Honest measurement · November 2, 2026 · 13 min read
How Much Does AI Visibility Tracking Really Cost?
AI visibility tools cost from $0 to custom enterprise quotes. The cost per tracked prompt per month explains the range. Dated list prices, the arithmetic, and what each number hides.
AI visibility tracking costs from $0 (free plans and trials) to custom enterprise contracts. Published entry plans that include tracking run from $29 to $295 a month, mid plans from $189 to $500, and most enterprise tiers are quote-only. Nearly every tool meters prompts, so the number that explains the range is the cost per tracked prompt per month.
CitePrism wrote this post, and CitePrism is one of the tools in it. Competitor prices are list prices from each vendor’s page, last checked 1 October 2026 unless a different date is shown. They change often; the vendor’s page is the source of truth. Our roundup of AI visibility tools covers features. This post covers money.
The three cost models
Every tool pays for the same thing: prompt sampling, one sampled answer at a time. The models differ in how that cost reaches you.
1. Subscription tiers by prompt count. You pay a fixed monthly price for a fixed number of prompts. Otterly.AI, Peec AI, Trakkr, HubSpot AEO and the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit work this way. It is simple to budget. The model API cost is inside the price, and you cannot see it.
2. Credits or checks. You buy a pool of units, and each prompt on each engine uses some. AthenaHQ (1 credit per AI response), Rankscale (“typically 0.25” credits per query) and Ahrefs Brand Radar (1 check per prompt, platform and location) work this way. It is flexible. It is also hard to predict, because more engines or more runs drain the pool faster.
3. Bring your own keys. You connect your own API keys and pay the model providers directly, at their price. The tool fee on top is small or zero. CitePrism’s free plan works this way. You see the real cost of each run, and you set up provider accounts yourself.
List price per included prompt
The table divides each plan’s monthly list price by the prompts it includes. That is the whole calculation: list price ÷ included prompts. It is a starting point, not a verdict.
| Tool and plan | List price a month | Included prompts | Engines in the base price | List price ÷ included prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly Lite | $29 | 15 | 4 | $29 ÷ 15 = $1.93 |
| Otterly Standard | $189 | 100 | 4 | $189 ÷ 100 = $1.89 |
| Otterly Premium | $489 | 400 | 4 | $489 ÷ 400 = $1.22 |
| Peec AI Starter (third-party figure) | $95 | 50 | 3 of 7 | $95 ÷ 50 = $1.90 |
| Peec AI Pro (third-party figure) | $245 | 150 | 3 of 7 | $245 ÷ 150 = $1.63 |
| Peec AI Advanced (third-party figure) | $495 | 350 | 3 of 7 | $495 ÷ 350 = $1.41 |
| Trakkr Growth | $100 | 50 | 8 | $100 ÷ 50 = $2.00 |
| Trakkr Scale | $500 | 500 (10 brands × 50) | 8 | $500 ÷ 500 = $1.00 |
| HubSpot AEO | $50 | 25 | 3 | $50 ÷ 25 = $2.00 |
| Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit | $99 | 25 | Not fully stated | $99 ÷ 25 = $3.96 |
| CitePrism Pro | $29 | Up to 500 (5 brands × 100), not all covered by the fee | 7 | No single figure: see usage caps below |
Sources, all last checked 1 October 2026: Otterly pricing, Trakkr pricing, HubSpot AEO offer page, Semrush KB, CitePrism pricing. Peec AI’s own pricing page showed no prices on our check, so its figures are as reported by Trakkr (a competitor, verified 1 September 2026) and Geoptie (24 June 2026).
What this column hides:
- Run frequency. Otterly Lite, Trakkr, HubSpot AEO and CitePrism state their run frequency. The other rows do not, on the sources we used. A weekly prompt costs a seventh of a daily one to run.
- Engines. $1.93 on 4 engines and $2.00 on 8 engines are not the same deal. Neither is $1.90 on 3.
- Add-ons. Otterly’s Claude add-on alone costs $29 a month on Lite. Semrush charges $60 a month for each extra 50 prompts, which is $1.20 a prompt at the margin.
- Usage caps. CitePrism Pro allows up to 500 prompts (5 brands × 100), but the $29 fee covers only a daily amount of usage on our keys, not all 500 prompts. A large prompt set on every engine can pass it. Then you add your own keys and pay the providers about $0.046 per prompt across the four API engines, or $1.38 a prompt a month at one run a day. So $29 ÷ 500 is not a real price per prompt.
