You heard Semrush "doesn't cover ChatGPT." That is out of date: it sells an AI Visibility Toolkit now. Here is what that toolkit does, when it is all you need, and which dedicated tools earn a budget line when it is not.
Short answer: Semrush does cover AI search now. Its AI Visibility Toolkit tracks 25 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity for $99 per month per domain. If brand-level monitoring is enough, keep it. Move to a dedicated tool when you need question-level tracking, Claude or Grok coverage, or pages written and published to close the gaps.
First, the correction, because most "Semrush alternative" articles get it wrong: Semrush is not blind to AI search anymore. Its AI Visibility Toolkit (also sold as Semrush Enterprise AIO's smaller sibling) monitors brand mentions across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, and it costs $99 per month per domain (Semrush, AI pricing page, checked August 2026).
The real question is narrower: is a 25-prompt, brand-level monitoring add-on the right shape for your problem? For many Semrush subscribers it genuinely is. For others, three specific gaps make a dedicated tool worth adding. This page walks that decision honestly.
The toolkit is a real, competent brand-level AI monitor. Verified on Semrush's own pricing page in August 2026, the $99/month Base plan tracks 25 custom prompts daily across ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, benchmarks one domain against AI competitors, includes prompt research, and audits your site for AI readiness. If that list matches your requirement, stop reading and keep the money.
Concretely, the Base plan includes:
Where Semrush is enough: you need a monthly report proving the brand appears (or does not) in AI answers, your buyers ask a handful of predictable questions, and your team already writes and publishes fixes on its own. Since Google rolled AI Overviews out to US users in May 2024, "at least watch this" has been a defensible position, and the toolkit covers it without a new vendor.
You need an alternative when your question changes from "are we mentioned?" to "which exact buyer question are we losing, to whom, and what fixes it?" That shift is the whole decision. Brand-level monitoring answers the first question well. It structurally cannot answer the second, no matter how good the dashboard is.
A quick self-test. You have outgrown the suite add-on if at least two of these are true:
The unit of AI search is the question, not the keyword or the brand. Dedicated GEO tools organize everything around individual buyer prompts: which engines answer each one, who gets cited, and how that changes week over week. The Semrush toolkit samples 25 prompts per domain; teams tracking a real question portfolio (50 to 400 prompts across products, personas and comparisons) hit that ceiling fast. Our breakdown of GEO tools vs SEO tools covers why the two report such different things from the same answers.
No monitoring product, Semrush included, writes or publishes the content that changes the answer. Every tracker here ends at a report or a recommendation. If gap analysis lands in a backlog nobody clears, a second dashboard changes nothing; what earns its keep is whatever shortens the distance from "we lost this answer" to "the winning page is live."
Engine coverage is where the pricing fine print lives. Semrush's published list is four engines. Otterly's base plans cover four, with Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode sold as add-ons priced from $9 to $439 per month depending on tier (Otterly.AI, pricing page, August 2026). Peec's core plans cover three models. If your buyers spread across five or more assistants, compare the full-stack price, not the headline price.
Prices verified on each vendor's own pricing page, August 2026. Every product is linked in its section below.
| Tool | Best for | AI engines | Prompt depth | Writes the fix? | Price (verified Aug 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semrush AI Toolkit | Staying inside the suite | ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity | 25 prompts per domain | No | $99/mo per domain |
| Otterly.AI | Cheapest dedicated tracker | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot; Claude/Gemini as add-ons | 15 to 400 prompts | No | From $29/mo |
| Peec AI | Competitive benchmarking, agencies | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini (core plans) | Daily, tiered by plan | No | From about 89 EUR (~$95)/mo |
| Profound | Enterprise analytics depth | ChatGPT on Starter; 3 engines on Growth | 50 to 100 prompts self-serve | No | From $99/mo (billed yearly) |
| Trakkr | Free start, broad model list | 8 models incl. Claude and Gemini | Free tier, then paid | No | Free; paid from $100/mo |
| Rankscale | Long-tail engine coverage | 17+ engines | Credit-based | No | Credit-based |
| GEOHATS | Closing the loop: track, write, publish | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok (+ AI Overviews optional) | Per-question, on your own API keys | Yes | From $49 one-time |
Otterly.AI is the lowest-risk way to test dedicated tracking: the Lite plan monitors 15 prompts daily across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Standard ($189/mo) raises that to 100 prompts and adds API and MCP access (Otterly pricing, Aug 2026).
