ChatGPT answers, unedited

The category you’re looking for is usually called AI visibility tracking, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) software, or AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) analytics. These tools run customer-style prompts against multiple AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) and show:

• whether the business appears in the answer
• ranking/position versus competitors
• which websites, reviews, directories, or pages the AI cited
• citation share and trends over time
• recommended actions to improve visibility

For a local business, these are some of the better fits:

For a single-location local business, I would usually shortlist:

1. ModelMention Local — if the main goal is “Does ChatGPT recommend my business in my city?” modelmention.io
2. Citations.io — if you want a simple dashboard showing “where are we cited and who beats us?” citations.io
3. Lighthouse — if you need agency/client reporting and broader AI search analytics. www.ahoylighthouse.com

When evaluating tools, make sure they can handle local-intent prompts, such as:

• “best plumber near me”
• “top-rated dentist in [city]”
• “best coffee shop for remote work in [neighborhood]”
• “who should I hire for [service]?”

A generic AI visibility score is less useful if it only tests branded searches (“What is Company X?”). For local businesses, the valuable metric is usually share of AI recommendations on non-branded buyer questions. modelmention.io

If you tell me the type of local business (restaurant, HVAC, law firm, medical, retail, etc.) and whether you manage one location or many, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called an AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform. These tools run the kinds of questions a customer might ask and show whether the business is mentioned, how it ranks/recommends, which sources are cited, and which competitors appear instead.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

My picks

1. Best fit for a local business: Local Glyph

Local Glyph

It specifically tracks local businesses across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, lets you open the actual AI responses, see citations, competitors, sentiment and accuracy problems, and breaks visibility down by platform. localglyph.comwww.cheers.tech

That's particularly useful if your questions are things like:

“What's the best HVAC company in Clarksville?”
“Who installs water heaters near me?”
“Best dentist for implants in [city]?”
“Which restaurants have the best reviews?”

2. Best if you want more AI providers: OtterlyAI

OtterlyAI

It covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Microsoft Copilot, and provides citation/source analytics. Its current pricing starts at $29/month. otterly.ai

3. Best for understanding exactly who's getting cited: Citations.io

Citations.io

This one is unusually focused on the question you're asking: it shows which answers cite you, which cite competitors instead, the sources being cited, and your share of answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. citations.io

One important distinction

Don't just look for a tool that gives you an “AI visibility score.” For a local business, I'd want it to expose the underlying evidence:

Customer prompt → AI provider → exact answer → your position/mention → citation URLs → competitors cited → change over time

That's much more actionable than a score like “AI visibility = 63.”

The reason is that AI recommendations can be influenced by Google Business information, reviews, directories, local pages, news/articles and other third-party sources. A good tool should tell you which of those sources are actually appearing in the AI's answer. localglyph.comwww.cheers.tech

If you tell me whether this is for one local business or an SEO agency managing many businesses, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best options and compare their pricing, number of prompts, AI providers, citation tracking, and white-label reporting.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called an AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform—software that repeatedly asks customer-style questions across AI assistants and records whether the business is recommended, mentioned, and cited.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

My first choice: Cheers

Cheers AI Visibility Platform

Cheers is particularly interesting for a local business because it doesn't just give you a generic "AI visibility score." It tracks local buyer prompts, tells you whether you're recommended, cited, mentioned, or skipped, and shows the competitors and sources appearing in the answers. It also analyzes things like reviews, profiles, directories, and local pages—the evidence that can affect local AI recommendations. www.cheers.tech

For example, you could track prompts such as:

• "Best dentists in Rancho Santa Margarita"
• "Who are the best emergency plumbers near me?"
• "Best HVAC company in [city]"
• "Who should I hire for [service]?"
• "Best [service] for a reasonable price in [city]?"

Then see something like:

ChatGPT: You #3 → cited Yelp
Gemini: Not recommended → competitor #1
Perplexity: You #2 → cited your website
Google AI: You #4 → cited Google/third-party sources

That is much more useful than simply knowing your website's traditional Google ranking.

If citations themselves are your priority

I'd also look closely at Citations.io:

Citations.io

It explicitly tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude, and its citation map records the URLs/domains AI systems cite, while also showing competitors and the actual AI answers. citations.io

If you want the most AI engines

Zumi is worth considering:

Zumi

It currently says it can track up to nine engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, Grok, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and DeepSeek, with citation and competitive visibility reporting. www.zumihq.com

One important distinction

I'd avoid buying a tool just because it says it has an "AI visibility score." For a local business, you really want these five things:

1. Location-specific prompts — "best X in [city]," "near me," etc.
2. Multiple assistants — not just ChatGPT.
3. Verbatim answers — so you can inspect what the AI actually said.
4. Citation URLs — exactly which websites AI used as evidence.
5. Competitor comparison — who was recommended instead of you.

Local Glyph, for example, explicitly provides prompt-level answers, citations, competitor comparisons and platform-level visibility, while LLM Pulse is designed around local SEO agencies and local-business recommendations. localglyph.com

If this is for one local business rather than an SEO agency, my ranking would be: Cheers → Local Glyph → Citations.io. If you're managing dozens of local-business clients, I'd look harder at LLM Pulse or Cheers.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called an AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform. For a local business, I’d prioritize tools that show both whether the business appears in AI answers and the actual websites/sources being cited.

