# AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI visibility and answer engine tracking tool" and as "tool for tracking brand visibility in AI answers", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://gtm-ai-index.com/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/smb/

**Standing:** Otterly leads with 47% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 45 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Otterly | 47% | 6% | 52 |
| 2 | Wellows | 11% | 10% | 10 |
| 3 | Peec AI | 4% | 9% | 33 |
| 4 | HubSpot AEO Grader | 4% | 12% | 26 |
| 5 | Rankscale | 2% | 0% | 14 |
| 6 | Frase | 0% | 10% | 10 |
| 7 | Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | 0% | 39% | 28 |
| 8 | Ahrefs Brand Radar | 0% | 36% | 14 |
| 9 | Profound | 0% | 56% | 27 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: GrackerAI, Wellows; alternatives AIclicks, HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI
- GPT-5.4 mini: Answer Monitor; alternatives AI Visibility Score, First Answer
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: RadarKit; alternatives AIclicks, Gracker AI, Rankscale, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Perplexity Sonar: Otterly; alternatives Peec AI
- Grok 4.1 Fast: Otterly; alternatives Frase, HubSpot AEO Grader, Peec AI
- Mistral Small: Wellows; alternatives HubSpot AEO Grader, Otterly, Peec AI, Peek
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Otterly; alternatives HubSpot's free AEO Grader, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, ZipTie
- Llama 4 Maverick: Amplitude AI Visibility
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Ayzeo; alternatives Otterly, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Kimi K2: Otterly; alternatives AthenaHQ, Peec AI, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Otterly; alternatives Peek, Wellows
- MiniMax M2.5: Integrate.io, Yext

## Sources the answers cite

22 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- visible.seranking.com: 7 answers, 8 citations
- wellows.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- zapier.com: 6 answers, 6 citations
- frase.io: 5 answers, 5 citations
- blog.hubspot.com: 4 answers, 6 citations
- tryprofound.com: 4 answers, 5 citations
- alhena.ai: 4 answers, 4 citations
- ayzeo.com: 4 answers, 4 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://wellows.com/blog/ai-visibility-tools (6 answers)
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tool (6 answers)
- https://frase.io/blog/the-10-best-ai-visibility-tools-in-2026 (5 answers)
- https://visible.seranking.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (5 answers)
- https://ayzeo.com/blog/ai-search-visibility-tools-small-businesses (4 answers)
- https://airops.com/blog/answer-engine-optimization-tools (3 answers)
- https://business.com/categories/best-ai-visibility (3 answers)
- https://elfsight.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (3 answers)
- https://flint.com/articles/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools (3 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/answer-engine-optimization-aeo/small-business (3 answers)

## Warned against

- Profound: 15 of 27 labels 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: 6 of 7 labels 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: 11 of 28 labels negative. "Do not subscribe to Profound, Scrunch, or Semrush solely for AI tracking right now." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, budget prompt)
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 5 of 14 labels 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)

## Record

- Method: https://gtm-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://gtm-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as GTM AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, gtm-ai-index.com.