ChatGPT answers, unedited

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

• It accepts any public URL, explicitly supports competitor audits, and gives an AI-visibility/citation-readiness score plus specific blockers and fixes. AI Search Visibility
• The free tier currently allows 5 URL audits/month, with no credit card required—so it fits a small competitor sample well. AI Search Visibility
• It’s more appropriate for URL-level competitive research than brand-only visibility checkers.

Another option

ahrefs.com is worth using alongside it if you care more about brand mentions in AI answers than the technical/citation readiness of individual URLs. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode without signup. Ahrefs

My suggested workflow: run each competitor URL through AI Search Visibility, then run each competitor's brand through Ahrefs. That gives you two different signals: “Is this page structured/citable?” and “Does AI actually mention this brand?” Ahrefs AI Search Visibility

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

• No signup or credit card required.
• Check each competitor by brand/product name; it supports competitor names, not just your own brand.
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
• Gives you mentions, platform breakdown, top topics, and the domains/pages being cited. Ahrefs
• It is explicitly designed as a one-time snapshot, so you don't need to commit to a monitoring subscription. Ahrefs

One caveat: if you specifically need to paste multiple competitor URLs/domains in one batch, Ahrefs' free checker is less convenient because its interface is primarily brand-name based.

For that use case, rankbits.com is worth trying: it accepts a website, supports competitor domains, and provides a live score across ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview with no signup. rankbits.com

My suggested workflow: run Ahrefs on each competitor for the broader multi-engine baseline, then use RankBits if you want a quick URL/domain-oriented comparison.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup or credit card required.
• You can check your brand and competitor brands.
• It queries ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• The report shows mentions, topics triggering mentions, and cited domains/pages.
• It is explicitly designed as a one-time snapshot, rather than an ongoing paid monitoring product. Ahrefs

If you specifically want to enter competitor URLs

I'd also test rankbits.com. It accepts a website and lets you specify competitors by domain, then gives buyer prompts, visibility scores, mentions/citations, and share-of-voice data. It's free with no signup. RankBits

For a quick competitive-research workflow, I'd do:

1. Put your URL + 3–5 competitor domains into RankBits.
2. Record mention rate, citations, share of voice, and which competitors appear.
3. Run the same brands through Ahrefs to get a broader cross-engine sanity check.
4. Treat the results as a directional snapshot, not an absolute ranking—AI answers can vary between runs.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also recommend the best free tool specifically for that set and tell you exactly what metrics to capture in your comparison.

For a free, one-time competitive snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with Ahrefs’ AI Visibility Checker. It’s explicitly designed as a one-time snapshot, requires no signup or credit card, and covers ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. It also shows a limited competitor comparison in the free result. Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

If you want more competitor-oriented output

• CitedSpy — free/no signup; checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode, with competitor share-of-voice and citation/source data. CitedSpy

citedspy.com

• RankScope — particularly handy for a quick baseline: 5 prompts across 4 AI engines, competitor mentions, and cited domains. RankScope

rankscope.ai

• Xofu BOFU Snapshot — good if your research is specifically about buyer-intent/recommendation queries; it reports where you and competitors appear and which domains ChatGPT cites. Xofu

xofu.com

My pick: Ahrefs for the cleanest general-purpose snapshot; CitedSpy if competitor share-of-voice across more AI engines is the priority.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest a standardized set of prompts to run against all of them so your snapshot is actually apples-to-apples.

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

Best overall: cituna.com

• Good fit for competitive research because it gives a quick read on how brands appear across AI surfaces (including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and AI Overviews according to current descriptions of the free checker). Cituna
• Useful when you want to compare several competitors rather than just audit your own domain.
• Limitation: it’s a snapshot, not a long-term tracker. Cituna

Other solid free options:

• cituna.com — good if you already use Semrush; the free checker is positioned as a one-time visibility comparison across AI search experiences. Cituna
• cituna.com — very lightweight; good for a fast brand-level benchmark, but less competitor-depth. Cituna
• citedspy.com — more competitor-oriented; it emphasizes finding which brands AI recommends and comparing visibility signals. CitedSpy
• amplevo.com — useful if you want a side-by-side competitor view and are okay with a more SEO-rank-tracker style workflow. Amplevo

