The best tools to track brand mentions in AI search for small businesses and agencies in 2026 are Midwaver, Otterly.AI, Peec AI, Promptwatch, Searchable and Profound. All six run a fixed list of customer questions through AI tools every day and record whether your business is mentioned, linked to or recommended. For a small business or agency the differences that matter are the price of covering several businesses, how easy the tool is to use and how well it handles reporting.

Last updated: 30 October 2026. Prices change often, so check each pricing page before you buy.

How do the 6 best tools to track brand mentions in AI search compare?

Prices are monthly list prices in US dollars taken from each tool's own pricing page. The multiple businesses column shows the most affordable plan we found that is built for tracking several businesses or clients.

All six track sentiment, show who else gets recommended and suggest what to improve. The main differences are the price of covering several businesses, how many AI tools each one covers and whether the tool also writes content (Promptwatch, Searchable and Profound do while Midwaver, Otterly.AI and Peec AI don't).

Midwaver has the most affordable published price of the six for covering three to five businesses. Every feature is on every plan.

How do you track brand mentions in AI search?

You run the same set of customer questions through each AI tool every day and record whether your business is named, linked to or recommended. Then you watch how that changes against your competitors over time. The method has five steps:

1. Write your question list. Pick 10 to 20 questions a customer would ask AI before choosing a business like yours, such as "best accountant in Leeds for a small company". Our guide to prompt research shows how.

2. Choose the AI tools to check. Start with ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.

3. Record what each answer says. Note whether your business is named, whether your website is linked, which competitors appear and whether the tone is positive.

4. Repeat every day. One check proves little. SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai found less than a 1 in 100 chance of getting the same list of brands twice from ChatGPT or Google's AI. Gumshoe sells AI tracking tools, so read that with care, but it explains why you need many runs to see a pattern.

5. Compare and act. Watch how often you appear against competitors over several weeks, then look at which websites AI quotes and close the gaps. Our guide to measuring your AI search visibility covers the manual method in full.

You can do all of this in a spreadsheet, but it means running every question on every AI tool by hand every day. That's why most businesses use a tracking tool.

Why does tracking brand mentions in AI search matter?

Because the answer is increasingly where the decision gets made. Pew Research Center followed the browsing of 900 US adults and found they clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits when Google showed an AI summary against 15% when it didn't. They clicked a link inside the summary in only 1% of visits. If people read the answer and move on, being named in it is what counts.

Mentions also depend on more than your own website. Ahrefs analysed 75,000 brands and found that mentions of a brand across the web had the strongest correlation with its visibility in Google AI Overviews (0.664), well ahead of backlinks (0.218). That's a correlation rather than proof of cause, but it points to where to look.

With a few weeks of data you can:

• See which competitors AI recommends instead of you and for which questions

• Find the websites AI uses as sources so you know where to get mentioned

• Catch wrong or outdated information about your business

• Check you aren't blocking AI crawlers by accident

• Show whether the changes you make are working

What is the difference between a mention, a citation and a recommendation?

A mention is when AI names your business in an answer. A citation is when it links to a page on your website. A recommendation is when it suggests your business as an option for the question asked.

• Mention: your business name appears in the answer

• Citation: the answer links to a page on your website

• Recommendation: the answer puts your business forward as a good choice

• Source: any website the AI drew on, which can be a competitor, a review site or a directory

You can be mentioned without being cited and cited without being recommended, so a good tool tracks all of them.

What should a small business or agency look for in an AI mention tracking tool?

Judge a tool on nine things:

• Price for several businesses: whether it charges per brand, project or website and what that costs at three to five

• Ease of use: whether someone who isn't a specialist can read it and know what to do

• AI tools covered: which are included by default and which cost extra. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews are the baseline

• Real answers: whether you can read what the AI actually said and not only a score

• Check frequency: daily checks smooth out the variation between answers

• Prompt limits: what counts as one prompt and whether each AI tool uses a separate allowance

• Competitors and sources: who gets recommended instead of you and which websites AI quotes

• Next steps: recommendations and website checks and not only charts

• Client reports: PDF and CSV exports and whether you can hide the vendor's branding

1. Midwaver: simple AI visibility tracking for small businesses and agencies

Midwaver shows how often ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention, recommend and link to a business and how that compares with its competitors. It's built for small businesses and agencies that need an answer rather than a dashboard to interpret.

