ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d start with otterly.ai.

Current 2026 pricing/coverage makes the shortlist pretty clear:

Otterly's entry plan is reported at $29/month and gives you a small prompt allowance, making it useful for establishing a baseline without committing hundreds per month. AEO Labs HubSpot Blog

What I'd do if I were running your agency

Don't try to monitor everything. Create a small set of high-value prompts per client, such as:

• best [category] companies
• best [service] in [city]
• [category] alternatives
• [competitor] vs [client]
• who are the leading [category] providers
• [problem] solutions for [target customer]

Then track:

1. Mention rate — does the AI name the client?
2. Position/ranking — are they #1, #5, etc.?
3. Competitors mentioned — who keeps beating them?
4. Citations — which websites are influencing the AI answer?
5. Sentiment/context — what does the AI actually say about them?

The citation-source data is particularly valuable for an agency because it turns "ChatGPT doesn't mention my client" into an actionable question: which third-party sites does ChatGPT trust instead? Peec is particularly strong here. AEO Labs Geodocs

My recommendation by agency size

1–3 clients / testing the service:
Go Otterly. At $29/mo, you can validate whether clients even care about AI visibility before building it into your offering. AEO Labs

5–20 clients / AI visibility becoming a recurring service:
I'd look seriously at peec.ai. Its agency-oriented features, unlimited seats on paid plans, citation analysis and reporting make the higher starting price easier to justify. AEO Labs Baarely

20+ clients / sophisticated reporting:
Then I'd evaluate tryprofound.com, but I wouldn't pay for it just because it has more engines. Its economics make much more sense when AI visibility is already a significant client deliverable. Loudmink

One important caveat: don't confuse monitoring with improving visibility. These platforms tell you whether a brand is appearing and what sources AI is using; they generally don't magically make the brand appear. AEO Labs Discovered Labs

If your budget is <$100/month, my pick is Otterly. If you're willing to spend ~$100–250/month specifically to build an agency service around this, I'd choose Peec.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and whether you need white-label client reports, I can narrow it down to the cheapest setup that actually scales.

For a small agency, I’d avoid enterprise AEO/GEO platforms unless you have large retainers. You mainly need something that lets you:

• monitor multiple client brands
• track prompts customers actually ask
• compare competitors
• export reports clients understand
• ideally white-label dashboards or PDFs

The current category is usually called AI visibility monitoring, LLM mention tracking, or GEO monitoring. These tools track whether brands appear in answers from systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and AI Overviews. Slate

Best budget-friendly options for an agency

1. Otterly.AI — probably the best agency starting point

Best for: small SEO/content agencies managing several clients.

Pros:

• Built specifically around AI search visibility
• Tracks prompts and competitor mentions
• Covers major AI engines
• More affordable than enterprise tools
• Agency-friendly workflow

Cons:

• Less deep analytics than enterprise platforms

A few industry comparisons place Otterly among the stronger low-cost options for agencies and solo SEOs. Analytics Agent Link Building Journal

2. Peec AI — good if clients want insights, not just screenshots

Best for: B2B clients who ask “why aren’t we showing up?”

Pros:

• Tracks mentions and citations
• Useful competitor comparisons
• Cleaner reporting around visibility trends

Cons:

• Can become expensive if you add many clients/prompts

It is often positioned as a mid-market AI visibility analytics tool rather than a lightweight tracker. AuthorityTech

3. Semrush AI visibility features — best if you already pay for Semrush

Best for: agencies already doing SEO retainers.

Pros:

• Keeps SEO + AI visibility in one ecosystem
• Easier client reporting
• Less tool sprawl

Cons:

• Buying Semrush purely for AI mentions may be overkill

Existing SEO platforms are increasingly adding AI visibility tracking alongside traditional SEO. TechRadar

4. DIY stack — cheapest option

For a small agency with tight margins:

• Create 20–50 buyer prompts per client
• Run them weekly in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini
• Record: - Was client mentioned?
• Position/order of mention
• Competitors shown
• Sources cited
• Accuracy of description

This costs almost nothing and can become a premium “AI visibility audit” deliverable. Manual tracking is still a common low-cost approach before investing in tooling. Analytics Agent

What I’d pick by agency size

AuthorityTech Analytics AgentFor an agency, I’d also avoid selling “number of mentions” alone. Clients usually understand:

• “AI recommendation share”
• “how often ChatGPT recommends you vs competitors”
• “which content sources AI engines trust”
• “what changes increase visibility”

Those map more clearly to business value.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they’re SEO/content clients or PR/brand clients, I can narrow this down to the best fit.

Yes. For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d start with Otterly.AI rather than jumping to enterprise platforms.

My shortlist

Otterly is particularly attractive because its entry plan is around $29/month, with higher tiers at roughly $189 and $489, and it supports monitoring across multiple AI engines. Its agency positioning also includes workspace management and Looker Studio integration. www.tryprofound.comwww.frictionai.co

Otterly.AI

For an agency, I'd choose based on client count rather than just features.