For a one-off competitor deck, I’d do this workflow:

1. Pick 3–5 competitor URLs.
2. Run each through Ahrefs + one competitor-focused checker (CitedSpy or Amplevo).
3. Test the same buyer prompts manually in ChatGPT/Perplexity: - “best [category] software”
4. “[competitor] alternatives”
5. “compare [A] vs [B]”
6. “who are the market leaders in [category]?”
7. Record: - Which brands get mentioned
8. Position/order of mentions
9. Citations/sources AI relies on
10. Whether your competitor owns comparison pages, reviews, FAQs, or research content

If you only want one tool and zero setup, I’d choose Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker. If your goal is specifically “which competitors are AI recommending instead of us?”, I’d lean CitedSpy or Amplevo. CitedSpy Amplevo

For a free, one-time competitive snapshot, I’d start with CiteGauge. It explicitly supports a website plus up to 3 competitors, and its free audit checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, including the sites those models cite. No signup is required. CiteGauge

citegauge.com

Good alternatives

• Citivra — better if you want a more diagnostic/SEO-oriented report, including competitor citation gaps and technical AI-readiness checks. Free, no signup, with CSV export. Citivra

citivra.com

• RankBits — useful if you want live prompts, mentions, citations, competitors, and share of voice. Its free scan checks ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview. RankBits

rankbits.com

• Sanbi — particularly interesting if you want four engines side-by-side: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude. Its free audit requires no credit card. Sanbi.ai

sanbi.ai

My pick for your exact use case: CiteGauge. If you give me the 3–5 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best prompt set to use so the snapshot is genuinely apples-to-apples rather than just comparing homepage SEO.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup or credit card required.
• You can check multiple brands/competitors, rather than being locked to your own domain.
• It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode.
• The snapshot includes mentions, platforms, topics, and cited domains. Ahrefs

If you specifically want URL-by-URL competitor comparison

I'd also test rankbits.com. Its free checker accepts a domain and lets you specify competitors, with visibility scores, mentions/citations, and competitor rankings. It advertises one free scan with no signup. rankbits.com

My pick: Ahrefs for the broadest model coverage; RankBits if your priority is a quick competitor leaderboard.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest a consistent prompt/test methodology so the snapshots are actually comparable.

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

• Why: no signup, no credit card, and it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Ahrefs
• Competitive use: you can check each competitor’s brand separately and compare mentions, topics, and cited domains/pages.
• Limitation: the free version is a snapshot, not ongoing monitoring, and the detailed competitor benchmarking is part of the paid product. Ahrefs

If you specifically want to enter several competitor domains in one scan, rankbits.com is worth trying: it explicitly supports competitor domains, custom prompts, share of voice, and a free scan with no signup. RankBits

My pick: RankBits for a quick competitor-vs-competitor snapshot; Ahrefs for broader multi-AI-engine coverage.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the snapshot so the results are actually comparable.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup or credit card
• Designed specifically as a one-time snapshot
• Shows how AI engines describe/recommend a brand and what sources they cite
• You can check multiple brands/competitors
• Ahrefs explicitly positions the free version as the snapshot before its paid monitoring product. Ahrefs

If you want competitor URLs specifically

A couple of alternatives may actually be better depending on what you mean by “visibility”:

• amplevo.com — lets you enter a domain and compare AI visibility across competitors, with ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, and Gemini coverage. Its free tier is more oriented toward ongoing tracking, though. Amplevo
• citedspy.com — particularly interesting for competitive research: it reports mentions, citations, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, and sources across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. CitedSpy
• xofu.com — probably the most directly aligned if you're researching which competitors AI recommends in buying/comparison prompts. It gives a one-time snapshot showing cited domains, your brand, competitors, and prompts where competitors appear instead. Xofu

My pick: use Ahrefs for a quick, credible baseline; use Xofu if your research question is specifically “When buyers ask AI for recommendations, which competitor wins?”

