ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a free, one-time competitive AI visibility snapshot, I’d start with ahrefs.com.

Why it fits:

• Free and no signup.
• You can check competitor brands individually rather than setting up a monitoring project.
• It covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
• The snapshot reports mentions, topics triggering mentions, and cited domains/pages.
• Ahrefs explicitly describes it as a one-time snapshot; the free version gives a limited preview. Ahrefs

If you want URL-first competitive comparison

I'd also test RankBits. Its free checker accepts a domain and lets you enter competitors, then reports visibility scores, mentions, citations, and a competitive landscape across multiple AI/search engines. It currently offers one free scan with no signup. RankBits

rankbits.com

My pick: Ahrefs for a more established dataset and broader AI coverage; RankBits if your priority is quickly putting several competitor domains side-by-side.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the snapshot so you're comparing apples-to-apples (engines, prompts, visibility, citations, and competitor share of voice).

For a one-time competitive snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands checked. ahrefs.com
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. ahrefs.com
• Gives you mentions, platform breakdowns, triggering topics, and cited domains/pages.
• It explicitly works for checking competitor brands, so you can run the same process against each URL/domain. ahrefs.com
• The free version is intentionally a snapshot, rather than an ongoing monitoring product—which sounds exactly like what you need. ahrefs.com

If you want more competitor-specific output

CitedSpy is worth trying. It claims a free, no-signup check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, with competitor discovery, share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. www.citedspy.comedenrank.com

Another good option is EdenRank if you want to run the same commercial prompt against competitors. Its free checker runs one prompt across 8 AI engines and returns the answers, citations, and a visibility score. edenrank.com

My pick: Ahrefs for a broad baseline; EdenRank if your research question is more like “When buyers ask X, which competitor wins across AI engines?”

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also help you design a consistent snapshot methodology so the results are actually comparable.

For a one-time competitive snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup, no credit card
• You can check multiple brands, so it works well for a competitor set rather than just your own site.
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
• Gives you a quick view of which brands appear and how prominently.
• It’s explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot, rather than a monitoring trial. ahrefs.com

For deeper competitive research, I'd pair it with CitedSpy’s AI Visibility Checker. It reports competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and the sources AI engines cite, across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. www.citedspy.com

One caveat: tools calling themselves “AI visibility” vary a lot. Some primarily measure technical AI crawlability rather than whether AI actually recommends a brand. For competitive research, you want the latter—mentions, recommendations, rankings, and citations across buyer prompts.

My pick: Ahrefs for the fast baseline; CitedSpy if you want a more useful competitor-by-competitor snapshot.

For a free, one-time competitive snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with AEO Audit.

Why it fits your use case:

• Lets you enter up to 3 competitor URLs alongside your own. aeoaudit.se
• Produces a Brand Citation Score, competitor benchmarks, and recommendations.
• Checks ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
• Says the analysis is free, no signup required, and takes about 2–3 minutes. aeoaudit.se

If you want broader AI coverage

CitedSpy is probably the better research tool. Its free check covers ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, and reports visibility score, competitor share of voice, rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. www.citedspy.com

Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker is another strong option if you want a more established SEO vendor. Its free checker covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode and is explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot with no signup or credit card. ahrefs.com

My pick: use AEO Audit if the key requirement is “give me several URLs side-by-side for free.” Use CitedSpy/Ahrefs if you care more about breadth of AI engines and competitive share-of-voice.

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup, no credit card. ahrefs.com
• It checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. ahrefs.com
• You can enter competitor brands/domains, so it's useful for benchmarking rather than just auditing your own site.
• The free version is explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot, rather than an ongoing monitoring subscription. ahrefs.com

If you specifically want to paste multiple competitor URLs

A couple of alternatives may be even more convenient:

• CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker — free/no signup and automatically identifies competitors, then checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. It provides visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, and citations. www.citedspy.com
• Rankseer — its free scanner accepts up to two competitor URLs for an instant comparison. rankseer.com
• EdenRank — particularly good if you want to test a specific buyer prompt across 8 AI engines and see the actual answers/citations. edenrank.com

My pick for your use case: CitedSpy if you have several competitors and want competitive intelligence; Ahrefs if you want the most established/general-purpose benchmark.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also help you design a consistent snapshot methodology (prompts, engines, metrics, and a comparison scorecard) so the results are actually apples-to-apples.

