Every tool in this comparison now calls itself an AI SEO tool, and four of the six only added that claim in the last year. Semrush, Ahrefs and SE Ranking bolted AI-engine tracking onto platforms built for keyword rankings and backlinks. Koalr, Frase and Surfer SEO built newer, and each drew the line between "included" and "add-on" somewhere different, so the sticker price on the pricing page is rarely the price you pay for the coverage you want.
| Tool | Entry price | AI engines at that price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koalr | £79/mo (Starter) | 7 of 7, no add-ons | Full AI-engine coverage from day one |
| Semrush | $99/mo (AI Visibility Toolkit) | 5, Claude on Enterprise only | All-in-one SEO plus AI visibility |
| SE Ranking | $129/mo (Core) | 5, bundled | Cheapest bundled AI tracking on a full SEO suite |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | $129/mo base + $398/mo add-on | 6, plus Grok; no Claude | Teams already paying for Ahrefs's backlink index |
| Frase | $49/mo (Starter) | 5, bundled on every plan | Cheapest way to bundle AI tracking with content briefs |
| Surfer SEO | $158/mo (AI Search Analytics, annual) | 5, on AI Tracker plans only | AI content optimization, not AI-engine breadth |
Koalr's price is read directly from koalr.ai/pricing. The other five change plan names and AI-tracking limits often enough that each figure below is attributed to the 2026 review, vendor page or help-doc article that reported it, not to a live crawl.
What is an AI SEO tool?
An AI SEO tool is software that either optimizes content using AI, tracks how a brand appears in AI-generated answers, or both. The category split cleanly two years ago into content tools (AI-assisted briefs, on-page scoring) and visibility tools (does ChatGPT name you). In 2026 the two are merging, and every tool below now claims some piece of the visibility half, whether or not it was built for it.
That merge is why this comparison exists. A buyer searching "AI SEO tools" today is as likely to land on a backlink platform with a bolted-on AI tracker as on a purpose-built one, and the two are priced, and staffed, completely differently.
What to check before you buy an AI SEO tool
- Which AI engines are included at the price you'll actually pay, not the cheapest tier on the pricing page
- Whether the prompt allowance is shared across your whole account or counted per site
- Whether AI tracking is bundled into the base plan or sold as a separate add-on
- What a second brand or client costs, not just the first one
- Whether pricing is public or requires a sales call to find out
- Whether you need traditional rank tracking and backlinks too, or AI visibility alone
1. Koalr: best for full AI-engine coverage without add-on pricing
Koalr tracks all seven AI engines it monitors on every paid plan, from the £79 Starter tier upward: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. There is no per-engine add-on and no engine held back for a higher tier, which puts it apart from every other tool in this comparison.
ChaseBest for: buyers who want the engine-coverage question settled at signup instead of discovered a tier later.
Key features: 7 AI engines refreshed daily on every plan; 25 to 50 tracked prompts per site by tier; 5 to 20 tracked competitors per site; a free AI Visibility Score scan across all 7 engines with no card required; a 7-day free trial on every plan.
Pros: the only tool here with no engine gated behind a tier or an add-on, and pricing is public on koalr.ai/pricing rather than behind a sales call. Prompts are counted per site rather than pooled across the account, so a second brand does not thin out the first one's coverage.
Cons: Koalr does not do traditional rank tracking, backlink analysis or content-brief generation, the jobs Semrush, Ahrefs, Frase and Surfer SEO were all originally built for. It is also the newest name on this list and has not accumulated the years of independent reviews the other five carry.
Verdict: the straightforward pick if AI-engine visibility is the job and you would rather not budget for add-ons you have not seen yet. Pair it with a separate SEO tool if you also need rank tracking.
2. Semrush: best all-in-one bundle of SEO and AI visibility
Semrush sells AI-engine tracking two ways. The standalone AI Visibility Toolkit is $99 a month for one domain and 25 tracked prompts, covering brand mentions, sentiment and share of voice against up to nine competitors. Semrush One's Starter bundle is $199 a month and folds that toolkit into core SEO Pro features across five domains with 50 daily prompts, which independent pricing breakdowns put roughly $40 a month cheaper than buying the two separately.
Best for: teams that already run Semrush for keyword and rank tracking and want AI visibility on the same invoice.
Key features: brand mention, citation and share-of-voice tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Google AI Overviews; Prompt Research and AI Search Site Audit reports; the full Semrush Pro toolkit (keyword research, rank tracking, backlink analysis) on the One bundle.
Pros: the deepest bench of traditional SEO tooling of any name on this list, and a single login covers both AI visibility and the SEO work that still drives most traffic today.
