ChatGPT answers, unedited

If you want fast + free + specifically AI share of voice, I’d start with AnswerMonk. Its free audit measures how often ChatGPT names your brand versus competitors and says results take about 3–8 minutes. AnswerMonk

A few good budget options:

• AnswerMonk — best fit for a quick category-level SOV snapshot; explicitly calculates share of voice from AI answers. AnswerMonk
• RankAgent — very lightweight: gives Perplexity five buyer prompts and shows your recommendation share versus competitors. RankAgent
• Ecomrank — particularly ecommerce-oriented; checks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews using buyer questions and identifies stores recommended instead of yours. Ecomrank
• RankBits — free/no-signup scan with custom prompts, competitors, and a share-of-voice score across ChatGPT, Google Search and Google AI Overview. RankBits
• SEOmator — useful if you want a broader dataset rather than a single live prompt; its checker calculates brand SOV from aggregated ChatGPT and Google AI Overview results. SEOmator

For an ecommerce category page specifically: I'd use Ecomrank or RankBits, then test prompts such as “best [category],” “best [category] for [use case],” and “top [category] brands.” That gives you a more meaningful picture than simply checking whether your homepage gets mentioned.

If you give me the category + your store URL, I can also suggest the 5–10 exact prompts I'd use for a free SOV check.

If you want quick + free + category-level AI share of voice, I’d start with CitedSpy. Its free checker says it automatically finds competitors and buyer-style category prompts, then checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. It reports a competitor share-of-voice breakdown and prompt-level rankings. CitedSpy

citedspy.com

A few alternatives:

• Wildcard — particularly ecommerce-oriented; enter your domain and it checks how your products appear in shopping answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Free audit takes about three minutes. Wildcard wild-card.ai
• Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — very fast and genuinely free/no signup, but the free version is more of a brand visibility snapshot; ongoing competitor AI Share of Voice is part of Brand Radar. Ahrefs ahrefs.com
• PromptRush — free report with competitor share of voice across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews and AI Mode. PromptRush promptrush.ai

For an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget: use CitedSpy for the fastest SOV snapshot, and Wildcard if you specifically want to understand which products/category opportunities AI is surfacing or missing.

For an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with free AI visibility/share-of-voice checkers that compare your brand against competitors for buyer-style prompts. The best quick options:

For a category page (e.g., “running shoes,” “standing desks,” “protein powder”), I’d avoid checking only your brand name. Use prompts like:

• “Best [category] for [use case]”
• “Top [category] brands in 2026”
• “[Category] alternatives to [big competitor]”
• “Best [category] under $X”
• “Which [category] should I buy?”

Then track:

• Mention rate: % of prompts where your brand appears
• AI share of voice: your mentions ÷ all brand mentions
• Citation sources: which pages AI systems are relying on

If you only have 15 minutes, my low-budget workflow would be:

1. Run your category through one checker.
2. Export the competitors AI keeps naming.
3. Compare those brands’ category pages, buying guides, reviews, FAQs, and comparison pages.
4. Update your category page to answer the same buyer questions AI is surfacing.

A free manual alternative is to run 20–30 category prompts yourself in ChatGPT/Perplexity, tally brand mentions, and calculate SOV with a calculator like tryprefer.com. Prefer

For ecommerce specifically, I’d prioritize citation tracking and competitor pages AI references, not just the score—because the actionable insight is usually “which pages are getting competitors mentioned?”

If you’re ecommerce and want a fast, free AI share-of-voice snapshot, I’d start with citedspy.com.

• CitedSpy — free, no signup; checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode, and gives you competitor share of voice + ranking/heatmap. CitedSpy
• rankbits.com — probably the quickest DIY option: enter your site, get 3 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Google Search and AI Overviews, with a share-of-voice view. RankBits
• aigely.com — particularly ecommerce-friendly: its free scan uses shopping prompts, gives a share-of-voice result, and allows one domain/week. Aigely
• ahrefs.com — excellent for a quick brand baseline across five major AI/search surfaces, though the free version is more of a visibility snapshot than a full category-page SOV tracker. Ahrefs

My pick for your use case: Aigely if you're specifically selling products online; CitedSpy if you want the strongest competitor/SOV breakdown.

One caveat: most “AI SOV” tools measure brand mentions for category-level buyer prompts, not whether that exact category page URL is winning. For a category page, I'd test prompts like “best [category] for [use case]”, “[category] brands worth considering”, and “best [category] under $X”, then separately track whether your category URL gets cited.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with SEOmator’s free AI Visibility Checker. It’s particularly useful because it gives you an actual competitive share-of-voice breakdown, not just a vague visibility score. It checks ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews and shows up to 10 co-mentioned brands. SEOmator

seomator.com

My quick shortlist

• Best for quick category SOV: SEOmator — enter your brand/domain and get your mention count plus competitors' share of voice. No signup required. SEOmator
• Best for ecommerce specifically: Aigely — built around shopping prompts and gives a share-of-voice figure; its free scan covers ChatGPT and 10 U.S. shopping prompts. Aigely
• Best broader AI snapshot: Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. The free version is fast and doesn't require signup, though detailed competitive SOV is part of its paid Brand Radar product. Ahrefs
• Best if you want to test your own category prompts: LLM Optimization's checker — you enter the brand and category, and it runs up to 10 buyer-intent prompts across five engines, producing competitor SOV. LLM Optimization

For a category page specifically, I'd use Aigely or LLM Optimization first. Run prompts such as “best [category]”, “best [category] for [use case]”, and “top [category] brands,” then compare your brand's mention rate + position + citation rate, rather than relying on one overall AI score.

If you tell me the ecommerce category (e.g. running shoes, mattresses, skincare), I can suggest the 5–10 prompts I'd use to get a meaningful AI SOV baseline.