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across a few competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best quick pick: Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker

• Best for competitive research
• No signup required
• Lets you check brands/competitors and see AI mentions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI surfaces
• Useful outputs: AI mentions, platform breakdown, topics where brands appear, and cited domains/pages ahrefs.com

Other good options

1. Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker
   • Good if your team already uses SEO tooling
   • Focuses on AI search presence, competitor positioning, and prompt-based visibility checks
   • No signup required for the free checker www.semrush.comahrefs.com

2. Discoverable AI Visibility Checker
   • More purpose-built for a quick “who does AI recommend?” snapshot
   • Shows visibility score, competitors appearing ahead of you, and citation gaps bediscoverable.ai

3. CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker
   • Good for a lightweight competitor sweep
   • Checks whether AI engines recommend you or competitors and provides prompt-level visibility signals www.citedspy.com

For a one-off spreadsheet-style competitor benchmark, I’d probably do:

1. Pick 5–10 buyer prompts (e.g., “best [category] software”, “alternatives to [competitor]”).
2. Run each competitor through Ahrefs or Semrush.
3. Record:
   • Mentioned? (Y/N)
   • Position in answer
   • AI platform (ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity/etc.)
   • Sources cited
   • Which competitor wins each prompt

That will usually give you more actionable insight than a single aggregate “AI score.” www.semrush.comahrefs.com

If you have specific competitor URLs + your industry, I can suggest which tool is likely to give the cleanest comparison.

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot, I’d start with Ahrefs’ Free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• No signup or credit card, and Ahrefs says there’s no limit on how many brands you can check. ahrefs.com
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. ahrefs.com
• Gives you mentions by platform, top topics, and the domains/pages being cited.
• You can run the check on your brand and competitor brands individually, which makes it practical for a quick spreadsheet-based competitive snapshot.

If you specifically want to paste several competitor URLs

I’d also test CitedSpy. It accepts a domain, automatically identifies competitors, and checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok live, producing a visibility score, competitor share of voice, rankings, sentiment, and citations. It says the check is free and requires no signup. www.citedspy.com

Another interesting option is Loamly, which runs 50 industry-specific buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini and provides a competitor gap map. www.loamly.ai

My pick for your use case: CitedSpy if you want competitive benchmarking across multiple URLs/models; Ahrefs if you want the most established SEO/AEO vendor and a clean baseline.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest a simple snapshot methodology (prompts, metrics, and scoring) so the comparison is actually apples-to-apples.

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across competitor URLs, I’d start with one of these:

Best overall: CiteGauge

• Good fit for competitive research because you can add competitors and see:
  • whether AI assistants mention each brand
  • competitor share of visibility
  • which sources AI systems cite
  • gaps where competitors are getting referenced and you are not
• It advertises a free instant audit with no signup and checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. citegauge.com

Best for a quick URL-to-URL comparison: AEO Audit

• Lets you enter competitor URLs and compare AI visibility scores.
• Useful if you just need a fast benchmark rather than a deep monitoring setup. aeoaudit.se

Best if you want prompt-level competitor insights: AnswerMonk

• More GEO-focused: it looks at buyer-style prompts, competitor rankings, and citation sources.
• The free audit claims to run prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude and return a competitor leaderboard. www.answermonk.aicitegauge.com

My suggested workflow for a one-off competitive snapshot

1. Put your domain + 3–5 competitors into CiteGauge or AEO Audit.
2. Export/copy:
   • AI mention rate
   • competitors appearing most often
   • cited domains/sources
   • missing topics/prompts
3. Manually validate the top 10 buyer prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity because free tools can vary in methodology.

