentioned and cited inside AI-generated answers. Pages that rank well often get cited, but AI answers also draw on pages that never rank, so AEO tools track prompts, citations and sentiment rather than keyword positions alone.
How many prompts should I track?
Plan for 50 to 100 prompts per topic or market. Fewer than 20 prompts produces noisy numbers that swing from day to day, while 100 prompts tracked daily gives a stable trend you can report with confidence. Start with your top topics, then expand as you learn which prompts move.
Do I need a separate tool if I already use Semrush or Ahrefs?
Often not at first. The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 per month per domain with 25 prompts, and Ahrefs Brand Radar includes a small prompt allowance on every plan. Start there if your prompt list is small, and move to a dedicated tracker like Peec AI or Otterly.AI when you need more prompts, more engines or daily tracking.
Is there a free AI engine optimization tool?
AthenaHQ offers a free Essential plan with 300 credits a month across 5 models, the only free plan in this list. Most others offer a free trial instead: Profound, Scrunch and Goodie offer 7-day trials, and Otterly.AI offers a free trial for new users. Semrush also offers a free AI visibility checker with a few lookups a day.
Which tool is best for a small business?
Otterly.AI Lite at $29 per month is the cheapest entry point, with 16 prompts and 4 engines. Peec AI Starter at $95 per month is the better pick for 50 prompts and 3 engines of your choice. Pick Otterly.AI for a first test on one brand, and Peec AI when you need more prompts.
Sources
- https://tryprofound.com
- https://tryprofound.com/pricing
- https://peec.ai
- https://peec.ai/pricing
- https://scrunch.com
- https://scrunch.com/pricing
- https://otterly.ai
- https://otterly.ai/pricing
- https://athenahq.ai
- https://athenahq.ai/pricing
- https://higoodie.com
- https://higoodie.com/pricing
- https://www.semrush.com
- https://www.semrush.com/pricing/
- https://ahrefs.com
- https://ahrefs.com/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.