Best AEO Tools in 2026: 14 Answer Engine Optimization Tools, Paid and Free

Best AEO Tools in 2026: 14 Answer Engine Optimization Tools, Paid and Free

Disclosure: Prominara wrote this guide and is one of the tools listed. We list our own tool first and say where a competitor is the better fit. Competitor facts come from each vendor's official pages; see each comparison for sources and dates. We did not test or score the tools.

Answer engine optimization (AEO) tools help you get your brand named, and your pages cited, in the answers AI engines write. This guide covers 10 paid platforms that track those answers and 4 free tools that cover parts of the work. If you are still deciding what AEO means next to GEO and SEO, start with AEO vs GEO.

What AEO Tools Do

AEO work has four parts, and no single tool covers all of them equally well:

1. See whether AI answers name you. Ask the questions your buyers ask on each engine and record whether your brand appears. Paid platforms do this on a schedule; a free check gives one reading.
2. See which sources the answers cite. The pages an engine cites instead of yours show you what to publish and where to get mentioned.
3. Fix what you control. Make pages readable by AI crawlers, put a direct answer near the top of each section, and correct structured data.
4. Check whether a fix worked. The same question asked twice can get a different answer, so a before-and-after on single readings can move when nothing you did caused it.

AEO Tools at a Glance

Engine counts are as each vendor lists them; several depend on the plan, which each comparison page details.

How to Choose an AEO Tool

• Whose questions are measured. Some platforms ask the prompts you choose; others report mostly from their own prompt database. If you sell to a niche, check that the numbers come from your questions.
• Engines at the plan you would buy. Gemini, Google AI Mode, Claude and Microsoft Copilot are often add-ons or reserved for higher tiers.
• Mentions and citations kept apart. An answer can name your brand while citing a competitor's page, or cite your page without naming you. Those need different fixes.
• Google results that showed no AI Overview. A tool that counts those as misses lowers your rate when nothing about your page changed.
• How it tells a real change from run-to-run variation. Ask whether it re-asks the same prompts, compares them with prompts you did not change, and publishes the method.

AEO Platforms

1. Prominara

Prominara helps marketing teams and agencies win visibility in AI answers. It tracks the prompts your buyers actually ask across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI surfaces, shows which sources get cited (and where competitors appear instead of you), audits your pages for AI-readiness, and measures whether the changes you ship actually move citation rates.

• Best for: Teams and agencies that want a self-serve tool at a published price and need to show which content changes moved AI visibility.
• AI surfaces: 2 on Starter, 5 on Pro, 5 on Agency; the full set is ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode
• Tracking cadence: biweekly on Starter, weekly on Pro, weekly on Agency
• Pricing: Starter $29/month (1 site, 15 tracked prompts), Pro $149/month (3 sites, 50 tracked prompts), Agency $299/month (6 sites, 120 tracked prompts). 14-day free trial.

Pick Prominara if you want every number to come from the prompts your buyers ask and need to show a client or a finance team which changes moved AI visibility: when you log a change, its prompts are re-asked in several fixed phrasings and compared with prompts you did not touch, and the methodology is published. Pick a platform below instead if you need daily readings, Claude or Microsoft Copilot tracking, or hundreds of prompts per site.

2. Profound

AI marketing platform built around an "AI Marketer" agent that researches, writes, and reports, plus Answer Engine Insights for tracking how brands appear across up to 9 answer engines. Brands buy Enterprise on custom terms; agencies can buy a self-serve Agency Growth plan.

• Best for: Enterprise marketing teams that need daily tracking across many engines, SSO, and an AI agent suite under an annual contract
• AI surfaces: Up to 9 (Enterprise); 3 on trial
• Tracking cadence: Daily
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Brands: free 7-day trial, then Enterprise at custom pricing (not public). Agencies: self-serve Agency Growth with 400 credits per month per client workspace (prices not shown on the pricing page); Agency Enterprise custom.

Pick Profound over Prominara if you need daily tracking, coverage of Claude, Copilot, or DeepSeek, SSO/SAML and SOC 2 under an enterprise contract, or server-log agent analytics across your CDN.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Profound.

3. Conductor

Enterprise Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and SEO platform. Conductor Intelligence tracks AI visibility across 9 AI engines alongside search performance, Conductor Creator writes content, Conductor Monitoring watches the site 24/7, and AgentStack adds APIs, an MCP server, LLM apps, and agents.

• Best for: Enterprises that want AI visibility, traditional SEO, content, and site monitoring from one vendor, with daily tracking and broad engine coverage
• AI surfaces: 9
• Tracking cadence: Daily, weekly, or monthly (credit-based)
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Essentials, Growth, and Enterprise plans with usage-based pricing. Prices are not published. Free trial on Essentials; demo for Growth and Enterprise.

