Best AI Visibility Tools for Small Businesses: A Budget-First Guide (2026)

Key takeaways

• Two of the 7 tools compared here have a genuine free plan: AthenaHQ's Essential plan and Semrush's new Free plan, both checked on 29 September 2026.
• Paid entry prices for the rest run from $29 a month (Otterly.AI) to $99 a month (SE Visible), checked the same day.
• Cituna's Starter plan, at $39 a month, is the cheapest plan here that writes the fix for each gap it finds and publishes articles.
• Otterly.AI's Lite plan, at $29 a month, is the cheapest paid entry price on this page, though Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode all cost extra on top of it.
• A free manual check, or a free checker with no paid plan at all, can tell you whether you need to spend anything yet.

If you want the gaps AI engines leave for your brand found and the fix written for you, start a 3-day Cituna trial at cituna.com; a card is required.

This guide compares 7 AI visibility tools by what they actually cost a small business, ordered from free plans to the highest entry price, rather than by feature count. A small business usually cares less about which tool tracks the most engines on its most expensive plan, and more about what it can afford this month, so that is the lens we used. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, read on 29 September 2026, and we say plainly where a vendor does not publish a figure at all.

For a wider roundup that is not sorted by budget, see the 10 best AI visibility tools in 2026, and for the maths behind what a small team should actually pay, see how much you should pay for AI visibility tools in 2026.

How do the 7 tools compare for a small business budget in 2026?

Prices checked 29 September 2026.

How this list works: we sorted these 7 tools by entry price, from lowest to highest, with any tool that has a genuine free plan placed first regardless of its paid price, using the figures each vendor showed on its own page on 29 September 2026. Profound is not an entry here because it has no published self-serve price for ongoing tracking, and Scrunch is not an entry here because its entry price sits well beyond a small business's starting budget, though both are mentioned later in this guide.

Which AI visibility tools fit a small business budget in 2026?

1. AthenaHQ (best for the widest free engine list before you pay)

AthenaHQ's free Essential plan tracks brand mentions and cited sources across 5 AI engines using a credit balance, with no card required to start.

Price: Essential is free, giving $25 of credit (about 300 AI responses). Starter costs $295 a month, or $245 a month billed annually, once you outgrow the free credits (checked 29 September 2026); see AthenaHQ's plans page.

Engines: the free Essential plan covers 5: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot.

Strength: the free plan alone reaches more engines than most of the paid entry plans on this page.

Limit: the jump from the free plan to the only paid plan is steep once the free credits run out, and there is no plan priced in between.

Pick it if: you want to test AI visibility tracking on several engines before committing any budget at all.

See AthenaHQ in our directory.

2. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit (best for Semrush users who want to start free)

Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit tracks how a brand appears in AI answers from inside the wider Semrush platform, alongside its existing SEO tools.

Price: the Free plan costs $0 a month with no credit card required (checked 29 September 2026). The standalone AI Visibility Toolkit costs $99 a month added to an existing Semrush subscription, or the AI features come bundled from the $139 a month SEO plan; see Semrush's AI Visibility pricing page.

Engines: Semrush does not itemize which engines the Free plan's "AI Visibility features" cover. The paid standalone toolkit tracks 3: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini, with no Perplexity, Claude or Google AI Overviews named.

Strength: it is genuinely free to start, with no credit card, inside a platform many small businesses already use for SEO.

Limit: the free tier's AI scope is not itemized, and even the paid toolkit misses Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.

Pick it if: you already run Semrush and want to try AI tracking before paying anything extra.

See Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit in our directory.

3. Otterly.AI (best for a cheap daily monitor with Copilot included)

Otterly.AI's Lite plan tracks a small number of prompts every day across 4 core engines, with unlimited team members even at the entry price.

Price: Lite costs $29 a month, or $25 a month billed annually (checked 29 September 2026); see Otterly.AI's pricing page.

Engines: 4 on Lite: ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode each cost extra on top.

Strength: unlimited team members are included on every plan, including Lite.

Limit: Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode are all paid add-ons on top of the entry price, so covering all 7 engines costs much more than Lite alone.

Pick it if: your buyers mostly use ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, and you don't need Gemini or Claude yet.

See Otterly.AI in our directory.

4. Cituna (best for small teams who want each gap fixed, not just reported)

Cituna checks 7 AI engines daily: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, and records which brands and pages each answer names.

Price: $39 a month, $119 a month or $399 a month (Starter, Pro, Max), with a 3-day free trial that requires a card.

Engines: all 7 named above are checked daily on every plan; Microsoft Copilot is not tracked.

Strength: Google Search Console and MCP are included, and it writes the fix for each gap it finds and publishes articles, rather than only listing what is missing.

Limit: it does not track Microsoft Copilot, and the trial needs a card.

Pick it if: you want each gap found and fixed at a flat monthly price, without adding a separate content step yourself. See what a 3-day Cituna trial covers at cituna.com before your first invoice.

See Cituna in our directory.

5. Ahrefs Brand Radar (best for Ahrefs customers who want AI data on the same account)

Ahrefs Brand Radar's Custom Prompts plans bill by the check, one prompt tracked on one platform, and sit inside the wider Ahrefs account that many small businesses already use for keyword and backlink research.

