AI Competitor Analysis Tools (2026): Mentionova $99 + 9 Compared

The best AI competitor analysis tool for AI search in 2026 is Mentionova, followed by Peec AI, AthenaHQ, Semrush AI Visibility, Otterly.AI, Writesonic, Profound, Ahrefs Brand Radar, Scrunch and SE Ranking. Mentionova is #1 because it does the three things competitor analysis is for: it runs your rivals through the same prompts as your brand on six engines, shows the exact sources each engine cited for them and not for you, and has a Competitor Research agent draft the counter-page for your team to review. Starter is $99 a month billed annually ($125 monthly). Pick Mentionova if you need to know why a rival keeps getting recommended and want the fix drafted. Skip it if you only want a cheap dashboard of who gets named (Otterly.AI Lite at $29 a month does that) or you must buy through an enterprise procurement process (look at Profound).

Sources: each vendor’s official pricing page, fetched October 29, 2026 (Otterly.AI October 28, 2026). US prices in USD.

What is AI competitor analysis?

Classic competitor analysis tells you which keywords a rival ranks for, which sites link to them and what ads they run. AI competitor analysis answers a newer question: when a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude or Google’s AI Overview for a recommendation, which brands get named, and why?

That question matters because an AI answer is a shortlist. It names a handful of vendors, often in a ranked order, with a sentence on each. A competitor can be half your size, rank below you on Google and still appear in every AI answer in your category because the engines trust the sources that mention them. You will not see that in a rank tracker or in your analytics, because the buyer never clicks.

A good AI competitor analysis tool does four jobs:

1. Runs the same prompts for you and your rivals on each engine, on a schedule.
2. Records who was named, where and how, so you can calculate share of voice per engine.
3. Shows the sources behind each answer, so you can see which listicles, reviews, Reddit threads or comparison pages are driving a rival’s lead.
4. Helps you act on the gap, by suggesting or drafting the page, the outreach or the correction that would change the answer.

Most tools do the first two. Fewer do the third well, and only a few do the fourth. For background on why AI answers favour third-party sources, see our GEO statistics and AI search statistics. For the Wikipedia side of the story, see our Wikipedia statistics.

How did we rank these AI competitor analysis tools?

We started from every AI visibility tool we cover on tools8020 and scored each one on what a marketing team needs to beat a competitor in AI answers, not just watch one:

1. Side-by-side tracking. Does the tool run your named competitors through the same prompts and engines as your brand, and report share of voice per engine?
2. Source gap analysis. Can you see the sources cited for a rival and not for you, down to the URL?
3. Help with the counter-move. Does the tool draft or recommend the content, outreach or correction that closes the gap?
4. Engine coverage. ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity are the minimum. Claude, Gemini and Reddit add credit because rivals can own one engine while you lead overall.
5. Competitor limits and price. How many rivals you can track, and what it costs, from the vendor’s own pricing page.

Source: tools8020 editorial scoring, October 29, 2026.

Every price, limit, feature and engine list on this page comes from the vendor’s own pricing or product page, fetched on October 29, 2026, except Otterly.AI’s pricing page, which we last captured on October 28, 2026. We did not use review sites, coupon sites or third-party price lists. Where a vendor does not publish a number, we say so.

1. Mentionova: best overall for AI competitor analysis

Mentionova is an AI visibility platform built around agents. Its AI competitor analysis product measures your share of voice against each named rival on six engines, shows the prompts you are losing and the sources behind their lead, and drafts the counter-move.

Best for

Marketing teams that keep losing “best [category]” and “[competitor] alternatives” answers to a specific rival and want to know why. It fits SaaS and B2B teams of one to five people who do not have spare writers to turn a dashboard into new pages.

How it handles competitors

You name your competitors when you set up the workspace, and Mentionova runs them through the same prompts on all six engines as your own brand, side by side. Every prompt resolves to who was named, who was cited and who was named instead of you, on each engine, so every loss has a name on it. Share of voice is shown per engine and refreshed weekly, which matters because a rival can own one engine while you lead overall.

The part most tools skip comes next. Open any engine where a rival leads and Mentionova shows the sources cited for them and not for you. When a rival’s page starts earning citations, the Competitor Research agent finds the sources driving it and drafts your counter-page for your team to review. Mentionova says the agent watches rival pages, pricing and launches, and that nothing is published on its own.

What each plan includes

Source: mentionova.com/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Starter includes 100 agentic tasks a month, Scale 500 and Enterprise 2,500. Every paid plan starts with a free trial with no card, and annual billing saves about 20%.