For a few competitor URLs only, I’d pick CiteGauge first, then use AnswerMonk if you need more “why are they winning?” detail. www.answermonk.aicitegauge.com

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot, I’d start with Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• No signup required
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode
• You can check your brand and competitor brands
• Reports mentions, platforms, topics, and which domains/pages AI cites
• Ahrefs explicitly describes the free checker as a one-time snapshot, rather than ongoing monitoring. ahrefs.com

If you specifically want to paste several competitor URLs/domains, I'd also try CitedSpy. It accepts a domain, automatically identifies competitors, and checks five AI engines with a visibility score, competitor share-of-voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. www.citedspy.com

One caveat: tools differ between AI visibility (whether AI recommends/mentions you) and AI-readiness/technical accessibility (whether crawlers can access your site). For competitive research, I'd choose the former.

My pick: Ahrefs for a quick, credible benchmark; CitedSpy if you want more explicit competitor/SOV analysis.

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with AEO Audit.

AEO Audit — it explicitly supports up to 3 competitor URLs, gives competitor benchmarking, and checks visibility across ChatGPT and Gemini. It says the analysis is free, requires no signup, and takes about 2 minutes. aeoaudit.se

Good alternatives

• CiteGauge — better if you care about who AI recommends and cites, rather than just technical site readiness. It checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity and allows up to 3 competitors. citegauge.com
• CitedSpy — particularly useful for competitive research: it generates buyer prompts, identifies competitors, and reports visibility/share-of-voice across five AI engines. www.citedspy.com
• Ahrefs' free AI Visibility Checker — strongest choice if you want a more established SEO vendor and a quick baseline across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. It is explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot. ahrefs.com

My pick for your exact use case: AEO Audit if you already have the competitor URLs; CitedSpy if the main question is “Which competitors does AI recommend instead of us, and why?”

If you give me the 3–5 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the snapshot so you're comparing apples-to-apples.

For your use case, I’d start with Ahrefs’ free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits:

• Free and one-time: no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands you can check. ahrefs.com
• Competitor-friendly: you can check your competitors individually rather than committing to a monitoring subscription.
• Gives a snapshot of how brands appear in AI answers, with a limited preview of results.
• If you later need ongoing tracking, Ahrefs' paid Brand Radar is the upgrade path—but you don't need it for a one-off competitive study. ahrefs.com

Good alternative: CitedSpy’s free AI Visibility Checker is particularly interesting if you want a more explicit competitive view: it reports visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources across five AI engines, with no signup. www.citedspy.com

One caveat: don't treat a single AI-visibility score as ground truth. AI responses and citations are probabilistic and can vary substantially between runs, so for competitive research I'd use the same set of URLs/prompts across competitors and treat the result as a snapshot, not a definitive ranking. arxiv.org

My pick: Ahrefs for a credible, quick benchmark; CitedSpy if competitor share-of-voice is the main thing you care about.

For a free, one-time competitive snapshot across several URLs, I’d start with OtterlyAI.

• Free trial: 7 days, no credit card required.
• 50 search prompts and 100 GEO URL audits during the trial. help.otterly.ai
• It can compare your visibility against competitors and analyze mentions, citations, domain rankings, and visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. help.otterly.ai
• For your use case, I'd run the same ~10–15 high-intent prompts against each competitor and export the results before the trial expires.

One caveat: don't treat a single snapshot as ground truth. AI-search answers are stochastic, so competitor rankings can change between runs. Research published in 2026 specifically finds substantial variability in AI citation visibility. arxiv.org

If you want strictly zero signup/payment and just a quick URL-level audit, tell me what kind of competitors these are (SaaS, ecommerce, local businesses, etc.) and I can find the best genuinely free option.

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot, I’d start with urlAhrefs Free AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0.

