TL;DR: AthenaHQ has a free Essential plan (300 credits), a Starter plan at $295/month with 3,600 credits a month, and custom Enterprise pricing. Starter tracks 11 models, and Enterprise adds multiple regions and languages. If you want something cheaper, or something that also does the work after it measures, the six tools below are the main options.
AthenaHQ pricing and features
Prices and features checked between 11 October 2026 and 9 November 2026 on each vendor's site.
| Tool | Best for | Plan | Price | Billing | Allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AthenaHQ | Wide engine coverage, priced in credits | Starter | $295/month | Monthly or annual, 17% off annual | 3,600 credits per month (1 credit = 1 AI response); $300/month free credit with 1-month rollover; unlimited topics, prompts and competitors; extra credits and API access are paid add-ons |
| Peak Answer | Tracking plus the content work on a small budget | Starter | $49/month | Monthly, 7 day trial | 50 prompts, 15 articles a month |
| Profound | Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom (Tailored packages, no dollar amounts) | Custom package | Custom prompts, unlimited opportunities, AI Marketer credits, ChatGPT Shopping, all-time data history, CSV/JSON export, API, SSO/SAML, SOC 2, custom languages and regions |
| Peec AI | Daily tracking on engines you choose | Starter | $95/month | Monthly | 50 prompts, 3 chosen models, daily tracking, 1 project, 1 country, unlimited users |
| Otterly | A tracker sized by prompts | Standard | $189/month | Monthly or annual, 15% off annual | 100 search prompts; extra in batches of 100; unlimited workspaces; API (2,000 requests a month) and MCP (2,000 requests); Agent Analytics; Looker Studio connector; 5,000 GEO URL audits a month |
| Semrush (SEO + AI Search) | Teams already on Semrush | Starter | $165.17/month billed annually, $199 monthly | Monthly or annual | 50 prompts to track daily; 300 AI visibility reports/day |
| Scrunch | An engine list that grows with the plan | Core | $250/month | Monthly | 125 unique prompts, 5,000 responses/month, 5 site audits/month, 5 user licenses |
| Tool | Engines | Refresh | Writes content | Publishes to CMS | Multi-brand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AthenaHQ | 11 models: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI, Mistral | Set per prompt, every 1 to 4 weeks or on chosen days of the month. Daily not stated. | Yes. Content Hub writes a brief, then a full article. | Yes. 8 CMSs, including Shopify, Webflow, WordPress and Sanity. | Multiple brands through Groups; one country on Starter, multi-region on Enterprise. |
| Peak Answer | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode | Weekly, top questions daily (Claude and Perplexity weekly only) | Yes | Yes | 1 brand on this plan |
| Profound | ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews | Daily for 7 days | Yes. Its AI agent is described as one that will research, write, report and collaborate | Yes, through its agents and workflow CMS nodes (WordPress, Webflow, Contentful and others). The pricing page doesn't itemise it per plan | Unknown. Projects are shared spaces for teammates, and the page doesn't list a brand count |
| Peec AI | Choose 3 of ChatGPT, AI Mode, AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini, Naver AI (Perplexity is an add-on) | Daily | No. The vendor says it does not write content itself | No. The vendor says it does not publish content itself | 1 project; unlimited users |
| Otterly | ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot (add-on: Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude) | Daily | No article writer in the plan (briefs and audits only). A separate free GEO Landing Page Creator tool exists | No | Unlimited workspaces |
| Semrush (SEO + AI Search) | Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | Daily | Separate product: Semrush Content Toolkit | Separate product: Semrush Content Toolkit (publishes to WordPress) | 5 websites |
| Scrunch | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Copilot | Unknown | Content Generation: Basic | No. Its AXP product serves optimized pages at the CDN layer and does not publish to a CMS | 1 brand workspace; multi-domain tracking listed as available |
AthenaHQ is priced in credits, and 1 credit is 1 AI response. Essential is free with 300 credits. Starter is $295/month with 3,600 credits a month, and extra credits are a paid add-on. Enterprise is custom and its homepage describes centralized tracking across multiple brands and business units. It publishes to 8 CMSs, including Shopify, Webflow, WordPress and Sanity, and its Content Hub writes full articles. Tools beyond these six are in best AI visibility tools in 2026.
Peak Answer: measurement plus the work
Pick this if you want the tracking and the work that follows it in one tool. Peak Answer is an AI visibility tracker that runs your buying questions on ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, with 50 questions on Starter, the top 10 daily and the rest weekly. Then it works on the questions you lose. It writes articles aimed at them and sends them to your CMS as drafts. For external authority, it ranks the sites the engines already cite or use as sources for your category and drafts the outreach to them, finds Reddit, Quora and LinkedIn threads worth answering, and flags technical problems that stop crawlers reading your site. It also gives you detailed info on tracking runs, not just high level reports. It separates answers from search and answers from memory, scores sentiment, and even shows you the full answer texts and citations for each tracked question. It connects directly to Search Console and GA4 for better insight into your site data, and has an API and MCP server on all plans.