Limits

Starter covers three engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google. Claude, Gemini and Reddit need Scale or Enterprise, so a competitor that wins on Claude will only show up once you upgrade. The pricing page does not list a cap on the number of competitors per plan.

The pricing catch

Mentionova is not the cheapest per prompt: about $3.96 per tracked prompt on Starter and $3.20 on Scale, billed annually. You are paying for the agents that research rivals and draft the counter-pages, not just for tracking. A year of Starter is $1,188 billed annually.

Who should skip it

Teams that only want to watch who gets named, and already have writers, can save with Otterly.AI or Peec AI. Enterprises that need SSO and SOC 2 paperwork under one contract should look at Profound.

Why it is #1

Competitor analysis is only useful if it changes the answer. Mentionova connects the three steps in one workflow: name the rival, see the sources that explain their lead, and review a drafted counter-page. Mentionova says the first growth signal lands in about two minutes with no pixel to install. Read the Mentionova review and Mentionova pricing.

2. Peec AI: best for source-level gap analysis

Peec AI is an AI search analytics tool with unlimited users on every plan and some of the most detailed source reporting in the category.

Best for

Teams that want daily competitor benchmarking and will do the content work themselves.

How it handles competitors

Peec AI’s visibility overview tracks your visibility, position, sentiment and share of voice daily against competitors on every plan. Its gap analysis lists sources that appear often and name competitors but not you, by source, domain, subdomain, URL and host. Source classification labels each source as competitor, editorial, reference or UGC, and competitor suggestions help you find the rivals worth adding.

What each plan includes

Source: peec.ai/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Every self-serve plan lets you choose 3 models and includes unlimited users and daily tracking. Enterprise adds all models and API access.

Limits

Three models per self-serve plan. If a rival is winning on an engine you did not pick, you will not see it without a model add-on or Enterprise.

The pricing catch

At about $1.90 per tracked prompt on Starter, Peec AI is cheap for the data. It does not draft the counter-content, so budget writer time on top. A year of Starter is $1,140 at the monthly price.

Who should skip it

Teams that want the fix drafted for them. Compare the two in Mentionova vs Peec AI, or see Peec AI pricing and Peec AI alternatives.

3. AthenaHQ: best for unlimited competitors

AthenaHQ is a credit-based GEO platform where 1 credit equals 1 AI response.

Best for

Teams in crowded categories that need to track many rivals across a wide list of engines.

How it handles competitors

AthenaHQ’s pricing lists unlimited competitor tracking, impersonation and benchmarking, plus competitor share of voice comparison and sources and competitor insights. Its agentic layer lets you ask plain-language questions such as “Why is my competitor ranking above me on ChatGPT for project management prompts?”

What each plan includes

Source: athenahq.ai/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Starter includes unlimited topics, prompts and seats, with visibility across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Grok.

Limits

Credits, not competitors, are the real cap. Every response on every engine uses a credit, so tracking many rivals on eight engines burns through 3,600 credits quickly.

The pricing catch

Nothing sits between free and $295 a month. A year of Starter is $3,540 at the monthly price.

Who should skip it

Small teams with one or two main rivals. See AthenaHQ alternatives.

4. Semrush AI Visibility: best if you already use Semrush

Semrush sells AI visibility as its own product next to its SEO toolkit, and AI competitor analysis is part of the plan.

Best for

Teams that already run SEO competitor research in Semrush and want AI answers in the same login.

How it handles competitors

The AI Visibility plan includes AI competitor analysis and prompt research. Semrush’s free AI visibility checker adds a competitor comparison, a side-by-side view of your AI Visibility Score, total mentions and estimated reach compared to your closest competitors, and lets you benchmark your score against any competitor you choose. Semrush says you can see the exact prompts where your brand appears and where competitors win instead.

What each plan includes

Source: semrush.com/pricing/ai, fetched October 29, 2026.

Mentions are tracked from ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini and Perplexity.

Limits

25 custom prompts covers one product’s core questions, not a full competitive map. Claude is not in the listed engines.

The pricing catch

Pricing is per domain. One domain is $1,188 a year billed annually; two domains are $2,376.

Who should skip it

Teams not on Semrush. See Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit alternatives, Semrush pricing and Mentionova vs Semrush.

5. Otterly.AI: best low-cost share-of-voice monitor

Otterly.AI is a simple AI search monitor with unlimited team members.

Best for

Small teams that want a cheap weekly answer to “is AI recommending us, or our competitors?”