At a glance: from $39 a month, or $89 for 3 businesses and $169 for 5. Every feature on every plan. Daily checks on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews at no extra cost. Free 7 day trial with no card.

What it does: It runs your questions across all three AI tools every day. You see mentions and citations by AI tool and by question, a leaderboard of every business the AI names and not only the competitors you add, sentiment, the actual AI responses and the websites AI draws on. An opportunities list turns the data into a to-do list in plain English, a website scanner checks whether anything blocks AI crawlers and you can export PDF or CSV reports with or without Midwaver branding on every plan. It suggests questions and competitors to get you started, handles multiple locations and languages and tracks unlimited competitors. Setup takes minutes and needs no technical or AI knowledge.

What it costs: Starter is $39 a month for 20 prompts and 1 business. Growth is $89 for 50 prompts and 3 businesses. Pro is $169 for 100 prompts and 5 businesses. Prompts are shared across your businesses. Annual billing gives two months free and prices can also be shown in pounds and euros. Nothing is locked behind a higher plan and extra AI tools never cost more. The free 7 day trial needs no card and covers up to 10 prompts.

Who it suits: Small businesses, small teams and small agencies that want to know whether AI recommends them or their clients and what to do about it. Several of the other tools are pitched at SEO and marketing teams while Midwaver is written for people who aren't specialists.

Where it falls short: It tracks three AI tools, so there's no Gemini, Claude, Google AI Mode or Microsoft Copilot coverage. It doesn't write content for you.

Source: our pricing page and features page, checked 30 October 2026.

2. Otterly.AI: AI search monitoring from $29 a month

Otterly.AI offers AI search monitoring from $29 a month and covers four AI tools from its first plan.

What it does: It tracks your prompts daily on ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with sentiment, citation tracking, brand profiling and recommendations. Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are paid add-ons. Every plan includes unlimited team members and PDF and CSV exports, with your own logo on PDFs. Standard adds unlimited workspaces, API access and a Looker Studio connector.

What it costs: Lite is $29 a month for 15 prompts. Standard is $189 for 100 prompts. Premium is $489 for 400 prompts. Annual billing takes 15% off and extra blocks of 100 prompts cost $99 a month on Standard and Premium. There's a free trial and no card is needed.

Who it suits: Solo marketers, small teams and agencies that want to start affordably.

Where it falls short: Lite's 15 prompts run out quickly. Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode cost extra and more than one workspace starts at $189.

Source: Otterly.AI pricing page, checked 30 October 2026.

3. Peec AI: analytics for SEO and content teams

Peec AI is an analytics tracker for SEO and content teams, with unlimited team members, competitors and languages on every plan.

What it does: It runs prompts daily on three AI tools you choose from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Naver AI. It reports visibility, position, sentiment, share of voice, citations and sources, with gap analysis, recommended actions and a crawlability audit across 40+ AI bots. PDF and CSV exports and shareable links are on every plan. It doesn't write content, which Peec AI's own product notes describe as by design. Perplexity isn't in the default model list on Starter, Pro or Advanced, so check that before you buy if it matters to you.

What it costs: Starter is $95 a month for 50 prompts and 1 country. Pro is $245 for 150 prompts and 3 countries. Advanced is $495 for 350 prompts. Agency plans start at $245 and Enterprise is custom. Annual billing costs less and extra AI tools start at $35 a month on Starter. There's a free trial and no card is needed.

Who it suits: Marketing and SEO teams and agencies that track several markets and want detailed competitor benchmarking.

Where it falls short: The entry plan covers one project and one country, API access starts on Pro and there's no content writing.

Source: Peec AI pricing page, checked 30 October 2026.

4. Promptwatch: tracking with content tools and crawler logs

Promptwatch pairs AI visibility tracking with content tools and logs of which AI crawlers visit your site.