Price: Basic costs $50 a month for 2,500 checks (checked 29 September 2026); see Ahrefs Brand Radar. Ahrefs also bundles 5 tracked prompts free into its $129 a month Lite plan.

Engines: 6 on Custom Prompts: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode. Claude sits on a separate, far pricier tier.

Strength: Ahrefs also runs a genuinely free, no-signup brand checker as a one-time snapshot, alongside the paid plans.

Limit: there is no free trial for Custom Prompts itself, and tracking Claude costs far more than the other engines.

Pick it if: you already pay for Ahrefs and want AI visibility data added to that same account rather than opening a new one.

See Ahrefs Brand Radar in our directory.

6. Peec AI (best for clean dashboards with unlimited users)

Peec AI's Starter plan lets you choose 3 engines to track daily, with unlimited users on the account from day one, which suits a small team that wants everyone to see the same dashboard without extra seat fees.

Price: Starter costs $95 a month, or $80 a month billed annually (checked 29 September 2026); see Peec AI's pricing page.

Engines: 3 of 6 you choose: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini or Naver AI. Perplexity is a paid add-on rather than a base choice.

Strength: unlimited users are included on every brand plan, even Starter.

Limit: only 3 models can be tracked at once on Starter, and Perplexity costs extra rather than being one of the base 3.

Pick it if: you want a clean dashboard for a small, fixed set of engines and don't need Perplexity right away.

See Peec AI in our directory.

7. SE Visible (best for the most prompts for the money on a paid entry plan)

SE Visible collects AI answers through each platform's own interface and gives the largest prompt allowance of the paid entry plans compared here.

Price: Basic costs $99 a month, or $79 a month billed annually (checked 29 September 2026); see SE Visible.

Engines: 5 on Basic: ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.

Strength: 200 prompts a month on Basic is the largest allowance among the paid entry plans on this page.

Limit: Claude is not supported yet, per SE Visible's own FAQ, and no Search Console connection is named.

Pick it if: you need volume, many prompts tracked across the 5 main engines, more than the lowest possible price.

See SE Visible in our directory.

How much should a small business spend on AI visibility tools in 2026?

Most small businesses can find a workable starting point in 4 rough tiers, all checked on 29 September 2026, though a tool's fit for your buyers matters more than which tier it sits in.

At $0 a month, checked 29 September 2026, AthenaHQ's Essential plan and Semrush's Free plan both let you start tracking without a card, though Semrush's free AI scope is not itemized and AthenaHQ's free credits run out.

At $29 a month, checked 29 September 2026, Otterly.AI Lite is cheap enough for a solo founder, though Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode each cost extra on top of the 4 core engines it includes. Cituna's Starter plan sits just above that, at $39 a month, and is the cheapest plan here that writes the fix for each gap it finds rather than only reporting it.

From $50 to $99 a month, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Peec AI and SE Visible suit a small marketing team that wants more prompts, a bundled Ahrefs integration, or a specific dashboard, all checked 29 September 2026.

Beyond $100 a month, tools such as AthenaHQ's paid Starter plan or Scrunch's Core plan move into wider engine lists and content-agent features that most very small businesses do not need on day one, and are worth revisiting once a tighter plan proves its value, all prices checked 29 September 2026.

None of these tiers accounts for add-ons. Extra engines, extra prompts, extra seats or extra domains can push several of these tools well past their published entry price, so read the "Limit" line on each entry above before you commit a card.

A few concrete examples, all checked 29 September 2026: Otterly.AI's Lite plan charges extra for Google AI Mode and Gemini from $9 a month each and for Claude from $29 a month, so tracking all 7 engines this guide covers on Otterly.AI costs far more than the $29 headline price. Peec AI's Starter plan charges $30 a month for each additional model beyond its base 3, and Ahrefs Brand Radar's Custom Prompts plan bills a Claude check at a higher rate per check than its other 5 engines. Before you compare two tools on entry price alone, work out what it would actually cost, add-ons included, to track every engine your own buyers use, not just the 3 to 5 engines that come bundled into the cheapest plan on the vendor's pricing page.

Do you need to pay before you check anything?

Before you buy any plan, a free manual check can tell you whether AI engines already mention your brand; our guide to whether an AI visibility tool is worth paying for walks through that check step by step.

If you want an ongoing free option rather than a one-off check, see 8 free AI visibility checkers for ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, several of which need no account at all.

Which AI visibility tool should a small business choose?

If your budget is nothing today, start with AthenaHQ's Essential plan or Semrush's Free plan and decide later whether to pay, both checked 29 September 2026. If you want the widest engine list without moving into enterprise pricing, Cituna's Starter plan reaches 7 major engines, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, for $39 a month, the same date.

If your buyers mostly live in Ahrefs, Semrush or a specific dashboard, pick whichever of Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush's toolkit or Peec AI already sits closest to a tool you use today, so you are not learning a second interface for the same job.

If a Google Search Console connection matters as much as price, only 2 of the 7 tools compared here name one on their own pages: Cituna and AthenaHQ, both checked 29 September 2026. The other 5, Semrush's toolkit, Otterly.AI, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Peec AI and SE Visible, do not publish a Search Console connection on the pages we read.

If you would rather pay a little more and have the gaps found written up and fixed for you instead of doing that work yourself, see Cituna's plans at cituna.com, starting at $39 a month with a 3-day trial that requires a card.