1. AIRIX
Best for: Local service businesses, Shopify stores, and solo operators who want AI visibility fixed, not just measured.
AIRIX monitors 16 LLMs every week, covering ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral, Qwen, and more. That matters because only 11% of domains appear in both ChatGPT and Perplexity (Semrush, 2026), and ChatGPT's share of AI web traffic has already fallen from 86.7% to 64.5% as Gemini surged to 21.5% (Similarweb / ALM Corp, 2026). Single-platform tools leave real gaps.
Every competitor on this list monitors your AI visibility. AIRIX also ships the remediation: weekly-refreshed JSON-LD schema, llms.txt files, answer-first FAQs, crawl diagnostics, and IndexNow submission. It also publishes a crawlable /b/[country]/[city]/[industry]/[handle] profile page per business, giving AI crawlers a permanent, structured citation target. No other SMB-priced tool on this list does all of that in one workflow.
Off-site authority tracking across GBP, Trustpilot, Tripadvisor, Reddit, YouTube, and Wikipedia is also included. AI systems pull heavily from these sources, and most tools ignore them entirely.
Pricing: See airix.app for current tiers.
Platform coverage: 16 LLMs.
Asset generation: Yes (schema, llms.txt, FAQs, IndexNow).
2. Otterly.AI
Best for: Solo operators and small teams who want an affordable, visual way to see how they appear in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Otterly starts at $29/month for 15 prompts across 4 engines, making it one of the cheapest real entry points in the category. The UI shows actual LLM screenshots rather than numeric scores, which makes it easy to understand without a technical background. The Standard tier ($189/mo) adds API access and 100 prompts.
The key limitation: Otterly is monitoring-only. It does not generate schema markup, llms.txt files, or any remediation assets. You'll see where you stand, but you'll need to fix it yourself.
Pricing: Lite $29/mo, Standard $189/mo, Premium $489/mo (otterly.ai/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: 4 engines base; add-ons available.
Asset generation: No.
3. AthenaHQ
Best for: SMBs willing to invest annually and wanting GEO-specific analysis across 8+ LLMs.
AthenaHQ has one of the best pricing swings in this category: $295/month on monthly billing drops to $95/month on annual billing, a 68% difference. The platform covers on-page and off-page GEO analysis across 8+ LLMs with unlimited seats. It also owns strong organic visibility for "GEO tool" queries and gets cited in Google AI Mode answers, which is a useful credibility signal.
The credit-based pricing model can be hard to predict if your prompt volume grows. Still, at $95/month annual, it's competitive for small businesses that plan 12 months ahead.
Pricing: Self-Serve $295/mo monthly or $95/mo annual (athenahq.ai/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: 8+ LLMs.
Asset generation: Partial (on/off-page analysis).
4. Harbor
Best for: Solo entrepreneurs and freelancers who want the lowest possible entry price with a real free tier.
Harbor is priced in EUR and sits below most competitors: Solo is €24/month ($26), Growth is €39/month ($42). There's a free tier (3 articles, 1 site) for evaluation. The platform combines AI Overviews tracking, ChatGPT visibility, and traditional SEO signals in one dashboard.
The trade-off is depth. Harbor is newer and covers fewer platforms than tools higher on this list. US buyers should note the EUR pricing and check the current exchange rate. But for a solo operator testing GEO for the first time, the free tier removes all financial risk.
Pricing: Free €0, Solo €24/mo, Growth €39/mo, Powerhouse €83/mo (harborseo.ai/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: AI Overviews + ChatGPT + traditional SEO.
Asset generation: Content generation (articles).
5. LLMrefs
Best for: SEO teams bridging traditional keyword tracking with AI visibility in one flat-rate tool.
LLMrefs charges a single $79/month for 500 tracked prompts, all major AI engines, geo-targeting across 50+ countries, and unlimited team members. There's a 7-day free trial and no upsell tiers. The platform maps SEO keywords to AI visibility gaps, which makes it useful for in-house marketers already thinking in keyword terms.
Bundled extras include a Reddit threads finder and an llms.txt generator, both useful for SMBs building AI-crawlable content. The main gap is that $79/month is still a meaningful spend for a solo operator who only wants to test one or two platforms.
Pricing: $79/mo, all-inclusive (llmrefs.com/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: All major AI engines.
Asset generation: llms.txt generator included.
6. Peec AI
Best for: Marketing teams at growing SMBs who need daily tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini with multi-country support.