For an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with free AI visibility/share-of-voice checkers that test buyer prompts, not generic SEO rank trackers. “AI share of voice” is still an emerging metric, so free tools usually give you a snapshot rather than a long-term dashboard. Shop Mentions

Fastest free options

My pick for a budget ecommerce workflow

1. Pick 10–20 category prompts your shoppers actually ask:

• “best [category] for beginners”
• “best [category] under $100”
• “[category] comparison”
• “alternatives to [leading competitor]”
• “best [category] for [use case]”
• Run them through a free checker.
• Track:

• Mention rate: how often your brand appears
• Recommendation rate: how often AI actually recommends you
• Competitor share: who owns the answer space
• Citations/sources: which pages AI relies on

For a category page specifically, I’d also check whether AI is citing the category page itself or only product pages/blog content. Google Merchant Center now has AI performance insights that include AI shopping visibility metrics and category-level filtering for eligible merchants, which is worth checking if you already use Merchant Center. Google Help

If you only have 10 minutes: use one checker, test 10 high-intent prompts, and make a baseline spreadsheet. The biggest win usually comes from finding the 5–10 prompts where competitors appear and you don’t.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with Answer Visibility Lab. It’s free, takes about 30 seconds, and lets you enter your brand + category + competitors to get an AI share-of-voice style report across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Answer Visibility Lab

answervisibilitylab.com

A few other good free options:

• Aigely — especially ecommerce-friendly: enter your store URL and it generates shopping prompts and shows mention rate + share of voice. The free tier is 1 domain/week and 10 U.S.-shopper prompts. Aigely
• LLM Optimization AI Visibility Checker — probably the quickest if you want to specify a category and competitors yourself; it reports mention rate, recommendation rate, and competitor SOV across five engines. LLM Optimization
• Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — excellent for a quick brand benchmark with no signup; checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI surfaces, though the free tool is more of a visibility snapshot than a full category-page SOV tracker. Ahrefs
• RankBits — useful if you want to paste a URL and get a fast report with mentions, citations, competitors and citation share. RankBits

My pick for your use case

Category page → define the category → see which ecommerce brands AI recommends → quantify your SOV:
Aigely is the one I'd test first.

If you mean “I have a specific category page URL and want a free tool that tells me how much AI visibility that page itself has”, that's a slightly different requirement—and I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 tools for that.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with Aigely or RankAgent for the fastest category-level AI share-of-voice snapshot.

• Best for ecommerce: Aigely — enter your store URL and it tests shopping prompts, showing share of voice, mention rate, and average position. The free scan currently covers ChatGPT, 10 U.S.-shopper prompts, and one domain per week. Aigely
• Best pure SOV snapshot: RankAgent — gives you an AI share-of-voice comparison against competitors from category/buyer questions, with no signup. RankAgent
• Best if you want more engines: CitedSpy — its free checker reports competitor SOV plus a prompt-by-prompt ranking view across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. CitedSpy
• Best DIY option: Prefer's SOV Calculator — completely free and browser-based, but you supply the mention counts yourself. Good if you want to audit a handful of category prompts manually. Prefer
• Worth checking if you already use Merchant Center: Google now has AI performance insights, including SOV by product category, competitor, search intent, and shopping stage. Availability depends on your Merchant Center account/eligibility. Google Help

My pick: For a category page like /running-shoes/, I'd use Aigely first because it is explicitly oriented toward shopping prompts. Then manually test 5–10 high-intent prompts such as “best running shoes for flat feet”, “best running shoes under $150”, etc. That gives you a much more actionable SOV baseline than a generic AI visibility score.

If you give me the category + your store URL, I can also suggest the exact 10 prompts I'd use to measure its AI SOV.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer and want quick, free AI share-of-voice for a category, I’d start with:

• rankbits.com — probably the best fit for a quick check. It generates buyer prompts for your category and reports share of voice, mentions vs. citations, and the competitor landscape. The free scan checks ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview. RankBits
• citedspy.com — stronger if you want a broader competitive snapshot: it checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode, with a competitor SOV breakdown and prompt-level rankings. Free/no signup. CitedSpy
• aigely.com — especially ecommerce-oriented. You give it your store URL and it tests shopping prompts, showing mention rate and share of voice. The free tier currently offers 10 U.S.-shopper prompts/week. Aigely
• useomnia.com — useful for a category-level benchmark with 10 relevant prompts per engine plus SOV and citation insights. Omnia

My pick

For “I have 5 minutes and want to know whether my category page/brand is getting mentioned versus competitors”, use RankBits first.

One caveat: these tools generally measure brand/category visibility, not literally “this exact category URL's SOV.” If your goal is “Does my /collections/running-shoes page get cited/recommended for running-shoe queries?”, I’d use a checker that exposes the exact cited URLs and then manually isolate your category page. Ahrefs' free checker, for example, reports the specific pages cited alongside your brand. Ahrefs

If you tell me your category (e.g. “women’s running shoes”), I can also give you a free 10-prompt SOV test you can run manually across ChatGPT/Perplexity/Google AI and a simple spreadsheet formula for calculating your percentage.

If you’re on a tight budget and want a quick AI share-of-voice snapshot for an ecommerce category, I’d start with RankBits.

• rankbits.com — best quick/free option. No signup, gives you 3 buyer prompts, checks ChatGPT + Google Search + Google AI Overviews, and explicitly shows share of voice, competitors, mentions, and citations. RankBits RankBits
• aigely.com — particularly relevant for ecommerce: enter your store URL and it runs 10 shopping prompts for US shoppers, with mention rate and SOV. Free scan is about a minute. Aigely
• citedspy.com — stronger if you want a broader competitor view: checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode, with a competitor SOV breakdown and prompt-level rankings. CitedSpy
• ahrefs.com — very credible for a fast baseline, but its free checker is more brand visibility than true category SOV; full AI Share of Voice/competitive benchmarking is in Brand Radar. Ahrefs

My pick: use RankBits if you literally need “What % of AI recommendations in my category are going to me vs. competitors?” in a couple of minutes. If your focus is specifically shopping/ecommerce prompts, try Aigely first.

A useful prompt set for a category page would be things like “best [category]”, “[category] for [use case]”, “best [category] under $X”, “top [category] brands” rather than queries containing your own brand.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with rankbits.com.

• Why: it’s free/no-signup and explicitly reports share of voice, competitor visibility, mentions vs. citations, and checks ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overviews. RankBits
• Speed: roughly a quick scan; it uses 3 buyer prompts, so it’s good for a fast category-page sanity check.
• Best use: enter your domain and use prompts like “best [category]”, “best [category] for [use case]”, and “[category] alternatives.”

If you want a broader free check

citedspy.com is probably the better second choice: it checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode, and gives competitor share-of-voice plus a prompt-by-prompt ranking view. CitedSpy

ahrefs.com is excellent for a quick brand-level snapshot across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, but the free version is more of a visibility preview than a detailed category SOV tracker. ahrefs.com

My pick: RankBits for “show me my category SOV right now”; CitedSpy if you want more engines and competitive detail.

One caveat: AI share of voice is not the same as traffic or sales—it’s a competitive visibility signal. aishareofvoice.io

For a budget ecommerce marketer, I’d start with llmoptimization.io.