From $29/mo · verified Aug 2026
Peec AI is built around the competitive frame: not just whether AI names you, but your position and sentiment versus rivals, with source identification, CSV and Looker Studio exports, and agency-grade multi-project plans. Core plans cover ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, with tiers listed on peec.ai/pricing; entry pricing starts around 89 EUR (about $95) per month (checked Aug 2026).
From ~89 EUR/mo · verified Aug 2026
Profound is the category's enterprise reference point: answer-engine analytics, AI traffic attribution and prompt research at scale, backed by a $96M Series C. Self-serve is narrower than the brand suggests: Starter at $99/month covers ChatGPT only, 50 prompts, 1 seat; Growth at $399/month covers 3 engines and 100 prompts, both billed yearly (Profound pricing, checked Aug 2026). Third parties estimate Enterprise at $2,000 to $5,000+ per month.
From $99/mo billed yearly · verified Aug 2026
Trakkr undercuts everyone at the entry point: its free tier includes Claude and Gemini, two engines that cost extra almost everywhere else, and the $100/month paid plan covers 8 models without enterprise gating.
Free tier; paid from $100/mo · verified Aug 2026
Rankscale sells coverage breadth: 17+ engines including niche assistants like DeepSeek and Mistral, on credit-based pricing rather than flat tiers. For most teams the big four engines decide the outcome, but multilingual and multi-market brands are the exception.
Credit-based pricing · verified Aug 2026
Disclosure: GEOHATS is our product, so weigh this entry accordingly. It is the only tool on this page that closes the loop the others stop at: it tracks your buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok (Google AI Overviews optional), shows which pages get cited instead of yours, then writes the page built to win the citation, publishes it to WordPress or your repo, and re-scans to verify the answer changed. Licenses are one-time, from $49 (pricing), and scans run on your own AI API keys at cost.
From $49 one-time · Aug 2026
This is not a rip-and-replace decision. Semrush's core suite (keyword research, backlinks, technical audits, rank tracking) does a job no GEO tool attempts, and Google still sends the traffic that pays most bills. The tools complement each other.
It depends on the job. As a straight tracker swap, Otterly.AI is the cheapest credible option at $29/month for 15 daily prompts. For competitive benchmarking, Peec AI (from about 89 EUR/month). For enterprise analytics, Profound (from $99/month, ChatGPT only at that tier). If the goal is fixing lost answers rather than reporting them, GEOHATS (our product, from $49 one-time) tracks 5 engines and also writes and publishes the correcting pages. All prices verified on vendor sites, August 2026.
No, that premise is out of date. Semrush sells an AI Visibility Toolkit at $99 per month per domain that tracks 25 custom prompts daily and reports mentions from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity, plus competitor analysis and an AI-readiness audit (Semrush pricing page, August 2026). What it does not do: track Claude or Grok, go beyond 25 prompts per domain, or write and publish the content that fixes the gaps it finds.
For many teams, yes. If you need brand-level proof that AI assistants mention you, track one domain, and have writers who ship fixes, the $99/month toolkit inside a vendor you already pay is the simplest answer. It stops being enough when you track more than 25 questions or multiple domains, when buyers use engines off its list, or when reports keep landing in a backlog nobody clears.
Claude: GEOHATS, Trakkr (included on the free tier), Rankscale, and Otterly.AI as a paid add-on ($9 to $439/month depending on tier). Grok: GEOHATS tracks it on every license; most competitors' published engine lists omit it. Semrush's published list covers ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity only (all vendor pages checked August 2026).
Usually not. Semrush's core suite covers classic SEO work that no GEO tool replaces, and Google search remains a major traffic source. The common pattern in 2026 is core SEO suite plus a dedicated GEO layer beside it. The line item worth re-examining is the $99/month AI add-on specifically: if a dedicated tool covers its job with more depth for less money, swap the add-on, not the suite.
On this list, only GEOHATS: it generates the article, comparison or statistics page targeting the lost question, runs it through a quality gate, publishes to WordPress or your repo, and re-scans to verify the citation changed. Semrush, Otterly, Peec, Profound, Trakkr and Rankscale all stop at reports and recommendations, which is fine if you have a content team, and the bottleneck if you do not.
GEOHATS tracks your buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Grok, then writes and publishes the pages that close the gaps. One-time license, from $49, on your own AI keys.
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