• 1–3 clients: Otterly's low tier is probably enough. Build a small, carefully chosen prompt set for each client rather than monitoring hundreds of queries.
• 3–10 clients: I'd look at Otterly's higher tier or Peec AI. The extra reporting/analysis starts becoming more valuable when you're turning the data into a recurring client deliverable.
• 10+ clients: An agency-specific platform such as Chatbeat becomes more interesting. Its $599/month Business tier includes unlimited projects, white-label reporting, API/export capabilities and Looker Studio integration. www.tryprofound.comchatbeat.comcitability.dev
• Enterprise clients: That's where Profound starts making more sense; you're paying for substantially deeper analysis rather than merely knowing whether a brand was mentioned. www.tryprofound.comwww.frictionai.co

One important distinction

Don't confuse traditional web brand monitoring with AI visibility monitoring.

For your use case, you want a platform that actually asks questions such as:

"What are the best agencies for X?"

across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, etc., then records whether your client appeared, which competitors appeared, what sources were cited, and how the answer changed over time.

That's generally called AI visibility/AEO/GEO monitoring, rather than conventional brand monitoring. citability.dev

My pick for you: start with Otterly, run it for 1–2 client accounts, and make the output into a monthly "AI visibility" report. At $29/month, it's cheap enough to validate whether clients will actually pay for the service before you commit to a $300–600/month platform.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor and what you can spend per month (e.g. $50, $100, $250), I can narrow it down to the best setup and estimate your cost per client.

Yes. For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d narrow it to Otterly.ai vs. Peec AI.

Current comparisons put Otterly's entry plan around $29/month for a small number of prompts, while Peec starts substantially higher but offers stronger multi-client/multi-engine monitoring. loudmink.aiwww.aeolabs.ai

What I'd do in your shoes

Start with Otterly if you're trying to add "AI visibility monitoring" to your agency without eating much margin. You can monitor a focused set of prompts such as:

• "[brand] alternatives"
• "best [service] companies"
• "best [service] in [city]"
• "who should I hire for [problem]?"
• "[competitor] vs [client]"
• "[client] reviews"
• "[client] pricing"

The important thing isn't just whether the client is mentioned. You want mention frequency + position + sentiment + which sources/citations the AI is relying on. That's what turns the tool into something you can actually report to a client. mentionsapi.com

Move to Peec once you're monitoring several clients. Its agency-oriented credit model and broader engine coverage can make more sense than buying separate monitoring capacity for each client. Recent comparisons specifically identify Peec as a strong fit for agencies and multi-brand tracking. www.aeolabs.ai

One important distinction

Don't sell this to clients as simply "we monitor ChatGPT."

I'd package it as AI Search Visibility Monitoring:

"We track whether your brand gets recommended when potential customers ask AI assistants the questions that matter to your business, which competitors appear instead, and which websites AI systems use as evidence."

That's much more valuable—and gives you a recurring monthly reporting deliverable.

My recommendation: Otterly at first → Peec when you're managing enough clients to justify ~$100–250+/month. I wouldn't spend Profound money until AI visibility is already a meaningful revenue line for your agency. loudmink.ai

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and your monthly tool budget, I can work out the cheapest setup and what I'd charge each client for it.

If you're a small agency and budget is the priority, I’d start with OtterlyAI.

My shortlist

OtterlyAI is particularly compelling for a small agency because its $29/month Lite plan tracks 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with daily tracking. It also provides brand visibility, competitor comparisons, citation analysis and reports. otterly.ai

The catch is the 15-prompt limit. I'd use those prompts strategically—for example, 5 high-intent questions × 3 variations for each client rather than trying to monitor every conceivable query.

If you have several clients, I'd look seriously at Peec AI. Its agency offering is explicitly designed around multiple brands, with prompts allocated across client projects and centralized billing. peec.ai

Profound is the one I'd consider when AI visibility becomes a substantial service you're selling rather than just a reporting add-on. Its agency product has centralized client management and broader answer-engine coverage, but its $99 Starter only tracks ChatGPT and 50 prompts; the $399 Growth plan covers three engines. www.tryprofound.com

What I'd do in your shoes

If you have 1–5 clients:
OtterlyAI Lite → $29/mo and create a tight prompt set per client.

If you have 5–15+ clients:
I'd investigate Peec's agency plans before committing, because allocating a pool of prompts across clients can make the economics much better. peec.ai

If you're actually planning to sell "AI search visibility/GEO monitoring" as a recurring service, I'd optimize for client separation + white-label/reporting + prompt allocation, not simply the number of AI models supported.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 20) and your monthly budget ($50/$100/$250), I can work out the cheapest setup and what I'd charge each client for it.

