# CueScout

> See whether AI answers name your brand, which pages they cite instead, and what to publish next.

CueScout tracks AI visibility, finds buyer questions, and turns source evidence into specific To-dos. Choose the work and track what you complete.

CueScout tracks whether AI answers name your brand. It asks your buying questions on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, records whether each answer mentions you, cites your site, or recommends a competitor, and keeps the pages each answer cites. The gaps become evidence-backed To-dos, and later checks show whether the engines start mentioning and citing you (GEO). CueScout never posts anywhere; what you publish goes on a page you own.

## Key facts

- Category: AI visibility / generative engine optimization (GEO): tracking whether AI answers name and cite your brand.
- Answer surfaces checked: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Starter checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Growth adds Gemini and Google AI Mode. Claude is a paid add-on. Grok is a separate paid pack for X conversations: a fixed 20 prompts checked weekly. CueScout does not measure Copilot and does not claim to.
- Citation sources: records the URLs AI answers cite for each tracked prompt and ranks the domains behind them.
- Competitors: share of voice against the competitors you track, per engine.
- Buyer questions: prompts are suggested from your site and category and edited by you. Questions that repeat in public forums (Reddit, Hacker News, Quora) are one extra input, not the product.
- Output: a visibility baseline (mentions and citations tracked separately), the cited-source list, share of voice, and evidence-backed To-dos.
- Posting model: none. CueScout does not post, draft for posting, schedule, vote, or DM anywhere, and needs no social accounts.
- Google Search Console: an optional, read-only connection that brings in the searches already reaching your site, so To-dos can be ranked against real search demand.
- Google Analytics (GA4): an optional, read-only connection that shows what happened after publishing, including sessions and configured key events.
- Slack app: an optional connection for sending high-confidence opportunities to a chosen approvals channel. A person still approves and publishes; incoming webhooks remain available for weekly updates.
- Pricing: Starter is $49/month for 20 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Growth is $189/month for 100 prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. On both, every prompt is checked every day, and the prompts are one pool split across brands (at least 10 per brand, so up to 2 brands on Starter and 10 on Growth). Annual billing is ten months' price for twelve ($490/year Starter, $1,890/year Growth). More than 100 prompts: email for a quote. Pricing last reviewed September 23, 2026.
- Follow-up: after you publish, the same questions get re-checked so you can see whether AI engines started citing your page.
- Ideal users: B2B SaaS teams, AEO/content consultants, and small agencies who want to know whether AI answers name them, which sources those answers cite, and what to publish next.

## Core pages

- [Homepage](https://cuescout.com/): what CueScout does.
- [Pricing](https://cuescout.com/pricing): the Starter and Growth plans, add-ons, and billing FAQ.
- [Live demo](https://cuescout.com/demo): preview the workflow without signing up.
- [Methodology](https://cuescout.com/methodology): the full measurement method in seven steps — prompt generation, which engines are queried, citation extraction, cited-page crawling, source classification, occupancy and winnability, and the score formula — followed by a published list of what the method cannot see. This is the page to read before quoting any number CueScout produces.
- [Features](https://cuescout.com/features): all 10 CueScout features, each with its own page, mechanics, and published limits.
- [MCP server](https://cuescout.com/mcp): 5 of the free tools as an MCP server, so an agent can run them directly: check_ai_visibility, check_ai_readiness, check_ai_crawler_access, validate_structured_data, check_sitemap. No account and no API key — install with `npx -y @cuescout/mcp`. Per-client setup guides at https://cuescout.com/integrations.
- [Free tools](https://cuescout.com/tools): 13 free tools for checking whether AI answer engines can read and recommend a site.
- [Integrations](https://cuescout.com/integrations): 26 published integration guides, plus optional Google Search Console and GA4 connections for read-only search and outcome data, and Slack for approval routing. Incoming webhooks remain available for weekly what-moved updates.
- [Comparison index](https://cuescout.com/compare): all CueScout alternative and comparison pages.
- [Use cases](https://cuescout.com/use-cases): mid-funnel use-case pages for community-led demand.
- [About](https://cuescout.com/about): who builds CueScout.