Cons: Claude sits behind the separate Enterprise AIO tier, so one of Koalr's seven engines is missing at the price most buyers pay. Extra prompts cost $60 a month for 50 more, and a second domain is another $99.
Verdict: a strong option if the traditional SEO half of the bundle is doing real work for you already. Buying it purely for AI visibility means paying for a lot of SEO tooling you may not need.
3. SE Ranking: best value AI tracking bundled into a full SEO platform
SE Ranking includes basic AI-engine tracking in its Core plan at $129 a month ($103.20 on annual billing): AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, up to 100 prompts a day across five GEO domains, with no separate toolkit purchase required. A $89-a-month AI Search add-on ($71.20 annual) sits on top for teams that want the SE Visible dashboard: deeper competitor analysis, sentiment and brand-mention breakdowns.
Best for: buyers who want AI tracking included in a full SEO platform's base price rather than sold as a bolt-on.
Key features: AI-engine tracking bundled into Core; unlimited AI source tracking; a full traditional SEO suite, rank tracking, backlink monitoring, site audits, at the same price; the AI Search add-on for agencies managing several brands.
Pros: the cheapest of the three bundled-SEO-platform options here to include any AI tracking at all in its base tier, and the underlying SEO suite is well reviewed independently of the AI features.
Cons: Microsoft Copilot and Claude are absent from both the Core plan and the AI Search add-on, so two of Koalr's seven engines are simply not available at any SE Ranking tier. The add-on's real value is competitor and sentiment depth, not additional engine coverage.
Verdict: worth a look if you want a traditional SEO platform with AI tracking already switched on, and you can live without Copilot and Claude in the picture.
Buyer asks: “best ai seo tools that also track chatgpt and google ai overviews”
Several established SEO platforms, including Semrush and Ahrefs, have added AI visibility tracking alongside their existing keyword and backlink tools, letting you monitor brand mentions across ChatGPT and other AI engines from one dashboard.
This answer skips the part that actually decides the bill: which engines are included at the price shown, and which ones cost extra once you start using the tool. One tool on this list prices by platform and another gates the whole feature behind a higher tier, and none of that shows up in a one-line recommendation.
4. Ahrefs Brand Radar: best for teams already paying for Ahrefs's backlink index
Ahrefs Brand Radar is an add-on, not a plan: it requires an active Ahrefs subscription starting at $129 a month for Lite, then charges $398 a month for a selection of AI platforms or $699 a month for all of them. Independent reviews put the realistic all-in cost, base plan plus a useful engine bundle, between $828 and $1,148 a month.
Best for: agencies and SEO teams that already run Ahrefs for backlink research and rank tracking and want the deepest AI-visibility indexes money can buy on top of it.
Key features: tracking across six AI platform indexes, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, with Grok listed alongside them; 2,500 prompt checks a month included in the bundled tier; Ahrefs's full backlink index and rank-tracking suite as the base layer underneath.
Pros: Ahrefs's backlink index has no real substitute among these six, and Brand Radar's per-platform depth is built for teams that need audit-grade detail rather than a quick score. It is also the only tool here besides Koalr to cover Microsoft Copilot.
Cons: the most expensive route to AI-engine coverage in this comparison by a wide margin, at roughly 2.5 times the average price of a dedicated AI-visibility tool according to independent cost breakdowns. Claude is not among the tracked platforms, and the per-platform pricing means partial coverage costs almost as much as the full bundle.
Verdict: defensible if Ahrefs's backlink data is already load-bearing for your SEO work. As a first AI-visibility purchase on its own, the price does not compete.
5. Frase: best budget entry for AI-visibility tracking plus content briefs
Frase folded AI-visibility tracking into every plan in 2026, a feature that used to cost $35 a month extra. Starter is $49 a month ($39 annual) for 10 content-brief articles; Professional is $129 a month for 40 articles, and Scale is $299 a month for 100 articles and 1,000 audit pages. Frase's feature page names five tracked platforms, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google AI, and says tracking is part of the platform on every tier rather than a per-plan allowance. What the plans meter is content-brief articles and prompts, not engines.
Best for: content teams whose main job is AI-assisted briefs and on-page optimization, with AI-visibility tracking as a genuine bonus rather than the main event.
Key features: AI content briefs and on-page SEO scoring; AI-visibility tracking bundled into every tier, including the $49 entry plan; site audits and API access on every plan; a 7-day free trial.
Pros: the lowest entry price in this comparison to get any AI-visibility tracking at all, and folding a feature that used to be a paid add-on into the base price is a genuine buyer-friendly move. It is also the only tool here other than Koalr to cover Claude without an enterprise contract.
