Methodology: how we verify

Every price and field on this site has a vendor source URL and a date. This page says where the data comes from, what we re-checked ourselves, and what we do not know.

1. Sources

1. Vendor pages. Pricing pages, documentation and help centres of each tool. Each tool page lists them, with archive copies where one exists.
2. GeoSalience open dataset (CC BY 4.0). A snapshot of 35 tools read by GeoSalience on 2026-10-03, with a source URL, date and confidence label per field. We reuse its plan-level data with attribution and do not claim to have read every page ourselves. GeoSalience (2026). AI visibility tools compared: 35 platforms, features and prices — dataset (snapshot 2026-10-03). https://geosalience.com/measurement/ai-visibility-tools-compared
3. Our re-check. See below.

2. Our re-check on 2026-11-10

For each tool we fetched the vendor's public pricing page once (after reading robots.txt) and looked for each plan's price in the page text. Result: 15 tools had at least one listed price confirmed; 13 showed no matching price in static HTML (usually because the page renders prices with JavaScript, so this is not evidence the price changed); 7 publish no list price. For the unconfirmed ones we keep the upstream value and show its date. A headless-browser re-check of those pages is the next step. Per-tool results are in the data file and on each tool page.

3. Freshness

Each value shows the date it was read. Anything older than 60 days is greyed and flagged "stale" (the 60-day threshold is our choice). Prices change without notice: confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.

4. Unknown is not "no"

"Not disclosed" means the vendor's pages are silent. "Absent per vendor" means the vendor's own page shows it missing. "Contact" means no list price. We never fill a gap with a guess.

5. How the normalizer works

For each tool it takes the cheapest published plan, in USD, monthly billing, that passes all of these tests for your inputs:

• Engines. Every engine you tick is in the plan's documented engine list. For plans where you choose engines, you also must not exceed the plan's engine cap.
• Prompts. For tools priced in prompts, your prompts (times engines, if the vendor counts each engine separately) fit the plan's prompt allowance. For tools priced in credits or checks, prompts × engines × runs per month (daily 30.4, weekly 4.35, monthly 1) fit the monthly credits.
• Refresh. The plan refreshes at least as often as you ask. Plans with configurable refresh are assumed to meet it.

If the allowance, refresh or engine list is not published, the plan is marked "check vendor" instead of a fit. If no published plan passes, the tool shows "needs upgrade"; if there is no list price, "quote-only". Add-ons, annual discounts, and sales-quoted plans are not applied, so a tool that needs an add-on can look worse here than it is. Non-USD prices use the ECB reference rate of 2026-10-02 (EUR 1 = USD 1.1225).

Cross-check: for the 50-prompt, weekly, three-engine case, our simplified rules match the dataset's own scenario-S plan choice for 30 of 35 tools; the differences are mostly add-ons and unusual counting rules. We treat this as a limitation.

6. What we do not do

• We do not rank tools by quality or accuracy. We have not measured accuracy.
• Sponsored placements never change the order or the normalizer results; they are labelled and use rel="sponsored nofollow". We do not sell dofollow links.
• We do not copy vendor marketing text; editor notes are written from the fields above.

7. Corrections

Spot an error? Send a correction. They are free, handled within 7 days, and listed on the change log.