Key Takeaways
- Start free, because free answers the first question well. Asking ChatGPT your buyers' questions by hand tells you whether you are named at all. For many small businesses that is the most important thing to learn.
- Pay for coverage, not for a score. Paid tools earn their price by checking many questions across several assistants, repeatedly. A single number without the answers behind it is not worth a subscription.
- Separate measuring from deciding. Most tools, free or paid, tell you where you stand. Few tell you which page to change first. Know which of the two you are buying.
- Match the tool to how often things change for you. A solo coach in a quiet niche can check quarterly by hand. A business in a crowded market with competitors publishing weekly gets more from ongoing tracking.
- Check what any tool shows you before you trust its number. A good tool lets you read the actual answer behind every result. If you cannot see what the assistant said, you cannot tell whether the score is right.
You want to know whether ChatGPT recommends your business. A search for tools returns a wall of options, some free, some with monthly plans, all promising to show your AI visibility.
The difference between them is less about quality than about which question each one answers. Free checking answers the first question well. Paying buys coverage, repetition, and sometimes a recommendation, and it is worth being precise about which of those you need.
Here is the short answer, what free checking does well, five ways to check side by side, what paying actually adds, and how to choose in 2026.
Free or paid: which AI visibility tool do you need?
Start free. Free checking tells you whether you are named at all, which is the most important fact for most small businesses. Pay when you need many questions across several assistants, repeated over time.
AI visibility means how often, and how, an AI assistant names your business when a buyer asks a question you could answer. Every tool in this market measures some version of that. They differ in how many questions they ask, how many assistants they ask, how often they ask again, and whether they tell you what to do next.
Measurement here is harder than it looks. The researchers behind the generative engine optimization study from Princeton, Georgia Tech, the Allen Institute for AI and IIT Delhi built visibility measures that weigh where a source appears in an answer and how much of the answer it accounts for, rather than a simple yes or no. Any tool reporting a single number has made choices about that, and it is worth knowing which.
What free checking does well
It answers the two questions that matter first: am I named, and who is named instead. For a solo coach, those two answers often decide the next six months of work.
- Answers it
- Answers part of it
- Does not answer it
- Am I named for one question?
- Who is named instead of me?
- How often, across many questions?
- Across several assistants?
- Is it changing over time?
- What should I change first?
Asking by hand$0, your time
Free tool tier$0, limited
Paid tracking toolMonthly, varies
Our free check$0
Our $500 audit$500 once
Read each column from the bottom. Asking by hand and free tiers answer the first rungs. Paid tracking climbs furthest on measurement and usually stops short of saying what to change. Our free check covers 25 questions on ChatGPT only; the $500 audit covers five assistants once and specifies the fix, without tracking change over time.
The coverage in that figure is typical rather than measured, and individual tools vary. The pattern holds, though: free options are strong at the bottom, and the higher rungs are where the money goes.
Asking by hand is underrated. Write down ten questions a buyer would really type, ask them in ChatGPT and one other assistant, and note who is named. It costs an hour. The method, step by step, is in how to monitor your own AI visibility for free, and a lighter version is in how to track AI visibility without buying software.
Five ways to check, side by side
The same five ways of checking, with what each costs and what it leaves out. Tool prices change often, so the paid row names a type rather than a figure.
| Way of checking | Cost | Answers well | Leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asking by hand | $0, about an hour | Whether you are named; who is named instead | Scale, several assistants, and change over time without real effort; no recommendation |
| Free tier of a tracking tool | $0, limited | Whether you are named for a few questions | Most questions, full competitor lists, history, and any recommendation |
| Paid tracking tool | Monthly, varies by vendor | Many questions, several assistants, who is named, change over time | Usually a specific page-level fix |
| AnswerHalo free check | $0 | 25 buyer questions on ChatGPT, who is named instead, one fix to start with | Other assistants and change over time |
| AnswerHalo audit | $500 once | 125 checks across five assistants, who is named instead, the page that wins your worst question | Change over time, unless you add watching at $300 a month |
Ongoing watching from us is $399 a month on its own, or $300 a month added with the audit, and it re-runs the same questions weekly. It is research and measurement: we specify the move, and you or your web person publish it.