Best fits

For example, localglyph.com specifically lets you inspect visibility, platform-specific mentions, individual prompt responses, citations, sentiment, competitors, and incorrect business information. Local Glyph

citations.io is particularly interesting if your question is "What sources is AI using to answer questions about my business?" It tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude and provides a citation feed plus competitor/source analysis. Citations.io

zumihq.com is the strongest option I found for breadth: it says it can monitor up to nine AI engines and rank the citations driving answers. Zumi

What I'd choose for a local business

If your goal is something like:

"When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc. Who's the best plumber/dentist/roofer/restaurant near me?, how often do I get recommended, what does the answer say, and what sources caused AI to recommend my competitor?"

I'd shortlist Local Glyph, Cheers, and Citations.io.

The important distinction is that you don't just want a generic AI visibility score. You want the software to expose:

• Prompt: what the customer asked
• Provider: ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. Perplexity, etc.
• Answer: what the AI actually said
• Mention: whether your business appeared
• Position/recommendation: whether you were first, second, etc.
• Citation: which URL/source the AI relied on
• Competitor: who appeared instead
• Local context: city/service area and ideally geographic variation
• Trend: whether those metrics are improving over time

That's particularly important for local SEO because the same business can perform very differently across AI providers. A recent 2026 study of local-search brands found substantial differences in citation behavior among ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI surfaces, Copilot and Grok. Locafy

If you're evaluating this software for your own local SEO/marketing business, I can also give you a side-by-side comparison of the 5–10 leading platforms, including pricing, number of prompts, providers, local/grid tracking, citation extraction, API/white-label reporting, and which is best for agencies.

zumihq.com is the strongest option I found for breadth: it says it can monitor up to nine AI engines and rank the citations driving answers. zumihq.com

What I'd choose for a local business

If your goal is something like:

"When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc. Who's the best plumber/dentist/roofer/restaurant near me?, how often do I get recommended, what does the answer say, and what sources caused AI to recommend my competitor?"

I'd shortlist Local Glyph, Cheers, and Citations.io.

The important distinction is that you don't just want a generic AI visibility score. You want the software to expose:

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tracking—software that measures whether a local business gets recommended in AI answers, which competitors appear instead, and which sources/citations the assistants used.

Best fits I found

1. Citations.io — probably closest to your description.
It tracks prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude and gives you a Visibility Score, citation map, competitor share-of-voice, and verbatim answer archive. Importantly, the citation map identifies the URLs/domains being cited, rather than merely telling you that your business was mentioned. citations.io

2. GetCited.me — very good multi-provider comparison.
It specifically reports mentions, citations, sentiment and share of voice, with tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. It also says it uses the providers' official APIs with web search where supported. getcited.me

3. Cheers — I'd investigate this for a local business.
Its positioning is unusually local: it tests buyer prompts by city, service, urgency and intent, measures recommendation share, identifies competitors, and maps the sources behind recommendations to reviews, directories, local pages and business profiles. www.cheers.tech

4. LLM Pulse — worth considering if you're doing local SEO professionally.
It explicitly targets local SEO agencies and tracks whether AI models recommend clients for local searches, including which directories, reviews and pages the models cite. llmpulse.ai

There are also more local-specific products such as NextLocal AI and GetNamed, which focus on auditing a local business across major assistants and identifying the signals that may be preventing recommendations. www.nextlocal.ai

What I'd choose

If your requirement is specifically:

"Show me how my local business performs in AI answers, across several assistants, and show me exactly where those answers got their information."

I'd shortlist:

1. Citations.io — best match for citation/source intelligence
2. Cheers — best match for local/multi-location business intelligence
3. GetCited.me — best match for broad provider comparison
4. LLM Pulse — best match if this is for a local SEO agency managing clients

One important distinction: don't buy a tool merely because it has an "AI visibility score." The valuable feature is the underlying answer archive + citation/source data. A score of 63/100 isn't particularly actionable unless you can drill into which prompts produced that score, what the AI said, which competitors won, and which websites/reviews/directories it cited.

If you tell me whether you're a single local business, an agency managing multiple businesses, or building software for local businesses, I can narrow this down to the 3 best platforms and compare their pricing, API access, local/geo tracking, and citation data.

Yes. What you’re looking for is usually called an AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) platform—specifically one that tracks actual answers, mentions/recommendations, and the URLs cited by each assistant, rather than just traditional SEO rankings.

My shortlist

For a local business, I'd start with Cheers or Local Glyph. Cheers is particularly interesting if you have multiple locations because it reports recommendation share by market/location, shows competitors, and maps the sources influencing an AI recommendation. www.cheers.tech

Local Glyph is more straightforward for a single-location business: it lets you open individual prompts, see the actual AI response, determine whether you were mentioned, and inspect the websites cited in that response. localglyph.com

If your primary concern is "show me exactly which websites are causing ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity to recommend my business", I'd also look closely at Citations.io. It explicitly tracks citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude and identifies the sources/URLs being cited instead of you. citations.io

One important distinction

I'd avoid buying a tool merely because it gives you an "AI visibility score." The useful dashboard should let you drill down like this:

Query: "Best Italian restaurants in Coral Gables"
ChatGPT: You're #2
Gemini: Not mentioned
Perplexity: #4
Citations: Yelp, Eater, local newspaper, your website
Competitor citations: TripAdvisor, local guide, competitor website
Opportunity: Get mentioned on X/local source + strengthen Y page

That level of data is much more actionable than a generic "GEO score." Different AI systems also use substantially different source ecosystems, so monitoring only ChatGPT can give you a misleading picture. www.cheers.tech

If you tell me the type of local business (restaurant, dentist, lawyer, HVAC, med spa, etc.) and whether it's one location or multiple, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best platforms and compare their pricing/features for your specific use case.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI search visibility / AI answer tracking / GEO software. For a local business, the important distinction is whether it tracks actual answers and their citations, not just whether your brand is mentioned.