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best snapshot methodology and a consistent prompt set so the comparison is actually apples-to-apples.

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

• ahrefs.com — best overall pick. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. It’s explicitly designed as a one-time snapshot and requires no signup or credit card. You can check competitors and compare mentions/citations. Ahrefs
• xofu.com — particularly good if your competitors are B2B/SaaS vendors. It focuses on buyer-intent prompts, shows which domains ChatGPT cites, where competitors appear, and technical crawl issues. Free snapshot with 50 prompts. Xofu
• aisearchvisibility.ai — better if you specifically want to audit individual competitor URLs/pages rather than brand-level visibility. Its free first audit scores seven AI-citation-readiness dimensions. AI Search Visibility
• sourcesignal.ai — useful if you already know the 3 commercial questions you want to test. It compares your brand and competitors across five AI engines and shows cited sources. sourcesignal.ai

My recommendation for your use case: use Ahrefs if you want a quick competitor benchmark, and Xofu if you specifically care about “which competitors get recommended when buyers ask AI?”

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best setup/prompts for getting a genuinely apples-to-apples snapshot.

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

Why:

• Actually free and no signup/credit card.
• Designed specifically as a one-time snapshot, rather than pushing you immediately into monitoring.
• Shows how brands appear in AI answers and provides a limited preview of results.
• The free version can check multiple brands, which fits your competitor-research use case. Ahrefs

If you want more competitor-specific detail

yogoo.ai is another strong option. It explicitly shows which competitors AI cites instead of you and the prompts where competitors win. The free score doesn't require signup. Yogoo

For a more technical audit of the URLs themselves, crawloria.com gives 3 free audits/day and checks things like AI crawler access plus brand recall. Crawloria

My pick: use Ahrefs for the competitive snapshot, then use Yogoo if you want to dig into why particular competitors are winning AI mentions.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also help you set up a simple comparison framework (AI mentions, citations, share of voice, engines, and key gaps) so the results are apples-to-apples.

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

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews
• Gives you mentions, topics that trigger visibility, and cited domains/pages
• Designed specifically as a one-time snapshot, rather than forcing you into a monitoring subscription. Ahrefs
• You can run it for your brand and each competitor to build a quick benchmark.

If you specifically want to paste competitor URLs

I'd also test rankbits.com. It accepts a domain, lets you add competitor domains, and reports share of voice, mentions vs. citations, and competitive landscape across ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview. It offers one free scan without signup. rankbits.com

My pick: Ahrefs for broader engine coverage; RankBits if your main goal is a quick URL-vs-competitor comparison.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the snapshot so you get a genuinely useful competitive benchmark rather than just five separate scores.

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

1. ahrefs.com — best overall quick benchmark

Best for: competitive research decks, quick “who gets mentioned by AI?” comparisons.

• Enter your competitors’ domains and compare how AI systems describe them.
• Covers major AI surfaces including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI experiences (coverage can vary by feature). Ahrefs
• Good output for answering: - “Which competitor is AI recommending?”
• “Who is being cited as a source?”
• “Are we missing from category answers?” Ahrefs

2. citedspy.com — best if you want competitor share-of-voice

Best for: a more marketing-style snapshot.

It focuses on:

• competitor mentions,
• ranking positions in AI answers,
• prompt-level comparisons,
• cited sources. CitedSpy

3. citivra.com — best for a lightweight audit + recommendations

Best for: combining visibility findings with “what should we fix?”