Cons: five platforms against Koalr's seven, with Microsoft Copilot outside the list, and the fifth entry is written as "Google AI" rather than splitting AI Overviews from AI Mode, so whether both Google surfaces are reported separately is worth asking before you buy. The tiers meter the prompt allowance rather than the engine list, so check it against the number of questions you need watched.
Verdict: the value pick if content briefs are the main reason you are buying and Claude coverage matters. Less convincing as a standalone AI-visibility tool, where the reporting depth is thinner than the tools built for it.
6. Surfer SEO: best for AI content optimization, not AI-engine breadth
Surfer SEO's AI Tracker, which monitors how often a brand or topic shows up in AI answers, is gated to the plans that carry it: AI Search Analytics at $158 a month billed annually, Pro at $182, and Peace of Mind at $299. Surfer's own page names the five engines it supports, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity, which leaves Microsoft Copilot and Claude out. Surfer has renamed its pricing tiers at least three times since 2022, so treat any specific tier name here as a snapshot rather than a fixture.
Best for: teams whose primary spend is AI-assisted content optimization, where AI-engine tracking is a secondary feature bolted on top.
Key features: Content Editor with AI-generated drafts and page audits; the AI Tracker for brand and topic visibility on AI engines, at the higher tiers; a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Pros: the Content Editor is one of the more established AI writing and optimization tools in this list, independent of anything AI-visibility related.
Cons: the AI Tracker is not available on Surfer's entry tiers, and the cheapest plan that carries it costs more than every dedicated AI-visibility option here while covering five of Koalr's seven engines. Buying Surfer specifically for AI-engine visibility means paying content-tool prices for a feature that arrived after the platform, not before it.
Verdict: solid if content optimization is the job you are hiring for. Weakest choice here if AI-engine visibility is the actual reason you are shopping.
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What does full AI-engine coverage cost?
Sticker prices are not comparable across these six, because each one bundles a different set of engines into a different base price. Price out coverage close to Koalr's seven engines and the gap widens rather than closes.
| Tool | Plan needed | List price | Engines covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Koalr | Starter | £79 | 7 of 7, included |
| Semrush | AI Visibility Toolkit | $99 | 5 named, no Claude |
| SE Ranking | Core plus AI Search add-on | $218 | 5 named, no Copilot or Claude |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Lite base plus full platform bundle | $828 | 6 named, no Claude |
| Frase | Starter | $49 | 5 named, no Copilot |
| Surfer SEO | AI Search Analytics (annual) | $158 | 5 named, no Copilot or Claude |
Prices are list prices in each vendor's stated currency, not converted. Engine counts are the platforms each vendor names on its own product or documentation pages, which is also what the interface shots above show. Figures for tools other than Koalr are attributed to the sources named in each entity section.
None of the five reach Koalr's seven engines at any price these sources confirmed. Four of them stop at five, and the one that goes further, Ahrefs, still leaves Claude out and charges past $800 a month to get there. Claude is where the list splits: only Koalr and Frase cover it without an enterprise contract, and only Koalr and Ahrefs cover Microsoft Copilot.
Which AI SEO tool should you choose?
Choose Koalr if AI-engine visibility is the job itself and you want every engine included from the first invoice. Choose Semrush if you already run its SEO suite and want AI visibility on the same login, accepting that Claude sits outside the standard tier. Choose SE Ranking if a full SEO platform with AI tracking already switched on beats a dedicated tool for your budget. Choose Ahrefs Brand Radar if its backlink index is already essential to your work and price is not the deciding factor. Choose Frase if content briefs are the primary purchase and Claude coverage on a $49 plan matters more than reporting depth. Choose Surfer SEO if AI-assisted content optimization is what you are actually buying.
Two tools here are worth the same sentence: an SEO platform with AI tracking bolted on will always trail a tool built for AI visibility first, on engine breadth if nothing else. Whether that trade is worth the convenience depends on how much of the rest of the platform you use.
Frequently asked questions
Frase's Starter plan at $49 a month is the cheapest entry point that includes any AI-visibility tracking, covering five named platforms alongside 10 content-brief articles. For dedicated AI-engine coverage without a content-tool bundle, Koalr's Starter at £79 a month is the cheapest plan in this comparison that includes all seven tracked engines with no add-ons.
Run this comparison against your own brand instead of taking a vendor's word for it: scan a domain free at koalr.ai, no card required, across all 7 tracked engines. For how AI visibility tools price out specifically for agencies managing several client brands, see the best AI visibility tools for agencies. For what to do once you know where you stand, see how to track your brand across ChatGPT and Gemini. Questions about plans go to hello@koalr.ai.