My shortlist

Birdeye is particularly interesting because its current Search AI product explicitly provides citation reporting, citation share, prompt-level insights and source-type trends, with coverage expanded to Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, Grok and Claude. support.birdeye.comlocalglyph.com

For a single local business, I'd look closely at LLM Pulse, Local Glyph, and Bizl. LLM Pulse, for example, specifically tracks whether AI recommends a local business, location-based prompts, the sources AI cites (directories, reviews, pages, etc.), and nearby competitors. llmpulse.ai Local Glyph similarly lets you inspect individual prompts and the exact AI response. localglyph.com

If your main question is "Who is AI citing instead of me?"

Then I'd prioritize a tool that gives you:

1. Exact customer prompts — e.g. "best dentist near Miami"
2. Exact AI answer
3. Whether your business was mentioned
4. Whether your business was actually cited
5. Every URL/source cited
6. Which competitors were recommended
7. Citation share by AI provider
8. Results by geographic location
9. Historical tracking
10. Competitor comparison

That's important because being mentioned isn't the same as being cited. HubSpot's current AI Search Sensor, for example, separates visibility from citation share, noting that a brand can be frequently mentioned while having relatively weak citation presence. www.hubspot.com

My recommendation

If you're evaluating this specifically for a local business, I'd start with:

🥇 Birdeye — if you want a mature local-business platform and broader reporting.
🥈 LLM Pulse — if you're primarily interested in local AI recommendations and citations.
🥉 Local Glyph / Bizl — if you want something more narrowly focused on local AI visibility.

There's also a newer class of tools such as Lighthouse that go much broader—10+ assistants including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Qwen, Mistral and others, with citation and competitor analysis. omc.ahoylighthouse.com

One caveat: don't buy based on the number of "AI engines" alone. For a local business, geographic prompt testing and source/citation visibility are much more valuable than simply saying a tool monitors 10–20 models.

If you tell me what kind of local business (restaurant, dentist, HVAC, law firm, med spa, etc.) and whether it's one location or multiple, I can narrow this to the 3 best options and compare their pricing/features.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI visibility / AEO / GEO tracking: software that runs real customer-style prompts through multiple AI assistants and reports whether your local business is recommended, how it ranks against competitors, and which websites/sources the assistants cite.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

My first three to investigate

1. LLM Pulse — best match for local SEO

LLM Pulse

It specifically says it tracks local, location-based prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI answers, while showing which directories, reviews and web pages AI systems cite. It also provides competitor comparisons. llmpulse.ai

2. Local Glyph — best if you want a simple local-business dashboard

Local Glyph

It lets you inspect the actual AI response for each prompt, see whether your business was mentioned, identify cited websites, compare competitors, and track accuracy issues such as incorrect hours, address or services. localglyph.com

3. Yext Scout — best for serious multi-location operations

Yext Scout

Scout goes considerably deeper for location-based brands: it reports AI visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, competitor performance, citation counts and source domains, geographic performance, and local visibility drivers such as reviews and listings. www.yext.com

If you specifically care about "show me the citations"

I'd also look at Citations.io:

Citations.io

Its dashboard is explicitly built around seeing which answers mention you, which URLs the AI cites, which competitors/sources are cited instead, and citation share by AI engine. It currently covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. citations.io

One important distinction

Don't buy a tool merely because it gives you an "AI visibility score." For a local business, I'd want it to expose the underlying data:

Prompt → AI answer → businesses recommended → your position → citations/URLs → competitor → AI provider → location

For example:

Prompt: "Best HVAC companies in Buffalo NY for emergency service"

ChatGPT:

1. Competitor A
2. Your Business
3. Competitor B

Sources cited:

• Google Business Profile / Maps data
• Yelp
• Your website
• Local news article
• Reddit
• Industry directory

Then you can determine why you're being recommended—or why you're not.

That's much more useful than simply being told "AI Visibility = 62."

