AI visibility tracking means checking how often AI assistants name your brand or link to your site. The assistants that matter most today are ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. You can track all of them for free with a prompt list, a spreadsheet, and a few hours a month.
Tools and APIs make it faster once the list grows. This page covers the free method first, then a real test we ran on our own brand, then the tools.
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is your share of the answers. When someone asks an assistant “what is the best SERP API” or “how do I check my rankings”, does the answer name you? Does it link to you?
Those are two different wins:
- A mention is when the answer names your brand in its text.
- A citation is when the answer links to a page on your site as a source.
You can get one without the other. A brand can be named from memory with no link. A page can be cited as a source while the answer recommends a rival.
AI visibility is not like a Google ranking. There is no fixed position 1. Each answer is written fresh, so the same question can give a different answer a minute later.
Why one check tells you nothing
AI answers are random by design. SparkToro had 600 volunteers run 12 prompts through ChatGPT, Claude and Google’s AI a combined 2,961 times. There was less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google’s AI gave the same list of brands twice. The order matched even less often.
So never judge your visibility from one screenshot. Ask the same question several times and count how often you show up. A rate across many answers is the only number that holds still.
The four numbers to track
| Metric | How to calculate it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Mention rate | Answers that name you ÷ all answers | How often you are recommended |
| Citation rate | Answers that link to your site ÷ all answers | How often your pages are used as a source |
| Share of voice | Your mentions ÷ mentions of all tracked brands | How you compare with rivals |
| Top cited domains | Count of each domain in the sources | Which sites the assistants trust in your field |
Share of voice works the same way it does in search. Our guide on calculating SEO share of voice shows the math for Google rankings.
How to track AI visibility for free
Step 1: Write 20 to 50 prompts
Use the questions real buyers ask. Good places to find them:
- People Also Ask boxes for your main keywords.
- Queries in Google Search Console that bring you clicks.
- Questions from sales calls and support tickets.
Mix the types: “best X for Y”, “X vs Y”, “cheaper alternative to X”, “how do I do Z”, and “is X safe”. Write each prompt once and never change the wording. If the words change, the numbers are not comparable.
Step 2: Pick the assistants and a clean setup
Check ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google. For Google, search the prompt and read the AI Overview, then try AI Mode.
Use a new chat every time. Turn memory off or sign out where you can. Search from the country your buyers are in. Your own history can make an assistant mention you more than it would for a stranger.
Step 3: Run each prompt three times and log it
Three runs per prompt per assistant is a fair minimum for a free routine. Log every answer in one row.
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-10-09 |
| Assistant | Perplexity |
| Prompt | What is a cheaper alternative to SerpApi? |
| Run | 2 |
| Brands named | DataForSEO, Serper |
| You named? | No |
| Your page cited? | No |
| Cited domains | Paste the source links |
Step 4: Score it
Count the rows. If you ran 30 prompts three times on four assistants, you have 360 answers. If 54 of them name you, your mention rate is 15 percent.
Split the score by assistant and by prompt type. You may be strong in “how to” answers and absent from “best X” answers. That tells you which pages to fix.
Step 5: Repeat on the same day each month
Same prompts, same setup, same day of the month. A change from 15 to 22 percent over three months is a trend. A change from one day to the next is noise.
A worked example: we tracked our own brand
On October 9, 2026, we ran this method on Serplify. We asked 11 buyer questions from our field. Two examples: “What is the best SERP API for Google search results?” and “How can I check my keyword rankings on Google for free?”
We sent each prompt to ChatGPT (the gpt-5.4-mini model with web search) and Perplexity (Sonar) through the DataForSEO AI Optimization API. That gave 22 answers. We also pulled the Google AI Overviews on 66 US desktop result pages for related keywords, the same day.
| Brand | Named in the 22 answers | Cited in the 66 AI Overviews |
|---|---|---|
| DataForSEO | 10 | 3 |
| SerpApi | 9 | 6 |
| Serper | 5 | 1 |
| Serplify | 0 | 0 |
Serplify was not named once and not cited once. That includes 137 source links in the assistant answers (110 from Perplexity, 27 from ChatGPT) and every AI Overview.
The zero is the point of measuring. It is a baseline, and the logs show why it happened:
- Perplexity cited comparison pages. 41 percent of its citations were “best X” and “X alternatives” posts, mostly on other vendors’ blogs.