Peec AI's Starter tier ($95/month) covers 50 prompts, 3 models, and 1 project. The Pro tier ($245/month) adds 2 projects and 3 countries. Daily tracking is included on every tier, which puts it ahead of tools that only refresh weekly. The platform is analytics-first and generates useful prompt suggestions.
The entry tier limits you to one country and one project, which is fine for a single-location business but limiting for agencies. Additional LLM models cost $30-$140/month each on top of the base plan.
Pricing: Starter $95/mo, Pro $245/mo, Advanced $495/mo (Workduo verified pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: 3 models base; add-ons available.
Asset generation: No.
7. AirOps
Best for: Content teams who want AI visibility gaps turned into prioritized content briefs automatically.
AirOps has a genuine free tier (1,000 tasks, basic features) plus a Solo free-to-start option (100 prompts, ChatGPT only). The Pro tier adds multi-engine coverage and 75,000 content tasks, but pricing requires a conversation with sales. The platform is action-oriented: it produces content briefs from visibility gaps, not just dashboards showing where you're missing.
The workflow is heavier than other tools here. AirOps suits teams with a content operation already running, not solo operators checking their first AI mention.
Pricing: Insights free, Solo free (ChatGPT only), Pro contact sales (airops.com/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: Multi-engine on Pro.
Asset generation: Content briefs and workflow automation.
8. Scrunch AI
Best for: B2B SMBs with buyer-persona-based marketing who want prompt segmentation by customer type.
Scrunch's persona-tagging feature is genuinely different: prompts are organized by buyer persona or theme, which helps teams understand which audience segments are (and aren't) finding them in AI answers. The Starter tier is $300/month monthly or $250/month annual, making it the priciest SMB-tier option on this list.
At that price, you get 3 users, 350 custom prompts, and 1,000 industry prompts. For a 3-5 person marketing team in a B2B service business, the persona segmentation justifies the cost. For a solo plumber or dentist, it's overkill.
Pricing: Starter $300/mo or $250/mo annual, Growth $500/$417/mo (scrunch.com/pricing, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: Major AI engines.
Asset generation: No.
Best for: Businesses already paying for Semrush who want AI visibility without adding a separate tool.
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit connects directly to existing SEO data, which is its main advantage. A free AI Search Visibility Checker is available without signup, making it a useful first diagnostic. The standalone toolkit costs $99/month per user, and the per-user model scales badly: 3 users costs $297/month.
If you're already on Semrush One (Starter $199/month, Pro+ $299/month), the AI module may already be bundled. Check your current plan before paying separately.
Pricing: Standalone $99/mo per user; bundled in Semrush One from $199/mo (Trakkr pricing review, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: Major AI engines.
Asset generation: No.
10. Profound
Best for: SMBs approaching Series A or B stage that need executive-level AI visibility reporting and competitive benchmarking.
Profound is the category's most established platform ($96M Series C funded). The Starter tier is $99/month covering 3 platforms, Growth is $399/month. Enterprise pricing runs approximately $2,000-$5,000+/month based on third-party reviews. The platform requires a demo call before you can access pricing or sign up, adding friction for small business evaluators.
Profound does not generate schema, llms.txt files, or remediation assets. It tracks and reports. For a solo contractor or local dentist, the demo gate and enterprise pricing make it a poor fit. For a 20-person agency or a funded startup with a dedicated marketing team, the competitive benchmarking is strong.
Pricing: Starter $99/mo, Growth $399/mo, Enterprise ~$2,000-$5,000+/mo (Trakkr pricing review, verified 2026-06-02).
Platform coverage: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity + more.
Asset generation: No.
| Tool | Entry Price | LLMs Covered | Asset Generation | Free Tier/Trial | Best For |
|---|
| AIRIX | See site | 16 | Yes (schema, llms.txt, FAQs, IndexNow) | - | Local SMBs, full remediation |
| Otterly.AI | $29/mo | 4+ | No | No | Budget monitoring |
| AthenaHQ | $95/mo annual | 8+ | Partial | No | Annual-commit SMBs |
| Harbor | Free / €24/mo | Limited | Content gen | Yes (free tier) | Solo entrepreneurs |
| LLMrefs | $79/mo | All major | llms.txt gen | 7-day trial | SEO teams |
| Peec AI | $95/mo | 3+ | No | No | Marketing teams |
| AirOps | Free (limited) | Multi (Pro) | Content briefs | Yes (limited) | Content operations |
| Scrunch AI | $250/mo annual | Major engines | No | No | B2B persona marketing |
| Semrush AI | $99/mo/user | Major engines | No | Free checker | Existing Semrush users |
| Profound | $99/mo | 3 (Starter) | No | No (demo gate) | Funded teams |
Pricing verified against official sources 2026-06-02. Check each vendor's pricing page for current rates.