How it handles competitors

Otterly.AI compares your brand visibility against competitors and reports your Share of AI Voice, the percentage of citations you own versus competitors, and which queries you are winning or losing. Its pricing lists unlimited brands and competitors on every plan.

What each plan includes

Source: otterly.ai/pricing, fetched October 28, 2026.

Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini are extra add-ons on every plan.

Limits

15 prompts on Lite is tight once you add alternatives and comparison prompts for each rival. Otterly.AI reports gaps but does not draft content.

The pricing catch

The jump from Lite to Standard is large. A year of Lite is $300 billed annually and Standard is $1,920.

Who should skip it

Teams that need Claude in the base price or a drafted fix. See Otterly.AI alternatives and Mentionova vs Otterly.AI.

6. Writesonic: best for citation outreach

Writesonic bundles AI visibility tracking with an AI writer and site audits.

Best for

Teams and agencies that want to find the sites citing competitors and pitch them, with articles in the same subscription.

How it handles competitors

Writesonic’s agency product lets you choose competitors and target prompts, find sites citing competitors and not your client, and draft outreach in-platform. Writesonic says it surfaces every Reddit thread, YouTube video and high-DR listicle citing competitors and drafts the outreach, and that you can research any competitor with its 2B+ AI conversation dataset.

What each plan includes

Source: writesonic.com/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Limits

Starter tracks three engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews. The outreach and competitor research features are described on the agency page, so check which plan includes them before you buy.

The pricing catch

You pay for an article and audit allowance whether or not you use it. Starter works out to about $1.58 per tracked prompt, and a year is $948 billed annually.

Who should skip it

Teams that already have a writing tool. See Writesonic alternatives.

7. Profound: best for enterprise competitive intelligence

Profound is an enterprise AI visibility platform with Answer Engine Insights and Prompt Volumes.

Best for

Large brands with security reviews and a budget for an annual contract.

How it handles competitors

Profound organizes its data around the assets you configure: your brand, your competitors and your topics. It analyzes how your brand and competitors are cited across AI conversations, and Prompt Volumes tracks trending questions so you can identify emerging topics before competitors do.

What each plan includes

Source: tryprofound.com/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Trial users get a recommended prompt set based on their industry and cannot customize their prompts. Enterprise lets you edit, disable or add prompts.

Limits

No self-serve paid plan on the pricing page, and Trial prompts are fixed, so you cannot point the Trial at your specific rivals’ comparison prompts.

The pricing catch

You cannot budget Profound from its website. The sales cycle is part of the cost.

Who should skip it

Anyone who wants to start this week on a card. See Profound alternatives and Mentionova vs Profound.

8. Ahrefs Brand Radar: best for researching any rival

Brand Radar is Ahrefs’ AI visibility product, built on a database of 514 million+ search-backed prompts.

Best for

Ahrefs customers who want to look up how any competitor shows up in AI answers without building a prompt list.

How it handles competitors

Brand Radar reports AI Share of Voice, which Ahrefs defines as the percentage of AI responses within your topic set that mention or cite your brand versus competitors. Because the index is pre-built, you can type in a rival’s name and see where it appears.

What each plan includes

Source: ahrefs.com/brand-radar, fetched October 29, 2026.

Limits

You need a paid Ahrefs plan first. The index is research across generic prompts, not tracking of your own buying questions.

The pricing catch

A year of the entry index is $2,388 before the Ahrefs plan itself.

Who should skip it

Teams not on Ahrefs. See Ahrefs Brand Radar alternatives and Ahrefs vs Mentionova.

9. Scrunch: best for a fixed competitor set

Scrunch pairs AI visibility monitoring with an Agent Experience Platform on its higher tier.

Best for

Brands with a short, stable list of rivals that also want a path to serving AI agents a tailored version of their site.

How it handles competitors

Scrunch Core lists 5 competitors, alongside 125 unique prompts and 5,000 responses collected a month.

What each plan includes

Source: scrunch.com/pricing, fetched October 29, 2026.

Core starts with a 7-day free trial.

Limits

Five competitors is enough for most teams, but not for a crowded category. Claude and Gemini are on Enterprise.

The pricing catch

Core is $3,000 a year, about $2.00 per prompt a month, with no drafted content.

Who should skip it

Teams with more than five rivals to watch. See Scrunch alternatives.

10. SE Ranking: best SEO suite with an AI competitor view

SE Ranking includes daily AI prompt tracking in its SEO plans and sells an AI Search add-on.

