Disclosure: we make Iris, one of the tools below. Every fact about the other tools comes from the vendor's own website, read on 4 November 2026; where a vendor does not publish something clearly, we say so. Prices change often, so check before you buy.
Two different jobs hide behind "AI SEO tool". One is the audit: reading your pages and telling you what stops search engines and AI assistants from understanding and quoting them. The other is measurement: actually asking AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity real questions and recording whether they name you. A perfect audit does not tell you whether you are cited, and a citation tracker does not tell you what to fix. Some tools do one, some do both.
Which tools check whether AI engines actually cite you?
- Iris (nextiqumai.com/iris): audits any page free with no sign-up (3 a day) and scores it for SEO and AI-search readiness with every lost point explained; the citation check (from Seedling, $9 a month) asks live web-search engines, Groq web search and Gemini with Google Search, real buyer questions and reports who they name instead. It does not query Perplexity today. Autopilot (Explorer, $29 a month) applies fixes on Cloudflare, WordPress or Shopify.
- Otterly.AI (otterly.ai): tracks prompts daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with a GEO and crawlability audit. Free trial; Lite $29 a month for 15 prompts, with Gemini and Claude as paid add-ons.
- Semrush (semrush.com): full SEO suite with AI visibility tracking across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity in its paid toolkit; a free checker (no Perplexity) runs 3 times a day without an account. AI Visibility Base from $99 a month per domain, billed annually.
- Ahrefs (ahrefs.com): Site Audit plus Brand Radar across AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini; a free AI visibility checker. Lite $129 a month; Brand Radar from $199 a month; its Patches add-on can publish fixes for you (part of a $200-a-month-per-project plan).
- Rankscale (rankscale.ai): credit-based tracking on 17+ engines including Perplexity, with credit-limited page audits. Pro $99 a month; a $20 Essentials plan is billed yearly only.
- Peec AI (peec.ai): AI search analytics for marketing teams with source and sentiment data; Perplexity is an Enterprise or add-on model. Starter $95 a month. It does not audit pages beyond AI-bot crawl access.
- Profound (tryprofound.com): enterprise platform with page scoring and agents that can publish changes; free 7-day trial; no public price for brands.
- SEOmator (seomator.com): audits plus daily prompt tracking on ChatGPT and Gemini, and drafted fixes you approve; free plan with 10 prompts a day; Starter $49 a month.
- Screpy (screpy.com): low-cost audits; AI visibility tracking on OpenAI, Gemini and Perplexity starts on the Max plan at $45 a month (Pro at $19 a month does not include it).
Which tools audit your pages but do not measure citations?
- Screaming Frog SEO Spider: the most thorough desktop crawler for technical SEO; free up to 500 URLs, a paid licence is €245 a year. It does not ask AI engines whether you are cited.
- Seobility: a free single-page SEO checker with a prioritised task list and a free-forever basic plan; Premium €59.90 a month. AI visibility tracking is marked "coming soon".
- SEOptimer: DIY and white-label audits with embeddable audit forms for agencies; DIY plan $29 a month after a 14-day trial. Its AI citation features could not be confirmed on a readable page.
How do they compare at a glance?
| Tool | Audits pages | Measures AI citations | Perplexity | Applies fixes | Free option | Cheapest paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iris | Yes | Yes (paid) | No | Yes (Explorer) | 3 audits a day, no sign-up | $9 a month |
| Otterly.AI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Recommendations | Trial | $29 a month |
| Semrush | Yes | Yes | Yes (paid) | Recommendations | Free account and checker | $99 a month (annual) |
| Ahrefs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (Patches add-on) | Free checker | $129 a month (Lite) |
| Rankscale | Limited | Yes | Yes | Recommendations | Trial | $99 a month |
| Peec AI | Crawl access only | Yes | Add-on | No | Trial | $95 a month |
| Profound | Yes | Yes | Enterprise | Yes (agents) | 7-day trial | Not published |
| SEOmator | Yes | Yes | Not listed | Drafts to approve | Free plan | $49 a month |
| Screpy | Yes | Max plan | Yes | Recommendations | Trial | $45 a month with AI tracking |
| Screaming Frog | Yes | No | No | No | Up to 500 URLs | €245 a year |
| Seobility | Yes | Coming soon | No | No | Free forever plan | €59.90 a month |
Which one should you pick?
- You want to know what is wrong with your pages, free: Iris, Seobility's checker or Screaming Frog (for a technical crawl) will tell you, without a subscription.
- You want to know whether AI engines name you: you need a measuring tool. Check which engines it asks: Perplexity is included by Otterly, Rankscale, Ahrefs and Screpy's Max plan, but not by Iris today.
- You want the fixes applied, not just listed: Iris Autopilot, Ahrefs Patches and Profound's agents apply changes; the others give recommendations or drafts.
- You are an agency: look at per-site pricing and reports you can send to clients; Iris share links and SEOptimer's white-label reports are built for that.
Whatever you choose, remember what the measurements keep showing: a page that scores 100 is not automatically cited. Engines name the sites their web search returns for the question, and those are usually the sites mentioned on directories, review sites and comparison articles. Fix the pages, then get listed where the engines already look.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between an AI SEO audit and AI citation tracking?
An audit reads your pages and tells you what stops search engines and AI assistants from understanding and quoting them. Citation tracking asks AI engines real questions and records whether your site is named. You can score 100 on an audit and still be named in none of the answers.
Is there a free tool that checks whether ChatGPT mentions my website?
Semrush and Ahrefs both offer a free AI visibility checker with a few checks a day, and SEOmator has a free plan with daily prompt tracking on ChatGPT and Gemini. Iris's free audit scores AI-search readiness; its citation check is on paid plans.
Which tools apply SEO fixes automatically?
Iris Autopilot applies head tags, schema, alt text, llms.txt and Markdown copies on Cloudflare, WordPress or Shopify; Ahrefs Patches publishes fixes through a script or Cloudflare Worker; Profound's agents can publish recommended changes. Most other tools give a list of fixes to apply yourself.
Does a perfect SEO score mean AI engines will cite my site?
No. A high score means your pages are easy to read and quote once an engine finds them. Being found depends mostly on whether other sites, directories, reviews and comparison articles, mention you for the question being asked.