How GEO Differs from SEO
GEO (generative engine optimization) targets AI-generated answers rather than ranked blue links. SEO gets you to page 1 on Google. GEO gets you cited when ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity answer a question about your industry. These are different citation graphs.
83% of AI Overview citations come from pages outside the organic top 10 (ConvertMate GEO Benchmark 2026). Ranking #1 doesn't transfer automatically. GEO requires answer-first content structure, schema markup, and consistent AI-crawlable signals — not just backlinks and keyword density.
The G2 Answer Engine Optimization software category grew from 7 products in March 2025 to 248 products by April 2026 — a 2,000%+ increase (G2 Data Solutions, 2026). That pace shows the category is real and moving fast. But most of those 248 tools monitor only. Fewer than a handful generate the assets that actually change your citations.
How to Get Your Small Business Recommended by ChatGPT
Getting recommended by ChatGPT starts with being readable by its crawler. That means a clean robots.txt that allows GPTBot, a structured llms.txt file, and JSON-LD schema that signals what your business is and where it operates.
GEO optimization techniques can boost visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%, with statistics-rich content alone lifting visibility by 41% (Princeton / Georgia Tech / IIT Delhi, ACM KDD 2024). Adding specific data, named sources, and FAQ-structured content gives AI systems more quotable material to pull from.
If you want to check whether AI can find you right now, Check If AI Can Find You without any technical setup required.
Most SMB-tier tools cover 3-4 platforms. That leaves real gaps. Only 11% of domains appear in both ChatGPT and Perplexity (Semrush, 2026).1 Optimizing for one doesn't cover the others.
ChatGPT holds 64.5% of generative AI web traffic, but Gemini has grown from 5.7% to 21.5% in 15 months (Similarweb / ALM Corp, 2026). AI-driven traffic to US retailers converted 42% better than non-AI traffic in Q1 2026 (Adobe Analytics, cited by Ranqo, 2026). The platforms are splitting. You need coverage across all of them, not just the biggest.
FAQ
The best GEO tool for small businesses depends on whether you need monitoring or remediation. Otterly ($29/month) and Harbor (free tier) are solid entry points for monitoring. If you need schema generation, llms.txt files, and crawl fixes, you need a tool that ships remediation assets, not just dashboards. 63% of marketers say their company isn't investing in GEO at all (Centerfield / Search Engine Land, 2025), so any consistent action puts you ahead.
Q: GEO software cost for small businesses?
Entry pricing ranges from free (Harbor, AirOps limited) to $29/month (Otterly Lite) to $79-$95/month for full-featured SMB tools (LLMrefs, Peec AI Starter, AthenaHQ annual). Enterprise tools like Profound start at $99/month but require a demo call. AI-driven traffic converts 42% better than non-AI traffic (Adobe Analytics, cited by Ranqo, 2026), making even mid-tier GEO spending defensible for most businesses.
Yes. 83% of AI Overview citations come from pages outside the organic top 10 (ConvertMate GEO Benchmark 2026). Google rank and AI citation are separate systems with different signals. A page can rank #1 on Google and get zero AI citations, or rank on page 3 and get cited regularly by Perplexity. You need to optimize for both separately.
A GEO tool tracks whether your business gets cited when AI systems answer relevant questions, then (in better tools) generates the fixes: schema markup, llms.txt, answer-first FAQs, and crawl readiness repairs. Monitoring-only tools show the gap. Remediation tools close it. Website traffic from AI search grew 16x from 2024 to 2026 (SE Ranking, 2026), so the gap compounds quickly if left unaddressed.
ChatGPT (64.5% of AI referral traffic) and Gemini (21.5% and growing) are the two largest platforms (Similarweb / ALM Corp, 2026). But 86.7% of business-intent searches triggered Google AI Overviews in April 2026 (Peec AI, 2026), making that a priority for local businesses. Optimizing for only one platform misses the other citation graphs entirely.
The Bottom Line
92% of micro-businesses have no AI search strategy (Altus Marketing, 2026). That's not a statistic to feel bad about. It's a window that's still open.
The tools above range from free to enterprise. Most of the monitoring-only options are fine starting points. But monitoring tells you what's wrong; it doesn't fix it. If you run a local service business, an ecom store, or a small company without a dedicated SEO team, the right next step is getting a clear picture of where you stand across all the platforms your customers actually use.
Check Your AI Visibility Score at AIRIX to see how 16 LLMs are talking about your business right now, and get the schema, FAQs, and fixes that change those answers week by week.