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

AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools for small business buyers

Asked as “AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool”, and as “tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 45 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Clear leader
47% of first choices, clear leader.

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.

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Otterly47%6%52endorsed leader
02Wellows11%10%10accepted challenger
03Peec AI4%9%33accepted challenger
04HubSpot AEO Grader4%12%26accepted challenger
05Rankscale2%0%14accepted challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Profound0%56%27criticized challenger
07Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit0%39%28criticized challenger
08Ahrefs Brand Radar0%36%14criticized challenger
06Frase0%10%10accepted 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.

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
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative60%
Key
01Otterly47%
02Wellows11%
03Peec AI4%
04HubSpot AEO Grader4%
05Rankscale2%
06Frase0%
07Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit0%
08Ahrefs Brand Radar0%
09Profound0%

02What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash 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
56%
15 of 27 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“Enterprise-focused tools like Profound: ... Best for large brands, not small teams—overkill and expensive without scaling needs.” Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt
Scrunch
86%
6 of 7 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Do not subscribe to **Profound**, **Scrunch**, or **Semrush** solely for AI tracking right now.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
39%
11 of 28 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Do not subscribe to **Profound**, **Scrunch**, or **Semrush** solely for AI tracking right now.” Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt
Ahrefs Brand Radar
36%
5 of 14 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Ahrefs: limited to Google-centric data, monthly refreshes only ... poor standalone value—fragmented and non-scalable for 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

22 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. 195 links across 105 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.

vendor site · SE Ranking7 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Wellows6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Zapier6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Frase5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · HubSpot4 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Ayzeo4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Capterra3 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Amplitude3 answers · 4 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Semrush3 answers · 4 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.

