When a prospect asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews "what's
the best X for a business like mine," the assistant either names your brand
or it names a competitor. Traditional SEO tools can't see that answer, and
Google Search Console doesn't measure it. A category of "AEO" or "GEO"
monitoring tools now runs your buyers' likely prompts against the AI engines
on a schedule and reports back on mention rate, share of voice, sentiment,
and which URLs the engines cite.
We evaluated four AEO tools a working small-business marketing lead is
likely to pay for in 2026 (Otterly.AI, HubSpot AEO, Peec AI, and Profound),
using the pricing and product pages published between August 25 and
September 2, 2026. These prices move fast. Peec has changed its headline
figures at least twice this year, and Profound's Starter plan quietly
tracks only ChatGPT. So we've scored value on the real bill a small team
will pay for the engines and prompt volume they actually need, not the
headline number.
How we tested
All four tools were evaluated between August 25 and September 2, 2026, against each vendor's current published pricing and product documentation. We didn't run paid trials on all four; scores reflect a documentation and pricing comparison rather than measured hands-on runs. Criteria are weighted toward the two dimensions that decide this category for small teams: engine coverage (which AI answers you can actually see) and the true monthly cost of a working setup.
Engine Coverage
We read each vendor's current pricing and product pages and recorded which AI engines the entry paid plan tracks by default (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, Grok), which engines are available only as paid add-ons, and which sit behind a custom Enterprise contract.
Prompt Allowance & Refresh
From each vendor's pricing page we recorded the prompt cap on the cheapest paid plan, the cap on the next tier up, the tracking cadence (daily vs weekly), and the price per additional prompt where the vendor publishes one.
Action Layer
From each vendor's product documentation we recorded whether the tool only reports mention rate and share of voice or also produces prioritised actions (citation source analysis, content recommendations, competitor gap prompts), and whether that action layer is included in the entry plan or gated behind a higher tier.
Small-Business Fit
We recorded whether pricing is fully self-serve or requires a demo cycle, whether a free trial is offered, whether seat count is metered, and whether the entry plan is a working monitoring plan or a single-engine orientation tier.
True Monthly Cost
We priced the smallest realistic monitoring setup for a small B2B or local business, roughly 25 prompts tracked across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, refreshed daily, on each vendor's cheapest plan that supports it, using published monthly billing rates in USD or EUR as of September 2, 2026.
The four tools above solve the same core job: run a defined set of prompts against the major AI answer engines on a schedule, and tell you whether your brand shows up, where it ranks against competitors, and which URLs the engines cite. The differences are entirely about engine coverage, prompt allowance, and what a real monitoring setup costs at the end of the month.
Why Otterly.AI leads
Otterly wins on the dimension that decides this category for a small business: the real cost of a working plan. Lite is $29/month for 15 tracked prompts and 1,000 GEO Audits a month. Standard is $189/month for 100 prompts, Agent Analytics, API and MCP access, and 5,000 GEO URL Audits a month. Premium is $489/month for 400 prompts. All four base engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot) are included on every plan, and every plan includes unlimited team members, which is unusually generous in a category that normally meters seats.
The trade-off is engine breadth beyond those four. Engine coverage is where the $29 framing needs the most care, because the base price covers four engines and the rest are billed on top. All tiers include ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Paid add-ons: Google AI Mode and Gemini at $9 (Lite), $59 (Standard), or $149 (Premium) per month each; Claude at $29 (Lite), $109 (Standard), or $439 (Premium) per month. For a small business that only needs the four base engines, Otterly Lite is the cleanest starting point in the category. For a team that wants Gemini or Claude alongside them, price the add-ons before signing up. The headline number will be misleading.
If part of your AI-visibility strategy is producing content that AI engines will actually cite, our writeup of the AI SEO blog writers we recommend for small businesses covers the other half of the workflow.
When HubSpot AEO is the right call
HubSpot AEO is the tool we recommend when your buyers concentrate on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, or when you already run HubSpot and don’t want another vendor in the stack. The pricing is genuinely competitive. HubSpot currently lists standalone AEO at $50 per month, or $45 per month with annual billing, and states that it includes 25 prompts. That undercuts every other multi-engine tracker in this ranking on a like-for-like basis, and it includes a real action layer, not just a dashboard.
Two things to know before you buy. HubSpot AEO covers three engines only, so if your buyers use Google AI Overviews or Copilot in meaningful volume, it’s the wrong tool. And the AEO Grader is a free, one-time diagnostic that returns a snapshot of visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, including visibility score, sentiment, competitive positioning, and a sample of recommendations. Start there before you subscribe. It costs nothing, requires no account, and it’s the cleanest way to answer “do I have a real AI-visibility problem worth paying to track?”
