Last Updated on August 6, 2026 by Team TBH
Search behavior has changed faster than most marketing teams have adjusted for. A large share of buyers now start their research inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews instead of a traditional search box, and these systems answer with a synthesized response built from a narrow set of trusted sources rather than a list of links. If a brand is not part of that source pool, it simply does not get mentioned, no matter how well its website ranks on Google.
That has created a new category of platform built specifically to measure and improve how often a brand gets cited inside AI generated answers. Some of these platforms are pure monitoring tools that tell you where you stand. Others go further and actively help build the citations, structured content, and third party mentions that AI systems pull from in the first place. A newer group goes further still, serving AI optimized versions of a site directly to AI crawlers. All three approaches are useful, but they solve different problems, and mixing them up leads to disappointment.
This guide covers seven real, verifiable platforms in this space, ordered by how directly each one helps build citations rather than just report on them.
Building Citations Versus Tracking Them
Before comparing platforms, it helps to understand the categories they fall into.
Tracking tools run a set of test questions against AI platforms on a regular schedule and report whether your brand showed up, how it was described, and which sources the AI pulled from. They are essential for measurement, but most of them stop at the data. They do not write content, run outreach, or fix the underlying gaps they find.
Building platforms takes the next step. They combine that same kind of measurement with active work: structured content, digital PR, entity consistency across the web, and in some cases automated content generation, aimed at closing the gaps the data reveals. A smaller group of tools adds a third layer, an infrastructure piece that intercepts AI crawlers and serves them a cleaner, more machine readable version of a site’s content. If your goal is simply to know where you stand, a tracking tool is enough. If your goal is to actually change your citation rate, you need something built for active work, not reporting alone.
1. Verbatim Digital
Verbatim Digital is built around the building side of this equation. Rather than treating AI visibility as a report to review once a month, the agency runs a proprietary platform that tracks brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini, then pairs that data with hands-on execution: technical SEO, digital PR, entity optimization, and AI citation building through structured, source-backed content designed to be picked up by AI systems.
- Tracks brand visibility and sentiment across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini
- Pairs monitoring with active digital PR and citation building work, not reporting alone
- Builds structured, source backed content aimed at how AI systems extract and cite information
- Also offers Wikipedia consulting, which matters directly here since Wikipedia remains one of the most heavily cited sources across ChatGPT and other models
- Works with businesses that want a single team handling both measurement and the work needed to improve it
Best for: brands that want AI visibility monitoring and the actual citation building work done together, rather than juggling a separate tool and a separate agency.
2. Profound
Profound is the largest and best funded platform in this category. Founded in 2024 in New York by James Cadwallader and Dylan Babbs, the company raised a $96 million Series C in February 2026 at a $1 billion valuation, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with Sequoia Capital and Kleiner Perkins also participating, bringing its total funding to more than $155 million. It now serves over 700 enterprise customers, including roughly 10 percent of the Fortune 500, among them Target, Walmart, Figma, and MongoDB.
- Tracks brand visibility, sentiment, and citation sources across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and other AI engines
- Profound Agents can generate and adjust content automatically based on visibility data, moving beyond pure monitoring
- Enterprise focused, with SOC 2 Type II compliance and integrations for large marketing teams
- Pricing is not publicly listed and is typically negotiated directly for enterprise accounts
Best for: large enterprises that need AI visibility management at scale, with dedicated automation built on top of the underlying data.
3. Scrunch AI
Scrunch AI takes a different approach from most tools on this list by adding a content delivery layer on top of monitoring. Founded in 2023 in Salt Lake City by Chris Andrew and Robert MacCloy, the company raised a $15 million Series A in 2025 led by Decibel, and was acquired by the digital experience platform Sitecore in June 2026 for a deal reported at around $225 million. It continues to run as a standalone product with clients including Lenovo, Skims, Headspace, and Penn State University.
- Tracks brand mentions and citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and other major AI engines
- Its Agent Experience Platform intercepts AI crawlers and serves them a cleaner, machine readable version of a site’s content, separate from what human visitors see
- Includes technical audits that flag when AI crawlers are being blocked or unable to read key pages
- Published pricing starts at 250 dollars a month for its Core plan, with custom Enterprise pricing above that
Best for: businesses that want monitoring paired with a technical fix for how AI crawlers actually read their site, not just a report on the results.
4. Peec AI
Peec AI takes a narrower, more transparent approach. Founded in Berlin in 2025 by Marius Meiners, Tobias Siwonia, and Daniel Drabo, the company raised a $21 million Series A in November 2025 led by Singular, bringing its total funding to roughly $29 million, and now serves more than 3,000 marketing teams, including brands like Wix, Zalando, and HomeToGo.
