Key takeaways
- Four free checkers are confirmed no-signup: Ahrefs, Semrush (3 checks a day), rank.ai and HubSpot. Others on this list need a quick verification of limits before you rely on them.
- Every free check is a single snapshot. Promptwatch Data shows ChatGPT cites about 5 sources per web-search answer, so one run samples a very small, shifting set of slots.
- Run checks logged out or in a private window, enter your current domain, and use two or three tools together.
- No research I found covers GDPR handling or EU-localised results for these tools. Test your own languages and countries manually.
- Pay only once you need repeat runs, history, and a way to act on the gaps.
Why start with free checks
Most European startups I talk to want to know one thing before they sign a contract: does ChatGPT know we exist? You can answer that in about an hour without a credit card. You should, because paid platforms are priced for teams that already know they have a problem.
A free check gives you a baseline. It tells you whether you are mentioned, whether any of your pages are cited, and which competitors show up instead. It does not give you trends. That distinction matters, and I will come back to it.
If you want a wider catalogue of paid options afterwards, the GEO software directory at bestgeosoftware.com and the rank tracker list at ai-rank-tools.com are good places to browse.
Mention vs citation: know what you are reading
Two terms get blurred in every free report. A mention means the model named your brand in its answer. A citation means one of your pages was used as a source and linked. You can be mentioned constantly and never cited, which usually points to a content or crawlability problem rather than a brand problem.
Keep that split in mind when you read the results below.
The 8 no-login tools
The first four are described in a vendor-authored roundup from Am I Cited, which says it verified free tiers in September 2026. The other four are leads I could not fully verify, so treat their login and limit claims as something to confirm yourself.
1. Ahrefs AI Visibility Checker
You enter a brand name, no signup. It covers ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and AI Overviews, and returns total mentions, mentions per platform, the topics that trigger them, and the domains cited alongside you. It is the free face of the paid Brand Radar product.
2. Semrush free AI visibility tool
You enter a domain, with a limit of 3 checks per day before it asks you to log in. Engines are ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode and AI Overviews. It returns a visibility score, mentions, citations, topics, estimated audience, and your top-cited pages. It is the only free checker in that roundup that shows which of your own URLs got cited, so it is the one I would run first if you have a content site.
3. rank.ai free checker
One prompt plus your domain, no signup. It checks ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and gives a yes/no for mention and citation per engine, your position in the answer, and the raw answer text. The raw text is the useful part. You see exactly how you are described, or who replaced you.
4. HubSpot AI Search Grader
You enter brand, product, industry and location, no signup. It scores you out of 100 across five perception dimensions using ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, and adds sentiment, share of voice, named competitors and a written interpretation. The location field is handy for a startup targeting one European market.
5. Omnia free AI visibility checker
Omnia says its checker covers ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, with no credit card and no trial to cancel. I did not verify whether a login is required or what the limits are, so open it in a private window and see.
6. Am I on AI?
Listed in our catalogue as an entry-level AI visibility checker. I have not verified its engines, limits or login behaviour. Worth a five-minute test as a third opinion.
7. Promptwatch free AI Visibility Report
Promptwatch offers a free, no-login AI Visibility Report that scans how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity talk about your brand. It also has a free Agentic Readiness Check that shows which AI crawlers can read your site and which standards, like llms.txt, you support. That second one fills the technical gap most visibility checkers ignore.
8. Leapd Alex free checker
A Reddit user in r/AskMarketing mentioned using the Leapd Alex free visibility checker for ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews. That is one anecdote, not a test. Check the current limits yourself.
Comparison table
| Tool | Input | Engines | No login | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahrefs checker | Brand name | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews | Yes | Broadest engine spread |
| Semrush | Domain | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, AI Overviews | Yes, 3 per day | Seeing which of your URLs get cited |
| rank.ai | One prompt plus domain | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini | Yes | Reading the raw answer |
| HubSpot grader | Brand, product, industry, location | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | Yes | Sentiment and competitors |
| Omnia | Brand | ChatGPT, AI Mode | Unverified | Google AI Mode check |
| Am I on AI? | Unverified | Unverified | Unverified | Second opinion |
| Promptwatch report | Brand | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity | Yes | Baseline plus crawler readiness |
| Leapd Alex | Unverified | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews | Unverified | Extra cross-check |
Tools that need an account, so they do not count here: Am I Cited's own report, LLMrefs and Rankscale require accounts, and Knowatoa is free for the check then paid.