For a small agency, I’d avoid enterprise “brand intelligence” suites and look for AI visibility / GEO monitoring tools that let you track multiple clients, export reports, and ideally white-label dashboards. This is a newer category focused on whether brands appear in answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and similar systems. www.crawloria.comslatehq.com

A few good fits for a limited budget:

My recommendation by agency size:

• 1–5 clients: Start with manual tracking or a low-cost tool like Peec AI / Rankscale. You’re mostly proving the value and learning which prompts matter. authoritytech.iovisibrand.app
• 5–20 clients: Look at Visibrand or Otterly.AI because reporting and repeatability become more important. authoritytech.iovisibrand.app
• Selling “AI SEO/GEO” as a service: Pick a platform with competitor comparisons, historical trends, exports, and client-facing reports. www.crawloria.comslatehq.com

For an agency, I’d track more than just “mentioned/not mentioned”:

• % of relevant prompts where the client appears
• position/order of recommendation
• competitor share of voice
• sentiment (positive/neutral/negative)
• which sources AI systems cite
• whether the AI description of the brand is accurate

One practical agency play: package it as a monthly “AI visibility report” alongside SEO reports. Clients often understand “ChatGPT recommends your competitor instead of you” faster than traditional ranking metrics.

If you tell me your agency type (SEO, PR, web design, paid ads, niche industry, number of clients), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options.

Yes. For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d start with OtterlyAI rather than jumping straight to an enterprise GEO platform.

My shortlist

OtterlyAI is the standout budget option. Its monitoring covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot and other AI search surfaces, and its basic offering includes brand mentions, sentiment, citations and snapshots of the actual AI responses. The current public pricing information says it starts around $27–29/month. help.otterly.ai

See OtterlyAI

Peec AI is what I'd consider if you're planning to make AI-visibility monitoring a billable agency service. Its agency plans are specifically designed around multiple clients, shared prompt allocation, client reporting, white-label dashboards, API/Looker integration and daily tracking. The Essential agency tier is currently $245/month annually, with 10,000 credits and 3 projects. peec.aipeec.ai

See Peec AI agency plans

Profound is interesting, but I'd probably skip it initially for a budget-conscious agency. Its $99/month Starter plan only tracks ChatGPT and 50 prompts; the more useful multi-engine Growth plan is $399/month. www.tryprofound.com

See Profound pricing

What I'd do in your shoes

If you have 1–5 clients:

OtterlyAI → start there. Build a prompt set for each client around:

• "best [category] companies"
• "alternatives to [competitor]"
• "best [service] in [location]"
• "who should I use for [problem]?"
• competitor/comparison queries
• high-intent commercial queries

Then report mention rate + position + sentiment + citations + competitors rather than simply saying "ChatGPT mentioned you."

If you get to 5–10+ clients and AI visibility becomes part of your retainer, I'd move to Peec's agency offering because the multi-client/project architecture becomes much more useful. Peec also lets you allocate prompts across clients rather than buying a completely separate monitoring subscription for each one. peec.aipeec.ai

One important distinction: these tools aren't really monitoring every spontaneous conversation happening inside ChatGPT/Gemini. They're generally running a defined set of conversational prompts repeatedly and measuring the resulting answers. That's the useful, measurable version of "brand mentions in AI." Otterly describes this explicitly as creating a prompt library and automatically running those questions across AI engines. help.otterly.aiotterly.ai

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 3, 10, 25) and your monthly budget ($50, $100, $250, etc.), I can narrow it down to the cheapest setup that still gives you client-ready reporting.

For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d shortlist these:

\*Prices can change; I checked current published pricing.

🥇 If you're really budget-conscious: Otterly.AI

Otterly is probably where I'd start. It monitors conversational/search experiences including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, using prompts that resemble questions your clients' customers actually ask. It reports which brands appear and how often. Its published starting price is $29/month, and it offers a free trial. otterly.ai

For an agency, the key is that you can create a relatively small prompt set per client rather than trying to monitor every possible query.

🥈 If AI visibility is becoming a real agency service: Peec

Peec AI is the one I'd investigate if you're managing several clients.

Its agency plans are explicitly designed around multiple client projects, with centralized prompt allocation, client reporting and white-label dashboards. The current Essential agency tier is 10,000 credits, with Growth at 25,000 and Scale at 65,000. peec.ai

It also tracks more than simple mentions: visibility, position, sentiment, competitors and citations/sources. peec.ai

The catch is price: the agency Essential tier is currently around $245/month, so I'd only move here once you're actually selling AI visibility monitoring to clients.

Profound

Profound has a $99/month Starter plan with 50 prompts and ChatGPT tracking, while Growth is $399/month for three answer engines and 100 prompts. www.tryprofound.com

It's attractive if you want more sophisticated visibility/competitive reporting, but for a small agency I think the jump in price makes it less compelling than Otterly at the beginning.

What I'd do in your position

If you're monitoring, say, 5–10 clients, I'd start with Otterly and create perhaps 10–20 high-value conversational prompts per client, covering:

• “[category] recommendations”
• “best [service] in [city]”
• “[competitor] alternatives”
• “[problem] — what should I use?”
• “[brand] reviews”
• “[brand] vs [competitor]”
• “[category] for [specific customer type]”

Then track mention rate + position + sentiment + citations monthly rather than trying to monitor everything.