## Features

- [AI visibility tracking](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-visibility-tracking): Daily checks of your buying questions across five AI answer surfaces, scored for mentions and citations separately.
- [AI Overview tracker](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-overview-tracker): Daily tracking of Google AI Overviews and AI Mode for your buying questions: shown or not, named or not, and every page cited.
- [AI rank tracker](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-rank-tracker): Position, mention rate and citation rate for every prompt, per engine, with a history page and a daily change badge.
- [AI share of voice](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-share-of-voice): The share of AI answers that name you, ranked against each competitor, with the change since the last window.
- [AI citation tracking](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-citation-tracking): Every page the AI answers cited for your questions, whether you are on it, and a verdict on what to do next.
- [Rank overlap](https://cuescout.com/features/rank-overlap): The Google position of every page AI engines cite, for the question it was cited for, and how many rank nowhere.
- [GEO audit](https://cuescout.com/features/geo-audit): Eight site checks and five page checks for whether AI engines can crawl, read and quote you, each with its evidence.
- [To-dos](https://cuescout.com/features/todos): Specific tasks backed by audits, cited pages, buyer questions and Search Console, with steps and a recheck.
- [AI visibility audit](https://cuescout.com/features/ai-visibility-audit): One page per brand: who names you, who they name instead, the pages behind it, and what to fix first. Shareable without a login.
- [Multi-brand workspace](https://cuescout.com/features/agency-workspace): Up to 10 brands in one account, each with its own prompts, rivals, cited pages, To-dos and report.

## Free tools

- [ChatGPT Visibility Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/chatgpt-visibility-checker): Ask a buying question the way your customers would and see whether ChatGPT names your brand, cites your domain, or recommends someone else. (Free, no signup)
- [Perplexity Visibility Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/perplexity-visibility-checker): The same question put to Perplexity, which retrieves and cites far more heavily than ChatGPT, so a brand can be visible in one and absent in the other. (Free, no signup)
- [Grok Visibility Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/grok-visibility-checker): The same question put to Grok, the one engine that reads X as well as the web, so you can see which of the two it actually pulled your answer from. (Free, no signup)
- [AI Category Teardown](https://cuescout.com/tools/category-teardown): Two leaderboards for one category: who the AI answers name, and who they actually recommend. Every stored answer judged one at a time, with the run time and the cost printed on the page. (Free, no signup)
- [AI Citation Source Radar](https://cuescout.com/tools/ai-citation-source-radar): Which sites supply the AI answers in your category, ranked by share of citations, and whether your domain shows up in that corpus anywhere. (Free, email required)
- [AI Readiness Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/ai-readiness-checker): Eight deterministic checks on your site: crawler access, llms.txt, Organization and FAQ schema, canonical and meta tags, server-rendered copy, and whether an about and pricing page exist. (Free, no signup)
- [AI Citation Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/ai-page-audit): Paste one post and get the five checks that decide whether an engine can quote it: something liftable, Article schema, a real date, an answer before the first subheading, an inbound link. (Free, no signup)
- [AI Crawler Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/ai-crawler-checker): Reads your robots.txt and tells you whether GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, or Google-Extended are blocked, including by a blanket rule you never wrote. (Free, no signup)
- [Schema Markup Validator](https://cuescout.com/tools/structured-data-validator): Read the JSON-LD on any page: which types it declares, which blocks fail to parse, and whether the fields that earn a citation are actually filled in. (Free, no signup)
- [Sitemap Checker](https://cuescout.com/tools/sitemap-validator): Whether a crawler would get a usable list of pages out of your sitemap: reachable, parseable, declared in robots.txt, and free of cross-host entries it will discard. (Free, no signup)
- [llms.txt Generator](https://cuescout.com/tools/llms-txt-generator): Build the markdown file assistants read to work out what you are and which of your pages answer what. Copy or download it, then drop it at the root of your domain. (Free, runs in your browser)
- [Schema Markup Generator](https://cuescout.com/tools/schema-markup-generator): Write valid Organization, FAQPage, Product and Article JSON-LD, including the sameAs links most sites leave out. Nothing you type leaves your browser. (Free, runs in your browser)
- [Robots.txt Generator](https://cuescout.com/tools/robots-txt-generator): Say what you actually mean about AI crawlers. Training bots and answer-engine bots are different agents, and the one people block is usually not the one they meant. (Free, runs in your browser)

## Use cases

- [AEO Tool: Answer Engine Optimization That Ends in Work](https://cuescout.com/use-cases/ai-visibility): CueScout is an AEO tool that checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI answers for your brand, shows the pages they cite, and turns gaps into To-dos.
- [AI Brand Visibility: Monitor What AI Says About You](https://cuescout.com/use-cases/brand-monitoring): Monitor your AI brand visibility: whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI name your brand, what they say about it, and which pages they read it from.
- [Competitor Analysis in ChatGPT and AI Search](https://cuescout.com/use-cases/competitor-analysis): See which competitors ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI recommend for your category, how often, and which pages put them in the answer.
- [GEO Strategy: Plan Content From AI Answer Gaps](https://cuescout.com/use-cases/content-planning): Build a GEO strategy from evidence: the questions where AI answers leave you out, the pages they cite instead, and the Search Console queries you nearly win.
- [AI Prompt Research: Find the Questions Buyers Ask](https://cuescout.com/use-cases/demand-intelligence): Build your prompt list from the questions buyers really ask, check whether AI answers name you for them, and use Search Console to find queries you nearly win.

