Affordable AI Visibility Tools in 2026: Track Your Brand in ChatGPT Without Enterprise Pricing
Cheap subscriptions, what happened to the lifetime deals, and the free method - with every price checked on the vendor's own page.
Contents (8)
Yes, you can track your brand in AI answers without enterprise pricing. The cheapest subscriptions are Rankscale (from $17 a month, billed yearly) and Otterly.AI ($29 a month). The AppSumo lifetime deals for GEO tools (ZeroRank, iGEO) are sold out, so the one-time option left is a license like GEOHATS ($47, plus your own AI keys). The free option is a prompt set you run by hand. Prices checked October 22, 2026.
Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers "what's the best tool for X" before they open a search results page. If those answers never name you, you lose the deal before the conversation starts. Checking whether you appear used to mean an enterprise platform. It doesn't any more.
This guide is for the founder, solo marketer or small team that wants to answer one question, "do AI assistants mention us, and where do we lose?", without a four-figure contract. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, checked on October 22, 2026. Where a cheap plan hides a limit, we say so.
What an AI visibility tool actually does
An AI visibility tool runs a set of buyer questions ("prompts") through AI assistants on a schedule, then records whether your brand is named, which sources the answer cited, and how you compare with rivals. It's a rank tracker for AI answers.
Two numbers set the price of every tool: how many prompts you track and how many AI engines you track them on. Cheap plans cut one or both. Once you know your numbers, you can read any pricing page in seconds. For most small brands, 15 to 50 well-chosen questions on the three or four assistants your buyers use is enough.
The 2026 cost table
| Tool | Entry price | Billing | What the entry plan gets you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual method | $0 | Your time | Any assistant you can open in a browser, logged by hand |
| Rankscale Essentials | $17/mo, billed yearly | Credits, yearly only | 120 credits a month (no rollover); each engine check uses about 0.25 credit, Claude 2 |
| Otterly.AI Lite | $29/mo | Flat subscription | 15 prompts on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot; Claude and Gemini cost extra |
| GEOHATS | $47 once | One-time license + your own AI keys | 3 websites, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok; writes and publishes the fix (our product) |
| Peec AI Starter | $95/mo | Flat subscription | 50 prompts, 3 models, unlimited users |
| Rankscale Pro | $99/mo | Credits | 1,200 credits a month, 7-day free trial |
| Trakkr Growth | $100/mo ($1,000/yr) | Flat subscription | 1 brand, 50 prompts, 8 models, 25 articles a month it can publish to your CMS, 14-day trial (card required) |
Sources: rankscale.ai/pricing, otterly.ai/pricing, peec.ai/pricing, trakkr.ai/pricing and geohats.com, all checked October 22, 2026.
Cheap subscriptions
Rankscale: the lowest sticker price
From $17/mo, billed yearlyRankscale runs on credits. Each time it checks an AI engine it uses a fraction of a credit (typically 0.25; Claude costs 2), and every plan includes all 17+ engines it supports. Essentials ($17/month, billed yearly only) gives 120 credits a month with no rollover; Pro ($99/month) includes 1,200 credits, rollover and a 7-day free trial, and larger plans run $229, $385 and $780. If credits feel like the wrong model for you, our Rankscale alternatives guide compares flat-priced tools.
Otterly.AI: the simplest flat price
$29/mo flatLite covers 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with unlimited team members and daily tracking. Claude ($29/month on Lite), Gemini ($9) and Google AI Mode ($9) are add-ons. Standard ($189) jumps to 100 prompts and adds API and MCP access. There's a 7-day free trial with no card. When 15 prompts stop being enough, see the Otterly.AI alternatives.
Peec AI: more prompts, more analysis
$95/mo StarterPeec AI's Starter covers 50 prompts on 3 models of your choice with unlimited users. Pro ($245) and Advanced ($495) add prompts and projects; each extra model costs $35 to $165 a month depending on plan. Strong sentiment and source analytics, and an API and MCP server. Details in our Peec AI pricing breakdown.
One-time and lifetime options
If a recurring bill is what you want to avoid, there used to be several choices. As of October 22, 2026 there are fewer.
The AppSumo GEO deals are sold out
The two lifetime deals most roundups recommend, ZeroRank (from $69) and iGEO, both show "Sold out!" on AppSumo. If you already own one, it still works. If you're shopping now, you can't buy them there. Lifetime deals on AppSumo come and go, so check the listing before you plan around one.
