10 Best AEO and GEO Tools in 2026
Short answer: Writesonic at $79 a month, billed annually, when you need the tracker and the articles on one invoice. Otterly at $29 a month when 15 prompts on four engines is enough. Surfer's standalone tracker at $82 a month, billed yearly, when the drafts already live in Surfer.
A score and a page an assistant can cite are different purchases, and most teams need one of each. Dupple data: Toolradar, our software directory, tracks 241 SEO tools as of September 2026, and answer-engine products are a slice of that SEO category, not a separate catalog of 241 AEO tools. The monitoring-only shortlist stays in best GEO tools, and every price below was checked on the vendor's own site on September 23, 2026, and the data-heavy ranking of this question is Toolradar's guide.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writesonic | Tracking and articles on one bill | $79/mo billed annually | 50 prompts and 15 articles on Starter |
| Otterly | A small prompt set, daily | $29/mo Lite | Four engines included, add-ons for the rest |
| Surfer | Teams already in the editor | $82/mo yearly for 50 prompts | Standalone tracker, or bundled with documents |
| Peec AI | A specialist tracker with unlimited users | €85/mo Starter, monthly | 50 prompts, choose 3 models, 1 project |
| Rankscale | Many engines on a credit meter | From $20/mo | Pro is the first tier with a published credit count |
| Semrush | Teams that already pay Semrush | $99/mo per domain | 25 tracked prompts, no free trial |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | A huge search-backed prompt index | $699/mo all platforms | Chatbot index updates once a month |
| AthenaHQ | Many models and an action list | $295/mo Starter, Essential free | 3,600 credits, API is an add-on |
| Scrunch | A fixed prompt cap and light on-page work | $250/mo Core | 125 prompts, 4 engines, 1 brand |
| Profound | A security review and a custom contract | Free 7-day trial, then custom | Trial prompts are not editable |
What an AEO or GEO tool actually does
An AEO or GEO tool measures whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google's AI answers name your brand, or it changes the page those answers can cite, and the two names describe that same job.
Otterly, Peec, Rankscale, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Profound sell the measurement. Writesonic and Surfer sell the measurement plus the document when the page is still unwritten. Scrunch and AthenaHQ add a thinner action on top of a prompt or credit budget. If the brand is missing entirely, start with why a brand does not show up in AI search and what answer engine optimization is, while Zero-click search is the traffic problem underneath.
How we chose
I ranked 10 products a marketer can buy for the AI answer, the page that gets cited, or both. Toolradar's SEO category is the closest directory count, and it is not an AEO-only catalog. Prices come from vendor sites on September 23, 2026, and I did not run a month of prompts in each product. No vendor paid for a slot, and the Peec and Surfer affiliate links did not set the order.
Writesonic, the invoice that tracks and writes
Writesonic is the default when the team does not already live in another editor, because Starter tracks the brand and ships the articles on one invoice.
Who it's for: Teams that want ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews plus a monthly article quota. Skip it when Perplexity or Claude is the engine you must see this month.
On the pricing page, annual billing saves 20%. Starter is $79 a month billed annually, and the card shows a $240 a year saving, with 50 prompts, 50 answers a day, 15 articles, and 10 audits of 100 pages. Basic is $199 a month billed annually for 100 prompts and 25 articles. Growth is $399 a month billed annually for 200 prompts, sentiment, 50 articles, and an Action Center trial of 5 off-page plus 5 on-page actions, while Enterprise is custom and tracks all 10 platforms. Extra Basic users are $50 a month, and Growth can add 20 articles for $100 a month. You can start without a card, with a 7-day refund.
The catch: Starter, Basic, and Growth list the same three engines. Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI, and Google AI Mode sit on Enterprise, and sentiment starts on Growth.
Buy it for the score and the next article, and skip it when the engine you care about is not in those three.
Otterly, the cheapest daily prompt cap
Otterly sells a prompt allowance. Every paid tier includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot, with unlimited seats and daily tracking.
Who it's for: A short question list that fits in 15 prompts and one workspace. A second brand, or Gemini on day one, is a different invoice.