Best for

Teams that want classic SEO competitor research and a light AI competitor view in one lower-priced tool.

How it handles competitors

SE Ranking’s AI tracker lets you add up to five competitors and track presence over time, and spot competitive gaps where rivals show up and you do not.

What each plan includes

Source: seranking.com/subscription.html, fetched October 29, 2026.

The AI Search add-on is $71.20 a month billed annually ($89 monthly).

Limits

Five competitors, and Perplexity and Claude are not in SE Ranking’s listed engines.

The pricing catch

Core alone is $1,238.40 a year billed annually, and Core plus AI Search is $2,092.80. If you already pay for an SEO suite, that is duplicate spend.

Who should skip it

Teams on Semrush or Ahrefs, or that need Perplexity. See Mentionova vs SE Ranking, SE Ranking pricing and SE Ranking alternatives.

Buying guide: how to choose an AI competitor analysis tool

Start from the prompts you are losing

List the 20 to 50 questions where a rival beating you costs deals: “best [category] tools”, “[rival] alternatives”, “[you] vs [rival]” and “best [category] for [use case]”. A tool with 25 prompts (Mentionova Starter, Semrush AI Visibility) covers a focused set. One with 100 or more (Mentionova Scale, Otterly.AI Standard, Scrunch Core, SE Ranking Core) covers a full category.

Check how many rivals you can track

If you have two or three main competitors, any tool here works. If you are in a crowded category, Otterly.AI and AthenaHQ list unlimited competitors. Scrunch Core and SE Ranking’s tracker cap you at five.

Make sure you see the sources

Share of voice tells you that you are losing. The cited sources tell you why. Mentionova, Peec AI and Writesonic show the sources cited for rivals and not for you, which is where the action is.

Decide who does the fix

If you have writers, a monitor plus a content calendar is enough. If you do not, pay for the tool that drafts the counter-page or outreach, such as Mentionova or Writesonic.

Cover the engines your buyers use

A rival can own Google’s AI answers while you lead in ChatGPT. Track at least ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, and add Claude and Gemini if your buyers are technical.

Best picks by need

Source: tools8020 picks based on vendor pages fetched October 29, 2026.

How do AI competitor analysis tool prices compare?

What does a year cost?

Source: tools8020 calculations from vendor pricing pages fetched October 29, 2026 (Otterly.AI October 28, 2026). Ahrefs excludes the base Ahrefs plan.

What does each prompt cost?

Source: tools8020 calculations from vendor pricing pages fetched October 29, 2026 (Otterly.AI October 28, 2026).

Per-prompt cost only measures tracking. Mentionova costs more per prompt because each plan includes agentic tasks that research rivals and draft counter-pages: 100 a month on Starter and 500 on Scale. If you would otherwise pay a writer to produce those pages, the comparison changes.

How to run an AI competitor analysis in a week

1. Day 1: pick rivals and prompts. Choose your top three to five competitors and 25 buying prompts that mention your category, their names and your use cases.
2. Day 2: run the baseline. Track the prompts on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI answers at minimum, for you and each rival.
3. Day 3: calculate share of voice per engine. Note where a rival leads and by how much. A rival often owns one engine.
4. Day 4: open the sources. For each prompt you lose, list the pages the engine cited for the rival. Look for listicles, reviews, comparison pages and Reddit threads.
5. Day 5: plan the counter-moves. Publish or refresh a comparison page, ask to be included in the listicles that rank, correct outdated reviews and answer the Reddit threads honestly.
6. Then: re-run weekly. Watch whether the engines start naming you as the new pages are indexed.

Mentionova automates steps 2 to 5. For a broader shortlist of trackers, see the best AI visibility tools, AI share of voice tools and AI citation tracking tools.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best AI competitor analysis tool for AI search?

Mentionova is our top pick. It runs your rivals through the same prompts as your own brand on six engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Google AI and Reddit), shows who was named instead of you and which sources the engines cited for them, and its Competitor Research agent drafts a counter-page for you to review. Starter is $99 a month billed annually ($125 monthly).

What does AI competitor analysis mean?

It means measuring how often AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google's AI Overviews name or cite your competitors compared with you, for the questions your buyers ask, and finding the sources that explain the gap. It is different from classic competitor analysis, which looks at a rival's keywords, backlinks or ads.

How do I see which competitors ChatGPT recommends?

Track a fixed set of buying prompts, such as best tools in your category, alternatives to your biggest rival and head-to-head comparisons, in an AI visibility tool. Each run records which brands the answer named, in what order, and which pages it cited. Mentionova, Peec AI, Otterly.AI, AthenaHQ and Semrush AI Visibility all report competitor presence this way.