What it does: It tracks four AI tools of your choice per project from a list of 11, with daily refresh, citation and source analysis, content gap analysis, visitor analytics and site health audits. API and MCP access are on every plan. From Professional it adds server-side AI crawler logs and writes articles built to be cited. City and state tracking starts on Business.

What it costs: Essential is $95 a month for 50 prompts and 1 website. Professional is $245 for 150 prompts and 2 websites. Business is $579 for 350 prompts and 5 websites. Agency plans start at $199. Annual billing gives 12 months for the price of 10 and Essential and Professional include a 7 day free trial.

Who it suits: Marketing and SEO teams that want to track visibility and publish content to improve it, plus agencies.

Where it falls short: Brand plans are priced per website, so extra sites push you up a plan. Essential has one seat and no crawler logs or article writing.

Source: Promptwatch pricing page and Promptwatch plan summary, checked 30 October 2026.

5. Searchable: tracking with content creation and site audits

Searchable combines tracking with an AI agent that recommends fixes, content creation and site audits in one platform.

What it does: It can track up to nine AI tools (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Grok and Claude), with three included by default and the rest available as add-ons. Tracking runs daily. Pro includes 20 articles and 200 site audits a month. Every paid plan includes unlimited countries and seats.

What it costs: Pro is $125 a month ($100 on annual billing) for 100 prompts. Scale is $400 for 500 prompts. Enterprise is $999 for 1,250 prompts. Agency plans start at $250 and include white-label reports, which are also on Scale but not on Pro. The 14 day free trial asks for a card and there's a free AI visibility report with no sign-up.

Who it suits: Teams that want one tool to measure and fix problems, plus agencies that need white-label reports.

Where it falls short: Its $125 entry plan is the highest published entry price here and white-label reports aren't included on it.

Source: Searchable pricing page and Searchable agency pricing, checked 30 October 2026.

6. Profound: AI visibility for enterprise teams

Profound is the enterprise end of the market, with deep data and custom pricing.

What it does: It runs prompts daily through the front end the way a real user would. Its feature set includes prompt volume data from real conversations, sentiment, citations, a fact checker that flags incorrect claims about your business, AI agents that turn findings into projects and content and CDN-level tracking of AI crawlers. Enterprise tracks up to 9 AI tools and adds SOC 2 Type II, an independent HIPAA assessment and SSO. Dashboards export as PDF or share as public links and CSV exports come with Enterprise.

What it costs: There's a free 7 day trial that tracks 50 prompts on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. Enterprise pricing is on request. Agencies can buy a self-serve plan at $399 a month per client workspace, with 100 prompts and 5 seats, per Profound's agency plan announcement. Its pricing page no longer lists the older $99 Starter and $399 Growth plans, so figures you may see elsewhere are out of date.

Who it suits: Large companies with the budget for a full programme and a team to run it.

Where it falls short: Its pricing page lists no self-serve plan for a single brand, so most small businesses will need a quote or the agency plan. Profound's reviews page lists a steep learning curve as common user feedback.

Source: Profound pricing page and Profound's agency plan announcement, checked 30 October 2026.

What does it cost to track several businesses?

Most tools price by the number of brands, projects or websites you track, so the bill climbs quickly if you look after several businesses or clients. These are the most affordable plans we found that are built for it:

• Midwaver: $89 a month covers 3 businesses and $169 covers 5, with 50 and 100 prompts shared across them

• Otterly.AI: $189 a month for Standard, with unlimited workspaces and 100 prompts

• Promptwatch: from $199 a month for the Kick-off agency plan, with unlimited projects and 10,000 AI responses a month

• Peec AI: from $245 a month for the Essential agency plan

• Searchable: from $250 a month for the Launch agency plan, with 200 prompts and 5 projects

• Profound: $399 a month per client workspace on its self-serve agency plan

Allowances and features differ, so compare what each plan includes. Midwaver has the most affordable price at three to five businesses but the smallest prompt allowance, so it suits small clients with 10 to 20 questions each.

Which tool suits a small business or agency?