When Peec AI is the step up
Peec AI is the pick when polished reporting and multi-brand coverage matter more than the last few dollars. The dashboard is fast, the sentiment and language coverage are strong, and unlimited seats on every self-serve plan make it a credible fit for a small in-house team or a boutique agency. The catch is the three-engine cap: on Starter, Pro, and Advanced you pick three engines from a pool of seven, and a fourth engine is a paid add-on that scales with the plan.
The other structural limit is where Claude sits. Only on Enterprise. Claude Sonnet 4, along with GPT-5 Search, isn’t in the seven-engine self-serve pool and runs through an API integration on the custom-priced Enterprise tier. No add-on unlocks it on Starter, Pro, or Advanced. If Claude is central to your category (for example, if your buyers are technical and rely on it heavily), Peec at the self-serve tier is the wrong plan. For a small B2B or DTC brand tracking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, Peec’s clean dashboard is worth the premium over Otterly.
Why we can’t recommend Profound for most small businesses
Profound isn’t a bad product. It’s the deepest platform in this category, and for a Fortune 500 marketing team with a dedicated AEO owner it’s very likely the right choice. But its pricing shape rules it out for most small businesses. Just don’t let the $99 Starter set your budget: it only tracks ChatGPT. Real multi-engine GEO starts at $399 a month on Growth, and full coverage of all 10 engines means a custom Enterprise quote. The Growth plan at $399/month tracks three engines, which is the same coverage Otterly gives you at Lite for $29. Claude, Gemini, and Copilot sit behind a custom Enterprise contract. For a first AI-visibility program, that’s more platform than a small team can operationalise, at a price that assumes a team profile most small businesses don’t have.
Whichever tool you land on, the value shows up when the visibility data changes what you publish and where you show up. Two adjacent workflows come up repeatedly in our testing. If AI engines are citing your competitors because your own site isn’t citable (thin service pages, missing schema, weak reviews) the fix is site-side; our writeup of the AI website builders we recommend for small businesses covers what a good AI-ready foundation looks like. If the citation sources leading against you’re review sites and local listings, the response is to run a systematic review-generation and response programme; the AI Google review response tools we recommend is the shortlist there. Measurement alone won’t move the mark. The verdict is only the start of the work.
Questions Readers Ask
Which AI search visibility tool do you recommend for a small business?
For most small businesses we recommend Otterly.AI on the strength of its $29 Lite plan. It's the cheapest real paid entry in the category and includes four live AI engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot) plus unlimited team members. If your buyers concentrate on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, or you already run HubSpot, HubSpot AEO at $50 a month is the cheapest ongoing option and includes a prioritised action layer. Peec AI is the step up when polished multi-brand reporting matters, and Profound is priced for enterprise marketing teams rather than small businesses.
Do I need one of these tools, or can I just check ChatGPT manually?
You can run a handful of branded prompts by hand and log the answers in a spreadsheet. It's a reasonable way to confirm the problem exists before you pay for a tool. The reason to move to a paid tool is repeatability. AI answers are non-deterministic, so a single observation isn't reliable, and useful measurement means running the same prompts across several engines on a daily or weekly schedule and benchmarking against competitors. That's what these tools automate.
Which engines should I actually track?
Track the engines your buyers use. ChatGPT is the largest by usage and is included on every plan we recommend. Perplexity matters because every Perplexity answer includes clickable citations, so it's the easiest engine to convert AI visibility into actual traffic. Google's AI Overviews trigger on a large share of informational searches, so it's the pick if your buyers still start on Google. Gemini and Copilot are worth adding only if your category is concentrated there. Otherwise, they're a paid extension most small teams don't need.
Why isn't Profound our top pick if it's the category leader?
Because the entry plan does one engine. Profound's Starter at $99 a month tracks ChatGPT only, and the plan that covers three engines (Growth) is $399 a month. Claude, Gemini, and Copilot sit behind a custom Enterprise contract. For a small business paying for AI-search visibility for the first time, that's a demo-led enterprise sales motion, not a self-serve tool. The depth is genuine, but it's a poor fit for most small teams.
Where does HubSpot's free AEO Grader fit in?
As a one-time diagnostic before you pay for anything. The AEO Grader is a free, no-account brand check that scores your visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and returns a written report. It's the cleanest way to answer "is AI-search visibility a real problem for my brand" before deciding whether to subscribe to Otterly.AI, HubSpot's own paid AEO product, or one of the others. It's not a substitute for ongoing monitoring.