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 small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 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 a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5GrackerAI, Wellows
Six alternativesAIclicks, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI, Peek, ProductRank.ai
Otterly, Peec AIChanged
Two alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, GrackerAI
ZipTie
Four alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Mentionova, Peec AI, SE Ranking
Otterly
Two alternativesAyzeo, Beamtrace
no first choiceagainst: AthenaHQ, Profound
GPT-5.4 miniAnswer Monitor
Two alternativesAI Visibility Score, First Answer
against: HubSpot AEO Grader
HubSpot AEO GraderChanged
One alternativeOtterly
against: Profound
Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
One alternativePeec AI
Otterly
One alternativeHubSpot AEO Grader
against: Peec AI
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashRadarKit
Four alternativesAIclicks, Gracker AI, Rankscale, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
RankscaleChanged
Three alternativesLLMrefs, Otterly, Searchable.com
Otterly
Five alternativesAIclicks, OmniSEO, Orchly.ai, Peec AI, SE Ranking
Beamtrace, RadarKit
Three alternativesOtterly, Rankscale, SE Ranking
against: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Orchly.ai
Six alternativesAnalyze AI, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console, HubSpot's AEO Tool, Peec AI, Writesonic
against: BrandOps, Profound
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, AthenaHQ, Brandi AI, Gauge, Geoptie, Profound, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Perplexity SonarOtterly
One alternativePeec AI
against: Profound, Wellows
SE RankingChanged
Two alternativesOtterly, Peec AI
Otterly, Peec AI
Two alternativesSemrush AI Visibility Toolkit, ZipTie
against: HubSpot AEO Grader
Otterly
Two alternativesGuzu AI, Indexly
against: Frase, Surfeo
no first choiceagainst: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Conductor, Profound, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Similarweb
Grok 4.1 FastOtterly
Three alternativesFrase, HubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI
against: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
OtterlyHeld
Three alternativesBirdeye's Free AI Visibility Checker, Peec AI, Rankscale
against: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly, Rankscale.ai
Three alternativesPeec AI, SEOptimer, ZipTie
against: Profound, Scrunch
Otterly
Two alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Semrush AI Visibility Checker
against: Rankscale.ai
no first choice
Five alternativesAIclicks, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, HubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, ZipTie
Mistral SmallWellows
Four alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI, Peek
OtterlyChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, SE Ranking's AI Visibility Tracker
HubSpot AEO Grader & AEO, Otterly
Three alternativesGoodie, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Four alternativesAIclicks, Arobis AI Visibility Checker, Beamtrace, HubSpot AEO Grader
Otterly
Seven alternativesAthenaHQ, Peec AI, Rankscale, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Surfer SEO + AI Tracker, Wellows
against: ChatGPT, ChatGPT for Google, Google Gemini, Merlin, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, Sider, TinaMind
DeepSeek V4 FlashOtterly
Four alternativesHubSpot's free AEO Grader, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, ZipTie
WellowsChanged
Two alternativesOtterly, Peek
against: SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Four alternativesHubSpot AEO + free AEO Grader, Peec AI, Rank Prompt, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: Profound
Otterly
Four alternativesAirefs, Geoptie, HubSpot AEO Grader, Rankscale
HubSpot AEO Grader
Seven alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound, Rankscale, SE Ranking, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
against: AthenaHQ, Goodie, Otterly, Profound, Scrunch
Llama 4 MaverickAmplitude AI Visibilityno first choiceChangedFrase
Four alternativesContentpen, Hall, Otterly, ZipTie
Ayzeo
Two alternativesOtterly, Peec AI
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashAyzeo
Three alternativesOtterly, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Peec AIChanged
Three alternativesAthenaHQ, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Four alternativesAkii, LLM Pulse, Rankability, Thruuu
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Three alternativesAEO Vision, FixAEO, HubSpot's AI Search Grader
against: Ahrefs Brand Radar, Profound, Scrunch, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
no first choicenothing named
Kimi K2Otterly
Four alternativesAthenaHQ, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
OtterlyHeld
One alternativePeec AI
against: Nightwatch, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Otterly
Five alternativesFrase, HubSpot AEO Grader, Mentionova, Peec AI, ZipTie
against: Profound
Otterly
Two alternativesRankscale, ZipTie
against: HubSpot's AEO Grader
Ayzeo
Five alternativesGeoptie, HubSpot AEO Grader, LLM Pulse, Otterly, Peec AI
against: Otterly, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
GLM 4.7 FlashXOtterly
Two alternativesPeek, Wellows
OtterlyHeld
Three alternativesFrase, Mutinex, Wellows
HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly
Five alternativesAhrefs Brand Radar, AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Pixis Visibility, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Wellows
Two alternativesLLMrefs, Peek
against: Otterly
no first choiceagainst: AthenaHQ, Profound, Scrunch
MiniMax M2.5Integrate.io, Yextagainst: BrightEdgeOtterly, WellowsChanged
One alternativePeek
HubSpot AEO Grader
Three alternativesFrase, Otterly, ProductRank.ai
Ayzeo, Otterly
Two alternativesHubSpot AEO Grader, Rankscale
no first choicenothing named
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-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:44yes159 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 22:53yes44 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:37yes1319 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:43yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-14 23:18yes08 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:56yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 00:02yes023 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:53yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:54yes047 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:21yes036 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:03yes032 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:24yes016 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:33yes79 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:56yes24 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:58yes1822 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:46yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:24yes04 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:41yes05 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:23yes026 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:16yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:06yes041 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:02yes026 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:30yes068 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:10yes021 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:20yes1312 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:40yes58 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:41yes1321 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:55yes209 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 00:43yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:34yes08 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:41yes025 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:38yes03 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:58yes039 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:16yes068 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:31yes017 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:07yes015 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:34yes159 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:38yes34 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:46yes1821 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 02:05yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 04:53yes09 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:23yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:46yes019 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:39yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:14yes054 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:55yes027 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:06yes045 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:41yes018 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:59no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:51no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:32yes1418 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 22:59yes1513 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 05:02yes09 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:17yes011 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:29yes026 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 01:18yes01 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:34yes042 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:22yes030 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:15yes021 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:19yes028 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 03:17yes149 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:22yes26 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:34yes1826 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:52yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-15 01:29yes08 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:49yes09 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 02:32yes046 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:26yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:26yes040 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 22:57yes043 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:15yes050 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:39yes032 s

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
Ahrefs (Brand Radar) read as Ahrefs Brand Radar
HubSpot read as HubSpot AEO Grader
Semrush read as Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Semrush (AI Visibility Toolkit) read as Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Unresolved, counted raw
AI Search Sensor
AI Search Watcher
AI Visibility Score
Ahrefs Free AI Checker
Akii
Answer Monitor
Arobis AI Visibility Checker
Birdeye's Free AI Visibility Checker
Birdeye's tool
BrandOps
BrandPeek
BrandRank.ai
Brandi AI
ChatGPT for Google
First Answer
FixAEO
GetMint
Gracker AI
Guzu AI
HubSpot AEO + free AEO Grader
HubSpot AEO Grader & AEO
HubSpot's AEO Tool
Mangools AI Search Grader
Merlin
Norg
OmniSEO
Pixis Visibility
Rankscale.ai
Reachroller
SE Ranking's AI Tracker
SE Ranking's AI Visibility Tracker
Scrunch AI Core
Searchable.com
Sider
Sill
Surfeo
Surfer SEO + AI Tracker
TinaMind
Topify
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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