• Best quick/free option: enter your brand + category and it generates buyer-intent prompts, checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other engines, and reports competitor share of voice. It says no signup is required. LLM Optimization
• Best for ecommerce specifically: aigely.com offers a free scan aimed at stores, with 10 shopping prompts, a share-of-voice result, and a roughly one-minute scan. Aigely
• Best if you want a broader cross-engine snapshot: ahrefs.com checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. The free version is more of a snapshot than ongoing SOV tracking. Ahrefs

My pick: use Aigely if you're specifically checking a retail/category-page use case; use LLM Optimization if you want a cleaner category → competitors → SOV view.

One caveat: these tools measure AI-answer visibility, not literally the organic visibility of a particular category URL. For a category page, I'd run prompts like “best [category] for [use case]”, “best [category] brands”, and “[competitor] vs [your brand]” and compare your mention/citation share.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with llmoptimization.io.

• Best fit for “AI share of voice”: enter your brand + category, and it tests buyer-intent prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, showing mention rate, recommendation rate, and competitor share of voice. LLM Optimization
• Fast: up to 10 prompts and five engines, with no signup according to the tool's current description. LLM Optimization
• For ecommerce specifically, ecomrank.io is another good quick option: enter your store URL and niche, and it checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews for recommendations and citations. Ecomrank

My pick: LLM Optimization if your goal is literally “What % of AI answers mention/recommend us vs. competitors?”; Ecomrank if you care more about whether your store/product pages are actually being cited.

One caveat: these are snapshot measurements, not the same as a statistically representative market-share number. Use the same category prompts each time so you can track whether your AI SOV is moving.

If you’re ecommerce + budget-conscious and want a quick AI share-of-voice (SOV) read for a category, I’d start with:

Best quick pick: CitedSpy

citedspy.com

• Free, no signup
• Checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode
• Automatically identifies competitors
• Gives a competitor SOV breakdown + ranking
• Uses category-level buyer prompts rather than simply searching your brand name. CitedSpy

Also worth trying

• Ecomrank — particularly ecommerce-friendly. Enter your store + niche and it tests buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews; free, no signup, about a minute. Ecomrank ecomrank.io
• RankBits — free/no-signup scan with 3 buyer prompts, competitor landscape, citations, and SOV. RankBits rankbits.com
• Ahrefs — excellent if you want a quick brand-level snapshot; free and no signup, though the deeper AI Share of Voice benchmarking is part of its paid Brand Radar product. Ahrefs ahrefs.com

My pick for your use case: CitedSpy for the fastest multi-engine SOV snapshot; Ecomrank if you specifically want to think like a shopper asking “where should I buy X?” rather than generic brand visibility.

One caveat: these are sampled AI-answer SOV, not the equivalent of Google Search Console impression share. Treat the number as a directional benchmark and rerun the same category prompts over time.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with ecomrank.io. It’s specifically aimed at ecommerce, requires no signup, and checks buyer-style questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It also shows which stores get recommended instead of yours. Ecomrank

A few good alternatives:

• ahrefs.com — best if you want broader engine coverage: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. The free result is a snapshot rather than ongoing competitive tracking. Ahrefs
• llmoptimization.io — probably the closest match if you specifically want competitor share of voice: it generates buyer-intent prompts and reports mention rate, recommendation rate, and competitor SOV across five engines. LLM Optimization
• rankbits.com — very quick, with three buyer prompts and three engines; explicitly reports citation share among brands/competitors. RankBits

My pick: use Ecomrank for a fast ecommerce baseline; use LLM Optimization if your primary KPI is literally “What percentage of the AI answer/category conversation belongs to us vs. competitors?”

One caveat: these tools measure AI answer visibility/SOV, not traditional category-page organic share of voice. For a category like “women’s running shoes”, you’ll get much more useful data if you test prompts such as “best women’s running shoes,” “best running shoes for flat feet,” and “Nike vs Brooks vs Hoka for daily training” rather than simply entering the category name.

For a quick, free AI share-of-voice check on an ecommerce category, I’d start with:

1. therankagent.com — probably the best fit for your use case. You enter the category/buyer query and your site; it runs five buyer questions and gives you your share versus competitors, with no signup. RankAgent
2. citedspy.com — stronger if you want a competitor leaderboard and prompt-by-prompt view across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google AI Mode. Free/no signup. CitedSpy
3. ahrefs.com — excellent for a fast brand-level snapshot across several AI engines, though the free version is more of a visibility preview than a detailed category-page SOV report. Ahrefs

My pick for a budget ecommerce marketer: RankAgent for a 2-minute pulse check; CitedSpy when you want to understand which competitors are taking the visibility.

One caveat: these tools generally measure brand/product mentions in AI answers, not literally whether a particular category URL is being surfaced. For a category page, test queries such as “best [category] for [use case]”, “[category] comparison”, and “best [category] brands” rather than just your brand name. That gives you a much more meaningful AI SOV number. shopmentions.com

For a budget-conscious ecommerce marketer, I’d start with CitedSpy’s free AI Visibility Checker. It’s unusually close to what you’re asking for: you give it your brand/domain, it identifies competitors and buyer prompts, then reports competitor share of voice, rankings, and which sources AI cites across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. It says the check is free with no signup. CitedSpy

citedspy.com

My quick shortlist

• Best overall free check: CitedSpy — best if you want an actual competitive SOV breakdown, not just “are we mentioned?” CitedSpy
• Best for ecommerce specifically: Wildcard — its free audit is designed around ecommerce and checks product/category visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. Wildcard
• Best established SEO brand: Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — free, no signup, checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews, though the free report is more of a limited snapshot than a full SOV tracker. Ahrefs
• Fastest lightweight option: RankAgent — asks five buyer questions and gives you an immediate AI share-of-voice chart versus competitors, with no login. RankAgent

For a category page specifically, I'd use Wildcard first, then CitedSpy. The key is to test category-level buyer prompts rather than your brand name—for example, “best running shoes for flat feet” rather than “Brand X running shoes.” That gives you a much more useful picture of whether AI is actually putting your products into the consideration set. Wildcard CitedSpy

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with llmoptimization.io.

• Best quick pick: It lets you enter a category/topic + brand, then tests buyer-intent prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other engines and gives you competitor share of voice. It says no signup/email is required. LLM Optimization
• Best if you want a category-page perspective: citedspy.com automatically identifies competitors and category-level buyer prompts, then shows a competitor SOV breakdown and rankings. CitedSpy
• Simplest manual option: tryprefer.com is completely browser-based, but you have to supply the mention counts yourself. Prefer
• Another strong free snapshot: searcheye.io reports your share against competitors across ChatGPT, Google AI and Perplexity. SearchEye

My recommendation: for a category page like /running-shoes/, enter “running shoes” rather than the exact page URL. Ask/measure prompts such as “best running shoes,” “best running shoes for beginners,” “best running shoes under $150,” etc. That gives you a much more meaningful AI category share of voice than checking whether AI mentions your brand in isolation.

