What are the best AI visibility tools for competitor analysis?
The best AI visibility tools for competitor analysis, ranked: who is named, who is cited, how rivals compare by engine and topic, with pricing and who each suits.
Competitor analysis in AI search answers a handful of specific questions. Which rivals are named when buyers ask about your category? In what position? Which sources do the engines cite for them? Where do they lead and where do you? And are they gaining or losing ground? The best AI visibility tools for this job do more than list competitor names. They let you slice the data by engine, topic and market, and they point to the sources behind it.
What to look for
Competitor share of voice. The share of brand mentions each rival earns across your prompt set, tracked over time.
Position and sentiment. Being named first with a positive description beats being listed fifth.
Source analysis. Which pages and domains get cited for each competitor. This is the actionable part.
Slicing. By engine, by topic, by persona and by country, because rivals rarely lead everywhere.
Competitor discovery. Tools that find the brands the engines actually put next to you, which are not always the ones on your list.
Competitor content. Ability to follow specific competitor pages and see what they win citations for.
The ranking
1. Promptwatch
Promptwatch is our top choice for competitor analysis because it handles all six items and then connects them to action. It reports competitor visibility, share of voice and position, and builds competitor heatmaps that compare any two dimensions, such as brands against models, topics or countries. Competitors are auto-discovered, and brand merging means variations of a name count as one. A/B period comparison shows who is gaining.
On sources, citation analytics work at page and domain level with URL positions. Page Tracker follows specific URLs, yours or a competitor's, and Citation Trends reports first cited, ramp-up days, peak rate and decay half-life. Offsite mentions and Reddit, YouTube and LinkedIn citation reports show where rivals are discussed. Content gap analysis with coverage scores shows prompts where competitors are answered and you are not, and the Answer Gap Report is the basis Monks uses for client content roadmaps.
Monitors run daily across ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, Amazon Alexa and Meta AI, with other models via API. Plans: Explore is free (10 prompts, ChatGPT only), Essential $95, Professional $245 and Business $579 a month. Agencies get Kick-off $199, Growth $399 and Scale $799.
2. AthenaHQ
AthenaHQ lists unlimited topics, prompts and competitors on its $295 a month Starter plan, across 11 models, with a unified GEO score and an Action Center. It bills in credits, one per AI response, so competitor-heavy panels use credits fast. Starter is country-level only.
3. Scrunch AI
Scrunch AI includes competitor benchmarking from $250 a month. Core covers four engines and 125 prompts. Its Agent Experience Platform, which serves AI-optimized pages to crawlers, is the differentiator at the Enterprise end.
4. Profound
Profound provides citation share and answer-level analytics plus a Prompt Volumes dataset of real query demand. Enterprise is custom priced, with an earlier estimate near $40,000 a year, and covers up to nine engines. The public entry point near $99 a month is ChatGPT only.
5. Semrush AI Toolkit
Semrush AI Toolkit offers competitor share comparisons for $99 a month per domain with five engines and 25 prompts. Extra domains, seats and prompts add cost.
6. Ahrefs Brand Radar
Ahrefs Brand Radar reports brand and competitor mention share from a large pre-collected prompt index, with the AI Visibility Index from $199 a month on top of an Ahrefs plan. It is useful for category-level research.
7. LLM Pulse and Gauge
LLM Pulse starts at EUR 49 a month, tracks five engines and has unlimited seats. Its default cadence is weekly. Gauge starts at $599 a month with unlimited domains and competitors across three platforms on its Growth plan, plus content production.
Comparison table
| Tool | Competitor features per vendor listing | Entry price |
|---|---|---|
| Promptwatch | Heatmaps, auto-discovery, Page Tracker for competitor URLs, content gaps | Free tier; paid from $95/mo |
| AthenaHQ | Unlimited competitors on Starter, GEO score | $295/mo |
| Scrunch AI | Competitor benchmarking | $250/mo |
| Profound | Citation share, Prompt Volumes | Enterprise custom; about $99/mo entry |
| Semrush AI Toolkit | Competitor share comparisons | $99/mo per domain |
| Ahrefs Brand Radar | Brand and competitor mention share | From $199/mo |
| LLM Pulse | Competitive tracking across 5 engines | From EUR 49/mo |
| Gauge | Unlimited competitors and domains | From $599/mo |
Who should pick which
If competitor analysis is the first step in a larger program, where you will also need to fix crawler access, close content gaps and prove traffic, Promptwatch is the most complete choice. Choose AthenaHQ if you want a task queue and accept credit billing. Choose Scrunch if the crawler-serving idea appeals. Choose Semrush or Ahrefs if your team already works there and you want directional category research. Choose LLM Pulse for transparent small-team pricing, and Gauge if daily volume and content production matter more than price.
How to run a first competitor analysis
Pick five competitors, including at least one that the engines name that you did not expect. Write 50 prompts across category, comparison and problem queries. Track them for two weeks. Then ask: where do rivals lead, on which engines, and what do their winning sources have in common?
No tool can guarantee you will overtake a competitor. What you get is a clear map. Start with the free Explore plan on Promptwatch to see which rivals show up on your top prompts.