Once you're charging clients specifically for AI/GEO visibility reporting, I'd look seriously at Peec because its agency structure and client reporting are much better suited to turning the data into a recurring service. peec.ai

Bottom line: Otterly for <$100/month experimentation; Peec when you're running AI visibility as an agency service.

Yes. If you’re a small agency and budget is the constraint, I’d avoid the enterprise-heavy platforms and look at these first:

🥇 My pick: Prism

Prism AI Visibility starts at $19/month and tracks custom prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. Its Starter tier gives you 10 prompts tracked daily; the $99/month Pro tier expands that to 50 prompts and 10 clients. www.searchprism.io

For an agency, the $99 Pro plan is particularly interesting: 10 clients means roughly $10/client/month if you fill the account, while still getting share-of-voice, competitor and sentiment tracking. www.searchprism.io

🥈 Otterly if you want something very straightforward

Otterly is another low-cost option; current comparisons put its entry tier around $29/month, with daily tracking and multiple AI engines. astiva.ai

I'd lean toward it if your main deliverable is simply:

"Here's how often ChatGPT/Gemini/etc. mention your client, which competitors appear, and how that's changing."

🥉 GetMentioned if agency reporting is the priority

GetMentioned for Agencies is explicitly built around agencies: one dashboard for multiple brands, prompt-level results, competitors, source attribution and geographic targeting. It also says there are no per-client fees, with pricing based on tracked prompts. www.getmentioned.co

That's potentially attractive if you're going to turn AI visibility monitoring into a recurring client service, rather than just using it internally.

What I'd do in your position

If you have 1–3 clients → start with Prism at $19/mo and validate whether clients actually care about the reporting.

If you have 5–10 clients → I'd seriously consider Prism Pro ($99/mo) because the per-client economics become pretty good.

If you're planning to sell "AI visibility monitoring" as a formal agency service → test GetMentioned and Peec alongside Prism. Peec specifically offers agency-oriented client dashboards and pitch projects. peec.ai

One important distinction: these tools generally don't monitor every private conversation people have with ChatGPT. They run/track a defined set of prompts against AI systems and measure whether/how the brand appears. That's the practical version of "monitoring AI mentions" today. slatehq.com

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 20, 50) and your monthly budget, I can narrow this to the 2–3 cheapest options with the best agency economics.

If you’re a small agency and budget is the main constraint, I’d start with OtterlyAI.

My shortlist

OtterlyAI is the one I'd test first. Its current Lite offering includes 15 prompts, daily tracking, unlimited brand reports/team members, and monitoring across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot. Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons. help.otterly.ai

That is enough to build a useful initial system for each client: rather than trying to monitor every possible query, pick 10–15 high-value conversational prompts such as:

• “best [category] companies”
• “what are the best alternatives to [client]?”
• “is [client] worth it?”
• “[client] vs [competitor]”
• “what [category] tools do you recommend for [use case]?”

You can then report mention/visibility, competitors, sentiment and citations to clients. Otterly also offers a free trial, so it's a low-risk way to validate whether clients will actually value the reporting. help.otterly.ai

When I'd move to Peec

If you're managing several clients simultaneously, I'd seriously look at Peec AI. It's considerably more expensive—the current agency Essential tier is listed around $245/month—but it is much more explicitly designed around agencies: multiple client projects, client seats, daily tracking, reporting, and agency workflows. peec.ai

Peec tracks things like visibility, position, sentiment, citations and competitor performance, rather than simply giving you a list of mentions. peec.ai

What I would do in your shoes

1–3 clients: OtterlyAI
4–10+ clients: test Peec's agency offering
Large enterprise clients: consider Profound or another enterprise platform.

Profound is powerful—it runs structured prompts daily and tracks ranking, citations, sentiment and competitive presence—but its enterprise positioning makes it harder to justify for a small agency on a tight budget. www.tryprofound.com

One important distinction: these tools are primarily measuring AI-search visibility, not literally every spontaneous conversation occurring inside ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini. They run controlled prompts and measure the resulting answers. That's actually preferable for client reporting because you get reproducible measurements rather than anecdotal “I asked ChatGPT and it mentioned you” screenshots.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 3, 10, 25) and your monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup that will scale without becoming a reporting nightmare.

Yes. If by “monitoring client brand mentions inside conversational AI” you mean tracking whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, etc. mention/recommend a client, what competitors appear instead, and which sources get cited, you’re looking at the AI visibility / AEO / GEO monitoring category.

For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d shortlist these:

Current 2026 comparisons consistently put Otterly at the low-cost end, Peec in the agency/mid-market tier, and Profound toward enterprise pricing. www.aeolabs.ai

What I'd choose

Start with Otterly if you have, say, 3–10 clients and mainly need a monthly answer to:

• “Does my client appear when people ask about their category?”
• “Which competitors are being recommended?”
• “What sources are AI engines citing?”
• “Is visibility improving over time?”

