AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools
Asked as “AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool”, and as “tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 28 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
Standing
Peec AI and OtterlyPeec AI and Otterly tie at 25%, the most contested category in the edition. Ranking the answer engine trackers inside an answer engine index is the method testing itself.
First-choice share
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. Leader at 30% or more of first choices; criticized at 25% or more negative labels. Markers are keyed to the table below.
Negative label rate →
25% negative
30% first choices
Criticized challenger
Criticized default
Accepted challenger
Endorsed leader
01
02
03
04
05
06
070%First-choice share →60%
Full standing
| # | Product | First choices | Negative rate | Labels | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Peec AI | 25% | 12% | 26 | accepted challenger |
| 02 | Otterly | 25% | 17% | 24 | accepted challenger |
| 03 | Profound | 14% | 28% | 29 | criticized challenger |
| 04 | Scrunch | 11% | 7% | 15 | accepted challenger |
| 05 | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | 4% | 14% | 21 | accepted challenger |
| 06 | HubSpot AEO Grader | 4% | 18% | 11 | accepted challenger |
| 07 | Ahrefs Brand Radar | 0% | 25% | 16 | criticized challenger |
Warned against
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Profound28%
8 of 29 labels negative · 4 of 6 models · 1 hard negative
“I recommend bypassing enterprise-heavy compliance tools like **Profound**.” Gemini 3.1 Pro, paraphrase prompt
Otterly17%
4 of 24 labels negative · 4 of 6 models
“Choosing it mainly because of the $29 price | The base plan covers four engines; Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode are add-ons.” GPT-5.6 Sol, negative prompt
Ahrefs Brand Radar25%
4 of 16 labels negative · 3 of 6 models
“Don’t present estimated impressions as measured AI impressions... Useful for discovery and competitive research.” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
Peec AI12%
3 of 26 labels negative · 3 of 6 models
“Worth evaluating, but I would interpret its results as visibility under sampled conditions—not a census of what buyers see.” GPT-6 Astra, negative prompt
Held under rewording
Whether each model's first choice on the direct prompt survived the paraphrase in this category, under the strict rule.
Claude Opus 5
Held
Claude Opus 4.8
Changed
GPT-6 Astra
Held
GPT-5.6 Sol
Changed
Gemini 3.1 Pro
Changed
Perplexity Sonar Pro
Changed
Noise floor in this category
Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat (simulated until 12 September 2026). Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.
Claude Opus 5
2 of 4 flipped
Claude Opus 4.8
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-6 Astra
0 of 5 flipped
GPT-5.6 Sol
0 of 5 flipped
Gemini 3.1 Pro
1 of 6 flipped
Perplexity Sonar Pro
1 of 4 flipped
What each model said, prompt by prompt
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. Bold is the first choice, grey the alternatives, red what the answer argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
| Prompt | Claude Opus 5 | Claude Opus 4.8 | GPT-6 Astra | GPT-5.6 Sol | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Perplexity Sonar Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct recommendation What is the best AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool for a mid-market B2B software company? | Peec AI Ahrefs Brand Radar, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit against: Otterly | Profound Otterly, Trakkr | Peec AI Profound, Scrunch | Scrunch HubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI against: Profound | Peec AI, RadarKit Goodie, Otterly, Profound, SE Ranking +1 | Trakkr Frase, Peec AI, Profound against: Otterly |
Paraphrase Which tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B software company? | Peec AI Ahrefs Brand Radar, Conductor, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly +1 against: Profound, Scrunch | Otterly, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit Profound, SE Ranking | Peec AI Profound | HubSpot AEO Grader Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Profound | AthenaHQ, MaxAEO Geoptie, Mentionova, Otterly, Peec AI +1 against: Profound | SE Visible Frase, Peec AI |
Comparative What are the top AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools and how do they differ? | Profound Brandlight, Knowatoa, Otterly, Peec AI +2 against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, HubSpot AEO Grader, Moz +1 | Otterly, Profound Ahrefs Brand Radar, Frase, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Peec AI, Profound Ahrefs Brand Radar, AthenaHQ, Evertune, Otterly +2 | Profound Ahrefs Brand Radar, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI +2 | Profound AirOps, Foglift, LLM Pulse, Otterly +7 | Profound, Scrunch Ahrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Peec AI, Rankscale +1 |
