SEO & AI Search

What do generative engine optimization tools actually cost in 2026?

Published 2026-10-21 · Researched and price-checked on official sources

Generative engine optimization tools cost $29 to $495 a month as of October 2026, and the sticker price hides three different meters. Normalized per 1,000 AI answers, Otterly's Lite plan runs $16.11 and Scrunch's Core plan $50.00. Here is what each entry plan actually includes, verified on vendor pricing pages.

Key facts

What matters

Peec AI charges $95/mo for 50 prompts across 3 models, while Otterly charges $29/mo for 15 prompts across 4 engines: $21.11 versus $16.11 per 1,000 AI answers.
Scrunch's $250/mo Core plan includes 125 prompts and a 5,000-response ceiling, which is 40 answers per prompt, about 1.3 a day rather than daily tracking across four models.
Rankscale prices in credits instead: $99 buys 1,200 credits (up to 4,800 answers) and $229 buys 3,000 credits, so no per-prompt figure exists to compare.
Semrush bundles AI-visibility reporting into its $139/mo SEO plan, and metered prompt tracking (50 prompts daily, 1 domain) starts on the $199/mo Starter plan.

What generative engine optimization tools do

Generative engine optimization tools are subscription dashboards that track how often a brand appears inside AI answers on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot and Gemini, then suggest content work to raise that share. They are the measurement layer of GEO. They do not write the pages.

The category exists because AI search broke the assumption that a ranking equals a citation. In an experiment published by Peec AI, a site called stateglobe.com ranked second for AI visibility on a tracked prompt set on October 7, behind only Statista. The site was 50,000 pages of invented statistics generated in a single day with GPT-4.1. Google deindexed it. ChatGPT kept retrieving it, sending more than 10,000 AI sessions and attracting over 330 referring domains, including Shopify, Bluehost and DHL, per the same write-up.

Read that as a caution about the market rather than a playbook. What gets retrieved is not what ranks, and what ranks is not verified. A GEO dashboard tells you where you show up. It cannot tell you whether the source behind the citation deserves trust, which is why the plans should be compared on measurement depth rather than on the promise of visibility.

Three meters, one market: prompts, answers and credits

Every vendor here sells the same underlying unit: one question put to one AI model, repeated on a schedule. They just name it differently, and the name decides your bill.

Prompts. Peec AI and Otterly charge by tracked prompt and multiply internally by the models you enable. Peec's page states that monthly AI answers are "calculated by multiplying tracked prompts by active models and tracking frequency."
Responses. Scrunch caps collected answers: Core includes 125 unique prompts and 5,000 responses a month across 4 LLMs.
Credits. Rankscale sells 1,200 credits for $99 (up to 4,800 answers from AI engines) and 3,000 credits for $229 (up to 12,000 answers). Search terms are unlimited, but execution spends credits.
Bundled. Semrush folds AI visibility into its SEO plans. The $139/mo SEO plan lists AI-visibility reports for any domain and AI sentiment monitoring; metered prompt tracking (50 prompts daily, 1 domain, 300 AI-visibility reports per day) starts on Starter at $199/mo.

The unit gap matters more than the sticker price. A 50-prompt plan with three models on daily tracking buys 4,500 answers a month. A 125-prompt plan with a 5,000-response ceiling buys 40 answers per prompt, roughly 1.3 a day, at 2.6 times the price. Both are honest products aimed at different jobs, but only one of them is a daily tracker in practice.

Verified pricing for the main GEO platforms

All figures below were read on each vendor's own pricing page on October 21, 2026. The comparison table covers entry plans; the rest of each lineup is here.

Peec AI runs Starter at $95/mo (50 prompts, 3 models, 1 project), Pro at $245/mo (150 prompts, 2 projects) and Advanced at $495/mo (350 prompts, 5 projects), all with unlimited users and daily tracking. Enterprise is quote-priced, annual, and adds all models, SSO, API access and unlimited projects. The company says 3,500+ brands and agencies use it.