• No signup or credit card
• Check your brand and competitors
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews
• Shows mentions, topics, cited domains/pages, and competitor context
• Ahrefs explicitly describes it as a one-time snapshot, rather than an ongoing tracker. ahrefs.com

If you specifically want to paste competitor URLs

urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1 may be a better fit: it accepts a domain/website URL directly and reports AI visibility and competitive positioning. It's also free with no signup. www.semrush.com

For a more GEO/technical audit of the actual URLs—crawlability, robots.txt, llms.txt, AI crawler access, schema, etc.—try urlIsVisible.aiturn0search2 or urlAuditZap's AI Visibility Checkerturn0search4. Those answer a slightly different question: “Can AI systems access and understand this site?” rather than “Does AI recommend/cite this competitor?”

My pick for your use case: Ahrefs for the competitive snapshot; Semrush if your workflow starts with a list of URLs/domains.

One caveat: treat a single snapshot as directional, not a definitive ranking. AI answers are probabilistic and can vary between repeated runs, so differences between competitors can sometimes be within the measurement noise. arxiv.org

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best fit: urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search1

• Paste in a competitor domain/URL and get a quick read on how visible that brand is in AI search experiences.
• Good for competitive benchmarking because it focuses on mentions and positioning across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews. www.semrush.com
• Best if you want to run the same set of competitor URLs through one consistent framework.

Alternatives depending on what you mean by “visibility”:

• Brand mention / “does AI recommend them?” analysis: urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0

Useful if your question is: “When buyers ask AI for recommendations, which competitors appear?” It reports competitor presence and citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai

• Technical AI-readiness audit (crawlability, llms.txt, schema, structure): urlAuditZap AI Visibility Checkerturn0search2

Better for: “Can AI systems understand and access this site?” rather than “Will AI recommend this brand?” auditzap.io

• Multi-engine competitor mention snapshot: urlCitedSpy AI Visibility Checkerturn0search3

More oriented around whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok mention brands and how competitors compare. www.citedspy.combediscoverable.ai

My suggested workflow for competitive research:

1. Pick 5–10 competitor domains.
2. Run each through Semrush’s checker for a consistent baseline. www.semrush.com
3. Run the top 2–3 competitors through a citation-focused tool like Discoverable or CitedSpy to see why they’re winning (sources, mentions, gaps). www.citedspy.combediscoverable.ai
4. Keep the results as a benchmark—AI answers fluctuate, so a single snapshot is directional rather than a permanent ranking. arxiv.org

If you only want one tool, I’d use Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker for a quick competitor sweep. www.semrush.com

For a free, one-time competitive snapshot, I’d start with Ahrefs’ AI Visibility Checker. It’s explicitly designed for one-off checks, lets you check competitor names too, and covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. The free report includes mentions, platforms, triggering topics, and cited domains/pages. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker

Good alternatives

• CiteReach — better if you want a more direct competitor-vs-competitor view. It reports visibility score, actual AI responses, competitors AI recommends instead, and quick wins; no signup is required. citereach.com

CiteReach free AI Visibility Audit

• Ad-Lab — good if by “visibility” you mean GEO/AI-readiness of the URLs themselves: authority, content, citations, structure, etc. It says the audit is free and requires no account. ad-lab.ai

Ad-Lab AI Search Visibility Audit

• AuditZap — particularly useful for a technical URL audit (AI crawler access, schema, semantic structure, freshness, author attribution, etc.), rather than measuring whether the brand actually gets recommended. auditzap.io

AuditZap AI Visibility Checker

My pick for your use case: Ahrefs if you want to answer “Which competitor is winning AI visibility, where, and what topics trigger it?” CiteReach if you want the fastest, more lightweight side-by-side snapshot.