The pricing page lists Lite at $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard at $189 for 100, and Premium at $489 for 400. Annual rates are $25, $160, and $422 a month. A 100-prompt pack is $99 a month, or $1,020 a year, and Lite cannot buy it. Gemini and Google AI Mode are $9, $59, and $149 a month by tier. Claude is $109 and $439 above Lite, and on Lite the add-on matches the plan price. Enterprise starts from 1,000 prompts, with no posted fee. The help center lists a 50-prompt trial, and a second country uses a second prompt slot.
The catch: Lite is one workspace, three recommendations a week, and 1,000 GEO audits a month. Claude on Lite costs as much as the plan, and a second brand means Standard.
The right first monitor when those four engines and the Lite cap match the job.
Surfer, when the writing already happens there
Surfer sells the AI tracker alone or inside the writing plans. The directory page is the product record, and this link is an affiliate link.
Who it's for: Teams that already optimize pages in Surfer, and a weak first buy if you have no pages to edit.
The docs price the standalone tracker in dollars and euros: $95 a month or $82 billed yearly for 50 daily prompts, $185 or $158 for 100, and $365 or $308 for 200. It covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, and Gemini, daily, with 5 workspaces. The pricing page lists Standard at $99 a month billed yearly, with 25 weekly prompts and 360 documents, Peace of Mind at $299, Discovery at $49, and $182 yearly on the tier between them. The standalone trial is 7 days and does not cancel itself.
The catch: Weekly refresh on Standard can hide a prompt swing for six days, and the standalone tracker includes no document quota.
Stay if Surfer is already the editor, and buy the standalone tracker only when you do not need the documents.
Peec AI, the specialist tracker with a euro menu
Peec AI is the measurement product when the writing happens elsewhere. See the Peec review, the directory review, and the Toolradar page, an affiliate link.
Who it's for: Managers who want a posted prompt cap, three models, and unlimited users, without an article quota on the same bill.
The brand pricing page displayed euros on September 23, 2026. Starter is €85 a month monthly for 50 prompts, 3 models, unlimited users, and 1 project. Pro is €205 for 150 prompts and 2 projects. Advanced is €425 for 350 prompts, 5 projects, multi-country tracking, and Looker Studio. Enterprise is custom, up to 13 models, and the model list shows ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Perplexity, and Gemini. An extra model on the annual view is €25, €55, or €115 a month. Agency plans start at the Pro rate for about 111 prompts, then €425 and €675.
The catch: A fourth engine is an add-on, Starter is one project with no article quota, and agency entry is not a discount on Starter.
The clean tracker when writers already have a tool, after you confirm the currency on the button.
Rankscale, wide engines until the credits run out
Rankscale meters queries. The pricing page lists ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Mistral, Grok, Copilot, and more, at a typical 0.25 credits per engine per prompt.
Who it's for: Buyers who want Claude or Grok in the base set and will watch the credit balance.
Essentials starts at $20 a month, with no published credit count. Pro is $99 a month with 1,200 credits, up to 4,800 answers, and 10 dashboards. Growth is $385 with 5,500 credits and up to 22,000 answers. Enterprise is $780 with 12,000 credits and up to 48,000 answers, and yearly billing saves 15%. Rankscale's own example, 50 prompts at 0.75 credits on a weekly schedule, is 162.5 credits a month. At 0.25 credits, 50 prompts on three engines daily for 30 days is 1,125 credits, inside Pro, while a fourth engine is 1,500, which is not.
The catch: Pro is the first tier with a published credit number, Claude costs more than 0.25 on the calculator, and a daily wide set will not live on Essentials.
Best when engine breadth is the requirement and someone will do the credit math.
Semrush, only if the login is already paid
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit is an add-on, not the cheapest way to watch a small prompt set.
Who it's for: SEO teams that want AI mentions beside keyword data and will not open a second platform for a small prompt set.
The knowledge base lists the toolkit at the per-domain monthly rate in the table, with no trial, 1 domain, 25 tracked prompts, 300 daily AI Analysis queries, and 1,000 daily prompt-research queries. The pricing page showed €94.94 a month per domain, billed annually, for mentions in ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, and Perplexity. Another 50 prompts are $60 a month. Semrush One raises the cap to 50, 100, or 200 prompts. An extra domain and an extra user license bill at the toolkit rate. Prompt tracking is daily, and Brand Performance is weekly.