GEOHATS: one-time license, your own AI keys (our product)
$47 one-time for 3 sitesGEOHATS is our tool, so read this with that in mind. You pay once and connect your own AI provider keys, so you pay OpenAI, Anthropic and the others directly at their cost, with no markup. It asks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok your buyers' questions, shows who they cite instead of you, then writes the page built to win and publishes it to your CMS. The price steps up as licenses sell; the price you buy at is yours for good (see GEOHATS pricing).
One-time vs subscription over three years
A one-time license wins on total cost if you keep using the tool. Otterly Lite costs $1,044 over three years ($29 x 36). GEOHATS costs $47 once plus your own API usage, which depends on how often you scan and how many pages you generate. The trade-off is that a one-time price only pays off if the company keeps shipping, so look at how actively the product is updated before you buy any lifetime license. We compare the two models feature by feature in GEOHATS vs Otterly.AI.
The enterprise trap: no cheap tier at all
Enterprise tools used to sell a cheap-looking entry plan that tracked only one engine. Profound's $99 Starter was the classic example. That plan is gone: Profound now sells brands a free 7-day trial and then a custom Enterprise contract (tryprofound.com/pricing). The trial is worth running to see how AI answers your industry's questions (it uses a recommended prompt set, not your own), but there's no small paid plan to continue on. See our Profound pricing page for what the trial includes.
Read engine lists, not headline prices, on every tool. A plan that covers four engines can tell you more than a pricier one that covers one.
The free method: one hour a month
You don't need any tool to start. Write 10 to 15 buyer questions the way your customers phrase them ("best invoicing tool for freelancers", "alternatives to [rival]"). Once a month, paste each into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini. For every answer, record whether you were named and which sources were cited, in a spreadsheet with a column per assistant and a row per question.
Keep the wording identical so months are comparable. Answers vary from run to run, so treat a single result as a sample, not a verdict. We show how large that variation is in how accurate AI visibility trackers are. Our guide to tracking brand mentions in AI answers has the full method. The cost is discipline: it's the chore a $20-$30 tool removes.
How to pick
- Zero budget: the manual method, then Otterly Lite or Rankscale when it gets old.
- Predictable monthly bill: Otterly.AI at $29.
- Lowest sticker price, many engines: Rankscale, if you're happy to pay yearly and watch credits.
- No subscription, and you want the pages written: GEOHATS (our product).
- More prompts and analytics for a team: Peec AI from $95.
- Nobody has time to do the work: compare a tool with hiring help in GEO agency vs AI visibility tool.
Whatever you choose, decide your question count and engine list first. Those two numbers set the price on every plan above. For a ranked comparison by features, see the best GEO tools for SaaS.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest AI visibility tool in 2026?
Rankscale Essentials, $17 a month billed yearly, with 120 credits a month. The cheapest flat monthly plan is Otterly.AI Lite at $29. The cheapest option overall is free: running a fixed set of questions through the AI assistants yourself each month.
Is there a GEO tool lifetime deal in 2026?
The well-known AppSumo deals, ZeroRank and iGEO, were sold out when we checked on October 22, 2026. GEOHATS (our product) sells a one-time license from $47 and runs on your own AI keys.
Does Profound still have a $99 plan?
No. Profound's brand pricing is now a free 7-day trial (50 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews) followed by a custom Enterprise plan.
Is a one-time license safer than a subscription?
It's cheaper over time, but it depends on the vendor staying in business and keeping the product updated. Bring-your-own-key tools reduce lock-in because the AI provider account and keys stay yours.
What does "bring your own key" mean?
The tool runs AI queries with your own OpenAI, Anthropic or other API keys, so you pay the provider directly at cost instead of paying a marked-up subscription. It adds a setup step and a second bill that you control.
How many prompts and engines do I need?
For a small brand, 15 to 50 buyer questions on the assistants your customers use (usually ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI answers, often Claude and Gemini) is enough to see your position and track it. Add engines only when you know buyers use them; each one raises the price on most tools.
Daniel builds GEOHATS and runs AI-search visibility for his own products and client sites. He writes every post here and tests the playbooks on geohats.com first.
Keep reading
More in Pricing guides →Find the questions you lose, then win them
GEOHATS tracks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok, and writes the page built to get you cited. Pay once, from $47.
See lifetime pricingAlso available as plain Markdown for AI assistants and readers.