One caveat: AI visibility is inherently noisy—responses can vary by prompt, run, and time—so treat a one-time score as a baseline, not a definitive ranking. arxiv.org

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across a few competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best pick: OtterlyAI

Why: It is closest to a “paste in domains → get an AI visibility report” workflow. It can compare how brands appear in AI search results, including competitor benchmarking, and it offers a free audit/scorecard path. help.otterly.ai

Good for:

• Comparing your site vs. 3–10 competitors
• Seeing whether brands are mentioned/cited in AI answers
• Getting a quick GEO (generative engine optimization) health check
• One-off research before deciding whether to pay for monitoring otterly.ai

Also worth testing

Peec AI — better if you care about competitive share-of-voice rather than just a score. It focuses on measuring AI mentions, position, sentiment, and competitor comparisons. peec.ai

Manual free benchmark (surprisingly useful):

1. Pick ~20 buyer-intent prompts (e.g., “best [category] software,” “alternatives to [competitor]”).
2. Run them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.
3. Record:
   • Which brands appear
   • Which URLs get cited
   • Whether competitors appear before you
   • What sources are influencing answers

This is slower, but it avoids over-trusting a single AI visibility score. AI answers can vary between runs, so a snapshot should be treated as directional rather than a precise market share number. arxiv.org

For your use case, I’d do:

1. OtterlyAI free audit → fast baseline
2. Peec AI trial/demo → deeper competitor comparison
3. Keep a spreadsheet of the actual prompts/results → your source of truth

If you tell me your category (SaaS, ecommerce, local services, etc.) and how many competitor URLs you have, I can suggest the fastest setup and prompt list.

If your goal is a free, one-time snapshot of how visible a set of competitor URLs are in AI search engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude, etc.), here are the strongest options:

1. Peec AI – Probably the best fit. It offers a free AI visibility scan where you can compare multiple domains and see how often brands appear across AI-generated answers. The free tier is enough for a one-off competitive benchmark.

2. Profound – Enterprise-focused, but it occasionally offers demos or limited evaluations. Excellent if you want deep competitive AI search intelligence, though not ideal for a purely free one-time scan.

3. Goodie AI Search Grader – Free website analysis that gives a quick indication of how well your site is positioned for AI search and LLMs. Good for comparing a handful of sites manually.

4. Otterly.AI – Has a free trial that lets you monitor AI search visibility across several prompts and competitors. More useful if you want to revisit results over a few days.

5. HubSpot AI Search Grader – Free and simple. It focuses on one domain at a time, so it's less convenient for side-by-side competitor analysis but useful for quick snapshots.

For competitive research across several URLs without paying, I'd start with:

• Peec AI for the comparative AI visibility snapshot.
• HubSpot AI Search Grader or Goodie AI Search Grader to validate individual domains.

If you're evaluating 5–20 competitors, another approach is to create a list of representative prompts (e.g., "best CRM for startups", "top email marketing software") and run them through ChatGPT, Google AI Mode/AI Overviews, and Perplexity, recording which competitors are cited. That gives you a practical share-of-voice baseline even without a paid platform.

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best fit: Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker

• Paste a competitor domain/URL and get a quick AI visibility read.
• Useful for competitive research because it compares how brands appear in AI-generated answers and shows positioning opportunities. www.semrush.com
• Good if you want a marketer-friendly report you can screenshot/share.

Other good free options:

1. Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — best for a fast brand-level benchmark
   • No signup required.
   • Checks visibility across AI platforms and shows mentions, topics, and cited domains. ahrefs.com
   • Note: it’s more brand-name based than a pure URL audit.

2. Discoverable AI Visibility Checker — best if you specifically want competitor comparison
   • Enter a domain and it reports AI visibility score, competitors appearing ahead of you, and citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai

3. FogTrail AI Visibility Scan — best if you want a downloadable-style report
   • Runs queries across multiple AI engines and returns a report showing where competitors are cited. fogtrail.ai

For a one-off competitive snapshot, I’d do this:

1. Pick 5–10 competitor domains.
2. Run each through Semrush + Ahrefs.
3. Record:
   • AI mentions/recommendations
   • competitors appearing instead
   • cited pages/domains
   • content themes that repeatedly surface

One caveat: AI visibility is noisy — a single run can change by prompt, model, and timing, so treat the snapshot as directional rather than a definitive ranking. arxiv.org

If you tell me your industry (SaaS, ecommerce, local services, etc.), I can suggest the tool that tends to work best for that category.