It includes competitor citation gaps and GEO-style optimization checks. Citivra

My suggested workflow for competitive research

For a one-off snapshot, I’d do this:

1. Pick 5–10 competitor URLs.
2. Run each through Ahrefs’ checker. Ahrefs
3. Create a spreadsheet with: - Brand mentioned? (Y/N)
4. Citation found? (Y/N)
5. AI engine (ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity/etc.)
6. Competitor winning the answer
7. Source pages AI referenced
8. Content gap/opportunity
9. Use CitedSpy or a similar audit tool as a second opinion if the results look surprising. CitedSpy

If you only want one tool, I’d pick Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker for a credible competitive snapshot. Ahrefs If you need a free report you can hand to stakeholders, I’d lean toward CitedSpy because its framing is closer to share-of-voice analysis. CitedSpy

For a one-off snapshot, I’d do this:

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

• Why: no signup, no credit card, and it checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• Good for competitive research: you can check different competitor brands/domains and compare the headline visibility results.
• Caveat: the free version is a snapshot with limited results, rather than a full competitive-monitoring dataset. Ahrefs

If you specifically want URL-by-URL competitor comparison

I’d also try rankbits.com. Its free scan accepts a domain, lets you explicitly enter competitors, and reports visibility by engine, mentions/citations, and competitor share of voice. It offers one free scan with no signup. RankBits

My pick: Ahrefs for the broadest engine coverage; RankBits if your priority is a quick competitor-vs-competitor leaderboard.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the snapshot so you get comparable metrics rather than just a bunch of unrelated scores.

For a free, one-time competitive AI-visibility snapshot, I’d start with HubSpot’s AEO Grader or Semrush’s AI Visibility Checker. Both are described as no-signup, one-time snapshot tools rather than ongoing monitors. Cituna

My pick

• HubSpot AEO Grader — best if you want a quick, simple benchmark you can run across several competitor domains.
• Semrush AI Visibility Checker — better if you want a more SEO-oriented view of how brands appear in AI answers.
• Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — another solid free snapshot option.
• OtterlyAI — worth considering if you decide you want ongoing monitoring. It offers a free trial and competitive benchmarking across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Copilot, but its paid monitoring starts at $29/month. Otterly Otterly

For your specific use case, I'd run the same 10–20 commercially relevant prompts against your company + each competitor, rather than relying solely on a site's overall score. That gives you a much more useful competitive snapshot: mention rate, position/recommendation, citations, and which competitor domains AI systems actually cite.

If you give me the competitor URLs and your industry, I can also suggest the exact prompt set I'd use for the snapshot.

For a one-time competitive snapshot across several competitor URLs, I’d start with ahrefs.com.

Why:

• Free, no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands checked. Ahrefs
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• Shows mentions, platforms, topics triggering visibility, and which domains/pages are being cited—useful for competitor research.
• It's explicitly designed as a one-time snapshot, rather than pushing you immediately into ongoing monitoring. Ahrefs

If you specifically want URL-by-URL auditing

Try aisearchvisibility.ai. It gives each public URL a 7-dimension citation-readiness score covering things like crawlability, intent/value, trust, schema, and AI citeability. The first audit is free, and the free account provides 5 audits/month, so it's a better fit if your competitors' pages rather than just brands are what you want to compare. AI Search Visibility AI Search Visibility

My pick for your use case: Ahrefs if you want "Who is winning in AI answers?"; AI Search Visibility if you want "Why is this competitor URL more AI-citable than ours?"

If you give me 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest a simple snapshot methodology (prompts + metrics) so you're comparing them apples-to-apples.

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

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands checked. Ahrefs
• It gives a one-time snapshot rather than forcing you into a monitoring subscription.
• It’s specifically designed around AI mentions/recommendations, rather than merely checking whether AI crawlers can access a site.
• You can use the results to compare competitors and see which brands/sources are showing up.

One caveat: the free version is a limited preview (top 5 results per section), with deeper competitive benchmarking in the paid Brand Radar product. Ahrefs

If you literally want to paste several competitor URLs and get a URL-by-URL audit rather than brand-level AI visibility, aisearchvisibility.ai is another good fit: its first audit is free, and it explicitly says competitor URLs can be audited. AISearchVisibility

My pick: Ahrefs for competitive AI share/visibility; AI Search Visibility for individual URL/page diagnostics.

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

1. cituna.com — best overall for competitive research

• Good fit if you want a quick benchmark of your brand vs competitors.
• Gives an AI visibility score and competitor comparison signals across AI surfaces. Cituna
• Best for: SEO/GEO teams that already think in terms of share of voice and search competition.

