In short
- FoundByChat checks customer questions, records whether ChatGPT's search found your page, tracks its usual search position, and records whether ChatGPT cited it.
- Search position is associated with citations: in FoundByChat's October 2026 study of 218 ChatGPT answers, position 1 of the first search was cited 55.5% of the time, versus 0.4% for position 16+.
- Retrieval is not citation: ChatGPT cited 2.2 URLs per answer on average (10.3% of retrieved results).
- Below we compare FoundByChat (free to start, ChatGPT search only) and 6 multi-engine trackers (with listed prices from $20 to $95/month; LLMrefs' $79 figure comes from January 2026) to support your GEO work.
AI visibility tools compared
The table below compares 7 AI visibility and search tracking tools.
| Tool | Paid plan or starting option | AI engines tracked | Free option | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FoundByChat | Free to start | ChatGPT search | Yes, plus a free GEO audit | Knowing when ChatGPT finds, cites or rewrites your pages |
| Rankscale | $20/mo billed yearly ($204/yr) | 17+ engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, DeepSeek) | Pro free trial | Credit-based tracking across 17+ engines |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo (15% off annually) | 4 on Lite (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot); Claude, AI Mode, Gemini add-ons | Free trial | Budget daily tracking on 4 engines |
| LLMrefs | $79/mo (Jan 2026 article) | 10 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Copilot, Meta AI, DeepSeek) | Free plan and 8 free tools | Keyword-based tracking with generated prompts |
| SE Visible | $89/mo ($71/mo annually) | 4 engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini) | 10-day free trial | High answer volume across 4 engines |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | 3 of 6 on Starter (ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Copilot, Gemini, Naver AI); more on Enterprise | Not published | Brands wanting unlimited users and competitors |
| Promptwatch | $95/mo | 13 engines (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Meta AI, DeepSeek, Mistral) | 7-day free trial | Pairing tracking with crawler logs and analytics |
The tools
The tools differ in prompt frequency and engine coverage. To test one URL without an account, run our free GEO audit to see the title and ~200-character snippet ChatGPT's search keeps.
FoundByChat
FoundByChat tells site owners when ChatGPT's search finds, cites or rewrites their pages. Add your website and customer questions, and FoundByChat asks ChatGPT with web search on every 2 hours as a US (English) or Netherlands (Dutch) user. It records whether ChatGPT's search found your page ("Found"), cited it ("Cited"), and your usual search position. It lists "Pages in ChatGPT's index" with the kept title and snippet, and emails you on "New in the index", "Snippet changed", or "No search results" (three checks in a row with no web results after baseline). Free to start via Google or email link (no password or credit card), with English and Dutch interfaces, API keys, and a free GEO audit (5/day, no account). Checks ChatGPT search only, with no competitor tracking or visibility score.
Rankscale
Rankscale (rankscale.ai) offers credit-based AI visibility and rank tracking. Essentials is $20/month billed yearly ($204/year) for 120 credits (~480 answers), Pro is $99/month or $84/month yearly (1,200 credits, ~4,800 answers), and top tiers reach $780/month. Search terms are unlimited at ~0.25 credit per engine per prompt. It tracks 17+ engines (hourly to monthly), with 94+ check page audits, an API, white-label reports, and a Pro trial.
Peec AI
Peec AI (peec.ai) provides AI visibility analytics for brands and agencies. Starter is $95/month for 50 prompts, 3 active models of 6, 1 country, 1 project, and 4,500 monthly answers, with unlimited users and competitors, plus MCP access. Higher plans cost $245 and $495/month; Enterprise adds Perplexity, Claude, Grok, and DeepSeek. No free plan or trial is listed on the pricing page.
Otterly.AI
Otterly.AI (otterly.ai) monitors brand visibility, sentiment, and citations with GEO recommendations. Lite is $29/month (15% off annually) for 15 prompts across 4 engines with daily tracking and unlimited seats; Claude, Google AI Mode, and Gemini are paid add-ons. Free trial available; no free plan.