The catch: The included prompt cap is a pilot, a second domain repeats the line, and there is no trial.
Add it when Semrush is already the system of record.
Ahrefs Brand Radar, a giant index that is not a daily feed
Ahrefs Brand Radar searches prompts modeled on real searches, a different job from questions you typed.
Who it's for: Teams that want discovery across a huge index and can live with a monthly chatbot refresh.
The help center prices one AI index at $199 a month and all platforms at $699 a month, with 2,500 custom prompt checks. Prompt packs are $50 a month for 2,500 checks and $100 for 7,000. Ahrefs Lite is $129 a month, and annual billing saves up to 17%. The chatbot index updates once a month, custom prompts can run daily, Claude uses 8 checks, Grok collection is paused, and the index holds 405 million or more prompts.
The catch: All-platform access is not a daily ChatGPT monitor, yesterday's answer requires custom prompts, and Claude spends the pack eight times faster.
Strong for discovery, and the wrong substitute for a daily prompt tracker.
AthenaHQ, many models, and the API is extra
AthenaHQ sells credits, where 1 credit is 1 AI response, plus on-page and off-page actions.
Who it's for: Teams that want a long model list on a posted price. It is the wrong buy if a small prompt set would have done the job.
The plans page lists Essential as free, with a $25 credit and 300 credits, on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, and Copilot. Starter is $295 a month, with a $300 credit noted on the card and 3,600 credits across 11 models, including Claude, Grok, and DeepSeek. API access is a paid add-on, and Enterprise is custom.
The catch: The free tier is a sample, not a program. The full Starter allowance is under 9 cents a response, and the API is another quote.
Use it for the wide model list after you price the API add-on.
Scrunch, a fixed cap and one page a month
Scrunch is a prompt cap with a small optimization allowance, not an article factory.
Who it's for: One brand, 125 prompts, and four engines at a flat monthly price. A second brand, or Claude, is the enterprise conversation.
The pricing page lists Core at $250 a month for 125 prompts, 5 site audits, 1 brand workspace, and 5 licenses. Engines are ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and Copilot, with 1 country, 1 language, and 1 page optimization a month. Enterprise is custom and adds Claude, Gemini, Grok, the Agent Experience Platform, and SAML SSO.
The catch: A second brand is not a setting on Core, and one page a month will not replace an article quota.
Sensible for that flat bill on one brand and four engines.
Profound, a trial and then a quote
Profound is the enterprise product here, and it publishes no list price past the trial. The Profound review and Profound vs Peec go further.
Who it's for: Companies that need SSO, SOC 2, and a week on a fixed trial before procurement.
The pricing page lists a free trial and custom Enterprise. The trial runs 50 prompts daily for 7 days on ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews, and you cannot edit those prompts. Enterprise tracks up to 9 engines, with API, SSO or SAML, and SOC 2, and both plans include unlimited seats. Agency Growth is described at 400 credits a month per client workspace, with no dollar on the page.
The catch: Nothing posted sits between the trial and a custom contract, and the trial's three engines are not the product you renew.
Right when security review is the gate, and wrong when you need a number for this afternoon's budget.
What a real month costs
Fees were checked on vendor pages on September 23, 2026, for one brand unless the plan says otherwise. A short list stays on Otterly Lite, Writesonic Starter, or Peec Starter, and growing it means Otterly's Standard tier or Rankscale's Growth tier once a fourth daily engine no longer fits Pro. Three Standard workspaces cost three times that rate, Peec's agency entry matches brand Pro, Scrunch Core still will not add a second brand, and Ahrefs' index stays separate from Lite.
How to choose an AEO or GEO tool
Match the missing piece, then the invoice. If nobody is writing the page, Writesonic or Surfer is the buy. If the page exists and you only need the score, Otterly, Peec, or Rankscale is enough. If Semrush or Ahrefs is already paid, add that toolkit before a new login.
After the score, you still need a page worth citing. Showing up in ChatGPT answers, ranking in Perplexity, and promoting a SaaS are that half of the job.
