Best AI Visibility Tracking Tools in 2026: Profound vs Peec vs Otterly vs Brand Radar
We compared the leading AI visibility tracking tools for B2B in 2026. Profound, Peec AI, Otterly, and Ahrefs Brand Radar rated on engine coverage, metrics, and price.
Quick Answer
Best AI visibility tracking tools for B2B in 2026: Profound is the enterprise leader, tracking 9 or more engines with deep analytics, backed by $155M in funding and a $1B valuation. Peec AI is the agency and marketing-team favorite, fast-growing and priced for teams. Otterly is the best entry point at $29 per month across 7 engines. Ahrefs Brand Radar is the value pick if you already run Ahrefs. Choose by engine coverage, the metrics you need (mention rate, citation frequency, share of voice), and budget, not by feature-list length.
An AI visibility tool answers one question: when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini about your category, does your brand come up, and how do you compare to the competitor down the street?
That question matters more every quarter. Forrester's 2026 Buyers' Journey Survey of 18,000 global business buyers found 94% used AI during their most recent purchase. If you are not measuring your presence in those answers, you are flying blind on the channel your buyers now use first.
I have run most of these tools against real B2B accounts. The short version: there is no single best tool, there is a best tool for your team size, engine mix, and budget. Below is the honest comparison, plus the metrics that actually matter so you do not overpay for dashboards you will not use.
What an AI Visibility Tool Measures
Before comparing vendors, get clear on the metrics. Every serious tool reports some combination of these:
- Mention rate. How often your brand appears in AI answers for your tracked prompts.
- Citation frequency. How often your actual pages are linked or cited as sources, which is different from being name-dropped.
- Share of voice. Your presence versus named competitors across the same prompt set. This is the number executives care about.
- Sentiment. Whether the mention is positive, neutral, or negative.
- Prompt-level detail. Which specific buyer questions trigger you, and which trigger competitors instead.
A quick note on a trap: being mentioned and being cited are not the same. A tool can show a healthy mention rate while your site earns zero citations, which means the engine knows your name but is not sending anyone your content. We break down that gap in our piece on AI share of voice. Pick a tool that separates the two.
The Four That Matter for B2B
Profound: the enterprise standard
Profound is the most heavily funded pure-play in the category. It raised a $96M Series C led by Lightspeed at a $1B valuation in February 2026, bringing total funding to $155M (SiliconANGLE, PRNewswire). It tracks the widest set of engines, nine or more, and adds agentic crawl data and deep analytics built for large teams.
Who it is for: enterprises and well-funded scale-ups that need broad coverage, granular analytics, and can justify enterprise pricing. If you have a dedicated team and Fortune 500 ambitions, this is the deep end.
Peec AI: the agency and team favorite
Peec AI is a dedicated generative-engine visibility platform that grew fast, passing $4M in revenue in its first ten months (reported 2026). It is popular with marketing teams and agencies because it balances real analytics with a workflow built for people managing visibility day to day.
Who it is for: in-house marketing teams and agencies that want serious tracking without enterprise overhead.
Otterly: the best entry point
Otterly starts at $29 per month and tracks all 7 major AI engines. It is the most affordable credible option and the right first tool for a company that wants to establish a baseline before committing budget.
Who it is for: startups and lean teams running their first AI visibility baseline.
Ahrefs Brand Radar: the value pick
If you already pay for Ahrefs, Brand Radar folds AI mention and citation tracking into the toolset you use for backlinks and rankings. It will not match a pure-play on depth, but the marginal cost is low and the data lives next to your existing SEO work.
Who it is for: teams already inside the Ahrefs ecosystem that want AI visibility without a new subscription.
Comparison Table
| Tool | Engine coverage | Best for | Entry price | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profound | 9+ engines | Enterprise teams | Enterprise (custom) | Deepest analytics, agentic crawl data |
| Peec AI | Multi-engine | Agencies, marketing teams | Team pricing | Fast-growing, workflow-first |
| Otterly | 7 engines | Startups, first baseline | $29/mo | Lowest credible entry cost |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Multi-engine | Existing Ahrefs users | Bundled with Ahrefs | Value, unified with SEO data |
Pricing and coverage move quickly in this category. Confirm current numbers with each vendor before you buy. The tiers above reflect reporting and vendor pages as of mid-2026.