Budget constrained What is the best AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool for a company with a limited budget? | Otterly AIclicks, Dageno AI, HubSpot AEO Grader, Knowatoa +1 against: Peec AI, Profound | Otterly, Peec AI Ahrefs Brand Radar, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Otterly Promptmonitor | Otterly LLMrefs against: Profound, Rankscale | Otterly Geoptie, HubSpot AEO Grader, ZipTie | Otterly Analyze AI, Indexly, Peec AI |
Scale constrained We are a 500 person company evaluating an AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool. What should we look at? | no first choice | no first choice | Peec AI, Profound, Scrunch Conductor, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Profound, Scrunch Ahrefs Brand Radar, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | Profound AirOps, Geoptie, Shadow | no first choice |
Negative framing Which AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools should I avoid or be cautious about? | no first choice | no first choice | no first choice against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly +3 | no first choice against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Peec AI +2 | Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit Elmo, LeadJourney, Profound | no first choice |
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
Ahrefs read as Ahrefs Brand Radar
HubSpot read as HubSpot AEO Grader
Semrush read as Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Unresolved, counted raw
Adobe
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
Every prompt and answer
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, latency and cost. Full answer text is in the responses download on the Data page.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 14:58 | yes | 33 | 60 s | $0.34 |
| Direct recommendation | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 14:59 | yes | 36 | 62 s | $0.30 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:01 | yes | 4 | 34 s | $0.38 |
| Direct recommendation | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:02 | yes | 4 | 61 s | $0.32 |
| Direct recommendation | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:00 | yes | 13 | 53 s | $0.06 |
| Direct recommendation | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 14:59 | yes | 18 | 11 s | $0.01 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 15:03 | yes | 22 | 73 s | $0.40 |
| Paraphrase | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 15:04 | yes | 32 | 59 s | $0.30 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:05 | yes | 3 | 31 s | $0.37 |
| Paraphrase | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:06 | yes | 5 | 50 s | $0.22 |
| Paraphrase | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:05 | yes | 10 | 35 s | $0.05 |
| Paraphrase | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 15:04 | yes | 20 | 9 s | $0.01 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 15:08 | yes | 25 | 85 s | $0.56 |
| Comparative | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 15:09 | yes | 37 | 59 s | $0.28 |
| Comparative | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:11 | yes | 10 | 68 s | $0.70 |
| Comparative | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:13 | yes | 10 | 97 s | $0.38 |
| Comparative | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:10 | no | 0 | 43 s | $0.04 |
| Comparative | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 15:09 | yes | 20 | 14 s | $0.02 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 15:14 | yes | 37 | 64 s | $0.34 |
| Budget constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 15:15 | yes | 31 | 67 s | $0.36 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:17 | yes | 2 | 40 s | $0.44 |
| Budget constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:17 | yes | 5 | 35 s | $0.23 |
| Budget constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:16 | yes | 11 | 33 s | $0.05 |
| Budget constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 15:15 | yes | 20 | 10 s | $0.01 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 15:19 | yes | 24 | 95 s | $0.27 |
| Scale constrained | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 15:20 | no | 0 | 34 s | $0.07 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:22 | yes | 7 | 54 s | $0.40 |
| Scale constrained | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:23 | yes | 9 | 83 s | $0.23 |
| Scale constrained | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:21 | no | 0 | 43 s | $0.04 |
| Scale constrained | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 15:20 | yes | 15 | 15 s | $0.02 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 5 | claude-opus-5 | 2026-09-08 15:25 | yes | 23 | 82 s | $0.24 |
| Negative framing | Claude Opus 4.8 | claude-opus-4-8 | 2026-09-08 15:26 | yes | 24 | 55 s | $0.23 |
| Negative framing | GPT-6 Astra | gpt-6-astra | 2026-09-08 15:28 | yes | 7 | 62 s | $0.50 |
| Negative framing | GPT-5.6 Sol | gpt-5.6-sol | 2026-09-08 15:29 | yes | 8 | 73 s | $0.37 |
| Negative framing | Gemini 3.1 Pro | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | 2026-09-08 15:27 | yes | 17 | 39 s | $0.05 |
| Negative framing | Perplexity Sonar Pro | sonar-pro | 2026-09-08 15:26 | yes | 20 | 13 s | $0.02 |