Key Takeaways
- Start free, every time. There is no situation where paying first is smarter. The free check tells you whether you have a problem worth spending money on.
- Stop at the free check if the answer is already good. If you are named in most of the answers you care about, you do not need us, and we will say so rather than sell you something.
- Pay when you need to know why, not whether. A free check tells you where you stand. The audit exists for the harder question of what is causing it and what to fix first.
- Do not buy anything before you have clients and results. If there is no track record to make visible yet, no amount of measurement helps. Come back when there is something to publish.
- Re-run whichever you choose. One measurement of a system that varies between runs is a snapshot, not a baseline, so the value is in the comparison over time.
We sell a $500 audit, so treat what follows with the appropriate suspicion. It is still true: most people asking about their AI visibility should run the free check and then stop.
The free check answers one question well. The audit answers a different, harder question, and paying for it before you know you have a problem is money spent on a diagnosis for a condition you may not have.
Here is what each one actually covers, the line where one stops being enough, and the case where you should buy neither.
When is a free AI visibility check enough?
When the only thing you need to know is whether AI names you, and it turns out that it does. A good result on a free check is a complete answer, and the right response to it is to go back to work.
It is also enough when the result is bad but the cause is obvious. If you are missing from every answer and you have no public writing about what you do, you do not need a report to tell you what to do next. Go and write the pages, then measure again in a month.
The free check earns its keep by being a cheap way to find out which of those two situations you are in. That is worth an hour of waiting and nothing else.
What a free check can actually tell you
Whether you are named, how often, and who is named in your place. Those three facts are most of the value of any measurement, and they are enough to decide what to do next in the majority of cases.
Our version asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche and emails a plain-English readout within the hour: your score, the names that came back instead of yours, and the one fix to start with. It costs $0 and it runs as soon as you ask for it.
You can also do a version of this yourself, and we say so in every post that touches it. Twenty-five questions run by hand across an afternoon gets you a real picture, and the method is written out in how to check if AI recommends you.
Where a free check stops being enough
At the word "why". A single assistant, asked once, tells you the score but not the cause, and the cause is where the work is.
Three specific limits matter. One assistant is not five, and the tools disagree with each other more than people expect. One run is not a baseline, because the same question asked twice can come back differently. Perplexity's help center describes answers assembled from sources retrieved at the moment you ask, which is exactly why a single reading moves around. And a score with no source list tells you that you lost without telling you to whom, or on the strength of which page.
If your situation turns on any of those three, the free check has done its job and handed you a question it cannot answer. Whether that question is worth $500 is a separate judgment, argued honestly in is a paid AI visibility audit worth it.
The two side by side, at real scale
The difference is coverage, not polish. One is 25 questions on one assistant; the other is 125 checks across five, plus the reasoning behind each result.
Twenty-five buyer questions, one assistant, one run. Readout by email within the hour.
The same questions across five assistants, one hundred and twenty-five checks in total, plus competitors, sources, verbatim losses and a ranked plan. In your inbox by this time tomorrow.
The lower bar is drawn five times the width of the upper one because it covers five times as much ground, not because it is a better product. Both numbers are our own service definitions rather than measurements: twenty-five questions in the free check, one hundred and twenty-five checks in the audit. If the upper bar answers your question, the lower one is wasted money.
| What you want to know | Free check | $500 audit | Honest alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does AI name me at all | Yes, fully | Overkill | Ask ChatGPT yourself, free |
| Who is named instead of me | Yes, on one assistant | Yes, across five | Run ten questions by hand |
| Which websites those answers came from | No | Yes, with a route into each | Use a tool that shows citations |
| Whether the tools disagree about me | No | Yes, that is the point of five | Ask the same question in each, once |
| What to fix first, in order | One starting fix | A ranked plan with evidence | Fix the most obvious gap and remeasure |
| Whether it is getting better | Only if you re-run it | Yes, with a day-90 re-run | Keep your own record each quarter |
Read the last column before either of the others. Several of those rows are genuinely answerable for free with an afternoon of your time, and the method for keeping your own record is in do you actually need help with AI visibility.
When you should not buy either one
When there is nothing yet to make visible. If you are new, have no clients, no reviews, and no results anyone could write about, measurement will confirm what you already know and change nothing.
We decline this case rather than take the money. The work we do publishes evidence, and evidence that does not exist cannot be published. The honest advice is to go and earn a handful of results worth describing, then come back.
The other case is the pleasant one. If the checks show you already out-place every competitor we compared you against, we tell you and refund the $500 before you ask. Finding that out is worth something, and charging for it would not be.
Between those two edges sits nearly everyone: real results, real clients, and almost none of it legible where AI is reading. Pew Research's work on Americans and AI tracks how widely these tools are now used day to day, which is the reason this matters at all for a business whose buyers are ordinary people.
So start with the free one. It runs 25 real buyer questions from your niche through ChatGPT at $0 and emails a plain-English readout within the hour. It runs as soon as you ask for it, and if the result is good we will be the first to tell you to keep your money.
Questions we hear the most
When is a free AI visibility check enough?
When you only need to know whether AI names you, and the answer turns out to be yes. If you are already named in most of the answers you care about, there is nothing to buy and no work to do.
What does the free 25-question check include?
It asks ChatGPT 25 real buyer questions from your niche at $0, then emails a plain-English readout within the hour: how often you were named, who was named instead, and the first thing to fix. It runs as soon as you ask for it.
What does the free check not include?
One assistant rather than five, one run rather than a tracked series, no competitor breakdown, no source list behind the answers, and no ranked plan. It is a measurement, not a diagnosis.
Is the $500 audit just a bigger version of the free check?
No. It is 125 checks across five AI tools by this time tomorrow, plus the competitor picture, the sources those answers were built from, the five worst losses quoted in full, and a prioritized list of fixes.
What if the audit shows I am already winning?
We refund the $500 before you ask. If the checks show you out-place every competitor we compared you against, we say so in the report and return the fee, because you did not need the work.
Can I just run these questions myself?
Yes, and for a small check that is a fine answer. Write 25 buyer questions, run each a few times, and record who gets named. It costs an afternoon and gives you a usable picture.
Do I have to get on a call for either one?
No calls at any stage. Everything arrives by email, including follow-up questions, which we answer within a business day. That is a design decision about the whole business, not a limitation of the free tier.
How often should I re-run whichever one I pick?
Quarterly is enough for most businesses, and monthly while you are actively changing pages. Assistants vary between runs, so what matters is the trend across several measurements rather than any single one.
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 →