2. cituna.com — best if you want broader AI engine coverage

• Useful for a snapshot across multiple AI/search experiences, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and AI Overviews (availability depends on the current free preview). Cituna
• Best for: comparing several competitor domains from an SEO intelligence angle.

3. citedspy.com — best quick “who gets recommended?” check

• Focuses on whether AI systems recommend your brand or competitors and can show competitor visibility signals. CitedSpy
• Best for: a fast manual competitive scan.

4. freeaisnapshot.com — best if you want a report-style deliverable

• Designed around submitting your URL plus competitor URLs and receiving a snapshot/report. Free AI Snapshot
• Best for: sharing findings internally with non-SEO stakeholders.

My pick for a one-off competitor research exercise:

1. Run Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker for the broad benchmark.
2. Run Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker as a second opinion.
3. Manually validate the biggest gaps by asking ChatGPT/Perplexity prompts like: - “Best [category] software for [use case]”
4. “Alternatives to [competitor]”
5. “Who are the leading companies in [market]?”

Free snapshots are directional rather than a full monitoring system, so I’d treat the score as a starting point and focus on which competitors are being cited, for what prompts, and from which sources. Cituna

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

Why it fits:

• Actually free, no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands checked. Ahrefs
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode. Ahrefs
• Gives you a one-time snapshot, which is exactly what you asked for rather than pushing you immediately into a monitoring subscription. Ahrefs
• The free version is limited to a preview of the top 5 results per section, so it's better for quick competitive reconnaissance than a full research project. Ahrefs

If you specifically want to paste URLs

A good alternative is aisearchvisibility.ai. It audits an individual public URL across signals such as indexability, AI citeability, schema, trust, and content structure. Its free tier gives 5 URL audits/month, so you could use those five credits on your most important competitor pages. AI Search Visibility

One distinction worth making:

• “Does AI recommend/cite this competitor?” → Ahrefs
• “Is this competitor's actual webpage technically/cognitively ready to be cited by AI?” → AI Search Visibility
• “Which competitors win specific buyer questions?” → sourcesignal.ai, which lets you choose up to three commercial questions and compares mentions/citations across five AI engines. sourcesignal

My pick for competitive research: Ahrefs first. Then, if you have five particularly important competitor URLs, use the second tool to diagnose why those pages may be AI-visible.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup required
• Lets you enter competitor domains
• Runs 3 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview
• Shows mentions, citations, and visibility scores
• Produces a shareable report RankBits

If you want broader model coverage

• citedspy.com — free/no-signup check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode, with competitor share-of-voice and prompt-level results. CitedSpy
• yogoo.ai — no-signup score covering ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, including which competitors AI cites instead. Yogoo
• ahrefs.com — particularly credible if you want a marketing/SEO-oriented snapshot; it's explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot rather than ongoing monitoring. Ahrefs

My pick for your use case: CitedSpy if the goal is competitive research, RankBits if you want the quickest no-friction snapshot.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best way to structure the prompts so the comparison is actually apples-to-apples.

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

Why it fits:

• Free, no signup, no credit card, and no stated limit on brands checked. Ahrefs
• Covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews. Ahrefs
• You can enter competitor brand names, so you can quickly benchmark several rivals.
• The snapshot shows AI mentions, platforms, triggering topics, and cited domains/pages—more useful for competitive research than a basic technical crawler check. Ahrefs
• It is explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot, rather than requiring you to subscribe to ongoing monitoring. Ahrefs

If you specifically want to paste URLs

Two alternatives are worth considering:

• pagelens.ai — paste a domain and get a free snapshot using buyer-style prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, including competitors that win citations. PageLens
• aisearchvisibility.ai — particularly useful if you want a URL-level GEO/citation-readiness audit rather than just brand share of voice. The free account allows 5 audits/month. AI Search Visibility AI Search Visibility

My pick for your use case: Ahrefs if your question is “Which competitors are winning AI visibility, where, and what sources are getting cited?”; PageLens if your question is “How AI evaluates each specific competitor URL?”