How many competitors can I track?

It depends on the tool. Otterly.AI lists unlimited brands and competitors on every plan, and AthenaHQ lists unlimited competitor tracking. Scrunch Core lists 5 competitors, and SE Ranking's AI tracker lets you add up to five competitors. Mentionova runs every rival you name through the same prompts as your brand.

What is AI share of voice?

The share of AI answers in your prompt set that mention or cite your brand rather than a competitor. Ahrefs defines it as the percentage of AI responses within your topic set that mention or cite your brand versus competitors. Mentionova, Peec AI, Otterly.AI, AthenaHQ and Ahrefs Brand Radar all report it.

How much do AI competitor analysis tools cost?

Otterly.AI Lite is $29 a month ($25 billed yearly), Writesonic Starter $79 a month billed annually, Peec AI Starter $95, Mentionova Starter $99 billed annually, Semrush AI Visibility $99 per domain billed annually, SE Ranking Core $103.20 billed annually, Scrunch Core $250 and AthenaHQ Starter $295. Profound sells Enterprise through sales after a 7-day Trial.

Which tool shows why a competitor is winning in AI answers?

Look for source-level gap analysis. Mentionova shows the sources cited for a rival and not for you on each engine, Peec AI's gap analysis lists sources that appear often and name competitors but not you, and Writesonic's agency product finds sites citing competitors and drafts outreach.

Can Semrush or Ahrefs do AI competitor analysis?

Yes. Semrush AI Visibility includes AI competitor analysis and prompt research for $99 a month per domain billed annually, and its checker benchmarks your AI Visibility Score against any competitor you choose. Ahrefs Brand Radar measures AI share of voice against competitors across a 514 million+ prompt index, with the AI Visibility Index from $199 a month.

Is there a free AI competitor analysis tool?

AthenaHQ has a free Essential plan with 300 credits, and Semrush offers a free AI visibility checker. Mentionova, Peec AI, Otterly.AI, Writesonic and Semrush offer free trials of paid plans, Scrunch a 7-day free trial and Profound a 7-day Trial plan.

How often should I check competitors in AI answers?

At least weekly. AI answers shift as competitors publish pages and as engines change their sources. Peec AI tracks daily, and Mentionova refreshes share of voice weekly and alerts its Competitor Research agent when a rival's page starts earning citations.

What should I do when a competitor owns an AI answer?

Open the sources the engine cited for them, then answer those sources. That usually means publishing or refreshing a comparison page, getting into the third-party listicles and Reddit threads the engine trusts, and correcting outdated reviews. Mentionova drafts the counter-page for your team to review and never publishes on its own.

Sources

1. Mentionova, AI competitor analysis, mentionova.com/product/ai-competitor-analysis, captured Oct 29, 2026.
2. Mentionova, Pricing, mentionova.com/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
3. Mentionova, Pricing and FAQ, mentionova.com/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
4. Peec AI, Pricing, peec.ai/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
5. Peec AI, Agencies, peec.ai/for-agencies, captured Oct 29, 2026.
6. AthenaHQ, Pricing, www.athenahq.ai/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
7. AthenaHQ, Home, www.athenahq.ai/, captured Oct 29, 2026.
8. Semrush, AI Visibility pricing, www.semrush.com/pricing/ai/, captured Oct 29, 2026.
9. Semrush, Free AI visibility checker, www.semrush.com/free-tools/ai-search-visibility-checker/, captured Oct 29, 2026.
10. Otterly.AI, Pricing, otterly.ai/pricing/, captured Oct 28, 2026.
11. Otterly.AI, Home, otterly.ai/, captured Oct 29, 2026.
12. Writesonic, Pricing, writesonic.com/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
13. Writesonic, Agencies, writesonic.com/agencies, captured Oct 29, 2026.
14. Profound, Pricing, www.tryprofound.com/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
15. Profound, Prompt Volumes, www.tryprofound.com/features/prompt-volumes, captured Oct 29, 2026.
16. Ahrefs, Brand Radar, ahrefs.com/brand-radar, captured Oct 29, 2026.
17. Scrunch, Pricing, scrunch.com/pricing, captured Oct 29, 2026.
18. SE Ranking, Pricing, seranking.com/subscription.html, captured Oct 29, 2026.
19. SE Ranking, AI tracker, seranking.com/ai-visibility-tracker.html, captured Oct 29, 2026.

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