LLMrefs
LLMrefs (llmrefs.com) generates prompts from your keywords. Pro is $79/month for 50 keywords and 500 prompts (~20,000 answers) per its January 2026 article; the live card showed no price. It has a free plan (no card) and 8 free tools, covers 10 engines (each keyword updated at least weekly), and includes share-of-voice, unlimited projects/seats, and CSV/API access.
SE Visible
SE Visible by SE Ranking (visible.seranking.com) is a standalone tracker. Basic is $89/month ($71/month annually) for 75 prompts (~11,250 monthly answers), 5 projects, and 1 location; Core is $189/month and Agency is $399/month. SE Visible tracks 4 engines daily and supports 7 countries (US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain), with unlimited seats and a 10-day trial.
Promptwatch
Promptwatch (promptwatch.com) pairs prompt tracking with crawler logs, visitor analytics, and content agents. Essential is $95/month for 50 prompts, 6,000 responses, and 1 project; Professional is $245/month and Business is $579/month (up to hourly updates). It lists 13 engines, has daily updates, and offers a 7-day trial.
How we compared
We gathered prices, limits, and engine lists from vendor pricing pages on October 29, 2026 (and LLMrefs' January 6, 2026 article). We also checked search position tracking, because in FoundByChat's October 2026 study of 218 ChatGPT answers, citation rates dropped sharply by position in the first search:
- Position 1: 55.5% (95% CI 49.1 to 61.9%).
- Position 2: 34.9%.
- Position 3: 27.5%.
- Positions 4 and 5: 14.4%.
- Positions 6 to 10: 8.1%.
- Positions 11 to 15: 2.4%.
- Position 16 and lower: 0.4%.
In our October 2026 local tests, businesses on cited pages had 3.3x the odds of being named for plumbers and 2.1x for dentists (the 1.6x agency lift was not significant). See our best GEO tools and best AI visibility tools roundups.
How to choose
- Track how ChatGPT indexes, positions, and rewrites your pages: Use FoundByChat for 2-hour ChatGPT search checks, Found/Cited tracking, search positions, and index or snippet email alerts.
- Multi-engine AI visibility tracking: Look at Rankscale (17+ engines from $20/mo yearly), Promptwatch (13 engines from $95/mo), LLMrefs (10 engines, each keyword updated at least weekly), or Peec AI (unlimited users/competitors from $95/mo).
- Daily checks on a smaller prompt list: Try Otterly.AI ($29/mo for 15 prompts) or SE Visible ($89/mo, or $71/mo annually, for 75 prompts).
- Inspect one URL without an account: Run FoundByChat's free GEO audit, which fetches your page using the OAI-SearchBot user agent, checks crawler access, robots.txt rules for OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User, HTML without JavaScript, JSON-LD, and snippet leaks, and scores it out of 100.
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 difference between an AI rank tracker and a traditional rank tracker?
FoundByChat asks your questions with ChatGPT web search on and records whether your pages were found or cited and their usual position in search results.
Why does search position inside ChatGPT matter if users only see the answer?
In FoundByChat's study, results nearer the top of the first search were cited more often. In FoundByChat's October 2026 study of 218 ChatGPT answers, position 1 of ChatGPT's first search was cited 55.5% of the time, versus 8.1% for positions 6 to 10 and 0.4% for position 16 and lower.
Does blocking GPTBot stop my site from appearing in ChatGPT search?
No, blocking GPTBot does not remove a site from ChatGPT search. GPTBot is OpenAI's training crawler, whereas OAI-SearchBot is the search crawler and ChatGPT-User fetches pages for users. The GEO audit checks bot protection and robots.txt rules for OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot and ChatGPT-User.
How often should an LLM monitoring tool check my prompts?
Competitors in this roundup update at least weekly (LLMrefs), daily (Otterly.AI, SE Visible, Promptwatch), from hourly to monthly (Rankscale), or up to hourly on Promptwatch Business. FoundByChat checks your questions in ChatGPT search every 2 hours and emails you when a page is new in the index or when its kept title or snippet changes.