GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Marketing › September 2026 Edition

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 company. 50 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Otterly
Contested
Peec 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.
ShowinginAll 73 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessOtterly47%Clear leaderStanding →Mid-marketOtterly20%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseProfound63%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Otterly20%9%43accepted challenger
02Profound10%22%37accepted challenger
03Rankscale10%0%16accepted challenger
04Peec AI8%10%31accepted challenger
05Scrunch8%5%21accepted challenger
06SE Ranking6%7%14accepted challenger
07HubSpot AEO Grader4%11%18accepted challenger
08Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit2%10%30accepted challenger
09AthenaHQ2%18%11accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Ahrefs Brand Radar0%21%24accepted challenger
11ZipTie0%0%11accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Otterly vs ProfoundOtterly vs RankscaleProfound vs Rankscale

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Otterly20%
02Profound10%
03Rankscale10%
04Peec AI8%
05Scrunch8%
06SE Ranking6%
07HubSpot AEO Grader4%
08Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit2%
09AthenaHQ2%
10Ahrefs Brand Radar0%
11ZipTie0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. 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.
Profound
22%
8 of 37 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Price issue: $499/month for Lite plan is 48% more expensive than the category average... G2 reviews cite instability, slowness, and overwhelming dashboards” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Otterly
9%
4 of 43 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Peec AI, Otterly AI, AthenaHQ: Frequent complaints on plan limits ... synthetic data flaws” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Ahrefs Brand Radar
21%
5 of 24 labels negative · 4 of 12 models
“their pricing model is aggressive... Only choose this if you are already a heavy Ahrefs user; otherwise, Scrunch offers a similar experience for less money.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt
Peec AI
10%
3 of 31 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Peec AI, Otterly AI, AthenaHQ: Frequent complaints on plan limits ... Peec criticized for agencies/SMBs” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

23 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 236 links across 119 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

semrush.com
vendor site · Semrush7 answers · 12 citations · 3 models
frase.io
vendor site · Frase7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
visible.seranking.com
vendor site · SE Ranking7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
kime.ai
vendor site · KIME6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
wpengine.com
vendor site · WP Engine6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
amplitude.com
vendor site · Amplitude5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
alhena.ai
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
position.digital
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
wellows.com
vendor site · Wellows5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
zapier.com
vendor site · Zapier5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
siftly.ai
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
tryprofound.com
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

frase.io/blog/the-10-best-ai-visibility-tools-in-2026
6 answers · 2 models
visible.seranking.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools
6 answers · 2 models
wpengine.com/blog/ai-visibility-tracking-tools
6 answers · 2 models
kime.ai/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools
5 answers · 2 models
position.digital/blog/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools
5 answers · 2 models
wellows.com/blog/ai-visibility-tools
5 answers · 2 models
zapier.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tool
5 answers · 2 models
brainlabsdigital.com/the-10-best-tools-for-tracking-ai-visibility
4 answers · 2 models
amplitude.com/compare/best-ai-visibility-monitoring-tools
3 answers · 2 models
beomniscient.com/blog/ai-visibility-tool
3 answers · 1 model