Credit plans, converted
Credit plans have no fixed prompt count. The count depends on engines and cadence. Here is the arithmetic for daily runs, 30 days, one location.
| Plan | Price a month | Units | Prompts a day it covers | Price ÷ prompts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AthenaHQ Starter, 5 models | $295 | 3,600 credits | 3,600 ÷ (5 × 30) = 24 | $12.29 |
| AthenaHQ Starter, 11 models | $295 | 3,600 credits | 3,600 ÷ (11 × 30) = 10.9 | $27.04 |
| Rankscale Pro, 3 engines | $99 | 1,200 credits at 0.25 = 4,800 queries | 4,800 ÷ (3 × 30) = 53.3 | $1.86 |
| Rankscale Pro, 7 engines | $99 | 4,800 queries | 4,800 ÷ (7 × 30) = 22.9 | $4.33 |
| Ahrefs custom prompts, 6 platforms | $50 | 2,500 checks | 2,500 ÷ (6 × 30) = 13.9 | $3.60 |
Sources, last checked 1 October 2026: AthenaHQ pricing, Rankscale pricing, Ahrefs pricing. Rankscale’s “typically 0.25” means some engines cost more. Weekly runs make every credit plan look far better: Rankscale’s own example is 50 prompts on 3 engines weekly for about 162.5 credits a month.
Questions to ask on any pricing page
- Which engines are in the base price, and what does each extra engine cost? Otterly charges $9 to $439 a month per added engine, by tier. Peec’s self-serve plans include 3 engines, per a third-party review dated 24 June 2026.
- Does one prompt in several locations count more than once? At Ahrefs, one check is one prompt on one platform in one location. Ask every vendor how it counts.
- How often does each prompt run, and who sets it? Rankscale lets you pick hourly to monthly. AthenaHQ’s pricing page does not state a default.
- How many seats? Trakkr Growth includes 3. Otterly Lite and AthenaHQ list unlimited seats.
- How many brands or domains? Trakkr caps prompts at 50 per brand. Semrush charges $99 a month per extra domain.
- Are API access and exports extra? AthenaHQ sells API access as an add-on on Starter. Profound’s trial has no exports or API.
What one sampled answer costs underneath
CitePrism’s public figure: about $0.046 per prompt across the four API engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) on their default models, measured August 2026. Daily for a month, that is $0.046 × 30 = $1.38 per prompt. Twenty prompts once a day is roughly $28 a month (20 × $1.38 = $27.60). Provider prices move, so treat this as arithmetic, not a quote.
Compare that with the table. Otterly Lite charges $1.93 per prompt for 4 engines daily. Trakkr Growth charges $2.00 for 8. At small prompt counts, a managed tool costs not much more than the raw model calls.
The vendor adds real things on top:
- Surfaces with no API. Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot have no API. Reading them costs money per request.
- Storage. Every raw answer, kept for months.
- Analysis. Brand detection, ranking, citations and charts.
- Support and development. People who answer questions and fix what breaks.
- Margin. A business has to make money.
A fair price covers all five. The question is whether the multiplier still makes sense at your scale.
Worked example: 20, 100 and 400 prompts
Assumptions: one brand, one location, daily runs, monthly billing, list prices last checked 1 October 2026. Each cell is the cheapest published plan that fits. Otterly also sells 100 more prompts for $99 a month on Standard and Premium. Its pricing page does not state whether several of these add-ons stack, so the 400-prompt cells show both totals. Credit plans assume the stated credit rate. Our check did not confirm whether Ahrefs still requires a base plan, so the Ahrefs row may understate the total.
