If you run marketing with one to five people, the AI visibility tool you want is the one that tells you which page to change this week. For most small teams that means picking on two questions: how many buying questions you need to watch, and whether the tool shows you the pages the engines cite, or only a score. On those two, OtterlyAI is the cheapest place to start, Peec AI gives the most prompts under $100, Semrush is the sensible add-on if you already pay for Semrush, Profound is built for a much larger buyer, and CueScout is the one built around the gaps and the task list. We make CueScout, so read its section with that in mind.
Everything below was read from each vendor's own pricing or product page on 13 October 2026. I didn't test the other four hands-on. The source URLs are at the end. A couple of these pages only show prices after JavaScript runs (Peec's plan cards are empty grey skeletons in the raw HTML, and Profound's agency prices sit in a script bundle), so if a number here disagrees with a screenshot you saw elsewhere, check the date on both.
If you want the full twelve-tool category guide instead, that's the AI search visibility tools comparison. This post is narrower: five tools, judged for a small team that wants to see its competitors and act on what the engines cite.
Mention, citation, recommendation, task
Most of the confusion when comparing these tools comes from four different things being called "visibility". They are not the same, and only the last one gets work done.
| What you see | What it is | How a tool finds it | What a small team can do with it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand mention | Your name appears somewhere in the answer text | Matching your brand name across stored answers | Very little on its own. It's a count, and it counts "named and passed over" the same as "picked" |
| Cited page | A URL the engine listed as a source for the answer | The source list the engine returns next to the answer | Check whether you're on that page. Fix it if it's yours, ask to be added if it's a roundup, answer the question on your own site if nobody covers it |
| Recommendation | The answer tells the reader to choose a brand | Reading the answer, by a person or a classifier | Find out why the recommended brand won, usually by reading the pages that answer cited |
| Task | One change to one page, with the evidence attached | A person decides, a tool can draft it | Do it, mark it done, and watch the next checks |
All five tools here count mentions. They differ a lot on the second row, and the fourth row is mostly up to you. I wrote separately about why a mention count can't tell recommended from ignored, if that distinction matters for your reporting.
The five tools side by side
Prices are what each vendor's page showed on 13 October 2026, in US dollars, for the cheapest plan a small team can buy.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts | Engines on that plan | How often | Citation detail | Competitors | What happens after the chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CueScout | $49 a month (Starter) | 20, up to 2 brands | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews | Daily | Every cited URL per question, engine and day, and whether you appear on the page | Up to 20 per brand: share of voice, mention rate, cited rate | To-dos with the evidence attached, including listing asks for roundups you're missing from |
| OtterlyAI | $29 a month (Lite), $25 billed annually | 15 | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot | Daily | "Link Citations Analysis" and "Domain Ranking" listed on every plan | Not itemised on the pricing page; "Brand Visibility Index" is listed | 3 recommendations a week on Lite, GEO audits |
| Peec AI | $95 a month (Starter), 15% off annually | 50 | Any 3 of ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Naver | Daily | Domain and URL detail, citation share, source classification | Unlimited competitors; share of voice tracked daily against them | Gap analysis and recommended actions, ticked on Starter |
| Semrush AI Visibility toolkit | $99 a month per domain, billed annually | 25 | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | Daily prompt tracking; Brand Performance weekly | A cited-sources report of the domains cited in answers that mention you | AI competitor analysis and competitor research | AI-readiness site audit; no task list described on the pricing page |
| Profound | Free 7-day trial, then Enterprise (custom) | Trial: 50, chosen for you | Trial: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews. Enterprise: up to 9 | Daily | Not itemised on the brand pricing tab | "How your brand and competitors appear" | AI Marketer agents and opportunities, credit-based |
A rough price per tracked prompt on those entry plans, which is my arithmetic and not a vendor figure: Peec about $1.90, OtterlyAI about $1.93, CueScout about $2.45, Semrush about $3.96. The engines behind each prompt differ, so treat that as a starting point.
OtterlyAI
Best fit: a solo marketer or a team of two with a short list of questions, who wants daily data on four engines for the lowest price. Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, checked daily, with unlimited team members. If any of your buyers use Copilot, OtterlyAI is the only tool in this group that includes it on the entry plan.
Not the right choice: once your question list passes 15. There's no prompt add-on on Lite, and the next plan, Standard, is $189 a month for 100. Gemini and Google AI Mode are $9 add-ons each on Lite, which is cheap, but three recommendations a week on Lite is a thin action list for a team trying to close citation gaps.
Peec AI
Best fit: a small team that needs more questions than OtterlyAI's 15 and is happy choosing three engines. Starter is $95 a month for 50 prompts checked daily, one project and unlimited users. The feature table ticks gap analysis ("sources that appear often and name competitors but not you") and recommended actions on Starter, alongside URL-level source detail and citation share. For "track competitors and act on citation gaps", that's a lot of the job on the entry plan.
Not the right choice: if you need Perplexity and both Google surfaces. The three model slots come from ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini and Naver. Perplexity is only available as an extra model, at $30 a month on Starter, so ChatGPT plus both Google surfaces plus Perplexity is about $125 a month. Starter is also one project, which matters if you run two brands.
Semrush AI Visibility toolkit
Best fit: a team that already lives in Semrush. The toolkit is $99 a month per domain, billed annually, for 25 custom prompts tracked daily, with mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, competitor research and an AI-readiness site audit. Your AI numbers sit next to the rankings and backlinks you already check. If you'd pay for Semrush SEO anyway, the Semrush One Starter bundle is $199 a month ($165.17 billed annually) with 50 prompts.