## Blog

- [Which Sources ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity Cite When They Recommend Products (And How to Track Them)](https://cuescout.com/blog/which-sources-chatgpt-gemini-perplexity-cite): We asked five AI engines the same 50 B2B buying questions on two days and kept every link they cited: 4,709 of them. ChatGPT leaned on vendors' own pages, Perplexity on 'best tools' lists, Google's AI Overviews on YouTube and Reddit. Here is how each engine picks its sources, what that means for getting recommended, and how to track it.
- [Search Console + AI Citations: The Demand-Plus-Citation Fix-First Workflow](https://cuescout.com/blog/search-console-ai-citations): Search Console tells you what people search. AI citation tracking tells you who the answer engines name. Read either one alone and you fix the wrong page. Here is how we join them, on one real query from our own site.
- [12 Best AI Search Visibility Tools (2026): Compared & Ranked, with Pricing](https://cuescout.com/blog/best-ai-search-visibility-tools): Twelve AI visibility tracking tools compared on engines, prompts per dollar, citation data, Reddit, Quora and Hacker News coverage, check frequency and published pricing, read from each vendor's own pricing page on 29 September 2026.
- [Being Mentioned in AI Answers Is Not the Same as Being Recommended](https://cuescout.com/blog/mentioned-is-not-recommended): A mention count scores 'named and ignored' identically to 'the one recommendation'. We read 63 stored answers a second way to separate them: what it cost, what it found, and what we refused to let a model decide.
- [How to Audit Brand Mentions in AI Engines](https://cuescout.com/blog/audit-brand-mentions-in-ai-engines): A brand audit for LLMs is four passes over one question list: build the list, run it on each engine, check the crawlers can reach you, then read the pages that got cited instead of you. With the numbers from our own audits, including the ones that embarrassed us.
- [I Put 63 Buying Questions to ChatGPT and G2 Was Cited Zero Times](https://cuescout.com/blog/does-chatgpt-cite-g2-capterra): The standard advice for AI visibility is to farm G2 and Capterra reviews. I collected 322 citations from 63 buying questions across 20 B2B categories in September 2026. G2 appeared zero times, Capterra once. A UK consumer-tech review site appeared 44 times. It is not a robots.txt problem, and the dataset is included.
- [Grok Cited X Posts 24 Times Across 36 Questions, and Every One Came From the Same Kind of Question](https://cuescout.com/blog/what-grok-actually-cites): Everyone selling Grok optimisation says the same thing: Grok reads X, so post on X. We put 36 questions to Grok, ChatGPT and Perplexity, kept all 740 citations, and found Grok's X citations sit entirely inside one question shape. Buying questions got zero. Full dataset included.
- [The 533 URLs AI Reads About One Category: A Citation Corpus Study](https://cuescout.com/blog/ai-citation-corpus-study): We pulled every source three AI engines cited across 50 buying questions in the AI-visibility category, classified all 533 URLs, then fetched the top 30 pages to see who was named on them. Listing presence tracked visibility almost one to one. Full dataset included.
- [AI Citation Strategy: How to Get Into the Pages Answer Engines Read](https://cuescout.com/blog/ai-citation-strategy): An answer engine builds its recommendation out of a handful of pages it retrieved seconds ago. This is the guide to finding those pages in your category, working out which ones are reachable, and getting your name into them.
- [Listicle Link Building for AI Search Is a Different Job From Link Building](https://cuescout.com/blog/listicle-link-building-for-ai-search): For Google you wanted links from strong domains. For an answer engine you want your name inside pages that get retrieved, and the link is close to beside the point. That changes which pages you chase.
- [How to Pitch a Roundup Post Inclusion (With the Emails I Send)](https://cuescout.com/blog/how-to-pitch-a-roundup-post-inclusion): The email itself: subject lines, the four-part body, three full templates for the different kinds of list owner, what to do about follow-ups, and the lines that get you ignored.
