AI Search Competitive Analysis Tools: A Practical Approach
Compare AI search competitive analysis tools by price, prompts and engines, and learn which features matter when benchmarking your brand against rivals.
Key takeaways
- AI search competitive analysis tools run the same prompts for you and your rivals, then compare mentions, citations and position across AI engines.
- Three features separate useful tools from reporting toys - automatic competitor detection, per-prompt drill-down to the raw answer, and daily runs.
- Entry prices range from about €25 to $99 a month, but prompt limits differ by a factor of ten or more, so compare cost per prompt.
- Software gives you the numbers; deciding which rivals and prompts matter is still your job.
AI search competitive analysis tools run the same set of prompts for your brand and your rivals across engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, store every answer, and report who is mentioned, cited and ranked first. The best ones detect competitors automatically, let you open the raw answer behind each number, and run daily. This page compares the tools; the step-by-step process is in how to do competitive analysis in AI search.
What should a competitive analysis tool actually show you?
Five outputs matter:
- Share of voice: the percentage of answers that name each brand.
- Position: where a brand appears in the answer (first recommendation or fifth).
- Citations: which domains and URLs the AI used, including rivals’ pages.
- Sentiment: how the answer describes each brand.
- Per-prompt detail: the stored answer, so you can verify any number.
If a tool gives you only a score, you cannot tell what to change. GeoGen reports visibility, sentiment, average position, mentions and citations for you and for automatically detected competitors, per prompt, per country and per language.
How do the main tools compare?
Prices were read from each vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm before buying.
| Tool | Entry price | Prompts at entry | Engines at entry | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GeoGen | €25/mo (€20 yearly) | 10 | Any 2 of 16 | Competitors auto-detected on all plans |
| Otterly | $29/mo | 15 | 4 (ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot) | Claude, AI Mode, Gemini are paid add-ons |
| SE Visible | $99/mo | 200 | 5, including Gemini and AI Mode | Competitor limit not stated on page |
| Semrush AI Visibility | $99/mo per domain (annual) | 25 | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | One domain for brand performance |
| Writesonic GEO | $99/mo ($79 annual) | 50 | 3 (ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews) | One market per plan |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | From €47/mo | Custom prompts | Six, Claude on request | AI Visibility Index from €179/mo |
| Profound | Custom (Enterprise); free 7-day trial | 50 in trial | Up to 9 | No self-serve price listed |
| Peec | Starter, Pro, Advanced | Not published on page | Not published on page | Prices shown at sign-up |
SE Ranking’s own plans also bundle AI tracking (its Core plan lists 100 prompts tracked daily and five AI competitive research domains).
How do you choose between them?
Match the tool to the shape of your problem.
One brand, tight budget. GeoGen Micro or Otterly Lite. Both are cheap; GeoGen lets you choose any two engines from 16, Otterly bundles four.
One brand, many prompts. SE Visible’s 200 prompts for $99 is the lowest cost per prompt in this table.
Several brands or clients. GeoGen Growth (€199/mo billed yearly, 5 brands, 150 prompts) and Pro (€399/mo billed yearly, 15 brands, 300 prompts) price per workspace, not per domain. Pro works out to about €26.60 per brand per month. Semrush prices per domain, which gets expensive quickly.
Enterprise reporting and SSO. Profound’s Enterprise plan lists SSO/SAML, API access and exports. For volume needs, GeoGen’s Custom plan is credit-based; talk to sales.
What are the limits of these tools?
Every tool samples. An AI answer can change between runs, so one day’s share of voice is noisy and a weekly average is not. Tools also differ in how they read engines: GeoGen reads 10 engines as a user sees them and queries 6 directly through the model API, which can give slightly different answers from the consumer app. Never compare a score from one tool with a score from another.
What do you do with competitive data?
Look at where rivals beat you and ask why. The most useful view is citations: if a rival is named because an AI engine cited a particular review site or comparison article, that source is your target. The methodology for turning numbers into actions is in competitive analysis for AI search engines, and citation-specific tools are compared in citation analysis options.
For the broader tool market beyond competitive features, see the AI search monitoring tools comparison, the AI search monitoring hub, and GeoGen’s monitoring product pages.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI search competitive analysis tool?
It is software that asks AI engines the questions your customers ask, records every answer, and shows which brands are mentioned or cited, in what order and how often. It benchmarks you against competitors the way a rank tracker benchmarks keyword positions, except the unit is an AI answer.
What is AI share of voice?
AI share of voice is the proportion of tracked AI answers that mention your brand compared with competitors. If a prompt set produces 100 answers and you appear in 20 while a rival appears in 35, your share is 20% and theirs is 35%. Definitions vary by tool, so keep one throughout.
Do I need to pick competitors manually?
Not always. GeoGen detects competitors automatically from the answers, which surfaces rivals you did not know the AI treated as alternatives. You should still review the list, because AI engines sometimes name adjacent products or media sites that are not real competitors.
How many prompts do I need for a reliable comparison?
Enough that each topic you care about has several prompts, typically 20 to 50 for a small brand. Fewer than ten gives noisy percentages. Run them daily for a few weeks, since a single run of an AI answer is only one sample.
Which AI competitive analysis tool is cheapest?
By entry price, GeoGen's Micro plan at €25 a month (€20 billed yearly) and Otterly's Lite at $29 are the lowest listed in October 2026. By price per prompt, SE Visible's $99 plan with 200 prompts is lower. Check your own prompt needs first.