Also, this is becoming particularly important for local businesses because AI answers can pull from a surprisingly broad mixture of reviews, directories, social sites, articles and other third-party sources, and those sources can sometimes produce inaccurate business information. www.businessinsider.com

If you tell me the type of local business (dentist, restaurant, HVAC, lawyer, etc.) and whether you have one location or multiple, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and compare their pricing/features.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI visibility / AEO / GEO tracking: software that runs realistic customer queries through multiple AI assistants and reports whether your business appears, how it ranks, and which websites/sources those assistants cite.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation

For one local business, I'd start with Local Glyph. It specifically measures local AI visibility, lets you inspect the actual AI response to each prompt, shows competitors, and identifies the websites AI cited. localglyph.com

Local Glyph

If you want something more oriented toward an SEO agency managing multiple local-business clients, I'd look at LLM Pulse. It tracks location-specific prompts and shows the directories, reviews and web pages AI models are using as sources. llmpulse.ai

LLM Pulse

Birdeye Search AI is particularly interesting if the business already uses Birdeye for reviews/reputation. Its current reporting includes citation share, prompt-level insights and source-type trends, with expanded support for Google AI Mode, AI Overviews, Grok and Claude. support.birdeye.com

Birdeye Search AI

One thing I'd insist on: don't buy a tool that only gives you an "AI visibility score." You want to be able to drill down to something like:

Query: "best HVAC company in [city]"
ChatGPT: Business #3 — cited
Gemini: Not mentioned
Perplexity: Business #2 — cited
Google AI: Business #4 — cited
Sources: Google Business Profile, Yelp, local newspaper, industry directory, competitor comparison page

That underlying answer + citation-source data is much more useful than a single proprietary score.

If you tell me what type of local business you have (restaurant, dentist, HVAC, lawyer, etc.) and whether it's one location or multiple, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best options and compare their current pricing/features.

Yes. If you mean “show me how a local business performs in AI answers, across multiple AI providers, and show me the actual citation/source websites behind those answers,” there are several tools now built for this.

Best options

My pick for a local business: Yext Scout

Yext Scout

Yext is particularly interesting because it doesn't just give you a generic “AI visibility score.” Scout can report AI rank, visibility, sentiment, and citations, and break performance down by location, query, competitor, and AI model. Yext specifically says it captures the citation count and source domains used in AI answers. www.yext.com

For example, you could see something conceptually like:

Sacramento location
Query: “best HVAC company near me”

ChatGPT: #3 — cited
Gemini: #7 — mentioned
Perplexity: not mentioned
Claude: #4 — cited

Sources AI used: Yelp, your website, BBB, local news site, etc.
Competitor cited instead: Competitor X
Citation gap: missing from source Y

That's much closer to what I think you're asking for than a traditional SEO rank tracker.

Uberall is another strong choice

Uberall GEO Studio

Uberall's GEO Studio specifically reports mentions, citations and share of voice, with breakdowns by location and competitor. It also provides a source breakdown showing the sites influencing AI's view of your business, including domains/pages and social sources. uberall.com

Uberall is particularly compelling if you're already managing Google/Apple/Yelp listings and reviews, because its AI visibility product sits on top of that local-listing infrastructure. uberall.com

Birdeye is worth considering for local service businesses

Birdeye Search AI

Birdeye's newer Search AI product has a dedicated Citations report with citation-share metrics, prompt-level insights, source trends and competitive analysis. Its coverage now includes ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode/Overviews and Grok. support.birdeye.com

That's especially attractive if the business also needs review/reputation management.

If you want something simpler/cheaper

Citations.io

Citations.io focuses specifically on answering:

• Does AI mention my business?
• Does it cite my business/site?
• What sources does AI cite instead?
• Which competitors are winning?
• Which prompts/models are you losing?

It currently tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. citations.io

One important distinction

There are really two different products in this category:

1. AI visibility monitoring
“Where does AI mention/cite my business?”

2. Local presence optimization
“Fix my listings, reviews, structured data, local pages and other sources so AI has better information to use.”

For a local business, I'd favor a platform that does both. Yext and Uberall are particularly strong here. AI systems don't necessarily use your website as their sole source; they can cross-reference directories, maps, reviews and other sources. uberall.helpjuice.com

If you tell me what kind of local business it is (e.g. dentist, HVAC, restaurant, lawyer, med spa) and whether you're looking for this for one business or an SEO agency managing many businesses, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best platforms and compare their pricing/features.

Yes. What you’re looking for is usually called AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tracking—software that runs the same local-intent questions across multiple AI assistants and records whether your business appears, how it is described, competitors mentioned, and which websites the AI cites.

My shortlist for a local business

Local Glyph is probably the closest match to your wording. It explicitly tracks a local business across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, lets you open the exact AI response, see whether you're mentioned, inspect the cited websites, identify competitors, and flag inaccurate business information. localglyph.com

Local Glyph

Citations.io is particularly interesting if your priority is citation intelligence. It tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude and shows which sources are being cited instead of simply giving you a generic AI visibility score. It also reports competitor/source information. citations.io

Citations.io

Lighthouse is worth looking at if you want the broadest coverage. It says it queries 10+ AI assistants and provides visibility, sentiment, citation tracking, competitor benchmarking and page-level recommendations. www.ahoylighthouse.com

Lighthouse AI Visibility

What I would measure

For a local business, I wouldn't just track "AI visibility score." I'd want the dashboard to show:

1. Prompt — e.g. "best HVAC company near Sanford FL"
2. Assistant — ChatGPT / Gemini / Perplexity / Google AI
3. Was my business mentioned?
4. Position/order of recommendation
5. Sentiment / description accuracy
6. Was my website cited?
7. Every external source cited — Yelp, BBB, local publications, directories, Reddit, etc.
8. Competitors mentioned
9. Citation frequency over time
10. Which sources competitors get cited from that you don't

That's important because the assistants don't necessarily rely on the same sources. Research specifically examining local-business AI search found meaningful differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI systems. www.cheers.tech

If you're choosing one

I'd rank them:

🥇 Local Glyph — best if this is primarily a local business / local SEO problem.
🥈 Citations.io — best if citation/source tracking across several assistants is the core requirement.
🥉 Lighthouse — best if you want many AI providers and a more comprehensive AI-visibility platform.