If your goal is a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across your site and a few competitors, these are the best options:

1. urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search1 — My top recommendation.
   • Free with no signup required.
   • Checks visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Shows AI mentions, topics where you're mentioned, and a preview of competitor visibility.
   • Best for a quick competitive benchmark. ahrefs.com

2. urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0
   • Free snapshot in under a minute.
   • Enter your domain and it identifies competitors appearing ahead of you, along with a citation gap.
   • The detailed report requires an email, but the initial snapshot is free. bediscoverable.ai

3. urlCitedSpy AI Visibility Checkerturn0search2
   • Free, no signup.
   • Automatically discovers competitors.
   • Provides a visibility score, share of voice, prompt-level rankings, and cited sources across several AI engines. www.citedspy.com

One thing to keep in mind: AI visibility is inherently variable. The same prompt can produce different answers across runs, so treat a one-time snapshot as directional rather than definitive. If you need reliable competitive tracking, repeated measurements over time are much more informative. arxiv.org

For a one-off competitive audit, I'd use:

• Ahrefs for the fastest no-signup overview.
• CitedSpy if you want richer competitor comparisons and share-of-voice metrics.
• Discoverable if you're specifically interested in citation gaps and why competitors are being recommended instead of you.

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best fit: AEO Audit

• Lets you enter your site plus competitor URLs (it advertises up to 3 competitor comparisons).
• Gives an AI visibility / citation-style benchmark rather than just a technical SEO score.
• Good for a quick competitive research deck because it produces a comparable score and gaps. aeoaudit.se

Other good free options:

1. Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker
   • Best if you already use Semrush or want a more mainstream marketing-tool output.
   • Checks visibility across AI search experiences and compares positioning. www.semrush.com

2. Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker
   • Good for a quick brand-level snapshot.
   • Shows AI mentions, platforms, topics, and cited domains, though the free version is more of a preview. ahrefs.com

3. Discoverable AI Visibility Checker
   • More competitor-oriented: it reports competitors appearing ahead of you and citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai

For a competitive research workflow, I’d do:

1. Run each competitor URL through AEO Audit.
2. Run the top 3–5 competitors through Ahrefs or Semrush for brand-level AI mentions.
3. Manually validate with 10–20 buyer prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini because AI visibility changes by prompt and can fluctuate. arxiv.org

If you only want one tool and no signup, I’d pick AEO Audit for URL-to-URL comparison. aeoaudit.se

For a free, one-time AI visibility snapshot across competitor URLs, I’d start with:

Best fit: urlCiteReach AI Visibility Auditturn0search0

• Why: It’s designed for a quick snapshot rather than ongoing tracking.
• Good for competitor research: shows whether AI engines mention a brand, recommend competitors, and provides competitor intelligence. citereach.com
• Workflow: run your own domain + 3–5 competitor domains, export the findings into a comparison sheet.

Other good free options:

• urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search5 — useful if you specifically want “who gets recommended instead of us?” and competitor citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai
• urlSearchless AI Visibility Auditturn0search4 — good for a fast multi-engine check with a score and fixes. audit.searchless.ai
• urlAmplevo AI Search Visibility Toolturn0search6 — more competitor-oriented, with AI answer tracking across several engines. amplevo.com

For a competitive snapshot, I’d capture these fields manually:

One caveat: a single AI visibility score can be noisy because AI answers change between runs, so treat it as a directional benchmark rather than a precise ranking. arxiv.org

If you’re comparing SaaS competitors, ecommerce brands, local businesses, or agencies, the best tool choice changes a bit.