If you tell me your ecommerce category, I can also give you a 10-prompt free SOV test you can paste into ChatGPT/Perplexity and calculate yourself.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with ecomrank.io.

• Best fit for ecommerce: enter your store URL + niche.
• It tests ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews using buyer-oriented questions and shows who gets recommended instead. Ecomrank
• Free, no signup, roughly a minute.
• It’s more useful for a category page than a generic “does AI know my brand?” checker because it focuses on shopping/category queries.

If you specifically want a SOV percentage

Try therankagent.com. It directly calculates your share against competitors from buyer questions, with no signup. RankAgent

Another good option is citedspy.com, which reports competitor SOV plus rankings across several AI engines. CitedSpy

My pick: Ecomrank for a quick ecommerce diagnosis; RankAgent if the number you care about is specifically “What % of AI recommendations does my category own?”

If you give me your category (e.g. “women’s running shoes”), I can also suggest the 5–10 prompts I’d use to get a more meaningful AI SOV baseline.

For an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with RankBits’ Free AI Visibility Checker. It’s no-signup, runs a quick scan, and explicitly reports share of voice, competitor mentions, and citations across ChatGPT, Google Search, and Google AI Overview. RankBits

rankbits.com

Two other good quick checks:

• Aigely — particularly ecommerce-oriented: enter your store URL and it tests shopping prompts; the free scan includes 10 U.S. shopper prompts, with mention rate and share of voice. Aigely
• Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — broader engine coverage (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Overviews), no signup, but the free version is a limited snapshot rather than full competitive tracking. Ahrefs
• Skavora — useful if you want to specify the category and up to 3 competitors; its free audit includes a competitor Share of AI Voice leaderboard and prompt-level results. Skavora

My pick for your use case: Aigely if you're specifically measuring an ecommerce category; RankBits if you want the fastest generic SOV snapshot.

One caveat: these tools are measuring AI-answer share of voice, not traditional category-page SEO share of voice. For example, a category like “women’s running shoes” should be tested with several buyer prompts (“best…”, “for beginners”, “under $150”, “best for wide feet”) rather than relying on one query.

If you’re ecommerce + budget-conscious and specifically want AI share of voice for a category, I’d start with:

Best quick free options

• citedspy.com — probably the best fit. It’s free/no-signup, automatically finds competitors and category-level buyer prompts, then shows share of voice, competitor ranking, and a prompt-by-prompt heatmap across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and Google AI Mode. CitedSpy
• ecomrank.io — especially ecommerce-oriented. Enter your store + niche and it checks buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, showing who gets recommended instead. Free, no signup, roughly a minute. Ecomrank
• rankbits.com — very fast and explicitly reports citation share among brands/competitors, plus mentions vs. citations. RankBits
• searcheye.io — useful if you want a clean “you vs competitors” share-of-voice percentage from live AI answers. It says the full report is free. SearchEye

My pick: CitedSpy for a quick competitive snapshot; Ecomrank if you're specifically evaluating an online store/category.

One caveat: don't confuse AI visibility score with share of voice. If your goal is “For ‘best running shoes’ prompts, what percentage of the brands AI names are us?”, make sure the tool actually exposes competitor SOV rather than just a 0–100 visibility score.

For a budget ecommerce marketer, I’d start with free AI visibility/share-of-voice checkers rather than paying for a full GEO platform. The quickest options:

For a category page (for example “running shoes,” “standing desks,” “protein powder”), I’d do this:

1. Pick 10–20 buyer prompts: - “best [category] for beginners”
2. “best [category] under $100”
3. “compare [category A] vs [category B]”
4. “top brands for [use case]”
5. Run them through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or a checker.
6. Count: - how often your brand appears
7. how often competitors appear
8. whether AI cites your category page/product pages
9. Track your AI share of voice monthly.

A simple formula:

AI Share of Voice = your brand mentions ÷ all brand mentions in tracked AI answers × 100

If you already have Google Merchant Center set up, check whether you have access to its AI performance insights reporting — Google has been rolling out AI shopping visibility metrics including share-of-voice style comparisons for eligible accounts. support.google.com

For a lean ecommerce team, I’d probably use Aigely for a quick store check + Prefer or RankAgent for competitive benchmarking. Aigely RankAgent Prefer

If you want fast + free + ecommerce-focused, I’d start with ecomrank.io. It takes a store URL + niche, runs buyer-intent questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, and shows which stores/sites get recommended instead. It’s free, no signup, and takes about a minute. Ecomrank

A few good alternatives:

• aigely.com — particularly nice for ecommerce: its free scan gives a share-of-voice figure, tests 10 shopping prompts, and supports US shoppers. Aigely
• rankbits.com — gives share of voice vs competitors, mentions vs. citations, and lets you supply your own prompts. RankBits
• citedspy.com — best if you want a competitor leaderboard and prompt-by-prompt rank heatmap across five AI engines. CitedSpy

My pick for a budget ecommerce marketer: Aigely for the quickest “what percentage of the AI shelf do I own?” snapshot; Ecomrank if you also want to see who is taking your recommendations and on which buyer questions.

One caveat: these are sample-based AI SOV checks, not a definitive market-wide percentage. AI answers vary by prompt, engine, location, and time, so use the same prompt set when benchmarking improvements.

If you want quick + free + ecommerce-focused, I’d start with ecomrank.io. It’s free, no signup, takes about a minute, and tests buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, showing which stores get recommended instead of you. Ecomrank

A few good alternatives:

• rankbits.com — particularly useful if you specifically want a share-of-voice breakdown and competitor list. It checks 3 buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Google Search, and AI Overviews. RankBits
• citedspy.com — broader engine coverage (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok) and gives a competitor SOV breakdown plus prompt-level rankings. CitedSpy
• ahrefs.com — excellent for a quick brand baseline; free and no signup, with mentions, topics, and cited domains/pages. Its full competitor SOV tracking is part of the paid Brand Radar product. Ahrefs

My pick for a category page: Ecomrank for the fastest practical check; RankBits if SOV itself is the metric you care about most.

One caveat: these tools generally measure brand/product mentions in AI answers, not whether that exact category URL is being cited. If you're trying to answer “Is my /category/shoes page winning AI citations vs competitors?”, that's a more specific test.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with RankBits Free AI Visibility Checker.

