AI Search visibility
What Are the Best Free AI Visibility Checkers in 2027?
Before you pay for an AI visibility tool, it’s worth answering a simpler question: do AI assistants mention your business at all? Several well-known companies now offer free checkers that give you a first read in a few minutes.They’re useful, but they measure quite different things, and their scores aren’t interchangeable. This guide compares the main free options on what they check, which engines they cover, what they ask of you, and how they get their data, so you can pick the right one and read its results correctly.
Free checkers fall into two groups, and knowing which one you’re using is the key to reading the result.
- Snapshot graders ask AI platforms how they describe your brand and turn the answers into a score. They’re good at telling you whether AI ‘knows’ you and how it characterizes you. They don’t tell you whether you show up when a buyer asks for recommendations.
- Database lookups check your brand against a large library of prompts the vendor has already run. They show where you appear across a market. But the prompts are the vendor’s, not your buyers’ exact questions.
- The prompts. Most don’t show the full list of questions behind the score.
- The denominator. A score of 45 could mean many different things depending on the formula.
- Variability. AI answers change from run to run. Research by SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai found there was less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google’s AI would return the same list of brands twice for the same prompt. A one-time free check is a single sample.
- Change over time. Most free checks are one-off snapshots, not tracking.
How do the free AI visibility checkers compare?
Checker | Type | Engines | Free limit | Provides Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Snapshot grader | OpenAI model, Perplexity, Gemini | One-time snapshot | Yes, 0–100 composite | |
Database lookup | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews, AI Mode | 3 checks per day | Yes, 0–100 | |
Live check with search-based prompts | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode | Unlimited brands; preview capped at 5 results per section | No; mention counts | |
Limited free version of paid product | ChatGPT, AI Overview | Limited free experience | Yes | |
Free plan of paid tool | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot | 300 credits | Tracking but not a single score | |
7-day trial | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Overviews | 50 fixed prompts, daily for 7 days | Tracking |
HubSpot AI Search Grader
What it does: You enter your brand name, location, industry, and product or service. HubSpot sends this to three AI platforms and asks how each one describes your brand. It then combines the answers into a score out of 100 across five weighted dimensions:- Sentiment (up to 40 points)
- Presence quality (up to 20)
- Brand recognition (up to 20)
- Share of voice (up to 10)
- Market competition (up to 10)
Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker
What it does: You enter your domain, and Semrush checks it against its database of more than 26 million prompts and responses across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, and AI Mode. It returns a 0–100 AI Visibility Score, mentions, citations, coverage for each platform, top cited pages, related topics and prompts, and competitor comparisons.What’s good: It gives the broadest market view of the free tools, and the competitor comparison is genuinely useful. Data is updated daily and covers 220+ countries and regions. It also shows which of your pages are being cited, which is a practical lead for your content team.What to watch for: The score compares your appearances with other brands in your industry, so it’s relative, not absolute. The prompts come from Semrush’s database, not from your buyers. Free use is limited to three checks per day.Best for: Marketers who want a competitive snapshot and a list of cited pages, especially those already using Semrush.Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker
What it does: Ahrefs queries six AI platforms using prompts based on real search behavior and checks whether each one mentions your brand. You get total mentions, mentions by platform, the top five topics associated with your brand, and the top five cited domains and pages.What’s good: It covers the most engines of any free checker, needs no sign-up, and lets you check unlimited brands, which makes it useful for comparing yourself with competitors. It reports counts, not a blended score, so the numbers are easier to interpret.What to watch for: The free report is a preview with up to five results per section. There’s no single score, which some people find less satisfying but is arguably more honest.Best for: Anyone who wants a quick, no-sign-up look at raw mentions across many engines, and wants to compare several brands.Amplitude AI Visibility