Other Tools Worth Knowing
The four above are the core B2B set, but a few others show up in real evaluations: Nightwatch, SE Ranking, Semrush, and Frase all offer some form of AI visibility tracking, often bundled into broader platforms. Zapier and Frase both maintain useful running comparisons if you want a wider field. For most B2B teams, though, the decision comes down to the four we detailed, because they are built specifically for this job rather than adding it as a feature.
How to Choose Without Overpaying
Run this checklist against any tool before you commit:
- Does it cover the engines your buyers use? For B2B in 2026 that means at least ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. ChatGPT sat at 76% of buyers using it for work and Gemini at 62% in G2's 2026 survey, so those two are non-negotiable.
- Does it separate mentions from citations? If it only reports one, you will misread your own performance.
- Can you track named competitors? Share of voice is only useful against a real competitive set.
- Is the prompt set editable? Canned prompts rarely match how your buyers actually ask. You need to add your own.
- Does the price match the stage you are at? Do not buy Profound to run your first baseline. Do not run a Fortune 500 program on a $29 plan.
The most common mistake I see is buying on feature count. A tool with forty features you ignore is worse than a focused one you check every week. Start with the cheapest tool that covers your engines and separates mentions from citations, get a baseline, then upgrade when the data starts driving real decisions.
Tools Measure, They Do Not Fix
Here is the part the tool vendors will not put on the pricing page. A visibility tool tells you where you stand. It does not improve your standing. That takes the actual work: entity and schema optimization, citation-worthy content, and off-site presence.
This is exactly the split the ANSWER Framework is built around. A tool powers the Audit and Refine stages, giving you the baseline and the monthly measurement. The Navigate, Structure, Write, and Earn stages are where visibility actually gets built. Buy a tool to see the scoreboard. Then do the work that changes the score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best AI visibility tool for B2B? There is no single winner. Profound leads for enterprises, Peec AI for agencies and marketing teams, Otterly for a first baseline at $29 per month, and Ahrefs Brand Radar for existing Ahrefs users. Match the tool to your team size, engine coverage needs, and budget.
How much do AI visibility tools cost? Entry-level tracking starts around $29 per month with Otterly. Team and agency tools run higher, and enterprise platforms like Profound use custom pricing. Confirm current rates directly with each vendor.
What is the difference between a mention and a citation? A mention is your brand name appearing in an AI answer. A citation is your actual page being linked as a source. You can have mentions without citations, which means the engine knows you but is not driving traffic to your content.
Do I need a paid tool or can I check manually? You can spot-check manually by asking ChatGPT and Perplexity your buyer questions, and a free audit will give you a baseline. A paid tool matters once you need continuous tracking, competitor share of voice, and prompt-level data.
Which engines should a B2B tool cover? At minimum ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, because those are where B2B buyers research most in 2026. Broader coverage helps but those four are the core.
The Takeaway
Pick the cheapest AI visibility tool that covers your buyers' engines and cleanly separates mentions from citations. Otterly for a first baseline, Peec AI or Profound as you scale, Brand Radar if you already live in Ahrefs. Then remember what the tool is for: it is the scoreboard, not the game. The visibility itself gets built through structured, citation-worthy content and off-site authority.
Want your baseline before you buy anything? Run a free AI visibility audit to see how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini mention you today.
Sources
- SiliconANGLE, "Profound raises $96M at $1B valuation" (February 2026)
- PRNewswire, "Profound Raises $35M Series B" and Profound funding disclosures (total raised $155M)
- Forrester 2026 Buyers' Journey Survey (18,000 global business buyers; 94% used AI in most recent purchase)
- G2 2026 global survey of B2B decision-makers (ChatGPT 76% work use, Gemini 62%)
- Otterly, Frase, and Zapier 2026 AI visibility tool comparisons; Peec AI revenue reporting
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