Not the right choice: if you want month-to-month billing, or page-level citation work. The toolkit price on the page is annual. Semrush's own agency post describes the cited-sources report as the domains cited in answers that mention your brand, so if you need the specific URLs, confirm that in the 7-day trial. The pricing page says "Google AI" without separating AI Overviews from AI Mode.
Profound
Best fit: a larger company that wants AI search run as an enterprise program, with SSO, an API, CSV and JSON exports, and up to nine engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Claude, AI Overviews and Exa).
Not the right choice: almost any small team buying its first tool. The brand side of the pricing page is a free 7-day trial (50 prompts, daily, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and then Enterprise at a custom price. The trial's prompts are "a recommended set based on your industry, and you cannot customize them", so you'd judge it on Profound's questions rather than your buyers'. Profound does publish an agency price ($99 a month plus $399 per client workspace), but that's built for agencies, not for one brand.
CueScout
Best fit: a small in-house team at a B2B or SaaS company that wants to know which page to work on next. Starter is $49 a month ($490 a year) for 20 prompts checked daily on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, split across up to 2 brands. Every check stores the URLs each engine cited, then reads each cited page to see whether you're on it. Up to 20 competitors per brand are counted on the same answers, so share of voice, mention rate and cited rate line up. The gaps become To-dos, each naming the page, the steps and the answer behind it. When a roundup keeps getting cited for your questions and you aren't on it, that's one task: ask the site to add you, with the prompts and engines attached.
Not the right choice: if you need Microsoft Copilot (CueScout doesn't check it), Gemini or Google AI Mode on the entry plan (those come with Growth, $189 a month for 100 prompts), more than one seat on Starter (Growth has 5), or more than 20 prompts for under $100, where Peec gives 50 for $95. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini are read through their APIs, so answers can differ a little from what you see signed in to your own account. CueScout also doesn't write or publish anything. It tells you what to change and why, and someone on your team does it.
How to choose, if you're a founder or a team of a few
It's easy to spend longer choosing the tool than the first month of fixes would take. A shorter way to choose:
- Write your questions down first. If the list is under 15, every tool here covers it and you're choosing on engines and price. If it's 40 or more, look at Peec Starter or the second tier of the others.
- Decide which engines your buyers use. Copilot points to OtterlyAI. Perplexity plus both Google surfaces is $38 a month on OtterlyAI Lite with the AI Mode add-on, needs an extra model on Peec, and needs Growth on CueScout.
- Decide who does the work afterwards. If one person has an afternoon a week, you want the cited pages and a task list, and a dashboard with forty charts is a cost. If an SEO lead already turns data into briefs, a cheaper score may be enough.
- Then look at price, and look at it annually: Semrush's toolkit is billed that way, and the others discount 15% or so for paying up front.
For the head-to-head pages with each vendor's plan table, see our comparison pages. If you're a founder doing marketing on the side, the founders page covers how CueScout fits around a small team and starts from a free check with no signup.
Sources, checked 13 October 2026
- CueScout: plan facts from our own pricing catalogue, as published at /pricing
- OtterlyAI: https://otterly.ai/pricing
- Peec AI: https://peec.ai/pricing
- Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/pricing/ai/ and https://www.semrush.com/pricing/ for the Semrush One bundle; the cited-sources description is from https://www.semrush.com/blog/ai-visibility-tracking-tools-for-agencies/; update cadence from https://www.semrush.com/kb/1493-ai-visibility-toolkit
- Profound: https://www.tryprofound.com/pricing (brands and agencies tabs)
Frequently asked questions
Which AI visibility platform is a good fit for a small marketing team that wants to track competitors and act on citation gaps?
Pick on two things: how many questions you need to track, and what you want back from the tool. For 15 questions or fewer on four engines including Copilot, OtterlyAI Lite at $29 a month. For 50 questions on three engines with gap analysis built in, Peec AI Starter at $95 a month. If Semrush is already your daily tool, its AI Visibility toolkit at $99 a month per domain, billed annually. If you want every cited page stored and the gaps turned into a task list, CueScout Starter at $49 a month for 20 questions, checked daily. Prices were read from each vendor's page on 13 October 2026.
What is the difference between a brand mention and a citation in an AI answer?
A mention is your brand name appearing in the answer text. A citation is a URL the engine lists as a source for that answer. You can be mentioned without being cited, and a page can be cited that names your competitors and not you. The cited pages are the ones a small team can do something about, because they are pages someone owns and can change.
How many prompts does a small team need to track?
Write them down before you buy. Two or three 'best tool for' questions, a couple of comparisons against your main competitors, a pricing question and an alternatives question for each of your top two rivals puts most teams at 10 to 15 before they cover a second use case. If your list is under 15, every entry plan here covers it. If it is 40 or more, the plan you need is usually the second tier.
Is Profound worth it for a small team?
Usually not as a first tool. On 13 October 2026 Profound's brand pricing showed a free 7-day trial with 50 prompts chosen for your industry, which you cannot customise, and then Enterprise at a custom price. Profound is built for companies with a procurement process. A small team that wants to see a price before a sales call has four other options on this page.
Do AI visibility tools write or publish the fixes for you?
Some draft content, and none of the five here posts on your behalf as part of tracking. CueScout does not write or publish anything: it tells you which page to change and why, with the evidence, and your team does the work. Peec AI and Profound both list agent features that generate actions or content, so check what each one produces before you plan around it.