In short
- Listed paid answer engine optimization (AEO) prices range from $39/month billed yearly (Rank.ai) to $2,500/month (Am I On AI's GEO Council tier), as of October 29, 2026.
- Promptwatch lists 13 engines, while FoundByChat focuses on ChatGPT search only and checks every 2 hours.
- Mangools and HubSpot offer free one-off brand snapshots; FoundByChat provides 5 free GEO audits daily without an account.
- Rank.ai, Writesonic and Evertune bundle AI articles or ad management with tracking; Gauge Growth includes 18 articles a month.
When researching what answer engine optimization is, you will find multi-model brand trackers and page-level index monitors. This comparison covers 9 AEO tools and their coverage, pricing and limits.
AEO tools compared
This table compares 9 AEO tools on entry price, engines, free access and main use case.
| Tool | Entry price or access | AI engines or models checked | Free option | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FoundByChat | Free to start | ChatGPT search | Yes, plus free GEO audit (no account) | Knowing when ChatGPT finds, cites or rewrites pages |
| Am I On AI | $100/mo | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews | 7-day trial, free AI Visibility Audit | Weekly tracking across audience segments |
| Gauge | $599/mo | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Copilot (6 on Enterprise) | 1,000 free Gauge Agents credits | Daily prompt tracking and coding-agent evaluations |
| Evertune | $60/mo | Up to 5 on Starter, 11 on Pro | 7 days free on Ads Agent (no free plan) | Multi-sample tracking and ChatGPT ads |
| Promptwatch | $95/mo | 13 engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, etc.) | 7-day free trial | Broad coverage with crawler logs and analytics |
| Writesonic | $79/mo annual ($99/mo monthly) | ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews (9 on Enterprise) | Free trial (no card) | Daily tracking with AI content and site audits |
| Rank.ai | $39/mo yearly ($49/mo monthly) | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini | Free plan (3 articles/mo), 14-day trial | Automated article publishing with tracking |
| Mangools AI Search Grader | Not published (free grader) | GPT-5 Nano, Mistral Small, Llama 3.3, DeepSeek, Claude Haiku, Gemini Flash Lite | Free (3 models no login; 6 with free account) | Fast visibility percentage and AI Search Score; 6 models available |
| HubSpot AI Search Grader | $50/mo (HubSpot AEO) | GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity, Gemini | Free snapshot (form fill for full report) | Quick sentiment and share-of-voice score |
The tools
FoundByChat
FoundByChat tracks when ChatGPT's search finds, cites or rewrites your pages. Add your website and customer questions, and FoundByChat asks ChatGPT with web search on every 2 hours as a user in the US (English) or the Netherlands (Dutch). It logs whether a page was "Found" or "Cited" and its usual position, lists "Pages in ChatGPT's index" with the title and snippet ChatGPT keeps, and emails you on "New in the index", "Snippet changed" or "No search results" (three consecutive checks after baseline).
It is free to start via Google or email link (no password or card). A free GEO audit (5/day, no account) fetches your page using the OAI-SearchBot user agent, rebuilds the title and ~200-character snippet, checks ChatGPT and gives a score out of 100 with a letter grade. It offers an English/Dutch interface and API keys. It checks ChatGPT search only, without tracking other engines, competitors or visibility scores.
Am I On AI
Am I On AI (amionai.com) tracks ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews weekly, runs prompts from local IP addresses and says it supports all languages. On October 29, 2026, Pro cost $100/month (up to 150 prompts), Prism $349/month (up to 750 prompts, 5 audience segments) and GEO Council $2,500/month, with no annual billing shown. It includes a 7-day trial and a free cardless "AI Visibility Audit".
Gauge
Gauge (withgauge.com) offers AI search visibility (Gauge Chat) and coding-agent evaluations (Gauge Agents). On October 29, 2026, Growth cost $599/month for 600 daily prompts (54,000 answers/month) on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Copilot, 1 location, 18 articles/month and 3 seats. Enterprise is custom (6 platforms). Gauge Agents gives 1,000 free credits.
