GEO tools: what to use to track your visibility in AI search.

What are GEO tools?

GEO tools show how visible your business is in AI-generated answers. They fall into two groups: free official reports from Google and Bing, which count impressions, citations and visits from their own AI features, and paid trackers, which run lists of prompts in several AI assistants and count how often each brand is named or cited.

Note the word "geo tools" also returns geolocation plugins; this page is about generative engine optimization. If you are new to the topic, the GEO hub explains it. If you were looking for keyword tools, see the keyword research tools guide.

Which free GEO tools should you set up first?

Four free reports cover most of what a small business needs. Search Console's generative AI report counts impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Bing Webmaster Tools counts citations in Copilot. GA4's AI Assistant channel counts visits from chatbots. Merchant Center's AI insights show shopping share of voice, but only in a few countries and in English.

Set these up before you pay for anything. They are first-party data, they cost nothing, and they answer the question a business owner cares about most: are the AI features sending people to my site?

How do the paid GEO tools compare?

They all do the same core job: run a list of prompts in several AI assistants on a schedule and count brand mentions and cited sources. They differ in which engines they cover, how many prompts you get and whether prices are public. Entry prices on their own pages, checked November 5, 2026, start around $29 to $300 per month.

Prices change often, so check each vendor's page before buying. Two things to ask in a demo: how do you collect answers (Semrush, for example, says its prompt database is captured from real requests, not model APIs), and do you show the cited sources, not just mentions? The sources are what tell you where to get listed.

Are GEO tools accurate?

They are directional, not exact. AI answers vary a lot from run to run, so a tracker's number is an estimate from a sample of prompts. SparkToro found less than a 1 in 100 chance that ChatGPT or Google's AI gives the same list of brands twice in 100 runs. Many prompts, repeated over time, give a usable trend.

The same SparkToro study, with 600 volunteers and 2,961 runs, concluded that a visibility percentage across dozens to hundreds of prompts is a reasonable metric, and that any tool claiming a "ranking position in AI" should not be trusted. Google adds its own warning in its AI features guide: no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. Treat any score as a model of reality, then check it against your free reports and your sales.

Which GEO tool should a small business use?

Most small businesses do not need a paid tracker at first. Set up the four free reports, then run 15 to 25 buyer questions by hand each month in the two or three assistants your customers use, in each language you sell in. Pay for a tool when the manual test takes more than a couple of hours a month.

• Under 25 prompts, one language: free reports plus a monthly spreadsheet.
• 25 to 100 prompts or several competitors: an entry plan from a tracker that covers the engines your buyers use.
• Spanish and English markets: confirm the tool lets you set language and country per prompt before you pay.
• Online store: add Merchant Center if your country is covered, and track product names, not just your brand.

In my GEO audit I run 24 questions in six AIs and log 144 answers by hand, because I want to read every source cited, not only a score. If you want that every month, the GEO plans include it. To turn your results into one comparable number, read the AI share of voice guide, or go back to the home page.

Frequently asked questions

About the author

Juan José Giraldo is an SEO consultant in Medellín, Colombia, with 5+ years of experience. He works on technical and local SEO for 600+ US car dealerships at Reunion Marketing, an Inc. 5000 agency, and supervises the SEO of 18 US online stores with more than 3 million products at Prontomowers. Read more · LinkedIn.

Sources

1. Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report (Search)
2. Bing Webmaster Blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools public preview (February 10, 2026)
3. Bing Search Blog, New AI Visibility Insights in Bing Webmaster Tools: Intents, Topics, Citation Share, Compare (June 16, 2026)
4. Analytics Help, [GA4] Default channel group (AI Assistant channel)
5. Merchant Center Help, About AI performance insights
6. Google Search Central, Google's Guide to Optimizing for Generative AI Features on Google Search (updated July 10, 2026)
7. SparkToro, AIs are highly inconsistent when recommending brands or products (Rand Fishkin, January 27, 2026)
8. Semrush Knowledge Base, Where does the data in Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit come from?
9. Ahrefs, Brand Radar: Study your brand's AI visibility
10. Peec AI, Pricing
11. Otterly.AI, Pricing
12. Scrunch, Pricing and plans
13. Profound, Pricing