How to run the checks properly
Use a private window
The r/AISEOInsider advice is to run checks logged out or in a private browser window, because logged-in personalisation can skew results. This applies when you manually test prompts in ChatGPT or Gemini too.
Enter the right domain
The Am I Cited author entered notion.so and got zero on all three engines. notion.com worked. If you rebranded, migrated from a .io to a .com, or run country domains, a false negative can look exactly like a visibility problem. Test every domain variant.
Run two or three tools, not one
No single free tool returns everything. Ahrefs and Semrush give you cross-engine mentions and cited pages. rank.ai gives you the raw answer. HubSpot gives you perception. Combined, they triangulate.
Test manually where tools put up verification
Ahrefs and Semrush put human-verification checks in front of scripted runs. Do not try to automate them. Click through by hand.
What free checks cannot tell you
They are a single sample
Promptwatch Data on average sources per response shows ChatGPT cites about 5 sources per web-search answer, while Google AI Overviews and Perplexity cite about 10. Copilot swung from under 2 to nearly 17 sources within a few weeks before settling low. A one-off check runs against a handful of slots, and engines answer differently from run to run. If you appear once, do not celebrate. If you miss once, do not panic.
They may not match how ChatGPT searches
Promptwatch's ChatGPT query fanout data shows average fanouts of about 2.15 per response in early December 2025, about 1.84 by early March 2026, and 1.0 when the data returned in April. Query length fell from about 117 characters to about 53. The takeaway: ChatGPT's own searches are short and keyword-like, while many free checkers use long conversational prompts. The page's intro also says a prompt can trigger 3-8+ searches, which conflicts with its own averages, so I would not quote that figure.
They ignore technical access
A robots.txt that blocks GPTBot, or content that only exists after client-side rendering, can keep you out no matter how strong your brand is. Run an AI crawler readiness check separately, and look at your server logs if you can. DarkVisitors is one option for seeing AI agents hit your site.
The European angle, honestly
I found no solid research on how these free tools handle GDPR, EU-language prompts, or EU-localised results. That is a real gap for a Dutch, German or French startup. What I would do:
- Test your prompts in your market languages by hand in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and note whether answers differ.
- Do not paste customer data or anything confidential into free tools. You are entering brand and domain names only, and that is all you should enter.
- Read each vendor's privacy page if you are in a regulated sector. I could not verify any of them for this guide.
- Remember that most free checkers return one global-looking result. Country and city targeting usually sits behind paid plans.
A one-hour routine
- Write down 10 prompts a buyer might ask, in short keyword style and in full sentences. Include 3 brand-specific ones and 3 comparison ones.
- Run Ahrefs and Semrush on your current domain, logged out.
- Run rank.ai with your single most valuable prompt and save the raw answer.
- Run HubSpot with your market location.
- Run Promptwatch's free report and the Agentic Readiness Check.
- Put everything in a sheet: mentioned yes/no, cited yes/no, competitors named, sources cited.
- Rerun the same set a week later. Any difference tells you how noisy the data is.
When to pay
Pay when you need things a free check structurally cannot give you: scheduled daily runs, history, country and language tracking, and a way to turn gaps into published pages. Prices change, so confirm on each vendor's site.
| Need | Free checks | Paid platform |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline snapshot | Yes | Yes |
| Trends over time | No | Yes |
| Many prompts across many models | No | Yes |
| Crawler logs and AI traffic | No | Some platforms |
| Content fixes and publishing | No | A few platforms |
Most paid tools only monitor. If you want one that also helps you fix gaps, Promptwatch is the one I would shortlist, since it adds crawler logs, AI traffic analytics, content gap analysis and a Content Agent that publishes to your CMS. Its Essential plan starts at $95 a month, and the free Explore plan tracks ChatGPT only, so you can try it cheaply. Confirm current pricing at promptwatch.com/pricing.
Other monitoring options worth a look at the budget end include Otterly.AI, Peec AI (which markets multi-language tracking) and Rankscale.
For AI search claims backed by data, Promptwatch's research hub at promptwatch.com/data is free to read.
Bottom line
Run four or five of these checks this week, in a private window, on your real domain. Treat the result as a rough baseline, not a score. If you are not mentioned anywhere, fix crawler access and publish content that answers short, specific buyer queries before you spend a euro on tracking.