- [How to Get Your Brand Into AI Recommendations](https://cuescout.com/blog/how-to-get-your-brand-in-ai-recommendations): What it takes to be one of the names ChatGPT or Perplexity gives when someone asks for tools like yours: how the answer gets assembled, the four levers you actually have, and the order to pull them in.
- [How to Get Added to a "Best Tools" Listicle](https://cuescout.com/blog/how-to-get-added-to-a-best-tools-listicle): The operational version: how to tell which lists are worth pitching, what the four types of list owner actually want, what they say yes and no to, and how long it takes to land.
- [How to Find Which Listicles ChatGPT Cites in Your Category](https://cuescout.com/blog/how-to-find-which-listicles-chatgpt-cites): Every GEO post tells you to get into the best-of lists. None of them tell you which lists. Here is the manual method, what it costs you in time, and the tool we built because we got tired of doing it by hand.
- [Do Backlinks Help You Get Cited by AI? Perplexity Cited Ahrefs and Two Unknown Startups in the Same Answer](https://cuescout.com/blog/do-backlinks-help-you-get-cited-by-ai): We went through the citations behind six buying questions in our scan data. One answer quoted Ahrefs, Semrush, and two tools with no backlink profile at all. Here is what that says about authority and retrieval, and where the argument runs out.
- [I Looked at Every URL Perplexity Cited for 6 Buying Questions. 14 of 23 Belonged to a Vendor.](https://cuescout.com/blog/what-perplexity-cited-23-urls): A small, honest teardown of 23 URLs Perplexity cited across six buyer questions in our own database. Most of them were vendors' own marketing pages. One was a Reddit thread.
- [Does SEO Still Generate Inbound Leads, or Did AI Search Break It? (I Tried to Answer This on Reddit and Got Auto-Removed)](https://cuescout.com/blog/does-seo-still-generate-inbound-leads): Someone in r/SEO asked whether long-term SEO still produces inbound leads now that AI answers everything. Our scanner has seen that exact question 13 times this month. Here's the answer, plus what happened when I tried to post it as a comment.
- [What a Reddit Buying Question Actually Looks Like: I Read All 148 Highest-Intent Threads](https://cuescout.com/blog/what-a-reddit-buying-question-actually-looks-like): I read every thread our scanner has ever scored as strong buying intent, 148 of them across 50 subreddits, and wrote down the exact words people use when they're about to buy. Also how many were spam wearing a buyer's clothes.
- [11% of My Search Console Impressions Are Competitor-Monitoring Bots](https://cuescout.com/blog/search-console-competitor-bots): 87 of 777 impressions on cuescout.com came from queries with a dozen -site: operators in them. Zero clicks, average position 6.9, while the rest of the site sits at 53. Here's how to spot them in your own data.
- [I Got Shadowbanned Building a Reddit Tool](https://cuescout.com/blog/i-got-shadowbanned-building-a-reddit-tool): I built a tool to help people market on Reddit, and got shadowbanned trying to market it on Reddit. Here's exactly what happened, what Reddit actually punishes, and how to engage without getting nuked.
- [Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): How to Get Your Product Cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity](https://cuescout.com/blog/generative-engine-optimization-geo-guide): Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of getting your brand recommended inside AI-generated answers. What GEO is, how the answer pipeline actually works, what the research and our own citation logs support, and what to do about it.
- [How AI Engines Decide Which Brands to Recommend](https://cuescout.com/blog/how-ai-engines-choose-brands-to-recommend): When ChatGPT or Perplexity recommends three tools, how does it pick them? A breakdown of what actually happens inside the answer, what our own citation logs show, and what any of it means for getting named.