One important distinction: tools like these are measuring AI answers, not traditional Google Maps rankings. For local SEO, you ideally want the AI layer combined with Google Business Profile, reviews, directory/citation management and traditional local-rank tracking. Current local-search research also suggests that optimizing only for ChatGPT can miss important visibility on Google AI surfaces and Perplexity. localglyph.comlocafy.com

If you tell me what type of local business you have (dentist, lawyer, HVAC, restaurant, home services, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools and compare their pricing, number of prompts, AI providers, citation reporting, and local-search capabilities.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI visibility / AI search visibility / AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) software.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

LLM Pulse is particularly relevant if your goal is something like:

“When somebody asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity ‘Who are the best plumbers/dentists/roofers near me?’, does my business appear, where does it rank, and what websites are those AI systems using to make the recommendation?”

Its local-SEO offering specifically tracks location-based prompts, AI recommendations, competitors, and the sources AI systems cite. llmpulse.ai

LLM Pulse

Citations.io is probably the most interesting if the citation-source analysis is your priority. It reports which answers mention you, which competitors are mentioned instead, and the URLs/sources the AI engines cite. It currently tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. citations.io

Citations.io

One important distinction: don't just measure whether your business is mentioned. For local businesses, you want to track:

1. Prompt visibility — are you recommended for “best X near me” queries?
2. Position — #1, #2, #3, etc.
3. Share of recommendations — how often you appear vs. competitors.
4. Citation sources — Yelp, TripAdvisor, BBB, local publications, directories, Reddit, your website, etc.
5. Sentiment/reasoning — why the AI recommends you.
6. Provider differences — ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. Perplexity vs. Claude.
7. Geographic variation — Albuquerque vs. Santa Fe vs. a particular ZIP code, for example.
8. Citation changes over time — whether the sources influencing the answers are changing.

That last point matters because AI answers aren't deterministic: research in 2026 found substantial variation in citations between repeated searches, so a tool that reports a single “AI visibility score” without repeated measurements can give you a false sense of precision. arxiv.org

If this is for an agency

If you're asking because you want to monitor AI performance for multiple local-business clients, I'd lean toward LLM Pulse first. Its agency product explicitly supports local SEO agencies and client/competitor tracking. llmpulse.ai

If you're asking because you want to build this capability into your own local SEO reporting, I can also give you a comparison of LLM Pulse vs. BrightLocal vs. Semrush vs. Yext vs. Localo vs. dedicated AI-visibility platforms, including pricing, APIs, white-label reports, number of AI engines, citation-level data, and local/“near me” tracking.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called AI visibility / AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) tracking—software that runs the same customer prompts through multiple AI providers and records whether your business appears, where you rank/recommendation position, what competitors appear, and which URLs/sources the AI cites.

For a local business, I’d shortlist these:

1. Best fit for a local business: CiteFit

CiteFit

CiteFit is specifically positioned for small businesses. It tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, gives visibility scores, competitor share of voice, and shows when the AI platforms recommend you versus competitors. www.citefit.com

If your question is essentially:

“When someone asks AI for the best plumber/dentist/roofing company/restaurant/etc. around my city, does my business get recommended?”

I'd start here.

2. Best for seeing the actual citations: Citations.io

Citations.io

This is particularly interesting because it shows the actual answers and sources behind them, not just a proprietary visibility score. It tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude and identifies which businesses, publications, directories and other sources are being cited instead of you. citations.io

That's valuable for local SEO because you can discover things like:

“ChatGPT recommends my competitor because it keeps citing Yelp + a local newspaper + their chamber-of-commerce profile.”

That's much more actionable than simply knowing that your "AI visibility score" is 42.

3. DeepSmith — strongest broader coverage

DeepSmith

DeepSmith currently tracks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Mode, with separate mention rate, citation rate and share-of-voice metrics. It also captures the answers behind those metrics and lets you track competitors. deepsmith.ai

I'd consider this if you're managing several businesses or want more sophisticated reporting.

4. HubSpot AEO

HubSpot AI Visibility

HubSpot's AEO product tracks visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, including how often you're cited compared with competitors. www.hubspot.com

It's more compelling if the business already uses HubSpot rather than buying it solely for AI visibility.

The important distinction for local SEO

I'd not buy a tool merely because it gives you an "AI visibility score."

You want one that can answer these five questions:

1. Does AI recommend my business?
2. What position am I in? — e.g. #1 recommendation vs #7.
3. Which competitors are being recommended instead?
4. Exactly what URLs/sources did the AI cite?
5. Which local directories/review sites/content are repeatedly influencing those answers?