- ChatGPT read official pages. 56 percent of its citations were docs and pricing pages. Its own searches looked like “official DataForSEO Google SERP API pricing features”. It only searched for brands it already knew.
So for us, the fix is to get named in independent comparisons and to keep our pricing and docs pages clear. Our LLM SEO guide explains how to act on findings like these.
Two limits on this test. We used API models, which behave close to the consumer apps but not the same. And we ran each prompt once, which the step above says is too few. Treat it as an example of the method, not a benchmark.
How to check Google AI Overviews and AI Mode
Google gives you one free view. The Generative AI performance report in Search Console shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google says it rolled out to all websites on August 31, 2026. It shows impressions by page, country and device. It does not show which answer you were in or who else was cited.
For that, fetch the result page itself. A SERP API returns the AI Overview with its list of source links, so you can check thousands of keywords and see every cited domain. Serplify’s Google SERP API returns it as a typed ai_overview item for $0.005 per page. Our guide on tracking Google AI Overviews has the full setup.
Check your analytics too
Visits from assistants show up in GA4 as referrals from sites like chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com. OpenAI’s publisher FAQ says ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it shows. Some clicks can still arrive with no referrer and land in Direct.
Rising AI referrals is a good sign your visibility is growing. It is a lagging sign, though. Most people read the answer and never click. Our guide to where website traffic comes from explains how GA4 sorts these visits.
Tools and APIs for AI visibility tracking
Once you pass about 50 prompts, the spreadsheet gets slow. These are the main options as of October 2026.
| Option | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Spreadsheet routine | You ask, you log, you count | Up to about 50 prompts, zero budget |
| Free one-off checkers | A single scan of a few prompts | A quick first look |
| Paid trackers (Ahrefs Brand Radar, Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit, Profound, Peec AI, Otterly.AI) | Run your prompt list on a schedule and chart the rates | Teams that report monthly |
| LLM APIs (OpenAI with web search, Perplexity Sonar, Gemini with Google Search) | Your own code asks the models | Custom prompt sets at low cost |
| DataForSEO AI Optimization API | Sends prompts to several assistants through one API | Developers who want one bill |
| A SERP API | Returns Google’s AI Overview and its sources | Google AI tracking at keyword scale |
Two cautions apply to every tool. API answers can differ from what the apps show logged-in users. And no tool can remove the run-to-run randomness, so look for tools that report rates across repeated runs, not one “AI rank”.
Mistakes that skew the numbers
- Changing the prompt wording between months. Freeze the list.
- Using your own logged-in account. Memory and history can tilt answers toward you.
- Running each prompt once. One run is a coin flip.
- Counting only mentions. A citation sends traffic. A mention may not.
- Tracking only your brand. Without rivals in the sheet, you cannot tell a good month from a quiet one.
Start small. Ten prompts, four assistants, three runs each is 120 answers. That is one afternoon, and it gives you a real baseline to beat.
Frequently asked questions
What is AI visibility?
AI visibility is how often AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews mention your brand or cite your pages for the questions your customers ask. It is usually reported as a mention rate and a citation rate across a fixed list of prompts.
How do I check if ChatGPT mentions my brand?
Write the questions a buyer would ask, such as 'what is the best tool for X'. Ask each one in a new chat with memory off, three times. Log whether your brand is named and whether your site is linked. The share of answers that name you is your mention rate.
Can I track AI visibility for free?
Yes. A spreadsheet and a few hours a month are enough for about 20 prompts across four assistants. Search Console also shows free impression data for Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Paid tools only save time once your prompt list grows.
How often should I track AI visibility?
Monthly is enough for most brands. Answers vary from run to run, so checking daily mostly measures noise. Re-check sooner after a big launch, a press mention, or a change to your key pages.
How do I increase my AI visibility?
Get named on the pages assistants read. In our test, Perplexity cited comparison and 'best X' pages most, and ChatGPT read official docs and pricing pages. Clear pricing, clear docs, and mentions in independent comparisons all help. Our LLM SEO guide covers the details.
Sources and further reading
- SparkToro: AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products (January 2026) sparktoro.com
- Google Search Console Help: Generative AI performance report support.google.com
- OpenAI Help Center: Publishers and developers FAQ help.openai.com
- DataForSEO: AI Optimization API overview docs.dataforseo.com
- Ahrefs Brand Radar ahrefs.com
- Semrush: AI Visibility Toolkit semrush.com