Its ~$29 starting point makes it much easier to test the service without eating your agency margin. www.aeolabs.ai

Move to Peec when you're selling AI-visibility reporting as an actual client deliverable. It appears to have a stronger agency-oriented analytics workflow, including prompt segmentation and competitive analysis. Community feedback also tends to describe Peec as the more sensible agency option versus Profound's enterprise positioning. www.reddit.com

Don't start with Profound unless a client is paying you enough to justify it. Its deeper data and broader coverage are attractive, but the economics make much more sense for larger brands than a small agency.

One important distinction

Don't buy a tool merely because it says it tracks “brand mentions.”

For an agency, I'd prioritize:

prompt → AI answer → brand mention → competitor mentions → cited URLs → visibility/share of voice → historical change

That is much more useful than a generic web/social listening tool. The market is increasingly distinguishing actual AI citations from simple mentions. www.aeolabs.ai

If you're trying to keep costs really low, I'd actually consider a $29-ish tracker + your own standardized prompt library + Looker Studio/Sheets client report rather than paying $100–400/month per agency account.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 20, 50) and whether you need white-label client reports, I can narrow this to the cheapest setup that still scales.

For a small agency on a limited budget, I’d prioritize a dedicated AI-visibility tracker over a big enterprise brand-monitoring suite.

My shortlist

Otterly is specifically positioned as a low-cost standalone monitor, with current comparisons putting its entry point around $29/month. www.reddit.com

Prism is particularly interesting for your situation. Its site says it starts at $19/month, monitors customer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, and tracks mention rate, sentiment, trends, position, and competitors. It also lets you create a client on its free plan. searchprism.io

For an agency, I'd actually start there if you only need "Are my clients being mentioned/recommended, and how does that compare with competitors?" rather than a huge SEO/AEO platform.

What I'd track for each client

Don't just monitor the client's name. Create ~10–30 buyer-intent prompts, such as:

• "Best [service] companies in [city]"
• "Who should I hire for [problem]?"
• "[Category] agencies for small businesses"
• "Compare [client] vs [competitor]"
• "What are the best alternatives to [competitor]?"
• "Which [category] companies have the best reputation?"

Then track:

1. Mention rate — how often the client appears.
2. Position — first recommendation vs buried in the list.
3. Competitor share of voice.
4. Sentiment / description — what the AI actually says about them.
5. Citations/sources — which websites are influencing the answer.

That last part is important: AI visibility isn't simply "did ChatGPT mention us?" The useful agency deliverable is increasingly why the model mentioned them and what sources appear to influence the answer. auditae.app

My recommendation

If I were running your agency:

• 1–5 clients: Prism or Otterly
• 5–20 clients: Otterly, assuming its client/project limits fit your workload
• 20+ clients: start evaluating agency-oriented platforms such as Chryseon or Peec
• Already paying for Semrush: investigate its AI Visibility functionality before adding another subscription

I'd avoid paying enterprise money for Profound/AthenaHQ/etc. initially. The underlying measurement is still noisy: AI answers can vary substantially between runs and platforms, so spending heavily on extremely granular dashboards isn't necessarily buying proportionally better insight. www.reddit.com

If you tell me roughly how many clients you have (e.g. 5, 20, 50) and your monthly budget ($50 / $100 / $250), I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup that can actually support your agency, including what each client would cost you.

Yes. If you're a small agency monitoring several clients' visibility/mentions in ChatGPT and other AI search, I’d avoid the enterprise platforms for now.

My shortlist

OtterlyAI is where I'd start. Its current Lite plan includes 15 tracked prompts, daily tracking across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, unlimited brand reports/team members, and multi-country support. Gemini, Claude and Google AI Mode are available as add-ons. help.otterly.ai

The important caveat is 15 prompts is pretty small. If you have, say, 5 clients, that's only ~3 core prompts/client. That's enough for a proof of concept, not comprehensive monitoring.

How I'd structure it for an agency

For each client, I'd track roughly:

• 3–5 category discovery prompts — "best accounting firms for startups"
• 3–5 commercial intent prompts — "alternatives to X"
• 2–3 competitor comparison prompts
• 2–3 local/industry-specific prompts
• Brand-name prompts to see how the AI describes the client

Then report mention rate + position + sentiment + citations/sources + competitors appearing instead.

That's more useful than simply saying "ChatGPT mentioned you." AI answers are probabilistic, so repeated measurements are important rather than relying on a one-off query. arxiv.org

When I'd move up

If you're going to sell this as an actual monthly agency service, I'd look at Mentions or Profound once you have enough clients to justify it. Profound's current Starter is $99/month for 50 prompts but only tracks ChatGPT; its Growth plan is $399/month for three answer engines. Its agency-oriented Enterprise tier supports multiple companies and more engines. www.tryprofound.com

So my recommendation is:

$29–$50/mo budget → OtterlyAI
$100–$200/mo and growing → evaluate Mentions/Peec
$400+/mo with serious AEO reporting → Profound

One other point: I'd sell the service as "AI visibility monitoring" or "AI search visibility", rather than promising that you're literally monitoring every conversation users have with ChatGPT. These platforms generally run controlled prompts against AI engines; they don't have access to private conversations.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and your monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup that still gives you useful client-level reporting.