Skip this if you need more than one country for a brand, or a free plan to start on.
Price: $49/month, with a 7-day trial.
Profound
Pick this if you are a large organization that wants a tailored tracking plan. Enterprise covers up to 9 answer engines with daily tracking, and the pricing page also lists a free trial with 50 prompts for 7 days.
Skip this if you want to sign up and pay by card. The pricing page shows the trial and a custom Enterprise plan. Its FAQ mentions a self-serve Agency Growth plan (400 credits a month per client workspace) with no price listed.
Price: free trial, Enterprise Custom (Tailored packages, no dollar amounts).
Peec AI
Pick this if you want a simple tracker that checks every prompt daily. Starter covers 50 prompts on 3 models you choose.
Skip this if you want Claude or Perplexity included. Claude is Enterprise only and Perplexity is an add-on.
Price: Starter $95/month, Pro $245/month, Advanced $495/month, Enterprise is custom, billed annually.
Otterly
Pick this if you manage several brands and want to track them without per-brand fees. The Standard plan has 100 search prompts and unlimited workspaces, with daily refresh across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot. Google AI Mode, Gemini and Claude are add-ons. Premium raises it to 400 prompts.
Skip this if you need Gemini or Claude included. They cost extra.
Price: Lite $29/month, Standard $189/month, Premium $489/month.
Semrush
Pick this if your team already works in Semrush. AI visibility sits inside its SEO + AI Search plans, tracking Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Starter has 50 prompts tracked daily and covers 5 websites.
Skip this if you only want AI tracking. You are buying the wider SEO plan.
Price: Starter $165.17/month billed annually, $199 monthly.
Scrunch
Pick this if you want an engine list that grows with the plan. Core tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot, and Enterprise lists 9 engines. Core includes 125 unique prompts, 5,000 responses a month and 5 site audits a month.
Skip this if you are looking for something cheaper than AthenaHQ. Core is in the same range, and refresh rate isn't stated on its pricing page. Multi-brand deployment is described under Enterprise.
Price: Core $250/month.
AthenaHQ vs Peak Answer
AthenaHQ is a tracker priced in credits, with a free plan, a wide engine list and a content hub. Peak Answer is priced per brand and puts the articles, outreach drafts, directories, social replies and technical fixes in the same plan as the tracking. There's a full AthenaHQ vs Peak Answer comparison too, section by section.
| AthenaHQ | Peak Answer | |
|---|---|---|
| AI engines | 5 on the free plan (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot). 11 on Starter, adding AI Mode, Claude, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral | 6 on every plan (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode). Claude covers the top 5/10/13 questions a week and Perplexity up to 50/100/100 |
| Refresh | Set per prompt, every 1 to 4 weeks or on chosen days of the month. Daily not stated | Top 10/25/50 questions daily, the rest weekly |
| Runs per question | Not stated. It runs generated variations of each prompt | ChatGPT 3 times a week per question, other engines once |
| Search vs memory | Shows the searches the model ran, no searched or memory label | Yes, every answer is marked as searched or from memory |
| Sentiment | Positive, neutral or negative per response, plus brand attributes (Starter and up) | Yes, per mention, plus recurring descriptions of the brand |
| Citation analysis | Yes, with sources split into owned, competitor, partner and third-party | Yes |
| Competitors | Unlimited, with auto-discovery | Unlimited |
| Content writing | Content Hub writes a brief, then a full article, and optimizes existing pages | 15/30/60 articles a month |
| CMS publishing | 8 CMSs, including WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and Sanity | 13 CMSs, drafts by default |
| Help earning links and mentions | Outreach workflow finds the author and drafts a pitch (premium) | Ranks cited sites, finds contacts, drafts outreach for you to send |
| Directories | Not stated | Finds and queues the directories worth listing on, you submit |
| Social threads | Cited posts only | Finds Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn and X threads, drafts replies for you to post |
| Technical audit | On-demand full site audit and AI crawler access checks; robots.txt and llms.txt management on Starter | 30 site checks, 10/50/250 audited pages, copy-paste fixes |
| Search Console / Analytics | Both, Starter and up | Full Search Console and GA4 data on every plan |
| API and MCP | MCP server; API on paid plans, an add-on on Starter | API and MCP on every plan, including the trial |
| Brands and seats | Unlimited users; multiple brands through Groups; multi-region on Enterprise | 1 brand per plan, extra brands at a volume discount up to 25, unlimited users |
| Countries | One country and language on Starter, multi-region on Enterprise | One market per brand |
| Reports and alerts | CSV and PDF export, scheduled reports by email or Slack; BI dashboards (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) on Enterprise; alerts not stated | Weekly digest email, loss and win alerts, weekly screenshots, CSV downloads |
| Free plan or trial | Free Essential plan with 300 credits | 7-day trial, card required |
| Starting price | Free, then $295/month | $49/month |
What you get with Peak Answer
- A lower paid entry point: $49 a month against $295/month for AthenaHQ Starter.