Otterly runs Lite at $29/mo (15 prompts), Standard at $189/mo (100 prompts, API and MCP access) and Premium at $489/mo (400 prompts). Enterprise starts at 1,000 prompts. Every plan tracks 4 engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Copilot); Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode are add-ons, and extra prompts cost $99 per 100 on Standard and Premium.

Scrunch has a single self-serve plan: Core at $250/mo with 125 prompts, 5,000 responses, 5 site audits, 1 brand workspace, 5 user licenses and 4 LLMs. Enterprise adds 9 LLMs, API, SSO and custom volumes.

Rankscale starts at $20/mo on the yearly Essentials plan and lists Pro at $99/mo (1,200 credits, 10 brand dashboards, 50 page audits) and Pro+ at $229/mo (3,000 credits, REST API, 5 prompt researches). Yearly billing takes 15% off.

Semrush is the suite route: SEO at $139/mo monthly ($117.33/mo billed annually), Starter at $199/mo ($165.17 annual) with 50 prompts tracked daily, Pro+ at $299/mo ($248.17 annual) with 100 prompts daily, and Advanced custom with unlimited prompts.

Profound does not publish list prices. Its pricing page describes a self-serve Agency Growth plan with 400 credits per month per client workspace, with larger credit thresholds handled by an enterprise agreement.

Ahrefs meters Brand Radar in checks, one per prompt per platform, location and update. Published plan prices run from $29/mo (Starter) to $449/mo (Advanced), and the Brand Radar allowance is not listed on the pricing page, so budget for a sales conversation there.

Cost per 1,000 AI answers: the comparison vendors avoid

Since every plan buys a slightly different volume, divide the price by the answers it delivers at daily tracking. Using each vendor's own prompt count and model count, multiplied by 30 days:

Otterly Premium: $489 for 400 prompts across 4 engines (48,000 answers) = $10.19 per 1,000 answers
Peec Advanced: $495 for 350 prompts across 3 models (31,500 answers) = $15.71
Otterly Standard: $189 for 100 prompts across 4 engines (12,000 answers) = $15.75
Otterly Lite: $29 for 15 prompts across 4 engines (1,800 answers) = $16.11
Rankscale Pro: $99 for up to 4,800 answers = $20.62
Peec Starter: $95 for 50 prompts across 3 models (4,500 answers) = $21.11
Scrunch Core: $250 for 5,000 responses = $50.00

Two rankings are true at once. By sticker price, Otterly Lite is the cheapest entry at $29 and Semrush is the most expensive at $139. By answers delivered, Otterly Premium is the cheapest at $10.19 and Scrunch Core the dearest at $50.00. The second number is the one that decides whether a plan can actually do daily tracking.

Scrunch makes the gap concrete. Full daily coverage of its own 125 prompts across 4 LLMs would need about 15,000 responses a month, three times the included allowance. Peec and Otterly avoid the mismatch by tying the cap to prompts and models directly. Rankscale sits in the middle: 1,200 credits becomes 4,800 answers only while one credit buys four answers.

If weekly tracking is enough for your use case, every figure above rises roughly sevenfold per answer unless you also drop to a smaller plan. That is why the prompt count should be set by how many questions you can act on, not by the size of the discount.

Which plan fits which buyer

One site, one category, solo operator. Otterly Lite at $29/mo is the cheapest way to watch 15 prompts across four engines, and Peec Starter at $95/mo is the better buy if you need 50 prompts and would rather pay for depth than for engine count.

In-house SEO team tracking a product line. Otterly Standard at $189/mo covers 100 prompts with API and MCP access, which matters if you want AI visibility data inside your own tooling. Peec Pro at $245/mo buys 150 prompts and a second project instead.