• Why: it’s free/no signup, takes your website, runs buyer-oriented prompts across ChatGPT, Google Search, and AI Overviews, and explicitly shows share of voice vs. competitors. rankbits.comwww.useomnia.com
• Best for: a quick category-page sanity check—e.g. test a category like “women’s trail running shoes” and see which brands/sites AI surfaces.
• Caveat: it only runs 3 buyer prompts / 3 engines, so treat the SOV as a directional snapshot, not a statistically robust market-share metric. rankbits.comwww.useomnia.com

Two good alternatives

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker — better if you want a broader competitive view. It checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok, automatically finds competitors, and reports SOV plus prompt-by-prompt rankings. Free/no signup. www.citedspy.com

Omnia Free AI Visibility Checker — useful for ecommerce because it tests 10 category-relevant prompts per engine and reports SOV and citation insights. www.useomnia.com

My pick: RankBits for “I need an answer in 2 minutes.” CitedSpy for “I want to understand who is beating me and why.”

One important distinction: most of these measure brand/category AI visibility, not whether that specific category page URL is being cited. If your real question is “Is my /category/foo page winning AI citations against competing category pages?”, I’d use a different workflow.

For a budget ecommerce marketer, I’d start with free AI visibility/share-of-voice checkers that let you enter your brand + category prompts, rather than full enterprise GEO platforms.

Best quick options:

1. ecomrank.io — probably the most ecommerce-focused fit. Enter your store URL and category (e.g., “running shoes,” “organic skincare”), and it checks whether AI surfaces recommend you versus competitors. It focuses on shopping questions and cited sources. Ecomrank
2. ahrefs.com — fast, simple brand-level benchmark. Good for seeing whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews mention your brand. Ahrefs
3. therankagent.com — closest to a true “AI share of voice” snapshot. It compares how often your brand appears versus competitors for buyer-style questions. RankAgent
4. rankbits.com — useful if you want a quick score plus competitor/citation view without a heavy setup. RankBits

For a category page specifically (not just a brand), I’d do this:

• Pick 10–20 buyer prompts: - “best [category] for beginners”
• “best [category] under $100”
• “[category] alternatives to [big competitor]”
• “where to buy [category] online”
• Run them through one of the tools above.
• Track: - % of answers where your brand appears
• % where your category page is cited
• competitors appearing instead
• which product attributes AI mentions (price, materials, reviews, shipping, etc.)

If you only have 10 minutes: use Ecomrank first for ecommerce, then validate with Ahrefs for broader AI visibility. Ecomrank Ahrefs

For a budget ecommerce marketer, I’d start with citedspy.com. It’s no-signup and gives you a competitor share-of-voice breakdown, prompt-level rankings, and citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. CitedSpy

A few good alternatives:

• ahrefs.com — very reputable; checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI surfaces. Free, but the report is a limited snapshot. Ahrefs
• ecomrank.io — particularly relevant to ecommerce: enter your store + niche and it tests buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. No signup. Ecomrank
• rankbits.com — fast, no signup; gives share of voice, competitor landscape, mentions/citations and the actual prompts tested. RankBits

My pick for your exact use case: CitedSpy for the fastest “who owns AI share of voice in my category?” snapshot; Ecomrank if you're specifically evaluating an ecommerce category/store.

One caveat: these tools generally measure brand visibility in AI answers, not whether a particular category page URL itself is winning. For page-level diagnosis, I'd take the losing prompts from the checker and inspect which competitor pages AI cites.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a tight budget, I’d start with RankAgent’s free AI Share of Voice Checker. It’s specifically built around share of recommendations vs. competitors, runs five buyer-style questions, and shows the result without signup. www.therankagent.com

A few good alternatives:

• CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker — better if you want competitor SOV plus rankings, citations, and sentiment across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok. Free/no signup. www.citedspy.com
• Ecomrank Free AI Visibility Checker — particularly ecommerce-oriented; tests ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and identifies stores being recommended instead of yours. Free/no signup. ecomrank.io
• Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — strongest mainstream option for a quick sanity check across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI surfaces, though the free view is more visibility/mentions than a full SOV dashboard. ahrefs.com

My pick for a category page: RankAgent for the fastest SOV number; CitedSpy if you want to understand why competitors are winning.

One caveat: these tools generally measure brand recommendation/mention share in AI answers, not whether the specific category page itself gets cited. If your goal is “Is /collections/running-shoes winning AI citations for running-shoe queries?”, that’s a slightly different test.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with Ecomrank’s free AI Visibility Checker.

• Best fit for ecommerce: enter your store URL + niche, and it tests buyer-style questions against ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
• Fast: roughly a minute, no signup.
• Useful competitive view: shows which stores/sites AI recommends instead of you.
• Caveat: it gives visibility/citation results rather than a polished, ongoing AI Share of Voice % dashboard.

If you specifically want Share of Voice, try Trakkr’s free AI Share of Voice tool. You enter your brand, up to three competitors, and five prompts; it produces a position-weighted SoV across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, with a prompt-by-prompt grid.

For a quick category-page spot check, I'd use Ecomrank first. For a more deliberate competitor benchmark, use Trakkr.

One important distinction: AI “share of voice” is inherently noisy because answers can change between runs. A single free checker result is best treated as a baseline, not a precise market-share measurement. verityscore.io

If you want quick + free + actually showing AI share of voice, I’d start with CitedSpy. It’s explicitly designed to compare your brand against competitors for category-level buyer prompts, and its free checker reports a 0–100 visibility score, competitor share-of-voice breakdown, rankings, and cited sources across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok. www.citedspy.comwild-card.ai

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker

My shortlist

For an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I'd pick CitedSpy first. If you're specifically evaluating a category page, use unbranded prompts such as:

• “best [category] for [use case]”
• “[category] for [customer type]”
• “best [category] brands”
• “[category] alternatives”
• “where to buy [category] online”

That matters because asking “Is mybrand good?” measures branded visibility, not your share of the category consideration set. CitedSpy specifically says its prompts don't name your brand and are intended to measure category-level recommendations. www.citedspy.comwild-card.ai

If you want something even more ecommerce-specific, Wildcard's free audit tests product/category visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews and shows how often your products appear in tested answers. wild-card.ai

One caveat: don't treat a single AI SOV number as gospel. AI answers are nondeterministic, so a useful benchmark should use multiple prompts and ideally repeated runs. verityscore.io

If you want quick + free + actually useful for ecommerce, I’d start with Trakkr’s free AI Share of Voice tool. It lets you enter your brand, up to 3 competitors, and up to 5 buyer prompts, then gives you a position-weighted SOV across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, including a prompt-by-prompt win/loss grid. No signup. trakkr.ai

Trakkr AI Share of Voice Tool

Good alternatives:

• CitedSpy — better if you want automated competitor discovery plus a SOV breakdown, rankings, sentiment, and citations. Free/no signup. trakkr.aiwww.citedspy.comapp.useagentshop.com CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker
• AgentShop — particularly ecommerce-oriented; audits how your products appear in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. Takes about 2 minutes and is free/no signup. app.useagentshop.com AgentShop Ecommerce AI Audit
• Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker — excellent for a fast brand baseline across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews, though it's more visibility/mentions than a true category SOV calculator. ahrefs.com Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker

For a category page specifically: use 3–5 prompts that mimic shopping discovery, e.g. “best [category] for [audience]”, “top [category] brands”, and “[category] under $X.” That gives you a much more meaningful AI SOV number than simply asking an AI whether it knows your brand.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with Wildcard’s free Ecommerce AI Search & AEO Audit. It’s particularly relevant to category/product discovery: you enter your domain and it checks how your products appear across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews, including competitors and tested answers. It says most audits take about three minutes. wild-card.ai

My quick shortlist

If you specifically want “what % of AI answers for my category mention me vs. competitors?”, try CitedSpy’s AI Visibility Checker first. It checks five AI engines and reports a competitor share-of-voice breakdown, rank heatmap, and citations. www.citedspy.com

For an ecommerce category page, I’d actually run Wildcard + CitedSpy: Wildcard gives you the ecommerce-specific picture, while CitedSpy gives you a broader cross-engine SOV benchmark.

One caveat: these are sampled AI-answer measurements, not the equivalent of Google Search Console impression share. Treat the SOV number as a directional benchmark and, importantly, look at the actual prompts and competitors behind it.

If you’re on a tight budget and want a quick category-level AI Share of Voice check, I’d start with:

• CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker — probably the best fit for your use case. It’s free/no-signup, automatically finds competitors, tests category-relevant prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok, and gives a competitor Share of Voice breakdown + prompt-by-prompt ranking. www.citedspy.com
• Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — very quick and reputable. It checks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI surfaces, showing mentions, topics and cited pages. However, AI Share of Voice itself is part of the paid Brand Radar product, so it's less directly suited if SOV is the metric you specifically want. ahrefs.com
• Discoverable AI Visibility Checker — good ecommerce-oriented alternative: enter your domain and get a snapshot in under a minute, including competitors ahead of you and citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai
• Wildcard Ecommerce AI Search Audit — particularly relevant if you're checking an actual ecommerce category/product catalog. It tests category buyer prompts across five AI surfaces and shows where your products appear versus competitors. wild-card.ai

My pick: use CitedSpy for the fastest “What % of the AI conversation do I own vs. competitors?” snapshot. Then use Wildcard if you want to diagnose which category/product pages are contributing to the gap.

One caveat: these tools measure AI visibility from sampled prompts, not the literal percentage of all AI searches in your category. Treat the SOV as a benchmark you can track consistently, rather than an absolute market-share number.

For a budget ecommerce marketer who wants a quick read on AI Share of Voice (SoV) for a category page, I’d start with these free/low-friction options:

For a category page specifically (e.g., /collections/running-shoes), I’d use this cheap workflow:

1. Pick 10–20 buyer prompts:
   • “best [category] for [use case]”
   • “top [category] brands”
   • “[category] alternatives”
   • “[brand] vs [competitor]”
2. Run them through a free visibility checker.
3. Record:
   • % of answers mentioning you
   • whether you appear in the first 3 recommendations
   • which competitor URLs AI cites
4. Compare the cited pages — AI often favors pages with:
   • clear category definitions
   • comparison tables
   • specs/attributes
   • FAQs
   • expert/trust signals

If you already have Google Merchant Center, also check whether you have access to Google’s AI performance insights, which includes an AI share-of-voice style metric for product/category discovery (availability is limited). support.google.comwww.citedspy.com

My “no-budget stack” would be: CitedSpy (snapshot) → manual ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity prompt log (validation) → Google Merchant Center AI insights if available. support.google.comwww.citedspy.com

For a budget-conscious ecommerce marketer, I’d start with CitedSpy’s free AI Visibility Checker.

• Best for: quickly seeing AI share of voice vs. competitors
• Cost: free, no signup
• Speed: live results
• Engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok
• Output: visibility score, competitor SOV breakdown, prompt-level rankings, sentiment, and cited sources. www.citedspy.com

If you specifically want to audit an ecommerce category page

Wildcard’s free Ecommerce AI Search & AEO Audit is probably the better fit. Enter your domain and it tests how your products appear for category/buyer queries across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. It also identifies competitors and product/content gaps. wild-card.ai

My quick pick:

1. CitedSpy → fastest pure AI share-of-voice snapshot.
2. Wildcard → better if your goal is “does AI recommend the products on this ecommerce site/category?”
3. Ahrefs free AI Visibility Checker → good broader brand benchmark, but its free checker is more of a visibility snapshot; full AI SOV/competitive tracking is in Brand Radar. ahrefs.com

One caveat: don't treat a single run as a precise market-share number—AI answers are nondeterministic. For a meaningful SOV benchmark, use the same category prompts across multiple runs/engines. verityscore.io

If you tell me the category (e.g. “running shoes,” “standing desks,” “supplements”), I can suggest the 5–10 buyer prompts I'd use to get a useful SOV snapshot for free.

If you’re an ecommerce marketer on a budget, I’d start with CitedSpy’s free AI Visibility Checker.

Why it fits your use case:

• Free + no signup
• Checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok
• Automatically finds competitors
• Gives a share-of-voice breakdown, visibility score, and prompt-by-prompt ranking
• Shows the sources AI engines cite. www.citedspy.com

For a category page, though, there’s an important caveat: these tools generally measure brand visibility, not whether a specific category URL is winning AI answers.

A good quick workflow is:

1. Put your brand/domain into CitedSpy.
2. Look at the category prompts where competitors are mentioned.
3. Check whether your category page is among the cited pages/domains.
4. Manually run 5–10 buyer-intent prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity and tally mentions. This gives you a more honest category-level SOV.

Two other free options worth trying:

• Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — particularly good for seeing mentions by AI platform, topics, cited domains and cited pages. No signup required. ahrefs.com
• Lantern Free AI Visibility Report — explicitly reports share of voice versus competitors across AI-generated answers. www.asklantern.com

My pick: CitedSpy for the fastest competitor/SOV snapshot; Ahrefs if you care more about which pages are actually influencing AI answers.

