# AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane, the publisher, sells software in this category. Every product here is measured by the same method as in every other category.

Gane 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 mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/2026-09

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/index.md

**Standing:** Otterly leads with 20% of first choices; verdict contested. 50 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Otterly](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/otterly/index.md) | 20% | 9% | 43 |
| 2 | [Profound](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/profound/index.md) | 10% | 24% | 38 |
| 3 | [Rankscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/rankscale/index.md) | 10% | 0% | 16 |
| 4 | [Peec AI](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/peec-ai/index.md) | 8% | 10% | 31 |
| 5 | [Scrunch](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/scrunch/index.md) | 8% | 5% | 21 |
| 6 | [SE Ranking](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/se-ranking/index.md) | 6% | 7% | 14 |
| 8 | [HubSpot AEO Tool](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-aeo-tool/index.md) | 4% | 9% | 22 |
| 10 | [Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/semrush-ai-visibility-toolkit/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 32 |
| 13 | [AthenaHQ](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/athenahq/index.md) | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 22 | [Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/ahrefs-brand-radar/index.md) | 0% | 20% | 25 |
| 24 | [ZipTie](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/ziptie/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 108 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

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

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Wellows; alternatives Ahrefs Brand Radar, GrackerAI, Otterly
- GPT-5.4 mini: Athena; alternatives Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: HubSpot AEO Tool; alternatives LLM Pulse, Mentionova, Otterly, Profound
- Perplexity Sonar: Wellows; alternatives Goodie, Otterly, Peec AI, Profound
- Grok 4.20: Peec AI; alternatives Otterly
- Mistral Small: Peec AI; alternatives AthenaHQ, Otterly, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Peec AI; alternatives Mentionova, Otterly, Wellows
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Omnibound; alternatives Peec AI, SE Ranking
- Kimi K2: Scrunch; alternatives AIVO Platform, Goodie, Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit; alternatives Ahrefs Brand Radar, Otterly, Profound
- MiniMax M2.5: Wellows; alternatives Mentionova, Profound

## Sources the answers cite

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

- semrush.com: 8 answers, 13 citations
- tryprofound.com: 8 answers, 9 citations
- reddit.com: 7 answers, 11 citations
- frase.io: 7 answers, 7 citations
- visible.seranking.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- zapier.com: 7 answers, 7 citations
- youtube.com: 6 answers, 22 citations
- alhena.ai: 6 answers, 6 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tool (7 answers)
- https://frase.io/blog/the-10-best-ai-visibility-tools-in-2026 (6 answers)
- https://visible.seranking.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (6 answers)
- https://wpengine.com/blog/ai-visibility-tracking-tools (6 answers)
- https://brainlabsdigital.com/the-10-best-tools-for-tracking-ai-visibility (5 answers)
- https://kime.ai/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (5 answers)
- https://position.digital/blog/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools (5 answers)
- https://reddit.com/r/SEO_tools_reviews/comments/1qx5oek/best_budgetfriendly_tools_for_ai_visibility_geo (5 answers)
- https://wellows.com/blog/ai-visibility-tools (5 answers)
- https://youtube.com/watch?v=DMPSZw75vko (5 answers)

## Warned against

- Profound: 9 of 38 labels 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: 4 of 43 labels negative. "Peec AI, Otterly AI, AthenaHQ: Frequent complaints on plan limits ... synthetic data flaws" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 5 of 25 labels negative. "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: 3 of 31 labels negative. "Peec AI, Otterly AI, AthenaHQ: Frequent complaints on plan limits ... Peec criticized for agencies/SMBs" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.