Evertune
Evertune (evertune.ai) measures AI visibility and offers ChatGPT ads and retargeting through its Ads Agent. It tracks 140 countries and 33+ languages. On October 29, 2026, Starter was $60/month for 5,000 credits across up to 5 models with daily checks (~50 prompts on 1 model at 3 daily samples). Pro is $800/month annually ($1,000 monthly) for 100,000 credits, 11 models and 25 articles/month. The first 7 days on the Ads Agent are free; there is no free plan.
Promptwatch
Promptwatch (promptwatch.com) combines prompt tracking, crawler logs, visitor analytics and content agents across 13 engines (including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, DeepSeek and Mistral). On October 29, 2026, Essential was $95/month (50 prompts, 6,000 responses, 1 project), Professional $245/month (150 prompts) and Business $579/month (350 prompts, up to hourly updates), with a 7-day trial.
Writesonic
Writesonic (writesonic.com) pairs AI visibility with content and SEO tools. On October 29, 2026, Starter was $99/month ($79/month annually) for 50 prompts tracked daily in 1 market, 15 AI articles/month and 10 site audits on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Enterprise tracks 9 engines. A cardless trial is available.
Rank.ai
Rank.ai (rank.ai) checks questions daily and publishes articles. On October 29, 2026, Starter cost $49/month ($39/month yearly) for 5 AI questions, 30 articles/month, 25 Google keywords and 1 site on ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. It has a free plan (3 articles/month) and a cardless 14-day Growth trial.
Mangools AI Search Grader
Mangools AI Search Grader (mangools.com/ai-search-grader) is a free one-off grader returning a visibility percentage and AI Search Score (0 to 100) in under a minute. On October 29, 2026, testing GPT-5 Nano, Mistral Small and Llama 3.3 required no login; DeepSeek, Claude Haiku and Gemini Flash Lite needed a free account.
HubSpot AI Search Grader
HubSpot AI Search Grader (hubspot.com/ai-search-grader) is a free snapshot checking GPT-5.4 mini, Perplexity and Gemini in under 2 minutes. It scores out of 100 on sentiment (40), presence quality (20), recognition (20), share of voice (10) and competition (10), requiring a form fill for the full report. Ongoing HubSpot AEO tracking was $50/month on October 29, 2026, or included in Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise.
How we compared
Competitor pricing and product details come from vendor pages, with pricing sources dated October 29, 2026. Compare prompt sampling methods alongside entry prices, and see our best GEO tools and best AI visibility tools guides.
How to choose
- Verify crawler access first. Use FoundByChat's free GEO audit to check OAI-SearchBot access, robots.txt rules for OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User, and whether menu or cookie text leaks into ChatGPT's ~200-character snippet.
- Match check frequency. FoundByChat checks every 2 hours and emails on snippet changes; Am I On AI refreshes weekly.
- Pay only for needed engines. For ChatGPT alone, compare dedicated ChatGPT rank trackers instead of paying for 11 or 13 models.
- Decide on bundled content. Rank.ai and Writesonic include AI articles; Gauge Growth includes 18 articles a month, and Evertune Pro includes 25 articles a month from its Content Agent; FoundByChat focuses strictly on what ChatGPT finds and cites.
FOUNDBYCHAT
Know the moment ChatGPT picks up your pages
We ask ChatGPT your questions every 2 hours and mail you what its index picked up or rewrote. Free to start: sign in with Google or an email link.
Questions
What is the cheapest AEO tool?
FoundByChat is free to start with no credit card, and Rank.ai has a free plan with 3 articles a month. Among the listed prices on October 29, 2026, Rank.ai Starter is lowest at $39/month billed yearly ($49/month monthly), followed by HubSpot AEO at $50/month and Evertune Starter at $60/month.
Are there free answer engine optimization tools?
Yes. FoundByChat offers a free GEO audit (5 audits a day, no account needed) and is free to start for question monitoring. Mangools AI Search Grader and HubSpot AI Search Grader both run free one-time brand snapshots.
Does blocking GPTBot stop my site from showing up in ChatGPT search?
No. GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler, whereas OAI-SearchBot is the search crawler and ChatGPT-User fetches pages for users. Blocking GPTBot does not remove a site from ChatGPT search, and FoundByChat's GEO audit checks robots.txt rules for all three bots.
How many engines or models do these AEO tools list?
On October 29, 2026, Promptwatch listed 13 engines (including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, DeepSeek and Mistral). Evertune Pro listed 11 models, and Writesonic Enterprise listed 9 engines.