Agency reporting to clients. Scrunch Core bundles 5 user licenses and one brand workspace at $250/mo, but no API. Rankscale Pro+ at $229/mo includes REST access and 10 dashboards, and Peec's higher tiers add projects rather than seats, since users are unlimited on every plan.

Teams already paying for Semrush. Check the bundled AI visibility first. The $139/mo SEO plan lists AI-visibility reports for any domain; the $199/mo Starter plan is the first tier with metered prompt tracking, at 50 prompts daily for one domain. Adding a dedicated GEO dashboard on top only makes sense when you need multi-engine coverage at a prompt volume the suite does not sell.

What the pricing pages leave out

Model coverage is the real upsell. Peec allows 3 models on self-serve plans and up to 13 on Enterprise. Scrunch ships 4 LLMs on Core and 9 on Enterprise. Otterly treats Claude, Gemini and Google AI Mode as paid add-ons. A comparison built on "engines tracked" flatters whichever vendor bundles the most at entry level.

Annual discounts hide the renewal term. Otterly advertises 15% off annually, Rankscale 15%, Semrush about 17%. None of those pages state whether the discount survives year two, so confirm the renewal price in writing before you commit to a year.

API access is a tier gate. Otterly's API and MCP access start on Standard ($189), Rankscale's REST API on Pro+ ($229), and Scrunch offers none below Enterprise. If you plan to pipe visibility data into Looker Studio or an internal dashboard, the entry price is not the price you will pay.

Unlimited is a word about queries, not tracking. Rankscale's unlimited search terms and Peec's unlimited users are real, but neither changes the answer or credit ceiling that determines how often you can actually check.

Measurement is not a citation. The stateglobe.com case shows retrieval can be manufactured from fabricated data at scale. A GEO tool will report that a page gets cited; deciding whether the citation is worth having is still an editorial job, and that judgement is what the subscription does not include.

At a glance

Tool and plan	List price	Charged by	Included volume	Cost per 1,000 answers
Otterly Lite	$29/mo	Prompts (4 engines)	15 prompts, daily tracking	$16.11
Otterly Premium	$489/mo	Prompts (4 engines)	400 prompts, daily tracking	$10.19
Peec AI Starter	$95/mo	Prompts (3 models)	50 prompts, 1 project	$21.11
Peec AI Advanced	$495/mo	Prompts (3 models)	350 prompts, 5 projects	$15.71
Scrunch Core	$250/mo	Responses	125 prompts, 5,000 responses, 4 LLMs	$50.00
Rankscale Pro	$99/mo	Credits	1,200 credits, up to 4,800 answers	$20.62
Semrush SEO	$139/mo monthly ($117.33 annual)	Bundled with suite	AI visibility reports for any domain, 5 sites	Not metered
Profound Agency Growth	Quote only	Credits	400 credits/mo per client workspace	Not published

Entry plans and normalized cost per 1,000 AI answers, verified October 21, 2026. Assumes daily tracking at the plan's model count (prompts x models x 30); Scrunch and Rankscale publish answer or credit caps directly.

FAQ

Is there a free generative engine optimization tool?

Semrush's free tier is $0 with 1 demo project and 10 reports per day across its tools, but it does not include metered AI prompt tracking. The dedicated GEO platforms are paid: Otterly, Scrunch and Rankscale offer free trials, with Scrunch at 7 days and Rankscale at 7 days on Pro.

What is the cheapest way to track AI visibility?

Otterly Lite at $29/mo is the lowest entry price, covering 15 prompts across 4 engines. If you already pay for Semrush, the $139/mo SEO plan includes AI-visibility reports for any domain, so the marginal cost is zero for basic reporting and $199/mo for metered prompt tracking.

How many prompts do I need for GEO tracking?

Vendors step their tiers at 15, 50, 100, 125 and 400 prompts, and each prompt is one query repeated on a schedule. A single product category usually fits in 15 to 50 prompts of branded and non-branded questions; multiple personas, languages or client brands push you to the 100+ tiers, where the cost per answer drops sharply.