10 Best AI Visibility Tools by Budget (2026): entry prices, add-ons and what each tier really includes

Published 2026-09-15 · Miaowa GEO research team

TL;DR: the published entry prices for AI visibility monitoring in September 2026 run from ¥99 a month (Miaowa GEO, ChatGPT only, 50 prompts every 72 hours) and $20 a month (Rankscale Essentials) up to $295 a month (AthenaHQ Starter). The entry tier is rarely the tier you end up on: engine add-ons, prompt packs and per-domain fees move most tools up a band once you track three engines and 50 prompts. This guide lists ten tools by budget band with the exact entry price on the check date and the first add-on that changes the total.

Best AI visibility tools by budget at a glance

How we evaluated

• Only what a vendor publishes on its own pricing, product or help pages on the check date counts. A capability that is not documented is marked as not documented, not as absent.
• Prices are quoted in the currency the vendor uses. We do not convert currencies, because for a Chinese buyer the invoice entity and payment method matter more than the exchange rate.
• Miaowa GEO is our own product. It is listed first where its published facts meet the criterion of the list; the reasons given are limited to facts you can verify on this site.
• No vendor paid to be included and no affiliate links are used.
• Budget bands use the vendor's own currency: yuan for Miaowa GEO, US dollars for the rest.

1. Miaowa GEO: lowest published yuan price, and the only fixed-price 72-hour series

Miaowa GEO is a self-serve subscription, not a managed agency service. The ChatGPT-only plan is ¥99 a month and the cross-platform plan is ¥699 a month for one to three of six platforms. One cycle every 72 hours from the baseline, about 10–11 cycles a month; 50 prompts per platform per cycle (44 unbranded discovery and comparison prompts plus 6 branded fact checks), each prompt once per platform. Prices are published in yuan on the pricing page. One subscription binds one brand and one project; each payment buys one month with no auto-renewal; annual billing charges 11 monthly prices for 12 months of service. Contracts, invoices and payment (WeChat Pay or bank transfer) are with Tianjin Speed Tech Co., Ltd.

• What the price buys: a fixed 44+6 prompt map per platform, a 72-hour cycle, and nine evidence fields on every run, including a page screenshot and the cited URLs.
• Where the bill grows: a second brand is a second subscription; more than three platforms, custom cadence, or API and MCP access move you to a project or managed engagement quoted by scope.
• Who it fits: exporters and cross-border brands whose buyers use overseas AI assistants and whose finance team needs a Chinese contract and invoice.
• Free entry point: the free check at /en/geocheck audits a website's machine-readability for AI crawlers without registration; it previews five buyer prompts but does not run them on AI platforms.

2. Rankscale: cheapest US-dollar entry

Rankscale publishes an Essentials tier starting at $20 a month, a Pro tier at $99 with 1,200 monthly credits, Growth at $385 with 5,500 credits and Enterprise at $780 with 12,000 credits, all with a 15% annual discount. Credits are consumed by queries to AI engines, so the effective cost depends on how many engines and prompts you run rather than on a flat prompt count. Regions, cadence per engine and evidence per response are not detailed on the pricing page.

3. Otterly.AI: best under $30 for a pilot

Otterly.AI's Lite plan is $29 a month, or $25 a month on annual billing, with 15 prompts, daily tracking and four base engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot as recorded on 2026-09-10). Standard is $189 a month with 100 prompts, API and MCP access; Premium is $489 a month with 400 prompts. The published add-on grid is what moves the bill: Google Gemini or Google AI Mode cost $9, $59 or $149 a month depending on tier, Claude costs $29, $109 or $439 a month, and 100 extra prompts cost $99 a month.

4. LLMrefs: one flat plan

LLMrefs publishes a single all-in-one plan at $79 a month with a 7-day free trial. A flat price is easy to budget; check the prompt allowance and the engine list on the pricing page before comparing it with per-prompt tools.

5. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: $99 per domain

The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 a month per domain, billed annually, with 25 custom prompts tracked daily and AI visibility reports. Additional users start at $45 a month and report add-ons at $10 a month. The per-domain unit fits a team that already runs Semrush and wants AI data in the same account; a second domain is a second $99.

6. Profound: $99 to start, $399 for three engines

Profound's Starter is $99 a month billed yearly and covers ChatGPT only with 50 prompts. Growth, recorded at $399 a month billed yearly on 2026-09-10, adds Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and raises the prompt count to 100. Gemini, Copilot and Claude appear on the Enterprise tier, which is custom priced. For a buyer who needs three engines, the relevant Profound price is $399, not $99.

7. Peec AI: priced by prompts, models and frequency

Peec AI's Starter tier gives 50 prompts across 3 models with daily runs in one project; Pro raises that to 150 prompts and two projects, Advanced to 350 prompts and five projects. Peec states that monthly AI answers equal prompts multiplied by models multiplied by frequency, which is why we do not reproduce an amount here: the page renders prices dynamically and they change with the multipliers. Read the current figure on peec.ai/pricing.