The right tool depends on who will use it and what you want to do with the data:

• You run a small business or look after a few clients and want plain answers and a clear next step: Midwaver

• You want content writing built into the tool: Promptwatch or Searchable

• You are a large company with a full programme and a team to run it: Profound

• You aren't sure yet: take free trials and put the same 10 questions into each, then see which answers you would actually act on

How did we choose and compare these tools?

We chose six dedicated AI visibility tools that are often shortlisted for this job and that publish enough pricing and product detail to compare. Broader SEO suites that bolt AI tracking on as an add-on are left out. We weighed the criteria that matter most to small businesses and agencies: the price of covering several businesses, ease of use and reporting. We read each vendor's pricing and product pages on 30 October 2026 and used vendor-published figures wherever possible, so the numbers come from the tools themselves and not from hands-on testing of every product.

Vendors change plans often. Where sources disagreed (Peec AI and Searchable both describe their plans differently across pages) we used the figure on the main pricing page. Midwaver is our product, so every claim about the other five links to its source and you can check it yourself.

How do I check whether ChatGPT mentions my business?

Open a new chat and ask the question a customer would ask, such as 'best accountant in Leeds for a small company'. Note whether your business is named and which competitors appear, then repeat on Perplexity and Google. One check proves little because answers change, so use a tracking tool to run the same questions every day.

How many prompts do I need to track?

Ten to twenty well chosen questions is enough to learn a lot about one business. That's a rule of thumb rather than a measured figure. Start with the questions closest to a purchase, then add more as you see which ones matter. The entry plans in this comparison include between 15 and 100 prompts.

How often do AI answers change for the same question?

Often. SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai found less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google's AI would return the same list of brands across repeated runs of the same prompt. Gumshoe sells AI tracking tools, so read the study with that in mind. The practical lesson is to measure how often you appear over many runs rather than trusting a single answer.

Does a mention in an AI answer drive traffic?

Sometimes, but not as often as a search result used to. Pew Research Center found people clicked a link inside an AI summary on Google in only 1% of visits. A mention can still shape which business someone chooses without a click, so track mentions alongside your branded searches and the AI referrals in your analytics (our guide to measuring AI visibility shows how).

What is the difference between AI mention tracking and traditional rank tracking?

Rank tracking reports your position on a results page for a keyword. AI answers have no fixed page or position and the order of brands changes from run to run, so AI tracking measures how often your business appears across repeated runs of the same question. It also records citations, sentiment and the sources AI used.

What is the best tool to track brand mentions in AI search for a small business?

For most small businesses and small agencies Midwaver is a strong starting point because it's built for them. It gives plain-English answers, puts every feature on every plan and covers three businesses from $89 a month. Large companies with a full programme may prefer Profound and teams that want content writing built in may prefer Promptwatch or Searchable. Try the free trials with the same questions and see which output you would actually act on.

Can one tool track several businesses or clients?

Yes. Midwaver covers 3 businesses from $89 a month and 5 from $169. Otterly.AI gives unlimited workspaces from $189 and Promptwatch, Peec AI and Searchable sell agency plans from $199, $245 and $250. Profound sells an agency plan at $399 a month per client. Check whether prompts are shared across businesses and whether you can export reports for clients.

Can I track brand mentions in AI search for free?

Yes, in two ways. You can run the questions by hand and log the results in a spreadsheet, or you can use a free trial or a one-off report. Midwaver offers a free 7 day trial with no card and a free AI visibility report. Otterly.AI, Peec AI and Promptwatch also offer free trials and Searchable provides a free AI visibility report without sign-up.

How much does it cost to track brand mentions in AI search?

Entry plans in this comparison run from $29 a month (Otterly.AI) to $125 a month (Searchable), with Midwaver Starter at $39. Covering three to five businesses costs $89 to $169 a month with Midwaver and from $189 to $250 a month on the most affordable plans from Otterly.AI, Promptwatch, Peec AI and Searchable. Annual billing lowers the price on most of them.

Search is changing. Your customers used to search on Google or Bing and get a list of links. Now they're asking AI for recommendations. Is your business being recommended? Start your free 7 day trial with Midwaver. See what AI says about your business, who's winning in your industry and how to get mentioned more. No credit card needed, no obligation.