That last part is especially important. Research into millions of AI citations indicates that AI visibility isn't simply about having a good website; structured/verified information distributed across trusted sources is a major component of what gets cited. www.yext.com

And for local businesses, location matters enormously—the same business can perform differently depending on the city/neighborhood and the wording of the prompt. www.youtube.com

If I were choosing today

For one local business: → CiteFit

For citation/source intelligence: → Citations.io

For an agency managing multiple clients: → DeepSmith

If already heavily invested in HubSpot: → HubSpot AEO

If you tell me what type of local business you have (e.g. dentist, HVAC, attorney, restaurant) and the city, I can also compare the best 3–5 platforms specifically for local AI search, including pricing, number of prompts, geographic/neighborhood tracking, competitors, citations, and reporting.

Yes. What you’re looking for is generally called an AI visibility / AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) platform—software that repeatedly asks customer-style questions across AI assistants and records:

• whether the local business is mentioned/recommended
• where it ranks in the answer
• which competitors are mentioned
• which websites/directories/review sources are cited
• citation/share-of-answer over time
• differences between ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, etc.
• ideally, results for specific locations and local-intent queries

A few options stand out:

For example, SightGrid explicitly shows per-engine visibility and can identify issues such as missing location-specific pages, LocalBusiness schema, or directory sources. sightgrid.io VisibilityIndex similarly reports the actual evidence behind appearances, including the cited business website and directory sources. visibilityindex.ai

If this is for a local SEO agency

I'd prioritize SightGrid or VisibilityIndex.ai if the business is something like a dentist, HVAC company, lawyer, restaurant, med spa, plumber, etc. You want to be able to ask questions such as:

"best HVAC company in Scottsdale"
"HVAC repair near me"
"who should I call for AC replacement in Scottsdale?"
"best-rated emergency HVAC company near Scottsdale"

…and then see something like:

ChatGPT

• Business mentioned: ✅ #2
• Competitor: #1
• Sources: Yelp, Google/Maps-derived data, company website
• Citation gap: missing Angi

Gemini

• Business mentioned: ❌
• Competitors: 3
• Sources: Google Business Profile ecosystem, Yelp, local publications

Perplexity

• Business mentioned: ✅ #4
• Sources: Yelp + local news + website

That's much more useful for a local business than a generic "AI visibility score."

One important caveat: don't judge a platform solely by a single visibility score. AI answers aren't deterministic; repeated runs of the same query can produce different answers and citations. Research in 2026 has specifically found substantial citation variability across AI search platforms. arxiv.org

If you tell me what type of local business and how many locations you're managing (e.g. "20 dentists across Arizona"), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best platforms, including pricing and which one gives the best citation/source reporting.

If you mean software that shows how a local business appears inside AI answers (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity), including whether it is mentioned, what sources are cited, and competitor performance, you are looking for an AI visibility / GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tracking platform.

Some options:

For a local business, I would prioritize these capabilities:

1. Prompt tracking
   • Example prompts:
     • “Best plumbers near Fayetteville NY”
     • “Top-rated dentists in [city]”
     • “Where should I get my roof repaired?”
   • Track whether the AI recommends your business.

2. Citation/source reporting
   • Shows whether AI answers are pulling from:
     • your website
     • Google Business Profile
     • directories
     • review sites
     • news/articles
     • Reddit/community sources

3. Competitor comparison
   • “AI recommends competitor A 40% of the time, us 8%.”

4. Local entity accuracy
   • Checks name, address, phone, services, reviews, and category consistency.

A practical stack for a local business might be:

• AI visibility tracker: Citations.io or TrackCited
• Local SEO/listing management: Yext or similar
• Website analytics: Google Search Console + analytics platform
• Review monitoring: a reputation management tool

One caution: AI answer tracking is still an emerging category. AI outputs can vary by location, user context, and time, so the best tools measure trends across many repeated prompts rather than treating one answer as a fixed ranking. arxiv.org

If you tell me the type of local business (restaurant, contractor, medical, law firm, retail, etc.) and whether you manage one location or many, I can narrow this to the best-fit tools.

Yes. What you’re looking for is usually called AI search visibility / GEO / AEO tracking: software that repeatedly asks the same customer questions across AI assistants, measures whether the business appears, and records which websites/directories are cited as sources.

Best fits for a local business

1. OtterlyAI — probably the closest match

It tracks prompts across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot, and reports:

• Whether your business is mentioned
• Whether your website is cited
• Which URLs/domains are cited
• Competitor mentions
• Visibility/ranking over time
• Citation winners/losers
• Daily monitoring

Otterly specifically added a citation-details system for seeing the sources behind AI answers. otterly.ai

For a local business, you could track prompts such as:

“Best plumbers in Bellevue WA”
“Who should I use for emergency plumbing near Bellevue?”
“Best Italian restaurant near Capitol Hill Seattle”
“Which HVAC companies have the best reviews in Seattle?”

Then see your business vs. competitors and the sources AI is relying on.

2. Semrush — best if you already use SEO software

Semrush's AI visibility tooling is more attractive if you want AI-answer monitoring combined with traditional SEO, keyword, competitor and content data. It is less of a narrowly focused local-AI monitoring product than Otterly, but can make sense for an agency or established SEO operation. A recent comparison also highlighted its AI visibility/perception analysis. www.techradar.com

3. Ahrefs — good for connecting AI visibility to SEO

Ahrefs' Brand Radar focuses on how brands appear in AI-generated answers and connects that with its broader web index. It's particularly interesting if you want to understand which third-party pages are earning citations, rather than just whether your business was mentioned. www.techradar.com

For a local business, there's an important distinction

I'd prioritize a tool that can answer this question:

“When someone asks an AI assistant for the best businesses in my city/category, which sources cause it to recommend my competitors instead of me?”