- Daily checks on your top questions. AthenaHQ schedules run every 1 to 4 weeks, and daily isn't stated.
- Every answer marked as searched or from memory, the full answer texts and citations for each tracked question, and ChatGPT asked each question 3 times a week on paid plans.
- Help with the work off your site: contacts and drafted outreach for the sites the engines cite, the directories worth listing on, and Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn and X threads with drafted replies.
- Search Console and GA4 on every plan, plus an API and MCP server so you can run it from your own AI tools. AthenaHQ sells API access as an add-on on Starter.
What you give up with Peak Answer
- Engine coverage. AthenaHQ Starter covers 11 models, including Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral. Peak Answer covers 6, and Claude and Perplexity cover fewer of your questions than the other engines.
- A free plan. AthenaHQ Essential is free with 300 credits. Peak Answer has a 7-day trial.
- PDF exports and BI dashboards. AthenaHQ has PDF export and scheduled reports, with BI dashboards (Tableau, Power BI, Looker) on Enterprise. Peak Answer has a weekly digest, loss and win alerts and CSV downloads, but no PDF export.
- More than one country per brand, which AthenaHQ offers on Enterprise.
Pricing side by side
AthenaHQ Essential is free with 300 credits. Starter is $295/month for 3,600 credits a month, where 1 credit is 1 AI response, and extra credits and API access are paid add-ons. Annual billing is 17% off, and Enterprise is custom. Peak Answer starts at $49 a month for 1 brand with all 6 engines, and the articles, outreach drafts, site audit, API and MCP server included. Annual billing gets two months free, and extra brands get a volume discount.
Which one to choose
Choose AthenaHQ if you want the widest engine list, a free plan to start on, or BI dashboards for reporting.
Choose Peak Answer if you want your top questions checked daily on all 6 engines, the work after it (articles, outreach drafts, directories and social replies) in one plan from $49 a month, and you want to run it from your own AI tools.
- Profound if you're a large company and buy through a sales process.
- Otterly if you want a low-cost tracker with unlimited workspaces on Standard.
- Semrush if your team already uses it for SEO.
You can run the free AI visibility checker on your own site first to see whether ChatGPT names you for 5 buying questions in your category.
FAQs
Among AthenaHQ alternatives for agencies, Otterly's Standard plan includes unlimited workspaces, and Scrunch describes multi-brand deployment on Enterprise. Profound's Enterprise plan is the option for large organizations. Peak Answer includes 1 brand per plan, and extra brands get a volume discount, up to 25 brands.
Cheaper alternatives to AthenaHQ include Peak Answer, which starts at $49/month, and Semrush Starter at $165.17/month billed annually, $199 monthly. Peec AI Starter is $95/month and Otterly Lite is $29/month. AthenaHQ also has a free Essential plan with 300 credits.
AthenaHQ's Essential plan is free with 300 credits. Starter is $295/month.
AthenaHQ connects both Google Search Console and GA4 on its Starter and Enterprise plans. It uses Search Console queries to suggest prompts and can isolate AI referral traffic. Peak Answer connects to Search Console and GA4 on every plan.
AthenaHQ has an MCP server, and its API is on paid plans, sold as an add-on on Starter. Peak Answer's API and MCP server are on every plan, including the trial, so you can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own visibility, questions and actions.
AthenaHQ has an outreach workflow that finds the author of a page and drafts a pitch, listed as a premium feature. Peak Answer ranks the sites the engines cite for your questions, finds contacts and drafts outreach, lists the directories worth getting onto, and finds Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn and X threads with drafted replies. You send and post everything yourself.
AthenaHQ tracks one country and language on Starter, and multiple regions and languages on Enterprise. Peak Answer tracks one country per brand.
AthenaHQ's Content Hub writes a brief and then a full article, and publishes to 8 CMSs, including WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and Sanity. Peak Answer writes 15, 30 or 60 articles a month on paid plans, aimed at the questions you lose, and sends them to 13 CMSs as drafts.