## Comparisons

- [Profound Alternatives (2026): 6 Tools With Published Prices](https://cuescout.com/compare/profound-alternative): Profound no longer sells a self-serve plan to brands: a 7-day trial, then Enterprise at a custom price. Six alternatives with prices on their own pages, from $29/mo, checked 22 September 2026.
- [Peec AI Alternatives: Pricing and Engines Compared (2026)](https://cuescout.com/compare/peec-alternative): Peec AI starts at $95/mo (€85 in Europe) for 50 prompts on three models you pick. Here is what a fourth model costs, and the alternatives that include more engines for less. Checked 22 September 2026.
- [Writesonic Alternative for AI Visibility Tracking (2026)](https://cuescout.com/compare/writesonic-alternative): Writesonic now sells itself as an AI search visibility platform from $79/mo. If you want the tracking without the article writer, here is what the alternatives cost and which engines they check. Checked 22 September 2026.
- [Otterly.AI Alternatives: When 15 Prompts Is Not Enough](https://cuescout.com/compare/otterly-alternative): Otterly.AI Lite is $29/mo for 15 prompts; the next tier is $189 for 100. Alternatives for the gap in between, with engines and prices read on 22 September 2026.
- [Semrush AI Toolkit Review: Pricing and Alternatives (2026)](https://cuescout.com/compare/semrush-ai-toolkit-review): The Semrush AI Visibility toolkit is $99/mo per domain for 25 prompts tracked daily on ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity. What it does well, what 25 prompts covers, and when the $199 bundle makes more sense. Checked 22 September 2026.
- [Otterly vs Peekaboo (vs CueScout): Pricing Compared, 2026](https://cuescout.com/compare/peekaboo-vs-otterly-vs-cuescout): Otterly and Peekaboo both start at $29/mo. Otterly sells fixed tiers with daily checks; Peekaboo repriced on 21 September to one plan with sliders. What $29 buys on each, and where CueScout fits. Checked 22 September 2026.
- [Botric Alternative: off-page GEO to pair with on-page audits](https://cuescout.com/compare/botric-alternative): Botric audits your own site for generative-engine readiness. CueScout covers the half an on-page audit cannot see: the third-party pages AI engines actually cite in your category, and the competitors they name instead of you. Plans start at $49/mo.

## Integrations

- [Webflow (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/webflow): The robots.txt setting that only works on a custom domain, where JSON-LD goes, and why /llms.txt needs a proxy.
- [WordPress (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/wordpress): The virtual robots.txt, the Yoast and Rank Math settings that produce sameAs, and where llms.txt goes.
- [Shopify (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/shopify): The robots.txt.liquid template, Organization schema in theme.liquid, and the file Shopify will not serve.
- [Squarespace (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/squarespace): Two checks Squarespace makes impossible, and the schema ones you can still pass through code injection.
- [Wix (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/wix): The built-in robots.txt editor, the custom schema field, and the Velo-shaped rendering trap.
- [Framer (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/framer): The robots.txt setting, custom head code on paid sites, and why /llms.txt needs a proxy.
- [Ghost (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/ghost): robots.txt lives in the theme, llms.txt goes in /public, and Ghost already writes half the schema.
- [Substack (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/substack): Almost nothing here is yours to fix — and that changes what is worth doing instead.
- [HubSpot CMS (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/hubspot): The per-domain robots.txt, Design Manager for root files, and the schema HubSpot never writes.
- [Mintlify (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/mintlify): llms.txt and robots.txt are already handled. What is left is schema, and the link to your pricing.
- [Docusaurus (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/docusaurus): static/ handles the files, headTags handles the schema, and pre-rendering handles the rest.
- [Next.js (Site platforms)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/nextjs): app/robots.ts, a route handler for llms.txt, JSON-LD in the layout, and the client-component trap.
- [Claude Code (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/claude-code): One `claude mcp add` line, then ask about your site's AI visibility mid-session.
- [Claude Desktop (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/claude-desktop): Paste one block into claude_desktop_config.json and ask about your site in ordinary chat.
- [Cursor (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/cursor): One block in ~/.cursor/mcp.json, and the agent editing your site can check what engines see of it.
- [Windsurf (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/windsurf): One block in mcp_config.json and Cascade can check what the engines see of your site.
- [VS Code (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/vs-code): A .vscode/mcp.json block — note the key is `servers`, not `mcpServers`.
- [Zed (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/zed): Zed calls them context servers — same block, different key, in settings.json.
- [OpenClaw (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/openclaw): Register one read-only stdio server under mcp.servers and expose five public site checks.
- [Hermes Agent (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/hermes): Add CueScout under mcp_servers in config.yaml, then discover five read-only public tools.
- [ChatGPT (AI clients)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/chatgpt): The MCP server will not fit — ChatGPT needs a remote one. The public API is the route that works.
- [Slack (Alerts and automation)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/slack): A formatted weekly message: the number, which way it moved, and who turned up where you are not.
- [Discord (Alerts and automation)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/discord): A channel webhook and the plain JSON body, once a week.
- [Zapier (Alerts and automation)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/zapier): Catch Hook, then map visibility_pct and delta into whatever you already run.
- [Make (Alerts and automation)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/make): A custom webhook module, then whatever your scenario already does.
- [n8n (Alerts and automation)](https://cuescout.com/integrations/n8n): A Webhook node, and the one place signature verification is worth actually doing.

## Full version

- [llms-full.txt](https://cuescout.com/llms-full.txt): the same map with the measurement method, plan pricing, and every feature expanded inline — what each one does, how it works, and what it does not do.

## Contact

- Support: support@cuescout.com