What it does: Amplitude’s paid product tracks visibility, share of voice, sentiment, and cited sources, and can link AI visibility to traffic, conversions, and revenue for Amplitude customers. Non-customers can use a limited free version.What’s good: The link to analytics is the standout feature if you already use Amplitude. Being able to connect AI visibility to actual traffic and conversions is rare.What to watch for: The public page doesn’t explain how the score is calculated or what the free version includes. It covers only ChatGPT and Google AI Overview.Best for: Existing Amplitude customers, or product-led companies that want to connect visibility to product analytics.Free tiers and trials of paid tools : AthenaHQ, Profound
Two paid tools offer meaningful free access:AthenaHQ’s Essential plan is free, with 300 credits and five engines. Because it’s a real tracking tool, you choose your own prompts. That makes it the closest free option to proper monitoring. Credits run out quickly if you track many engines.Profound’s trial runs 50 prompts daily for seven days across ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews. The prompts are a recommended set for your industry and can’t be customized, so it shows you how the platform works more than how you perform on your own buyers’ questions.Best for: Teams seriously considering a paid tool who want to test the workflow first.The manual option
Don’t overlook this. Writing 15–20 prompts your buyers would really ask and running them yourself in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google is free, uses your buyers’ language, and shows you the full answers, not a summary. It takes about an hour. Our AI visibility audit template walks you through it.Use Case | Best Free Option |
|---|---|
Does AI know who we are and how does it describe us? | HubSpot AI Search Grader |
How do we compare with competitors across the market? | Semrush AI Search Visibility Checker |
Are we mentioned at all, across many engines? | Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker |
Is AI visibility driving traffic and conversions? | Amplitude (if you’re a customer) |
How do we perform on our buyers’ actual questions? | Manual check or AthenaHQ free tier |
What would a paid tool show us? | Profound or AthenaHQ trial |
Usually not, and they shouldn’t be expected to. HubSpot weights sentiment heavily, Semrush compares you with an industry median, and Ahrefs counts raw mentions. They’re answering different questions with different prompts and engines.What to look for when you compare: don’t compare the numbers. Look at whether the tools agree on direction. If all three suggest you’re barely visible, you probably are. If they disagree sharply, the difference is usually down to prompts or engines, which points to the next step.
When should you upgrade to a paid AI visibility tool?
Free checkers answer “where do we stand today?” They don’t answer “are we improving?” Consider a paid tool when:
- You need trends. You want to see whether your work is having an effect month to month. That requires the same prompts tracked repeatedly.
- You need your own prompts. Database prompts don’t match the specific questions your buyers ask.
- You report to someone. A client, CEO, or board needs consistent numbers with a clear method behind them.
- You track competitors over time. One-off comparisons don’t show who’s gaining ground.
- You need several engines with consistent settings. Fixed location, language, and schedule.
How can I check my AI visibility score?
Use a free checker such as HubSpot’s AI Search Grader, Semrush’s AI Search Visibility Checker, or Ahrefs’ AI Visibility Checker. Each takes a few minutes. Remember that each one calculates its “score” differently, so treat it as a starting point.
Is there a free AI visibility checker?
Yes, several. HubSpot, Semrush, and Ahrefs all offer free checkers, and AthenaHQ has a free plan. Limits vary from one-time snapshots to three checks a day.
Which free checker is most accurate?
None of them can see real user prompts, so none is accurate in an absolute sense. They measure different things. Use two or three together and look for agreement on direction.
Why did I get a different score when I checked again?
AI answers vary each time they’re generated. A single check is one sample. That’s why paid tools average results over many runs and days.
Do I need to share my email?
Requirements vary. Semrush and Ahrefs say no sign-up is needed for their checkers. HubSpot asks for a short form to unlock the full report. Free tiers and trials of paid tools require an account.
Sources
- HubSpot, AI Search Grader
- Semrush, AI Search Visibility Checker
- Ahrefs, AI Visibility Checker
- Amplitude, AI Visibility
- AthenaHQ, pricing; Profound, pricing
- SparkToro and Gumshoe.ai, AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products
All details checked October 29, 2026. “Best for” recommendations reflect The Modern Tech Stack’s editorial judgment. The Modern Tech Stack may earn affiliate commissions from some vendors; this doesn’t affect our recommendations.