That's more useful than a generic “AI visibility score.”

For example, you might discover that ChatGPT is repeatedly citing:

• Google Business Profile / Maps
• Yelp
• TripAdvisor
• local newspapers
• industry directories
• chamber-of-commerce pages
• Reddit
• competitor websites
• review sites

That source-level information tells you where your local business needs stronger signals, rather than simply telling you that you're ranking poorly. Local AI visibility is particularly dependent on location, structured information, listings and review signals. www.youtube.com

My recommendation

If you're evaluating this specifically for one local business or a small group of locations, I'd start with OtterlyAI. It currently has unusually broad assistant coverage and explicit citation tracking, with daily monitoring. help.otterly.ai

One caveat: don't treat an AI visibility score as an exact ranking like Google position #3. AI answers are nondeterministic—repeated identical queries can produce different answers and citations—so trends over many queries/days are much more meaningful than one result. arxiv.org

If you tell me what kind of local business you have (e.g. dentist, restaurant, lawyer, HVAC, med spa) and how many locations, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best platforms and what each would actually show you.

For a local business, you’re looking for an AI visibility / AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) tracking platform. These tools monitor whether your business appears in answers from multiple AI assistants, what sources those assistants cite, and how you compare with competitors. citations.io

Good options to evaluate:

For a local business, I would prioritize these features:

1. Prompt tracking
   • Example: “best plumber near me,” “top dentists in [city],” “best HVAC company in [area]”
2. AI answer capture
   • Saves the exact responses from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, etc.
3. Citation/source reporting
   • Shows whether AI is using your website, reviews, directories, news articles, or competitors as sources.
4. Local competitor comparison
   • Shows who AI recommends instead of you.
5. Action recommendations
   • Identifies missing pages, reviews, listings, or authority signals.

For most small local businesses, I’d start with a tool like Citations.io or Bizl for simplicity, while agencies managing multiple clients may prefer a broader dashboard like DeepSmith. citations.io

A practical setup is also to track 20–50 real customer questions monthly and measure:

• % of answers where your business appears
• % where you are recommended in the top choices
• which websites AI cites instead of you
• which local competitors are gaining visibility

AI visibility metrics are still an emerging area, and repeated measurements matter because AI answers and citations can vary between runs. arxiv.org

If you're looking for software that tracks how your local business appears in AI assistants, compares answers across multiple providers, and shows which sources/citations each assistant uses, there are several emerging platforms designed for this. The market is evolving quickly, so features vary.

For local businesses, I'd prioritize these:

1. Otterly.AI – One of the more practical options for tracking prompts over time, monitoring competitors, and seeing which sources AI assistants reference.
2. Profound – Enterprise-grade AI visibility platform with detailed citation tracking across multiple AI answer engines.
3. Scrunch AI – Strong for understanding why your brand is or isn't being mentioned and which third-party sites influence AI answers.

What these platforms typically measure includes:

• Whether your business is mentioned.
• Your ranking or position in AI-generated recommendations.
• Which competitors appear alongside you.
• Which websites and directories AI cites (Google Business Profile, Yelp, industry directories, news, your own site, etc.).
• Changes over time and by location.

One thing worth knowing is that AI assistants often cite third-party sources more frequently than a business's own website, so monitoring citations can reveal which directories, review sites, or articles have the greatest influence on recommendations. Recent industry research has consistently found that citation patterns differ significantly across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. www.yext.com

If your goal is specifically local SEO/AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), you'll also want a platform that can:

• Track prompts like "best dentist near me" or "best HVAC company in Dallas."
• Compare responses across multiple cities.
• Record every cited source.
• Alert you when citations or rankings change.
• Export reports for clients.

If you're an agency managing multiple local businesses, I can also recommend tools built specifically for multi-location AI visibility monitoring rather than enterprise brand tracking.

If your goal is to track how multiple AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, etc.) answer local business questions and see which sources they cite, there are several tools built specifically for that.

Here's a comparison:

For local business recommendation tracking, these newer platforms are especially relevant:

• urlCited (AI Cited)turn0search0 compares recommendations from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI, showing which businesses are recommended and the citation patterns behind those recommendations. www.aicited.io
• urlLighthouse Localturn0search9 repeatedly tests local-business prompts across major AI assistants and reports whether your business appears, how often, and which competitors are recommended instead. www.lighthouselocal.ai
• urlCHOIVEturn0search7 records answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, then analyzes the public evidence behind each recommendation. choive.com
• urlSearchDockturn0search2 combines traditional SEO metrics with AI citation tracking and provides an "AEO Score" (Answer Engine Optimization) for local businesses. searchdock.io

If you want the most complete analysis, look for software that provides:

• Side-by-side answers from multiple AI assistants
• Citation URLs for every answer
• Share of voice versus competitors
• Prompt history and answer changes over time
• Geographic testing (city or ZIP-specific prompts)
• Sentiment and recommendation ranking
• Exportable reports

For a single-location local business (such as a dentist, attorney, HVAC company, med spa, or restaurant), I'd recommend:

1. Lighthouse Local (best local-business focus)
2. SearchDock (best mix of SEO and AI citation tracking)
3. Profound (best for larger organizations and agencies)
4. Otterly.AI (good entry-level monitoring)

These tools are designed to answer questions like:

• "Did ChatGPT recommend my business?"
• "What sources did Gemini cite?"
• "Which competitor is Claude recommending instead?"
• "Which websites are influencing AI answers the most?"