If you want quick + free + useful for ecommerce, I’d start with CitedSpy. Its free checker gives you a competitor share-of-voice breakdown, prompt-by-prompt rankings, and checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok—without signup. www.citedspy.com

CitedSpy AI Visibility Checker

Good alternatives:

• Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — fastest/simple option; no signup. It reports mentions, platforms, topics, and cited domains, but the free version is more of a snapshot than a true category SoV dashboard. ahrefs.com
• Yogoo — particularly handy for seeing which competitors AI cites instead of you, with a free 0–100 score. yogoo.ai
• Loamly — useful if you want the tool to generate buyer/category prompts automatically; its free check runs 50 prompts across four AI platforms. www.loamly.ai

For a category page specifically: don't just enter the URL and measure whether that page is cited. Run unbranded prompts such as “best [category] for [use case]”, “[category] alternatives”, and “top [category] brands”. Your useful metric is the percentage of those AI answers in which your brand appears versus competitors. That better represents AI share of voice.

If I had $0 and 10 minutes, I'd use CitedSpy first, then manually validate the top 5–10 prompts in ChatGPT/Perplexity before making an SEO decision. AI visibility measurements can fluctuate substantially between runs, so treat a one-off score as directional rather than gospel. arxiv.org

For a budget-conscious ecommerce marketer, I’d start with Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker.

• Fast: results in seconds, no signup required. ahrefs.com
• Useful for category research: it tests prompts based on real search behavior and shows which brands AI mentions, plus competitors and cited pages. ahrefs.com
• Caveat: the free checker gives a snapshot; actual AI Share of Voice + historical competitive tracking is in the paid Brand Radar product. ahrefs.com

If you specifically want a free competitor/SOV number, I’d also try CitedSpy. It explicitly reports a competitor share-of-voice breakdown and prompt-level rankings across five AI engines. www.citedspy.com

For ecommerce specifically, Ecom Beacon's AI Search Visibility Checker is worth testing because it goes down to SKU-level AI visibility and SOV, though it appears more geared toward ongoing tracking than a quick one-off check. www.ecombeacon.com

My pick: Ahrefs for the quickest sanity check; CitedSpy if “what % of the category's AI mentions do we own?” is the metric you actually need.

For a budget-conscious ecommerce marketer, I’d start with GEOlikeaPro.

• Best fit: It explicitly calculates AI Share of Voice by running product/category queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini, then comparing how prominently brands appear. Its free tier currently includes 50 units/month. geolikeapro.com
• Quick alternative: CitedSpy — free/no signup, checks five AI engines and gives a competitor SOV breakdown. www.citedspy.com
• Simplest snapshot: Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — very fast and no signup, but the free version is more of a visibility snapshot; competitive AI Share of Voice is part of its paid Brand Radar product. ahrefs.com

My pick: GEOlikeaPro if you specifically want “What % of AI recommendations does my brand get in this category vs. competitors?” rather than just a generic AI visibility score.

One caveat: AI SOV is inherently noisy because identical prompts can produce different answers, so treat a single audit as a directional benchmark rather than a precise market-share number. arxiv.org

If you mean AI Share of Voice (SOV) as in “which brands/products get mentioned most often by AI search assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) for a category query”, there are a few free or freemium ways to get a quick read. Fully free tools are still limited, but these are practical for an ecommerce marketer on a budget:

For a zero-budget category page check, I’d do this:

1. Pick 10–20 buyer-intent prompts:
   • “best [category] for [use case]”
   • “[category] alternatives”
   • “top [category] brands”
   • “best [category] under $X”
2. Run them manually in:
   • ChatGPT
   • Google Gemini
   • Perplexity
3. Record:
   • Was your brand mentioned? (yes/no)
   • Position in the answer
   • Competitors mentioned
   • Whether your category page/product pages were cited
4. Calculate:

AI Share of Voice % = (your brand mentions ÷ total brand mentions across prompts) × 100

For a small ecommerce team, this manual method often gives a more useful answer than a dashboard because you can see why competitors are being recommended (reviews, structured data, authority, pricing, product breadth, etc.).

If you want a single free “paste URL → get AI visibility score” type checker, HubSpot AI Search Grader is probably the quickest starting point. For ongoing category tracking, the dedicated AI visibility platforms are more appropriate.

If you’re ecommerce + budget-conscious, I’d start with CitedSpy’s free AI Visibility Checker.

• Free, no signup
• Checks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Grok
• Automatically finds competitors
• Gives a competitor share-of-voice breakdown
• Also shows prompt-level rankings and the sources AI engines cite. www.citedspy.com

For a category-page use case: enter your brand/domain, then look at queries around the category—not just branded queries. For example, for a running-shoes category page, test things like “best running shoes for beginners,” “best running shoes under $150,” etc.

Two other good free options

Ahrefs Free AI Visibility Checker — probably the easiest quick sanity check. No signup, results in seconds, and covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews. Its free report is a snapshot rather than ongoing SOV tracking. ahrefs.com

Trakkr Free AI Share of Voice Tool — better if you want to define the category prompts yourself. You supply your brand, up to 3 competitors, and up to 5 prompts; it calculates position-weighted SOV across ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity. trakkr.ai

My pick: CitedSpy for fastest free competitive snapshot; Trakkr if you specifically want to measure one category page/query set.

For a budget ecommerce marketer, I’d start with a free AI visibility checker rather than a full SEO suite. The catch: most free tools measure brand/category visibility rather than a true “category page share of voice” (e.g., your /running-shoes page vs Nike vs Hoka in AI answers). For a quick pulse check:

1. Best quick/free option: urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search2
   • Enter your domain.
   • Good for seeing whether your brand appears in AI answers and how it compares with competitors.
   • Useful if you want a marketer-friendly snapshot without building a tracking sheet. www.semrush.combediscoverable.ai

2. Best for ecommerce category testing: urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search1
   • More aligned with buyer-intent prompts (“best X for Y”, “top X brands”).
   • Lets you see competitors appearing ahead of you and citation gaps. bediscoverable.ai
   • I’d test it with prompts tied to your category page, not just your brand name.

3. Best simple benchmark: urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0
   • Fast, no-login snapshot.
   • Shows mentions across AI platforms and where your brand appears relative to others. ahrefs.com

Cheap DIY method (often better for one category page):

• Pick 20–50 real shopping prompts:
  • “best [category]”
  • “[category] for beginners”
  • “alternatives to [competitor]”
  • “best [category] under $100”
• Run them in ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini.
• Track:
  • % of prompts where your brand appears
  • average mention position
  • citations pointing to your category page vs competitors

That gives you a rough AI Share of Voice = your mentions ÷ total brand mentions across prompts.

