# AI visibility and answer engine tracking tools: what AI models recommend, October 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, October 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 fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/ai-visibility-tracking/2026-10

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since.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. 55 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% | 6% | 36 |
| 2 | [Peec AI](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/peec-ai/index.md) | 16% | 8% | 40 |
| 3 | [Profound](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/profound/index.md) | 15% | 29% | 42 |
| 4 | [HubSpot AEO Tool](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/hubspot-aeo-tool/index.md) | 9% | 0% | 27 |
| 5 | [Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/semrush-ai-visibility-toolkit/index.md) | 5% | 18% | 38 |
| 6 | [Rankscale](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/rankscale/index.md) | 5% | 8% | 12 |
| 7 | [SE Ranking](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/se-ranking/index.md) | 4% | 15% | 13 |
| 9 | [Scrunch](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/scrunch/index.md) | 2% | 18% | 11 |
| 11 | [Ahrefs Brand Radar](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/ahrefs-brand-radar/index.md) | 2% | 32% | 22 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 90 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: Peec AI, Profound; alternatives HubSpot AEO Tool, Otterly
- GPT-5.4 mini: Profound; alternatives Bluefish, BrightEdge AI Catalyst, Conductor, HubSpot AEO Tool
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Orchly AI; alternatives Ahrefs Brand Radar, GrackerAI, Peec AI, Profound
- Perplexity Sonar: Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit; alternatives Quattr
- Grok 4.20: Peec AI; alternatives AthenaHQ, HubSpot AEO Tool, Profound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Mistral Small: Profound, SE Ranking; alternatives Peec AI, Qwairy
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: HubSpot AEO Tool; alternatives Cognizo, Omnibound, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Llama 4 Maverick: Peec AI; alternatives HubSpot AEO Tool, Qwairy, SE Ranking
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: DeepSmith; alternatives Peec AI, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- Kimi K2: Peec AI; alternatives Otterly, Searchable
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Otterly; alternatives Rankscale, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
- MiniMax M2.5: CrowdReply; alternatives Cognizo
- GPT-6 Luna: Peec AI; alternatives Otterly, Profound
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Peec AI, Profound; alternatives Qwairy, SE Ranking

## Sources the answers cite

79 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- blog.hubspot.com: 46 answers, 90 citations
- semrush.com: 21 answers, 39 citations
- airops.com: 21 answers, 29 citations
- rankability.com: 17 answers, 20 citations
- cognizo.ai: 16 answers, 26 citations
- tryprofound.com: 16 answers, 18 citations
- business.com: 16 answers, 16 citations
- integrate.io: 15 answers, 15 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/answer-engine-optimization-tools (26 answers)
- https://airops.com/blog/answer-engine-optimization-tools (17 answers)
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-ai-visibility-tools (16 answers)
- https://business.com/categories/best-ai-visibility (16 answers)
- https://integrate.io/blog/best-ai-visibility-tracking-tools (15 answers)
- https://semrush.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (15 answers)
- https://kime.ai/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools (14 answers)
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tool (14 answers)
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ai-search-analytics-tools (13 answers)
- https://capterra.com/resources/how-to-choose-ai-search-visibility-tools (13 answers)

## Warned against

- Profound: 12 of 42 labels negative. "Tools to Approach with Extra Caution or Avoid (if possible):
- Profound: Privacy concerns" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 7 of 22 labels negative. "rated this tool poorly (1.1/10), describing its methodology as "spurious."... Likely to waste time until the underlying data model is refined." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: 7 of 38 labels negative. "Mid-market companies often struggle with "pay-per-keyword" pricing from massive enterprise suites (like Semrush/Ahrefs) which can get astronomically expensive" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, scale prompt)
- Peec AI: 3 of 40 labels negative. "General Red Flags Across Many Tools (e.g., Otterly.ai, Peec AI, Scrunch, Geneo, Rankscale):" (Grok 4.20, negative prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Otterly at 19%.

- Scrunch: 8% to 2%, −6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 5 → 10 of 85.
- Profound: 10% to 15%, +5. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 2 of 85, unchanged.
- Peec AI: 8% to 12%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 4 → 3 of 85.
- HubSpot AEO Tool: 4% to 8%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 8 → 4 of 85.
- Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit: 2% to 6%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 10 → 5 of 85.
- Rankscale: 10% to 6%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 6 of 85.
- SE Ranking: 6% to 4%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 6 → 7 of 85.
- Ahrefs Brand Radar: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 22 → 11 of 85.
- AthenaHQ: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 13 → 23 of 85.
- Otterly: 20% to 19%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 85, unchanged.
- ZipTie: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 24 → 79 of 85.

## Record

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