Common mistakes when buying these tools
Do not expect Perplexity on Writesonic's lower plans, because Starter, Basic, and Growth cover ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews, and the other seven platforms are an Enterprise conversation.
Do not treat Otterly's included engines as the full set, because Gemini and AI Mode are add-ons, Claude on Lite costs as much as the plan, and a second workspace is the Standard tier.
Do not read Rankscale's entry price as a daily monitor, because Pro is the first tier with a published allowance and a wide daily set overshoots it.
Do not treat Ahrefs' all-platform price as a daily feed, because the chatbot index updates once a month and yesterday's answer requires custom prompts.
Do not budget Profound from a list price, because it publishes none past the trial, and the trial prompts are not editable.
Do not assume Semrush's included prompts cover the next domain, because another domain, another user license, and a further prompt block are billed separately.
Do not assume Athena's API sits inside the Starter price, because the plans page lists API access as a paid add-on and the free tier is only a sample.
FAQ
What are the best AEO and GEO tools in 2026?
Writesonic, at $79 a month billed annually, when you need articles and a three-engine tracker together. Otterly's Lite plan when a small prompt set on ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Copilot is enough. Surfer, at $82 a month billed yearly, when the team already writes there. Peec is the specialist tracker on a euro menu, and Profound is a free trial then a custom contract.
How much do AEO and GEO tools cost in 2026?
On September 23, 2026, posted entries ran from Rankscale at $20 a month and Otterly Lite at $29, through Writesonic's annual Starter rate and Peec Starter at €85, up to Scrunch Core at $250, Athena Starter at $295, and Ahrefs all platforms at $699. Profound publishes no brand price past the trial. Semrush's pricing page showed €94.94 a month per domain, billed annually, against the knowledge base's dollar rate in the table.
Is there a free AEO or GEO tool in 2026?
Athena Essential is free, with a $25 credit and 300 credits on five engines. Profound's trial is free for 7 days and 50 prompts you cannot edit. Otterly's help center lists a 50-prompt trial, and Surfer's standalone tracker has a 7-day trial that does not cancel itself. Semrush's toolkit has no free trial. Peec, Scrunch Core, and Writesonic's paid tiers are paid plans, though Writesonic lets you start without a card and states a 7-day refund.
Should I buy Writesonic, Otterly, or Surfer?
Buy Writesonic when you need the score and a monthly article quota, knowing Perplexity is not on the entry plans. Buy Otterly when the job is a prompt allowance you can grow with add-ons for Gemini or Claude. Buy Surfer when the editor is already the habit: the yearly standalone tracker if you do not need more documents, or the writing plan billed yearly when you do.
How do Profound and Peec compare in 2026?
Peec publishes Starter at €85 a month for 50 prompts, three models you choose, and unlimited users. Profound publishes a 7-day trial of 50 locked prompts on three engines, then custom Enterprise with up to 9 engines, SSO, and SOC 2. Pick Peec when you need a number for this month's budget, and pick Profound when procurement is the gate. The comparison is the longer version of that split.
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
They are two names for getting a brand into AI answers, and into the classic answer boxes that sit above ordinary links. The buying difference is whether the tool measures the answer, writes the page, or sells a thin action on top of a prompt cap.
Do I still need Ahrefs or Semrush if I buy a dedicated tracker?
Yes, if you still need keywords, backlinks, and a site audit. Ahrefs Lite is $129 a month before Brand Radar's index fees, and Semrush's AI toolkit is a separate per-domain charge with 25 prompts. A dedicated tracker does not replace that SEO work, and the suite add-on is often too small to be your only prompt set.
Bottom line
Start with Writesonic when you need the article and the score, Otterly when a small allowance will do, and Surfer when the drafts already live there. Move to Peec, Rankscale, Semrush, or Ahrefs when the job is measurement inside a tool you already understand, and leave Profound until you are ready for a quote.
Dupple X is the weekly briefing on these answer-engine prices, or start the trial. Louis Corneloup, founder of Dupple and Toolradar, checked the vendor pages, and no vendor paid for a slot. The about page names the editorial team.
Cite this: Dupple, "10 Best AEO and GEO Tools in 2026", September 2026.
