If you're trying to figure out how ChatGPT and Perplexity see your site, you have more options than you did even six months ago. Most of them have free tiers or one-shot free audits. They differ wildly in depth, accuracy, and what they actually do with the results. Here's an honest comparison.
Quick context for the rest of this piece: we run Reffed, one of the tools in this list. We've tried to write this fairly — calling out where competitors do specific things better than we do, and being explicit about our limitations. If a comparison feels self-serving, we'd rather you trust other tools' independent reviews than ours.
What to look for in a free GEO audit
Free audits vary in three dimensions:
- Depth — does it actually test how your site is seen by AI engines, or does it just rebrand a generic SEO checker with "AI" in the name?
- Actionability — does the report tell you what to fix and how, or just dump a score?
- Engine coverage — does it test all six major AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot) or only one or two?
The best free audits cover all three with reasonable depth. The worst ones are lead-gen forms that produce a generic "your site has issues!" page designed to upsell.
Reffed (free audit)
What you get: a 60-second audit covering AI search visibility, technical SEO, schema markup, on-page structure, and content patterns. Returns an overall score plus prioritized fixes.
Strengths: covers GEO and traditional SEO signals in the same audit. Free, no signup required. Specifically optimized for the things AI engines weight (entity density, schema, AI-crawler-friendliness, question-structure).
Limits: we don't test prompt-by-prompt citation across every major engine (we sample). For a full citation-share analysis across hundreds of prompts, dedicated tracking tools like Profound, Otterly, or Peec AI go deeper.
Best for: small/mid-sized businesses that want to know what to fix and would prefer the fixes deployed automatically. Try it free.
Otterly AI (Lite plan, technically not free but cheap)
What you get: a $29/month entry tier that tracks 15 prompts across major AI engines with unlimited brand reports.
Strengths: excellent multi-engine coverage and dashboard, intuitive UI, well-reviewed in independent rankings, the cheapest serious option in the AI visibility tracking category.
Limits: tracking-only. Tells you where you stand; doesn't fix anything. You'll need to interpret the report and execute the work yourself.
Best for: companies that already have in-house SEO talent and want a monitoring layer.
AthenaHQ (self-serve at $295/mo with first month discounted)
What you get: visibility tracking across 8+ LLMs with content optimization suggestions and citation analysis.
Strengths: unified workflow combining monitoring and basic optimization suggestions; broad engine coverage.
Limits: not free (the entry tier is $295/mo, first month discounted to roughly $98). Designed for self-guided teams, not done-for-you.
Best for: small marketing teams looking for an "end-to-end" GEO dashboard with willingness to do their own implementation.
Profound (enterprise tier)
What you get: enterprise-grade visibility tracking across 10+ AI engines including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek, Grok, Meta AI, Google AI Mode.
Strengths: the deepest engine coverage available, real user-facing data, fast time-to-value for large brands.
Limits: not free. Enterprise pricing. Tracking-focused — limited execution layer.
Best for: brands with $50K+/year SEO budgets who need comprehensive multi-engine tracking.
Peec AI (free trial)
What you get: daily tracking across multiple AI models and countries; "Actions" feature that turns tracking data into prioritized to-dos.
Strengths: geographic granularity (lots of tracking tools are US-only); strong actions module that bridges tracking and execution.
Limits: free trial is time-limited, then paid; engine selection capped per plan.
Best for: teams transitioning from traditional SEO to GEO who want a strong monitoring + nudge-toward-execution combo.
Geoptie (free tier)
What you get: visibility tracking plus content optimization tools in a single platform.
Strengths: tries to combine both tracking and improvement, similar to Reffed's positioning.
Limits: free tier is limited; the optimization piece is less mature than the tracking piece.
The honest pattern across all these tools
Most free GEO audit tools fall into two camps:
Camp 1 — Tracking dashboards. Otterly, Profound, Peec AI, Athena, Geoptie. They tell you where you stand across many engines and many prompts. You see beautiful charts. You learn that competitors are crushing you. Then you have to figure out what to do about it. The strongest of these tools are precise instruments; the weakest are anxiety-inducing dashboards.
Camp 2 — Audit + execution tools. Reffed, RankAI, Snezzi, and a few others. They audit your site, identify gaps, and either help you fix things or fix things directly. Less granular tracking; more direct impact on your site.
Which camp you want depends on whether you have execution capacity or not. If you have an in-house SEO team that just needs better tracking, Camp 1 tools are excellent. If you don't have execution capacity and want the work done, Camp 2 tools are the fit.
How to choose
Three questions:
1. Do you need to know where you stand, or do you need someone to fix it? If "fix it," skip tracking-only tools.
2. How many engines do you actually care about? If you're a US-focused B2B SaaS, ChatGPT + Claude + Perplexity probably covers 90% of your relevant queries. You don't need a tool that tracks 12 engines including Bytespider.
3. What's your budget reality? Free audits are useful for diagnosis. Real AI search visibility programs range from $29/mo (Reffed Watch) to $5,000/mo (enterprise tools). Most small businesses do well at the lower end.
If you're starting from zero, Reffed's free audit is a useful diagnosis. If you decide to start paying for a tool, the right one depends on whether you want tracking (Otterly, Profound, Peec) or execution (Reffed, RankAI). We obviously think the execution camp is better for most small businesses — but we acknowledge it's because we built one.
Try Reffed's free audit
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