If your goal is to see how different AI assistants answer questions about a local business—including whether they mention your business, how they rank competitors, and what sources/citations they use—there are several platforms built for this emerging "AI visibility" or "AI search optimization" use case.

Here are some of the better-known options:

For local businesses (restaurants, dentists, law firms, contractors, etc.)

The most useful metrics are:

• Whether your business appears in AI answers
• Which competitors are recommended instead
• Which websites AI cites (your website, Yelp, Google Business Profile, Reddit, local news, etc.)
• Sentiment of the recommendation
• Changes over time
• Performance across:
  • ChatGPT
  • Google AI Mode / AI Overviews
  • Claude
  • Gemini
  • Perplexity
  • Microsoft Copilot (where supported)

If you're an agency managing multiple local businesses

Look for software that offers:

• Scheduled prompt monitoring
• ZIP code or city-specific prompts
• Competitor comparison
• Citation/source tracking
• White-label reporting
• API access

Best choices by use case

• Small local business: Otterly.AI or Peec AI are generally easier to adopt.
• Marketing agency: Profound or Scrunch AI offer more advanced analytics and reporting.
• Enterprise brand: Profound is often chosen for large-scale AI visibility tracking.

One important caveat: no platform can perfectly reproduce every AI response because assistants personalize answers, use different models, and update frequently. These tools typically run standardized prompts across providers and compare the results over time, making them useful for tracking trends rather than guaranteeing exactly what every user will see.

If your business relies heavily on local search (such as healthcare, home services, legal, or hospitality), I can also recommend tools that combine AI answer tracking with traditional local SEO metrics like Google Business Profile rankings, local pack visibility, and review monitoring.

If you want to monitor how multiple AI assistants answer local-business queries, which businesses they recommend, and what sources they cite, there are now several specialized platforms. They differ in maturity and focus.

For a local business, my recommendations would be:

1. Yext – Best overall if your goal is local visibility.
   • Tracks AI mentions across major assistants.
   • Shows which websites and directories AI is citing.
   • Compares your business against competitors.
   • Integrates with listings, reviews, and location data. Yext has also published large-scale research on AI citation behavior across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. www.yext.com

2. Profound
   • Enterprise-grade monitoring.
   • Tracks prompts over time.
   • Shows share of AI recommendations.
   • Excellent if you're managing multiple locations or brands.

3. HubSpot AEO
   • Tracks prompts, competitor visibility, and citation sources across multiple AI engines.
   • Easier to use than enterprise platforms for many small businesses. www.techradar.com

4. PromptRank
   • Designed specifically for local-business AI visibility.
   • Tests the same prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
   • Records recommended businesses and the citation sources used. www.trypromptrank.com

5. Peec AI
   • Focuses on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
   • Tracks how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
   • Good competitor comparison dashboards.

Features to look for

If you're evaluating software, prioritize tools that can:

• Run the same prompt across several AI assistants.
• Show which businesses are recommended.
• Record every citation or source used.
• Track results over time.
• Compare competitors.
• Export reports.
• Monitor location-specific prompts such as "best dentist near me" or "HVAC in Phoenix."

If budget is a concern

If you're spending under about $100/month, you can build a lightweight monitoring workflow by:

• Running a fixed set of prompts weekly in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Copilot.
• Logging recommended businesses.
• Recording all cited URLs.
• Tracking changes in a spreadsheet or dashboard.

This manual approach often provides much of the insight of paid tools for a single-location business, though it requires more ongoing effort.

If you mean “which tools show how a local business appears inside AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity), including the answers produced and the citation sources behind them?”, you’re looking for AI visibility / Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) tracking software.

Some options:

For a local business, I would prioritize these capabilities:

1. Run real customer prompts
   • “Best plumber near me”
   • “Best Italian restaurant in [city]”
   • “Who should I hire for [service]?”

2. Show the actual AI answer
   • Did the assistant recommend you?
   • Which competitors appeared?
   • What wording was used?

3. Reveal citations
   • Which websites did the AI trust?
   • Was it your website, Google Business Profile data, directories, reviews, news articles, Reddit, etc.?

4. Track changes over time
   • Citation share
   • Mention frequency
   • Competitor movement

A practical stack for a local SMB would often be:

• AI visibility tracker (one of the tools above)
• Local SEO platform such as Birdeye if you also need reviews/reputation management; its AI visibility reporting includes mentions, sources cited, and competitor comparisons. birdeye.com
• Manual monthly testing of your highest-value customer questions (because AI answers can change frequently)

One caution: AI visibility scores are still a newer measurement category. The best tools should let you inspect the individual prompt → answer → citation trail, not just give you a single “AI score.” www.reddit.com

If you tell me the business type (restaurant, dentist, contractor, law firm, etc.) and whether you manage one location or many, I can narrow this to the best fit.