If you’re a small agency and budget is the priority, I’d start with urlOtterly.aiturn0search1.

My shortlist

Otterly is probably the best starting point. Its $29 Lite plan tracks 15 prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, with daily monitoring. The catch is that 15 prompts gets tight once you're monitoring several clients. Its $189 Standard plan jumps to 100 prompts and unlimited workspaces, which is much more agency-friendly. otterly.ai

Profound is more expensive but interesting if you're selling AI-search optimization as a service. Its current Starter is $99/month billed annually for 50 prompts on ChatGPT; Growth is $399/month for three answer engines and 100 prompts. www.tryprofound.com

Mentions is worth investigating specifically for an agency: current reporting puts it at $49/mo for 25 prompts/3 engines, $99 for 50 prompts/all engines, and $399 for an Agency plan with white-labeling, pitch workspace and unlimited client sites. www.techradar.com

What I'd do in your position

If you have 1–3 clients you're testing this with:

→ Otterly Lite at $29/mo.

Create ~5 high-value prompts per client, such as:

• "Best [service] companies in [city]?"
• "Who are the best alternatives to [client]?"
• "Which [category] agencies do you recommend?"
• "What should I look for when choosing a [service]?"
• "[Client] vs [competitor] — which is better?"

Then track mention rate + position + sentiment + citations + competitors rather than obsessing over a single "AI visibility score."

If you're already getting 5–10+ clients, I'd look harder at an agency-oriented platform like Mentions or Otterly Standard. The economics of prompt-based monitoring matter a lot: you're effectively paying for prompts × AI engines × refresh frequency, so a seemingly cheap plan can become expensive when you scale clients. www.reddit.com

One important caveat: these tools aren't measuring actual ChatGPT user queries—they're repeatedly testing a defined set of prompts. So I'd present the results to clients as "AI search visibility monitoring", not as a literal measurement of "how often people mention your brand in ChatGPT."

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and your monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup that will actually scale.

If you're a small agency on a limited budget, I’d avoid the enterprise-heavy platforms and start with a lightweight AI-visibility tracker.

My shortlist

Prism is particularly interesting for your situation: it runs your actual customer-style prompts against ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity and tracks mention rate, sentiment, position and competitors. Its current entry pricing starts at $19/month. searchprism.io

Prism

Cairrot is probably my second choice. At $39/month it tracks ChatGPT and Perplexity; its $99 Pro tier expands to five LLMs and 50 prompts, which could work nicely if you're monitoring several higher-value clients. cairrot.com

Mentions is more compelling if your agency needs to turn the monitoring into a client deliverable. Its agency-oriented workflow includes shareable reporting and, on higher tiers, white-labeling; current reported pricing starts around $49/month. www.techradar.com

What I'd do in your shoes

If you have, say, 3–10 clients, I'd start with Prism or Cairrot, rather than paying $100–400+ for an enterprise platform.

The important thing is not just "does AI mention the brand?" I'd track:

• Mention rate — how often the brand appears
• Recommendation/position — #1, #2, etc.
• Competitors — who gets recommended instead
• Sentiment/perception — how AI describes the brand
• Citations/sources — which websites AI relies on
• Prompt-level answers — the actual responses, so you can show clients why their visibility changed

That's important because AI answers aren't deterministic: the same question can produce different competitive lists across models/runs. www.reddit.com

One other point: I'd sell this to clients as "AI visibility monitoring" or "AI search visibility", rather than claiming you're measuring every conversational mention. These tools generally measure controlled prompt probes, which is a useful proxy—not a complete census of private ChatGPT/Claude conversations.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you want to monitor (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and your monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the cheapest setup that still gives you decent client reporting.

If you’re a small agency and budget is the priority, I’d shortlist these:

My pick for your situation: Peec AI or Mentions.

Peec is particularly interesting for an agency because it explicitly supports multiple client projects, centralized agency billing, prompt allocation across brands, and agency reporting. Its entry brand plan tracks 50 prompts across three models daily; the agency offering is designed around multi-client management. peec.ai

Mentions looks even more attractive if you mainly need “Is my client being mentioned/recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.?” rather than a full GEO optimization suite. A recent hands-on comparison lists its plans at roughly $49/mo for 25 prompts/3 engines, $99 for 50 prompts/all engines, and $399 for an agency tier with white-labeling. www.techradar.com

Profound is polished, but I'd skip it initially for a small agency. Its $99 Starter plan is only ChatGPT + 50 prompts; meaningful multi-engine coverage starts at $399/mo. www.tryprofound.com

What I'd actually do

If you have, say, 5–10 clients, don't monitor hundreds of prompts per client. Start with ~20–30 high-value prompts/client:

• “best [service] companies in [city]”
• “[category] alternatives”
• “who should I use for [problem]?”
• “[client] vs [competitor]”
• “most trusted [category] brands”
• “[competitor] alternatives”
• purchase-intent questions specific to the client's niche

Then track mention rate + position/recommendation + sentiment + citations/sources + competitors, rather than obsessing over a single “AI visibility score.”