For a small ecommerce team, I’d use Semrush or Discoverable for a 10-minute scan, then a Google Sheet prompt tracker for ongoing category-page monitoring. www.semrush.combediscoverable.ai

If you're an ecommerce marketer with little or no budget, the fastest free options are:

1. urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search1 — Best overall
   • Free, no signup.
   • Checks mentions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Shows which prompts mention your brand, which pages get cited, and a preview of AI visibility. The paid Brand Radar product adds ongoing AI Share of Voice tracking, but the free checker is a good first snapshot. ahrefs.com

2. urlCitedSpy AI Visibility Checkerturn0search2 — Best for competitor share of voice
   • Free with no signup.
   • Automatically identifies competitors.
   • Shows a share-of-voice leaderboard, prompt rankings, and citations across multiple AI assistants. This is one of the closest free tools to what you're asking for. www.citedspy.com

3. urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0
   • Enter your domain.
   • Generates category-specific buyer prompts.
   • Shows competitors ahead of you and your citation gap in under a minute. bediscoverable.ai

For a specific category page

Most free tools measure brand visibility, not an individual URL. If your goal is to know whether a particular category page (for example, /mens-running-shoes) is influencing AI answers:

• Use urlFrase AI Visibility Checkerturn0search6, which accepts a page URL and checks whether AI systems cite it or similar content. www.frase.io

Budget workflow I'd recommend

If I had $0:

• Run your domain through Ahrefs.
• Run the same domain through CitedSpy.
• Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity 10–20 real buyer questions for your category (e.g. "best waterproof hiking boots under $200") and record which brands appear.
• Calculate your own AI Share of Voice as:
  • Your mentions ÷ Total brand mentions × 100

This manual approach is surprisingly effective because AI responses vary from run to run, so using multiple prompts gives a more representative picture than relying on a single query. arxiv.org

If you're targeting ecommerce category pages specifically (rather than SaaS or local businesses), I can also suggest a prompt set of 25–50 buyer-intent queries that tends to produce a much more reliable AI Share of Voice measurement.

If your goal is "How visible is my ecommerce category page or brand in AI answers?" without paying for enterprise software, these are the strongest free options:

For an ecommerce category page, there's one important limitation: these free tools generally measure brand AI visibility, not the visibility of an individual category URL. AI assistants usually recommend brands or retailers rather than specific category pages.

A budget-friendly workflow that works well is:

1. Run your domain through Ahrefs or Discoverable.
2. Test 10–20 buyer prompts manually, such as:
   • "best running shoes for flat feet"
   • "best ergonomic office chairs under $300"
   • "where should I buy organic dog food online"
3. Record:
   • Whether your brand appears.
   • Position (1st, 2nd, etc.).
   • Which competitors appear.
   • Which sources the AI cites.
4. Calculate your own AI Share of Voice:
   • SOV = (Number of prompts mentioning your brand ÷ Total prompts) × 100

This manual approach is surprisingly effective because AI responses vary between runs, so checking a representative set of prompts often gives a more useful picture than relying on a single automated scan. ahrefs.comarxiv.org

If you're managing an ecommerce store with dozens or hundreds of category pages, I can also suggest a free or nearly free workflow (using Google Sheets and AI APIs) that automatically tracks AI Share of Voice by category for just a few dollars per month.

If your goal is "I want to know whether my ecommerce category page is being surfaced by AI, without paying for enterprise software," there are a few good free options.

Best overall for a quick check:

• urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search6 — Enter your domain and get a free snapshot of how visible your brand is across AI search. It's easy to use and doesn't require signup for the basic report. It won't give page-level tracking over time, but it's a great first pass. ahrefs.com

Best for actual AI share-of-voice against competitors:

• urlTrakkr Free AI Share of Voice Toolturn0search2 — Enter:
  • your brand
  • up to three competitors
  • several prompts such as:
    • "best trail running shoes"
    • "best cordless vacuum"
    • "best organic dog food"

It reports how often each brand appears across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. This is especially useful for ecommerce category research. trakkr.ai

Best if you don't mind using your own API keys:

• urlFreeSOVturn0search4 — Free if you bring your own LLM API keys. It tracks AI visibility over time, competitors, citations, and prompt variations, making it one of the strongest budget options for ongoing monitoring. freesov.com

For an ecommerce marketer, I'd use this lightweight workflow:

1. Pick 10–20 high-intent category prompts (e.g., "best ergonomic office chairs under $500").
2. Run them through Trakkr to see which brands dominate AI answers.
3. Check your site's overall AI visibility with Ahrefs.
4. Repeat monthly in a spreadsheet to watch trends before investing in paid tooling.

One limitation to keep in mind: current free tools generally measure brand share of voice, not whether a specific category URL is cited. If you want to know whether /collections/running-shoes or /category/laptops is the page AI systems are citing, you'll usually need to inspect the cited URLs manually or use a paid platform that tracks citations at the page level.

If your goal is "How visible is my ecommerce category page in AI answers compared with competitors?" there are a few genuinely useful free options.

For a marketer on a tight budget, I'd rank them like this:

1. urlAhrefs AI Visibility Checkerturn0search1 ⭐ Best overall free snapshot
   • Checks mentions across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, and Google AI Overviews.
   • Good for comparing brands and seeing which topics trigger mentions.
   • Free with no signup for the basic report. ahrefs.com

2. urlDiscoverable AI Visibility Checkerturn0search0 ⭐ Best for competitor share of voice
   • Enter your domain.
   • Automatically generates buyer-style prompts for your category.
   • Shows competitors appearing ahead of you and identifies citation gaps.
   • Particularly useful if you're optimizing ecommerce category pages. bediscoverable.ai

3. urlSemrush AI Search Visibility Checkerturn0search6
   • Free domain scan.
   • Shows AI mentions, prompts, and competitive positioning.
   • Doesn't provide the full historical tracking available in Semrush's paid tools, but the free report is valuable. www.semrush.com

4. urlCitedSpy AI Visibility Checkerturn0search2
   • Includes a visibility score, prompt-level rankings, and competitor share of voice.
   • No signup required for the initial report. www.citedspy.com

If you want page-level AI visibility

Most free tools report at the brand or domain level rather than for a specific category URL.

A practical workaround is to:

• Run one of the free visibility checkers above.
• Then manually test prompts such as:
  • "Best trail running shoes"
  • "Best cordless stick vacuum"
  • "Where should I buy office chairs online?"
• Record whether your category page or brand appears across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews over time. This is still one of the most cost-effective ways to monitor AI share of voice on a budget. www.techradar.com

For an ecommerce team with $0/month, I'd use:

• Ahrefs for a quick AI visibility snapshot.
• Discoverable for competitor share of voice.
• A simple spreadsheet with 20–50 high-intent prompts tracked weekly.

That combination gets surprisingly close to what paid AI visibility platforms provide, without the subscription cost.