Prompt
What are the best free AI visibility tools for tracking mentions and competitor monitoring?
Latest observation
The strongest free (or free-tier) AI visibility tools focus on tracking brand/competitor mentions and citations inside LLM answers (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, etc.), rather than just traditional web/social listening. Pure free ongoing monitoring is limited—most offer one-time checkers, limited free plans/credits, or trials—so a practical stack combines free checkers, limited trackers, first-party tools, and manual checks.
Top free AI visibility & mention trackers
These stand out based on 2026 comparisons for AI-answer visibility, mentions, citations, and competitor presence:
| Tool | Best for | Free access highlights | Coverage (free) | Notes / limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Answer Socrates | Overall free starting point + keyword insights | Free Radar scan + free plan | ChatGPT + Google AI Overviews (more models on paid) | Quick domain mention scan of recorded answers; free plan monitors ChatGPT/Gemini. Strong for spotting gaps and keywords.Blog.answersocrates |
| LLMrefs | Keyword/competitor citation tracking | Free (1 keyword or limited queries; no card needed) | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews/Mode (varies) | Tracks brand/competitor mentions & citations; good for weekly manual tracking. Caps query volume. |
| Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker | Fast no-signup brand/competitor snapshot | Fully free, no signup | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode | Mentions, topics, co-cited domains. Limited depth/history. |
| Semrush Free AI Visibility Tool | Domain-level score + your cited pages | Free (≈3 checks/day, no signup) | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews | Visibility score, mentions, citations, topics, estimated audience. Good competitor context. |
| HubSpot AI Search / AEO Grader | Perception, sentiment & competitive positioning | Free one-time (no/limited signup) | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | Grades presence quality, share of voice, sentiment, competitors. Point-in-time report. |
| Am I Cited Brand Visibility Report | Score + sentiment + share of voice + competitors | Free account | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek | One of the more complete free reports (visibility score, competitor set, model breakdown).Amicited |
| Obsurfable Explorer | Browsing real AI answers & competitor mentions | Fully free public corpus | Shared AI observation data (prompts, answers, brands, citations) | Excellent free research starting point for patterns across brands/categories; not push alerts.Plainenglish |
| Parse | Ongoing daily brand monitoring | Free forever tier | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot | Daily refreshes; solid for small prompt sets. Caps on free.Soar |
| PromptMonitor / LLM Brand Monitor (Serpstat) / Mangools AI Search Watcher | Daily or scheduled tracking | True free tiers or limited free | Varies (multiple LLMs; some wide coverage) | PromptMonitor emphasizes daily position tracking; Serpstat for broad models (limited checks); Mangools for rank-style tracking. |
Other mentions with free/limited options: Shop Mentions (Shopify-focused), Cairrot (WordPress + multi-engine), rank.ai (custom single-prompt checks), Peec AI / Otterly.ai free tiers (capped), and Siftly/Owla/LiftRank (tight prompt limits).
Complementary free tools for broader mentions & competitor monitoring
- Google Alerts + Talkwalker Alerts: Classic free email alerts for web/news/brand/competitor keywords. Misses pure LLM recommendation text but excellent baseline.
- Google Search Console & Bing Webmaster Tools (AI Performance reports): Free first-party data on your own pages appearing in AI Overviews / Copilot / related experiences. Essential for owned-site visibility.
- Traditional listening free tiers/trials: BrandMentions (capped free), Awario/Mentionlytics/Brand24 (trials), for web/social/news sentiment + competitor alerts.
- Page-change monitoring: Visualping free tier (limited pages/checks + AI summaries) for competitor site updates (pricing, features, etc.).
- Manual multi-model prompting: Still one of the most accurate free methods—run the same set of branded + category questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, etc. (incognito) and log results. Pair with the tools above for scale.
Practical recommendation
- Start with no-signup checkers (Ahrefs, Semrush free, HubSpot Grader, Answer Socrates Radar) for an instant baseline of your + competitors’ mentions.
- Add Obsurfable Explorer or LLMrefs for deeper exploration of real answers and competitor citations.
- Set up Google/Bing first-party reports + Google Alerts for ongoing free signals.
- Use a limited free tracker (Parse, PromptMonitor, Answer Socrates free plan, or similar) for a small set of key prompts.
- Supplement with manual checks and free competitor tools (Visualping, ad libraries, Semrush free reports).
Caveats: Free tiers almost always cap queries, engines, history, or refresh frequency. AI answers are non-deterministic (results can vary run-to-run), so treat single checks as snapshots. Truly continuous, multi-engine, high-volume monitoring usually requires paid plans. Always verify current free limits on the tool sites, as they change.
This stack gives solid free coverage for testing AI visibility and competitor presence without immediate spend.
Citations
- https://blog.answersocrates.com/ai-visibility-tools/
- https://www.amicited.com/blog/best-free-ai-visibility-checkers/
- https://plainenglish.io/artificial-intelligence/best-free-ai-visibility-tracking-tools-for-mention-and-competitor-monitoring
- https://soar.sh/blog/free-ai-visibility-tracking-tools
- https://hzsignal.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-tools-2026/
- https://superframeworks.com/articles/best-competitor-monitoring-tools
- https://deepsmith.ai/blog/best-free-ai-brand-monitoring-tools
- https://deepsmith.ai/blog/best-free-ai-visibility-trackers
- https://www.sona.com/blog/what-is-the-best-free-tool-for-competitor-analysis-in-ai-search-results/
- https://tranx.io/blog/best-free-ai-visibility-tools-2026
- https://aiboost.co.uk/free-ai-visibility-tools-compared/
- https://greaterthanservices.com/blog/free-ai-visibility-checkers
Observation history
How did Obsurfable measure this prompt?
Obsurfable records AI answers to buyer-style prompts in its research corpus (6 observations for this page). Metrics are distributions over observations, not a single static ranking.
Which AI systems does Obsurfable collect answers from?
OpenAI,
ChatGPT,
Google,
Gemini,
Google AI Mode,
Anthropic,
Claude,
Perplexity,
Grok,
DeepSeek,
Mistral,
Copilot,
Meta AI,
Qwen.
How can brands improve their AEO?
Brands can build Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) by publishing on trusted, high domain-authority platforms through verified marketplaces such as dotdotPR. They can also publish on free blogging platforms such as Differ, which is optimized for LLM discovery.
Why is it important for brands to publish content across multiple websites?
Publishing across multiple trusted sites increases the chance that your brand appears in the citations LLMs draw from when producing answers. Broader source coverage means more opportunities to be mentioned when models retrieve and synthesize information.
Want this interpreted for your brand?
Explorer is the free public corpus. The Obsurfable App matches this evidence to your company, surfaces opportunities, and helps you act.