Pick Conductor over Prominara if you already run SEO on Conductor, you need Claude, Copilot, or Grok tracked, you need daily tracking or more than 6 sites, or you need a traditional SEO suite and AI visibility under one enterprise contract.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Conductor.

4. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit

Semrush's AI search toolkit, formerly the AI SEO Toolkit: an AI Visibility Score, brand performance reports with sentiment and share of voice, prompt research from a database of over 317 million prompts, daily tracking for the prompts you add, and AI crawler checks in Site Audit. Sold per domain or as part of Semrush One; Semrush Enterprise AIO is the larger enterprise product.

• Best for: Teams already working in Semrush that want AI visibility reports and prompt research next to their SEO data
• AI surfaces: 5 listed (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, AI Mode); coverage differs by report
• Tracking cadence: Daily (Prompt Tracking), weekly (Brand Performance)
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-23): Base $99/mo per domain, same price billed annually: 1 project, 25 tracked prompts. +50 prompts $60/mo; extra domain $99/mo; extra user $99/mo. Semrush One (SEO + AI toolkits) from $199/mo ($165.17/mo billed annually) with 50 prompts. No free trial for the toolkit; Semrush One has a 7-day trial.

Pick Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit over Prominara if you already pay for Semrush, you want prompt research with estimated AI search volume, or you want SEO and AI visibility data in one account.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.

5. Scrunch AI

AI visibility and "AI customer experience" platform, acquired by Sitecore in June 2026 and still sold standalone. Combines prompt monitoring, citations, sentiment, and site audits with AI bot traffic analytics and AXP (Agent Experience Platform), which serves AI agents a lightweight, machine-readable version of your site.

• Best for: Enterprises that need Claude, Copilot, and Meta AI coverage, AI agent traffic analytics, or an AI-agent version of their site
• AI surfaces: 4 (Core), 9 (Enterprise)
• Tracking cadence: Not published
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Core $250/month (125 prompts, 5,000 responses/month, 4 engines, 1 brand, 5 users). Enterprise: custom. Separate agency plans. 7-day free trial on Core.

Pick Scrunch AI over Prominara if you need Claude, Meta AI, or Grok tracking, AI bot traffic analytics, an AI-agent version of your site (AXP), or you already run Sitecore and want AI visibility inside that stack.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Scrunch AI.

6. Peec AI

AI search analytics platform for marketing teams and agencies. Tracks visibility, position, sentiment, and share of voice daily across a chosen set of AI models, with source and gap analysis, brand fact-checking, recommended actions, agent analytics, and an AI shopping module.

• Best for: Marketing teams that want daily analytics on a high prompt count, multi-country tracking, or AI shopping data
• AI surfaces: 3 of your choice (Pro, $245)
• Tracking cadence: Daily
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Starter $95/mo (50 prompts, 3 models), Pro $245/mo (150 prompts, 3 models), Advanced $495/mo (350 prompts, 3 models), Enterprise custom. 15% off annual. Agency plans from $245/mo. Free trial (length not stated on the pricing page). Prices in USD as shown on peec.ai/pricing.

Pick Peec AI over Prominara if you need daily readings, more than 50 prompts per site at the mid tier, Copilot or Naver coverage, several countries in one project, or SKU-level AI shopping data.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Peec AI.

7. AthenaHQ

Generative engine optimization platform. Tracks up to 11 AI models on a credit model (1 credit = 1 AI response), with a content optimization agent, on-page and off-page action recommendations, GA4 and Search Console attribution, and Shopify and Webflow integrations.

• Best for: Brands that need coverage of Claude, Copilot, Grok, and other models, or enterprise SSO and BI exports
• AI surfaces: 5 (Essential), 11 (Starter)
• Tracking cadence: Not published
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Essential: free with 300 credits ($25 free credit). Starter: $295/month, 3,600 credits/month, 17% off annual. Enterprise: custom. API access and extra credits are paid add-ons.

Pick AthenaHQ over Prominara if you need Claude, Copilot, Grok, or Meta AI tracking, Shopify or Webflow integration, or SAML SSO.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs AthenaHQ.

8. Ahrefs Brand Radar

AI visibility module inside the Ahrefs SEO suite. It offers an AI Visibility Index of 492M+ prompts built from Ahrefs keyword data, plus custom prompt tracking, with mentions, citations, share of voice, cited pages, and YouTube and Reddit visibility.

• Best for: Ahrefs customers who want market-wide AI visibility benchmarks next to their SEO data, especially established brands with meaningful search demand
• AI surfaces: 6 in index, 7 with Claude in custom prompts
• Tracking cadence: Daily, weekly, or monthly
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Requires an Ahrefs plan: Lite $129/mo, Standard $249/mo, Advanced $449/mo, Enterprise $1,499/mo. AI Visibility Index $199/mo per platform or $699/mo for all. Custom prompt packs $50, $100, or $250/mo (2,500, 7,000, or 25,000 checks).