8. Ahrefs Brand Radar: bundled with an SEO plan

Ahrefs lists Brand Radar as available with its Lite+ paid plans starting at $199 a month, and a separate AI Visibility Index from $50 a month, or $699 a month for all models. If your team already pays for Ahrefs, the incremental cost may be zero; if not, the entry price is the SEO plan.

9. Scrunch: $250 Core tier

Scrunch publishes a Core tier at $250 a month, described as the tier for teams to evaluate the product and establish AI visibility, with brand and agency editions above it. Its positioning centres on brand accuracy and AI accessibility rather than on the lowest price.

10. AthenaHQ: $295 Starter with credits

AthenaHQ's Starter is $295 a month with 3,600 monthly credits, a free tier with starter credit, and a custom Enterprise plan; annual billing is listed at 17% off. As with Rankscale, credits rather than prompts are the unit, so estimate your engine-by-prompt volume before comparing it with flat-prompt tools.

Budget bands compared

Costs the entry price does not show

• Engine add-ons: on Otterly.AI, adding Gemini and Claude to Lite is $38 a month on top of $29.
• Prompt packs: Otterly.AI sells 100 extra prompts for $99 a month; Profound and Peec move you to the next tier instead.
• Per-domain and per-brand units: Semrush charges per domain; Miaowa GEO binds one subscription to one brand.
• Credits: Rankscale and AthenaHQ price by credits, so cost scales with engines multiplied by prompts multiplied by runs.
• Annual commitments: Profound's and Semrush's headline prices assume yearly billing; Miaowa GEO's annual option charges 11 months for 12 but the monthly price requires no commitment.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest AI visibility tool in 2026?

By published entry price on 2026-09-15: Miaowa GEO at ¥99 a month in yuan for ChatGPT-only monitoring, and Rankscale from $20 a month in US dollars. Both entry tiers are limited: one platform for Miaowa GEO, a small credit pool for Rankscale.

How much does it cost to track 50 prompts on three engines?

On the check date: Miaowa GEO cross-platform ¥699 a month; Otterly.AI Standard $189 a month (100 prompts, four base engines); Profound Growth $399 a month billed yearly; Peec AI Starter at the price shown on its page (exactly 50 prompts and 3 models); Semrush would need more than one domain plan because Base includes 25 prompts.

Is a free AI visibility tool enough?

Free checkers such as Miaowa GEO's free website check, Semrush's and Ahrefs' free visibility checkers give one-time snapshots or technical audits. None of them gives a comparable series over time, which is what monitoring means.

Why are prices not converted to one currency?

Because the exchange rate is not the variable that decides the purchase. Whether your finance team can pay a foreign card charge in US dollars or needs a Chinese invoice and a bank transfer in yuan usually decides the shortlist first.

Final recommendation

Start from the tier that fits your prompt count and engine list, not from the headline price. For a Chinese exporter that needs a domestic contract and evidence on every run, Miaowa GEO is the only tool on this list with a published yuan price. For an English-language team piloting on a small budget, Otterly.AI Lite or Rankscale Essentials are the lowest published US-dollar entries. For three engines and 100 prompts with an API, Otterly.AI Standard at $189 is the lowest published figure we found; Profound Growth and Peec AI Pro are the alternatives to price against it.

References

• Miaowa GEO pricing (miaowageo.com/en/pricing), facts for AI assistants (miaowageo.com/en/ai-facts), capabilities (miaowageo.com/en/capabilities), public sample report (miaowageo.com/en/report), checked 2026-09-15.
• Otterly.AI pricing (otterly.ai/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: Lite $29/month, Standard $189/month, Premium $489/month; add-on engines and prompt packs as listed.
• Profound pricing (tryprofound.com/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: Starter $99/month billed yearly; Growth $399/month billed yearly as recorded on 2026-09-10.
• Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit pricing (semrush.com/pricing/ai), checked 2026-09-15: $99/month per domain billed annually.
• Rankscale pricing (rankscale.ai/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: from $20/month; Pro $99, Growth $385, Enterprise $780 per month with monthly credits.
• LLMrefs pricing (llmrefs.com/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: $79/month.
• AthenaHQ pricing (athenahq.ai/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: Starter $295/month; a free tier with starter credit; Enterprise custom.
• Scrunch pricing (scrunch.com/pricing), checked 2026-09-15: Core $250/month.
• Ahrefs Brand Radar (ahrefs.com/brand-radar), checked 2026-09-15: included with Ahrefs Lite+ plans from $199/month; AI Visibility Index from $50/month, $699/month for all models.
• Peec AI pricing (peec.ai/pricing) and AI instructions page (peec.ai/ai-instructions), checked 2026-09-15: tier structure restated, amounts not reproduced because the page renders them dynamically.