One important caveat: these platforms generally measure controlled prompt tests, not a secret feed of what real ChatGPT users are asking. So I'd sell the output to clients as AI visibility monitoring, not as exact measurement of all conversational-AI exposure.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage (e.g. 5, 10, 25) and your monthly budget ($50/$100/$250/$500), I can narrow it down to the cheapest setup that makes sense.

If you're a small agency (5–30 clients) and budget matters, I'd avoid the expensive enterprise GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platforms at first. Most agencies get better ROI from a lightweight monitoring stack.

Here's how I'd break it down:

These tools all monitor prompts across models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, tracking things like:

• brand mentions
• share of voice
• competitors that appear instead
• citations/sources used
• changes over time nboundmarketing.com

If your budget is under $100/month

I'd probably choose:

1. MentionGEO

• inexpensive
• built specifically for AI visibility
• multiple AI engines
• competitor tracking
• reports clients can understand
• good if you're just adding GEO as a service mentiongeo.ai

If you have 10–30 clients

Look at agency-focused platforms like:

• Spotlight
• Tower GEO

These add:

• white-label reports
• multi-client dashboards
• scheduled reporting
• client workspaces www.prismnews.com

My favorite low-cost workflow

Instead of paying $300–1000/month for enterprise software:

• Use MentionGEO for continuous monitoring.
• Build a spreadsheet of 30–100 buyer prompts per client.
• Run monthly manual spot checks in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity for prompts that matter most.
• Pull referral traffic from AI sources in analytics to show whether visibility is translating into visits.
• Include a simple monthly "AI Visibility Report" with:
  • Mention rate
  • Top prompts won
  • Competitors appearing
  • Recommended content to create next

This gives clients something tangible without a large software bill.

One important caveat

AI responses are probabilistic—they can vary from one run to the next. A single prompt isn't a reliable measurement. The better platforms run prompts repeatedly over time and aggregate the results, which is a more dependable way to measure visibility. arxiv.org

If you tell me:

• approximately how many clients you manage (5, 20, 50+), and
• whether you're primarily working with local businesses, SaaS, e-commerce, or B2B services,

I can recommend the most cost-effective stack for your agency.

If you run a small agency and want to monitor client brand mentions inside conversational AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) on a limited budget, you’re looking for what’s often called AI visibility monitoring, LLM brand tracking, or AI search monitoring.

The market is still developing, so the best choice depends on whether you need SEO-style reporting, PR monitoring, or agency client dashboards.

Best budget-friendly options

My picks for a small agency

1. Best overall value: Otterly.AI

• Track dozens or hundreds of prompts related to each client
• See whether ChatGPT-style answers mention the client
• Useful for monthly client reports
• Better fit if you manage multiple brands

2. Best lightweight option: Peec AI

• Easier setup
• Good if you mainly need:
  • “Does AI mention my client?”
  • “Who is being recommended instead?”
  • “What sources are influencing answers?”

3. Cheapest DIY approach
If your client list is small, you can build a repeatable process:

1. Create a prompt set per client (20–50 queries)
2. Run them weekly in major AI tools
3. Record:
   • Mentioned/not mentioned
   • Position/ranking
   • Competitors cited
   • Sources linked
4. Turn results into a monthly “AI visibility report”

A spreadsheet + manual checks can work surprisingly well for 5–10 clients before paying for software.

What I’d avoid on a tight budget

• Enterprise AI analytics suites unless a client is paying for it
• Tools that only measure “AI citations” without showing the actual prompts tested
• Paying for hundreds of tracked prompts before you know what clients care about

Agency workflow I’d recommend

For each client:

• 25 high-intent prompts:
  • “best [service] in [location]”
  • “who provides [solution]”
  • “[category] alternatives”
  • “compare [client] vs competitors”
• Monthly report:
  • AI visibility score
  • Share of mentions
  • Competitors winning
  • Recommended content/actions

For a small agency, I’d start with Otterly.AI or Peec AI, then upgrade only when clients start asking for deeper attribution and competitive analysis.

For a small agency, I would avoid enterprise platforms unless you have 20+ clients paying specifically for AI visibility reporting. Most of the expensive tools are built for Fortune 500 marketing teams.

Here's how I'd think about it by budget.

If I were starting an agency today

I'd probably use:

• Peec AI as the primary client reporting tool.
• A spreadsheet containing 20–40 standardized prompts for every client.
• Monthly manual QA inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode because no monitoring platform perfectly matches live user experiences.