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Wellows
Three alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, GrackerAI, Otterly
SiftlyChanged
Three alternativesOtterly, Peec AI, SE Ranking's AI Search Toolkit
MentionovaOtterly
Five alternativesGeneo, Mutinex, Nightwatch, Rankscale, SE Visible
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniAthena
One alternativeSemrush Enterprise / Enterprise AIO
against: HubSpot AEO GraderSE RankingChanged
Five alternativesBlueJar, Otterly, Profound, Scrunch, ZipTie
Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
One alternativeOtterly
AIclicks, HubSpot AEO Graderagainst: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkitno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashHubSpot AEO Grader
Four alternativesLLM Pulse, Mentionova, Otterly, Profound
Peec AIChanged
Three alternativesProfound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Trackerly.ai
RadarKit
Six alternativesHubSpot AEO / Grader, Peec AI, Profound, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Writesonic
against: OtterlyRadarKit, Rankscale
Three alternativesBing Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console, Otterly
against: Visby.AIProfound, RadarKit, Scrunch
Four alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Azoma, Lumar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: AthenaHQ, Semrush's native AI visibility add-ons
Perplexity SonarWellows
Four alternativesGoodie, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound
SE RankingChanged
Two alternativesPeec AI, Profound
no first choice
Seven alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Brandlight, Frase, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
One alternativeRankscale
against: Ubersuggestno first choicenothing named
Grok 4.1 FastPeec AI
One alternativeOtterly
against: ProfoundOtterlyChanged
One alternativeSemrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Profound/SiftlyProfound
Four alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Three alternativesGoogle Analytics 4, HubSpot AEO Grader, Rank Prompt
AirOps, Profound
Two alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, AthenaHQ, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AIO Enterprise
Mistral SmallPeec AI
Four alternativesAthenaHQ, Otterly, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
SE RankingChanged
Two alternativesOtterly, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Cognizo
Two alternativesHubSpot AEO Tool, Writesonic
Otterly
Three alternativesAthenaHQ, HubSpot AEO Grader, SE Ranking AI Visibility Tracker
Profound
Three alternativesAirOps, AthenaHQ, Scrunch
against: 1ClickVPN Proxy, BrightEdge, Conductor, Urban Ad Blocker, Urban Browser Guard, Urban VPN Proxy
DeepSeek V4 FlashPeec AI
Three alternativesMentionova, Otterly, Wellows
against: ProfoundOtterlyChanged
One alternativeMaxAEO
against: ProfoundOtterly
Six alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader / Tool, Mention, Mentionova, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly, Rankscale
Two alternativesGeoptie, HubSpot AEO Grader
no first choice
Four alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, seoClarity ArcAIagainst: Copy.ai, Jasper, Writesonic
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceno first choiceHeldno first choiceSEOptimer
Three alternativesBusiness.com, Peec AI, Visible
AthenaHQ, Profound, Scrunchnothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashOmnibound
Two alternativesPeec AI, SE Ranking
against: Semrush AI Visibility ToolkitScrunchChanged
One alternativeSE Ranking
against: Ahrefs Brand RadarPeec AI, Profound
Ten alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, AthenaHQ, Frase, Mentionova, Otterly, Rankscale, SE Ranking, SE Visible, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Surfer SEO
LLM Pulse
Three alternativesAIclicks, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly
against: Profound, Scrunchno first choiceagainst: Ahrefs Brand Radar, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Kimi K2Scrunch
Four alternativesAIVO Platform, Goodie, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
TracemetryChanged
Four alternativesBrand24, Chatbeat, Otterly, Scrunch
against: ProfoundProfound
Six alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Peec AI, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Writesonic
Otterly, Rankscale
Three alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI, ZipTie.ai
no first choiceagainst: Otterly, Peec AI, Profound
GLM 4.7 FlashXSemrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Three alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Profound
Astiva AIChanged
Four alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Profound
Ten alternativesAIclicks, AirOps, Amplitude AI Visibility, Goodie, HubSpot AEO Grader, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Trackerly.ai, ZipTie, xSeek
Otterly, Rankscale
Two alternativesPeek, ZipTie
against: Waikay.iono first choicenothing named
MiniMax M2.5Wellows
Two alternativesMentionova, Profound
SE VisibleChanged
Three alternativesLumar, Seobility, Track My Visibility
Frase, Profound
Five alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, ZipTie
Otterly, Rankscale
Three alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Keyword.com AI Tracker, ZipTie
Profound
Four alternativesConductor, HubSpot AEO Grader, Omnibound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, SEMrush Standard AI Toolkit
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 22:56yes77 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:42yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:20yes1924 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:08yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:52yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:20yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:27yes042 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:21yes01 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:56yes053 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:39yes027 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:16yes015 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:17yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:12yes169 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:13yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 22:54yes1719 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:08yes195 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:13yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:55yes04 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:16yes031 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:57yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:29yes046 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:37yes041 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 00:10yes0110 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:01yes029 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:44yes810 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:43yes816 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:49yes1222 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:07yes2011 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:05yes012 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 04:54yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:02yes030 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:13yes03 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:44yes035 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:04yes031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 05:03yes026 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:51yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:22yes169 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:28yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:40yes2523 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:32yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:37yes08 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:32yes09 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:39yes015 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:54yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:25yes024 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:51yes032 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:48yes0129 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:53yes010 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:03yes1713 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:27no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:25yes1521 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:09yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:36yes07 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:31yes08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:35yes073 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:06yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:35yes075 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 00:54yes087 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:44yes0106 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:41yes018 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 04:09yes3116 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:54yes67 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:29yes1823 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:54yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 03:32yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:10yes010 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:42yes027 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:42yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:12yes039 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:05yes054 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:09yes022 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:52yes044 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

Claude Haiku 4.5
3 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
4 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
6 of 6 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
2 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.1 Fast
3 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
3 of 6 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
5 of 5 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
6 of 6 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
6 of 6 flipped
Kimi K2
3 of 5 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
4 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
4 of 5 flipped

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
Semrush read as Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Unresolved, counted raw
1ClickVPN Proxy
AIVO Platform
Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker
Ahrefs/SEMrush add-ons
Astiva AI
Athena
Azoma
Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance dashboard
BlueJar
Business.com
Chatbeat
Geneo
Genrank
GetCito
Google Search Console's generative report
HubSpot AEO / Grader
HubSpot AEO Grader / Tool
HubSpot AEO Tool
LLMRankings.io
Profound/Siftly
SE Ranking AI Visibility Tracker
Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker
Semrush Enterprise / Enterprise AIO
Semrush Free AI Visibility Checker
Semrush's free AI Search Visibility Checker
Semrush's native AI visibility add-ons
Semrush/Ahrefs add-ons
Siftly
Similarweb AI
Surfer AI Tracker
Temso
Tracemetry
Track My Visibility
Urban Ad Blocker
Urban Browser Guard
Urban VPN Proxy
Visby.AI
Visible
Wellows AI Overviews Tracker
Wellows ChatGPT Visibility Tracker
Wellows Perplexity Visibility Tracker
Yext Scout
ZipTie.ai
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in marketing

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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