Pick Ahrefs Brand Radar over Prominara if you already pay for Ahrefs, you need market-wide benchmarks across hundreds of millions of prompts, or you need Claude, Copilot, or daily readings for your custom prompts.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Ahrefs Brand Radar.

9. SE Ranking

All-in-one SEO platform (rank tracking, keyword and backlink research, site audit, local SEO, content tools) that includes daily AI prompt tracking across 5 AI engines on its paid plans, with an optional AI Search add-on and the SE Visible dashboard for brand mentions, citations, and sentiment.

• Best for: Teams that want traditional SEO and daily AI prompt tracking in one tool
• AI surfaces: 5 (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode) + ChatGPT and AI Mode ads trackers
• Tracking cadence: Daily
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Core $129/mo ($103.20/mo billed annually), Growth $279/mo ($223.20/mo annually), Enterprise custom. AI Search add-on from +$89/mo (+$71.20/mo annually) for 200 prompts. Agency Pack +$69/mo, annual only. 14-day free trial.

Pick SE Ranking over Prominara if you need keyword rank tracking, backlink research, or local SEO in the same tool, or you need AI prompts checked daily rather than weekly.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs SE Ranking.

10. Otterly.AI

Self-funded AI search monitoring tool that tracks brand mentions, citations, and sentiment daily across up to 7 AI engines, with GEO URL audits, weekly recommendations, ChatGPT ads tracking, and agent analytics.

• Best for: Teams that want daily monitoring with many prompts, and Copilot or Claude coverage
• AI surfaces: 4 (ChatGPT, AIO, Perplexity, Copilot)
• Tracking cadence: Daily
• Pricing (checked 2026-10-20): Lite $29/mo (15 prompts), Standard $189/mo (100 prompts), Premium $489/mo (400 prompts), Enterprise custom. 15% off annual. Add-ons on Standard: AI Mode $59, Gemini $59, Claude $109 per month. 7-day free trial.

Pick Otterly.AI over Prominara if you need daily readings, Copilot or Claude coverage, or more than 50 prompts per site at the mid tier, and you do not need to measure the effect of individual content changes.

Sources and the full feature table: Prominara vs Otterly.AI.

Free AEO Tools

None of these tracks your buyer questions across engines over time, but each covers one part of the work at no cost. Prominara also offers a free AI visibility checker, which scores whether a page is ready to be cited, and an llms.txt generator.

11. Google Search Console

Search Console's Generative AI performance report, available to every site since August 31, 2026, shows how often your pages were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date. It does not show which queries triggered them and does not separate AI Overviews from AI Mode, and AI Overview clicks stay inside the Web search type of the regular Performance report. Search Console settings also hold the Search generative AI control, which can exclude a site from those features.

Use it for: seeing which of your pages Google's AI features already show.

Source: Google: Generative AI performance report.

12. Bing Webmaster Tools (AI Performance)

The AI Performance report, in public preview since February 2026, shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI-generated summaries, which pages, and the grounding queries the AI used to retrieve them. Bing says grounding queries are grouped phrases, not users' full prompts. Since June 2026 it also shows intents, topics and your citation share for a grounding query. Bing says the data is sampled and that citations do not represent clicks.

Use it for: Microsoft Copilot, which Prominara, SE Ranking and Semrush's toolkit do not track.

Source: Bing: AI Performance help.

13. HubSpot AI Search Grader

A free check, after a short form, of what ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini say about your brand based on their training data, scored on sentiment, presence, brand recognition, share of voice and competition. HubSpot describes it as a brand-perception check: it does not measure whether your pages are cited when an engine searches the web.

Use it for: a first look at how AI models describe your brand.

Source: HubSpot AI Search Grader.

14. Google Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator

The Rich Results Test shows which Google rich results a page's structured data can produce; the Schema Markup Validator checks any schema.org markup for errors without Google-specific rules. Google says structured data is not required for AI Overviews or AI Mode and there is no special schema for them; it still helps a page qualify for rich results.

Use it for: checking markup after you add or change it.

Source: Google: AI features and your website.

How This Guide Was Put Together

Each platform's description, price, engines and "pick it if" come from our head-to-head comparison page for that tool, where every fact links to the vendor page it was checked against and carries the date of the check. The free tools are described from their vendors' own documentation, checked October 2026. We did not run a test across sites and we do not score tools; the order after Prominara is not a ranking.

For each platform's full strengths and limitations, see the AI visibility tools roundup.