What paying actually adds
Three things: more questions, more assistants, and repetition. Whether those are worth a monthly fee depends on how fast your market changes.
Repetition matters more than it sounds. Assistants compose each answer fresh, and the same question can name different businesses on different runs. OpenAI's help page on ChatGPT search describes answers drawn from live web results, which move as the web moves. A single check is a sample. A fixed set of questions re-run on a schedule is how you tell a real change from noise.
Several assistants matter too. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews do not always agree, and Google's own page on AI features in Search makes clear its AI Overviews draw on the Google index, which is a different source from the ones other assistants search. A business can be named in one and absent in another. The gap between what a tracking tool and an audit can tell you is covered in monitoring tool vs audit: what each can tell you.
How to choose in 2026
Answer three questions: do I know whether I am named, do I know what to change, and does my market move fast enough to need weekly readings? Buy only for the questions you cannot answer yet.
If you do not yet know whether you are named, start free, by hand or with our free check. If you know you are missing and do not know why, a one-time audit that ends with a specific fix is the better spend. If you are already doing the work and competitors publish constantly, ongoing tracking earns its keep.
The damaging admission: for many solo coaches, paying for anything is premature. If an hour of asking by hand shows you are named in most of your buyers' questions, you do not need a tool, and you do not need us. Check again next quarter and spend the money on the business.
Before paying any vendor, ask one thing: can I read the actual answer behind every result? A tool that shows its evidence can be checked. One that shows only a score cannot.
If you want the free starting point, run the free check. It asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche at $0 and emails a plain-English readout: your score, who got named in your place, and the one fix to start with. It runs as soon as you ask for it, and the report lands within the hour between 7am and 5pm Central, or by 10am the next morning outside those hours.
Questions we hear the most
Are free AI visibility tools good enough?
For the first question, yes. Free checking, by hand or with a free tier, tells you whether an assistant names you for your buyers' questions. It is weaker at covering many questions, several assistants and changes over time, which is where paid tools earn their price.
What do paid AI visibility tools add?
Mostly coverage and repetition: more questions, more assistants, and the same questions re-run on a schedule so you can see movement. Some add competitor tracking. Few tell you precisely which page to change first.
Can I check my AI visibility for free by hand?
Yes. Write down ten questions a buyer would really type, ask each one in ChatGPT and at least one other assistant, and note who gets named. Repeat the same questions later, because answers vary between runs.
How much do paid AI visibility tools cost?
It varies widely and changes often, so check each vendor's current pricing page rather than trusting a figure in an article. Compare on how many questions and assistants a plan covers, and whether you can read the answers behind each result.
Is a monitoring tool or a one-time audit better?
They answer different questions. Ongoing tracking shows whether your position is moving. A one-time audit shows where you stand across assistants today and what to change first. Many businesses need the audit once and tracking only if the market moves fast.
Why do my results differ each time I check?
Because assistants compose each answer fresh and the same question can produce different names on different runs. That is why one check is a sample, and why a fixed set of questions repeated over time is more reliable than any single result.
What does the free AnswerHalo check include?
It asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche at $0 and emails a plain-English readout: your score, who got named in your place, and the one fix to start with. It runs as soon as you ask for it.
How do the paid AnswerHalo options compare with a tracking tool?
The $500 audit runs 125 checks across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and lands by this time tomorrow, with the page that wins your worst question specified. Ongoing watching is $399 a month, or $300 a month added with the audit.
Your buyers are already asking. Find out what AI tells them.
The free check asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions about your niche and sends you the report within the hour, at $0. If it shows you are already getting named everywhere, we will say so in plain words.
Get my free check →