If you give me 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest a simple snapshot methodology so the results are comparable across all of them.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup or credit card
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode
• Shows mentions, citations, topics, and cited domains/pages
• You can check competitor brands individually, making it practical for a quick benchmark. Ahrefs

If you specifically need to compare several competitor URLs

I’d also test citedspy.com. It accepts a domain, automatically finds competitors, and reports a 0–100 score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. It's free with no signup. CitedSpy

Another interesting option is yogoo.ai, particularly if your goal is “which competitors are getting cited instead of us?” It provides a free visibility score plus competitor and prompt-level gaps. Yogoo

My pick: Ahrefs for the broadest engine coverage; CitedSpy if competitive share-of-voice is the main thing you care about.

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the cleanest way to structure the snapshot so the results are apples-to-apples.

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

Why it fits:

• No signup required
• Checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Google AI Overviews
• You can check competitor brands/domains, not just your own
• Gives you mentions, topics triggering mentions, and the domains/pages being cited
• It’s explicitly positioned as a one-time snapshot, rather than requiring a monitoring subscription. Ahrefs

If you specifically want to paste competitor URLs

Try pagelens.ai. It accepts a domain and runs buyer-oriented prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity, showing visibility, competitors, sentiment, and citation sources. It says the audit is free and requires no signup. PageLens

Another good option is aisearchvisibility.ai, which is more URL/page-centric: it scores citation readiness across seven dimensions and explicitly says competitor URLs can be audited. The free account provides five audits/month. AI Search Visibility

My pick for your use case:
Ahrefs if you want “How visible is this competitor brand in AI answers?”
PageLens if you want “Why is this competitor URL/page likely getting cited?”

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the quickest way to structure a comparable snapshot so the scores are actually apples-to-apples.

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

• Why it fits: no signup, free, and it checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok live. It reports visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and the sources AI cites. CitedSpy
• Competitive angle: it can automatically identify competitors, rather than requiring you to build the comparison manually.
• For several competitor URLs: run each competitor/domain through the checker and put the resulting scores, mention rates, and cited domains into a simple comparison sheet.

Good alternatives

• ahrefs.com — probably the safest established-vendor choice. It's explicitly free, requires no signup, and is designed as a one-time snapshot; the free version has a limited preview. Ahrefs
• citegauge.com — particularly convenient if you want to enter your site plus up to 3 competitors in one audit. It checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity and is free/no-signup. CiteGauge
• pagelens.ai — another no-signup snapshot, with 10 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity and competitor/citation analysis. pagelens.ai

My pick: CitedSpy for breadth; CiteGauge if you specifically want a quick you vs. 3 competitors comparison.

One caveat: these are snapshots, not a definitive measurement of “AI visibility.” Different runs/prompts can produce different results, so for competitive research I'd keep the exact prompts, date, engines, mention/rank, and cited URLs alongside the scores.

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

• citedspy.com — free, no signup, and it automatically finds competitors. It checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok, giving you visibility score, competitor share of voice, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. CitedSpy
• citegauge.com — particularly good if you already know your competitors: its free audit lets you enter up to 3 competitor names and checks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. CiteGauge
• xofu.com — worth trying if your research is specifically about buyer-intent visibility. It generates 50 prompts and shows which domains/competitors ChatGPT cites. Xofu
• yogoo.ai — another no-signup snapshot, with competitor visibility and the prompts where competitors win. Yogoo

My pick

CitedSpy if you want the broadest competitive snapshot with the least setup.
Xofu if your goal is specifically “when a prospective customer asks AI what to buy, who gets recommended?”

One caveat: these are snapshots, not statistically stable rankings. AI answers can vary substantially between queries, so for competitive research I'd run the same set of buyer-intent prompts across every competitor and save the actual responses/citations—not just the headline score. cituna.com

If you give me the 3–10 competitor URLs, I can also suggest the best tool for that exact set and a compact prompt set to make the comparison meaningful.

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.

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

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: 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.