- Tracks brand visibility and benchmarks it against named competitors across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude
- Source and citation analysis shows exactly which URLs and domains an AI engine pulled from to form its answer
- Publishes its pricing openly, with plans starting around 85 to 103 dollars a month and an enterprise tier from 499 dollars a month
- Deliberately does not generate content itself, positioning the tool as a measurement and insight layer rather than a content engine
Best for: marketing teams that want precise, transparent data on why they are or are not being cited, to hand off to their own content or PR team.
5. Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit
Semrush took a different path into this category by adding AI tracking directly onto its existing SEO platform, which already serves more than 10 million users. The AI Visibility Toolkit tracks brand mentions across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Perplexity, and sits alongside the traditional keyword and backlink tools most SEO teams already use.
- Tracks five major AI platforms and updates Brand Performance reports on a weekly basis
- Includes an AI Search Site Audit that flags technical issues blocking AI crawlers, such as blocked bots or missing structured data
- Content Toolkit adds AI search optimization suggestions for draft content before it is published
- Priced at 99 dollars a month standalone, or bundled into Semrush One plans starting at 199 dollars a month
Best for: teams already using Semrush for traditional SEO who want AI visibility data in the same dashboard instead of adding a separate vendor.
6. Otterly.ai
Otterly.ai is the most accessible entry point in this category. Founded in 2024 by Thomas Peham, Klaus-M. Schremser, and Josef Trauner, the Austrian company grew from roughly 1,000 users at launch to more than 15,000 marketing professionals within about a year and a half, earning recognition as a Gartner Cool Vendor for AI in Marketing.
- Tracks brand mentions and citations across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, AI Mode, and, on higher tiers, Gemini and Copilot
- Entry pricing starts at 29 dollars a month, making it one of the more affordable tools in this space
- Includes a GEO audit tool that scans a site’s pages to flag which are likely to be cited by AI systems and which need work
- Functions primarily as a monitoring and diagnostic tool rather than a full building service
Best for: small businesses, solo marketers, and agencies that want an affordable way to start tracking AI citations before investing in a larger platform or a full service agency.
7. Reputation X
Reputation X approaches AI citation building from the reputation management side rather than the pure marketing analytics side. The firm has operated since 2005 and built its Wikipedia and Knowledge Panel services into a broader practice that now includes managing how AI platforms describe a client’s brand.
- Bundles AI visibility management with Knowledge Panel and Wikidata optimization, since both feed heavily into how AI systems describe a brand
- Uses a peer review process before making any changes tied to a client’s public presence
- Serves more than a thousand clients across over 100 countries, giving it a longer track record than most newer entrants in this category
- Project pricing generally starts between 3,000 and 10,000 dollars for one time work, with monthly retainers priced separately
Best for: brands that want AI citation work handled as part of a larger, coordinated reputation strategy rather than a standalone marketing tool.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing One
A few questions will clarify which type of platform actually fits your situation.
Does this tool track citations, build them, or both? A pure tracking tool is only useful if you already have a team ready to act on the data it produces. Which AI platforms does it actually cover? ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude behave differently and pull from different sources, so coverage across all of them matters more than coverage of just one. Is pricing public or does it require a sales call? Published pricing, like Peec AI, Semrush, Scrunch AI, and Otterly.ai all offer, makes it easier to compare cost against actual project scope. Does the provider generate or deliver content automatically, and if so, how is quality controlled? Automated content and crawler facing delivery layers can move fast, but they still need a human check for accuracy and tone.
Choosing the Right Platform For Your Brand
The right platform depends mostly on what you already have in place and how large your operation is. A brand with no internal content or PR resources is better served by a full service option like Verbatim Digital or Reputation X, since both pair the data with the actual work of closing the gaps it reveals. A large enterprise with its own marketing team and a need for automation at scale is a strong match for Profound or Scrunch AI, particularly if fixing how AI crawlers read your site is as important as tracking the results. A team already invested in Semrush for SEO will get the most value by adding its AI Visibility Toolkit rather than adopting a separate vendor. A leaner team that wants precise, affordable data to act on internally will likely get more value from Peec AI or Otterly.ai, both of which are transparent about pricing and clear about what they do and do not do.
None of these platforms can promise a fixed increase in citations, since AI systems change their source preferences constantly and no outside party controls that process. What they can offer is visibility into where you stand today and, for the ones built around active work rather than reporting alone, a real path toward closing the gap.
To read more content like this, explore The Brand Hopper
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