That combination gives clients reports while keeping costs manageable.

Don't just track mentions

Clients care much more about these metrics:

• Brand mentioned (yes/no)
• Position in recommendations (1st, 2nd, etc.)
• Competitors mentioned alongside them
• Sources/citations the AI relied on
• Sentiment and factual accuracy
• Visibility trend month over month

Those metrics are much easier to turn into actionable SEO/GEO recommendations than a simple "your brand appeared 37% of the time."

Another cost-effective option

If you already pay for an SEO suite:

• Semrush now includes AI visibility features.
• Ahrefs Brand Radar is also becoming useful if you're already an Ahrefs customer.

That can be more economical than paying for a separate AI visibility platform if you don't need advanced GEO reporting. www.semrush.com

My recommendation for a small agency

• 1–10 clients: Otterly AI
• 10–40 clients: Peec AI
• Enterprise clients with dedicated AI visibility budgets: Profound

One final tip: many agencies find more value in selling a recurring "AI Visibility Audit" (monthly or quarterly) than simply providing dashboard access. The real deliverable is identifying why a client isn't being recommended and what content or authority gaps they should address—not just showing whether they were mentioned.

If you're a small agency, I would avoid the enterprise-focused platforms (like Profound) unless you have large retainers. Most agencies under ~20 clients get better ROI from a lighter stack.

Here's how I'd break it down:

What I'd choose

Option 1: Under $100/month (my recommendation)

Use:

• Otterly AI
• Google Sheets or Airtable
• n8n for automation (optional)

Run 50–200 prompts weekly like:

• "Best payroll software for nonprofits"
• "Top HVAC companies in Dallas"
• "Best CRM for dentists"

Track:

• Was your client mentioned?
• Position (1st, 2nd, etc.)
• Competitors mentioned
• Sources/citations the AI used
• Changes week to week

This is essentially what dedicated AI visibility platforms automate. www.semrush.comwww.techradar.com

Option 2: If you already have Semrush

Their AI visibility features are becoming surprisingly capable because they combine:

• traditional SEO
• AI visibility
• competitor tracking

Instead of buying another platform, it can be a cost-effective addition if Semrush is already part of your stack. www.semrush.comwww.techradar.com

Option 3: Agency scaling (10–50 clients)

Once you're managing dozens of brands, I'd look at:

• Peec AI
• Brandlight

The key reason isn't better mention detection—it's multi-client dashboards, reporting, and workflow features that reduce manual work. www.semrush.comdegenito.aiwww.reachllm.com

One thing many tools still miss

The newer generation of tools is shifting from just reporting "you were mentioned" to answering:

• Which prompts generate the mention?
• Which competitor replaced you?
• Which sources did the AI cite?
• What content should you publish to improve visibility?

Those recommendations are generally more valuable than raw mention counts. www.semrush.comdegenito.aiwww.reachllm.com

If I were starting a small GEO/AI visibility agency today

I'd spend roughly:

• Otterly AI: ~$50/month
• n8n Cloud: ~$20/month (or self-host)
• Looker Studio: Free
• Google Sheets/Airtable: Free or low cost

That keeps software costs around $70/month while giving you a service you can package as:

• Weekly AI visibility score
• Competitor share of voice
• Prompt monitoring
• Citation tracking
• Monthly optimization recommendations

That setup is sufficient for many agencies before it makes sense to invest in higher-priced enterprise platforms.

If you're a small agency, I'd avoid enterprise platforms (like Profound) unless you have large clients. The sweet spot is a tool that lets you track multiple brands, run a consistent prompt library, and export client reports.

Here's how I'd think about it:

What I'd do on a limited budget

If you have 5–20 clients, I'd probably spend under $100/month and build a lightweight reporting workflow.

For each client:

• Create 15–25 fixed prompts that buyers actually ask.
• Run them weekly or biweekly.
• Track:
  • Was the client mentioned?
  • Was the recommendation positive?
  • Which competitors appeared?
  • What sources were cited?
  • Which AI models mentioned them?

This produces much more stable reporting than checking random prompts every month. Marketers discussing this workflow often recommend a fixed prompt library because it makes trends meaningful over time. www.reddit.com

My recommendations by budget

• <$30/mo: Prism
• $30–75/mo: OtterlyAI or MentionsFlow
• $75–150/mo: MentionHQ
• Already paying for Semrush: Add its AI Visibility tools instead of buying another platform. www.semrush.com

One thing to keep in mind: no platform can continuously "listen" to every conversation happening in ChatGPT or other LLMs. These tools work by running scheduled prompt sets against AI models and measuring whether your clients appear, how they're described, and what sources are cited. That's currently the practical way to monitor AI brand visibility. www.mentionhq.comnadiamohamed.me

If your agency primarily serves local businesses (dentists, lawyers, HVAC, restaurants, etc.), I can also recommend tools and prompt strategies that work especially well for local AI visibility.