| Tool | 20 prompts | 100 prompts | 400 prompts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Otterly (4 base engines) | Standard $189 (Lite holds 15) | Standard $189 | Premium $489 (Standard + 3 × 100-prompt add-ons = $486, if add-ons stack) |
| Otterly with AI Mode, Gemini, Claude | $189 + $59 + $59 + $109 = $416 | $416 | $489 + $149 + $149 + $439 = $1,226 (Standard with add-ons: $486 + $59 + $59 + $109 = $713, if add-ons stack) |
| Peec AI (3 engines, third-party figures) | Starter $95 | Pro $245 | Advanced holds 350; above that, Enterprise quote |
| Trakkr (8 models) | Growth $100 | Enterprise, from $1,000 billed yearly | Enterprise, from $1,000 billed yearly |
| HubSpot AEO (3 engines) | $50 | Add-on price not published | Add-on price not published |
| Semrush toolkit | $99 | $99 + 2 × $60 = $219 (125 prompts) | $99 + 8 × $60 = $579 (425 prompts) |
| AthenaHQ Starter | $295 covers 6 models daily | $295 covers 1 model daily | Extra credits (price not published) or Enterprise quote |
| Rankscale (7 engines at 0.25) | Pro $99 (1,050 of 1,200 credits) | Growth $385 (5,250 of 5,500) | 21,000 credits needed; Custom quote |
| Ahrefs (6 platforms) | $100 tier (3,600 of 7,000 checks) | $250 tier (18,000 of 25,000) | 72,000 checks needed; above published tiers |
| Profound (brand plans) | Enterprise quote | Enterprise quote | Enterprise quote |
| CitePrism Free (your keys) | $0 to us, about $27.60 to providers | Over the 25-prompt limit | Over the 25-prompt limit |
| CitePrism Pro | $29 | $29, up to $29 + $138 on your keys | Over the 100-prompts-per-brand limit; Custom |
Notes on the CitePrism rows. Provider cost covers the four API engines only: 20 × $1.38 = $27.60, 100 × $1.38 = $138, 400 × $1.38 = $552. The other three engines are priced per request by the provider whose key you add, and in our own runs they are typically cheaper than a model call. On Pro, runs inside the included daily usage cost nothing extra. The “$29 + $138” figure is the worst case, where all four API engines run on your own keys.
When a higher price is worth it
- Enterprise needs. SSO, SOC 2, audit logs, a security review and a contract cost money to provide. Profound Enterprise lists SSO and SAML and SOC 2. AthenaHQ Enterprise lists SSO, audit logs and SOC 2 Type 2. Trakkr Enterprise lists SSO and an SLA.
- Reading the real interface. An API reply and the answer a person sees can differ. Peec AI documents browser-based reading of web interfaces. Rankscale lists 7 consumer interfaces on its facts page (our reading of its wording). CitePrism reads Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and Copilot from the product, and can read ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity that way too.
- Demand data. Sampling tells you what an engine says. It cannot tell you how often people ask a prompt. Profound sells Prompt Volumes (its trial includes 5 searches, last checked 1 October 2026). Ahrefs describes a database of real prompts behind Brand Radar (as of August 2026). CitePrism has no prompt-volume data.
- No time to manage keys. A flat managed price, such as Trakkr Growth or Otterly Lite, removes the provider accounts and the spend caps.
How CitePrism prices
- Free. Your own API keys. 1 brand, 25 prompts, 5 competitors, 1 run a day, all seven engines and every feature. You pay the providers, not us. A daily spend cap is enforced in the app.
- Pro. $29 a month or $299 a year, with a 7-day trial. Runs on our keys with a daily usage amount included. 5 brands, 100 prompts and 25 competitors per brand, up to 4 runs a day. You can add your own keys on top.
- Custom. A written agreement for higher limits or invoicing.
The limits: no enterprise SSO, no white-label reports, no prompt-volume data, and Free needs your own keys, which is one more setup step. Full details are on the pricing page. Comparisons: CitePrism vs Profound, CitePrism vs Peec, CitePrism vs Otterly. For teams leaving an enterprise contract, see Profound alternatives.
FAQ
How much does Profound cost?
On 1 October 2026, Profound’s pricing page showed a free 7-day trial (50 prompts daily on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) and a custom Enterprise plan that needs a demo. It showed no dollar amount. The earlier $99 Starter and $399 Growth plans no longer appear on the page (Profound pricing). Agencies are the exception: on 1 November 2026 the agencies view showed Agency Growth at $99 a month plus $399 a month per client workspace. Our Profound pricing post has the details.
How much does Peec AI cost?
Peec’s pricing page showed plan names but no prices on 1 October 2026. Third-party reviews report Starter at $95 a month for 50 prompts, Pro at $245 for 150 and Advanced at $495 for 350, each with 3 engines (Trakkr, a competitor, verified 1 September 2026; Geoptie, 24 June 2026). Confirm with Peec before you buy.
How much does Otterly.AI cost?
On 1 October 2026: Lite $29 a month for 15 prompts, Standard $189 for 100, Premium $489 for 400, Enterprise custom. Each plan includes ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. AI Mode, Gemini and Claude cost extra (Otterly pricing).
Is bring-your-own-keys always cheaper?
No. At small prompt counts, raw API cost ($1.38 per prompt a month on the four API engines, daily, by our August 2026 measurement) is close to some managed per-prompt prices. Bring-your-own-keys wins on visibility of cost and on control: you choose models, engines and cadence. A managed plan wins on setup time.
What is a fair price per tracked prompt?
There is no single fair number. Compare plans at your own prompt count, engines and cadence, and add every add-on you need. The cheapest headline price is often not the cheapest plan for your setup.