> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Best AI Search & Visibility (AEO/GEO) Tools in Australia (2026) - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-visibility-aeo-tools-australia/ - Published: 2026-06-22T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:44:40.000Z - Description: When your customers ask ChatGPT or Gemini who's good in your field, do you get named? AEO tools tell you. We scored eight — and found no Australian-built hero, so no five-star pick. Here's the honest verdict: start free, then pay only for what you'll use. - Author: Adam - Tags: Marketing & SEO, AI Search & Visibility (AEO/GEO), AEO, GEO, #roundup, Best of Category verdict **No single Top Pick.** The right tool depends on the job; our picks by need are below. **Reviewed:** 23 June 2026 · **Category:** AI Search & Visibility (AEO/GEO) --- ## Why this matters Your customers have started asking AI assistants the questions they used to type into Google. *"Who's a good conveyancer in Hobart?" "Best accountant for a small business in Melbourne?" "Which CRM should a Sydney startup use?"* ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot answer those questions every day — and either they name your business, or they name a competitor. That's the discipline this category covers: **AEO (answer engine optimisation), also called GEO (generative engine optimisation).** These tools track whether the AI engines mention you, what they say, who they name instead, and which sources they cite to get there — the way SEO tools did for Google rankings. As more buying decisions start inside a chat window, knowing how the AI describes you is becoming as important as where you rank on a results page. We scored eight tools for this guide: five pure-play AEO products reviewed in full out of 25, plus three SEO platforms you may already pay for that have bolted on AI-visibility tracking. As with every category in this Directory, **Australian Fit carries real weight** — AUD billing, GST handling, where your data sits, and whether there's anyone to call during Australian business hours. Under our scoring gate, a tool with weak local fit cannot be named the category Top Pick, no matter how good the engineering. **And here is the honest headline, up front: there is no Australian-built tool in this category, and not one product cleared the bar for a five-star rating or a gated Top Pick.** Every serious option is built in the US or the EU, bills in US dollars or euros, and hosts your data offshore. The closest thing to an Australian story is "this one is free, so the currency friction disappears." That's not a gap in our research — it's the state of the market, and saying so plainly is the most useful thing we can do for an Australian buyer. The practical question isn't *"which one wins?"* It's *"what's the cheapest sensible way to find out how AI describes my business — and have I already paid for a tool that does it?"* ## Quick-pick comparison | Tool | Our score | AU Fit | Best for | Indicative price (AUD shown is) | | ------------------------------------ | --------- | ------- | -------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **HubSpot AI Search Grader** | **20/25** | **4/5** | A free first look at how AI sees you | **Free** (paid HubSpot AEO US$50/mo ≈ A$70) | | **Otterly.AI** | **17/25** | 3/5 | Cheapest serious ongoing monitoring | US$29/mo ≈ A$41 (Standard US$189 ≈ A$265) | | **Peec AI** | **17/25** | 3/5 | Buyers who want data hosted in the EU | $95/mo ≈ A$133 (Pro $245 ≈ A$344) | | **Scrunch** | **17/25** | 2/5 | Agencies/enterprise wanting a full AEO stack | \~US$250/mo ≈ A$350 (enterprise quote-only) | | **Profound** | **16/25** | 2/5 | Large brands needing the deepest coverage | Sales-led ("Get a Demo"); \~US$399/mo ≈ A$559 per trackers (not confirmed by the vendor) | | **Ahrefs Brand Radar** | 17/25\* | weak | Existing Ahrefs users (add-on) | From US$199/mo per platform ≈ A$279 (all US$699 ≈ A$979) | | **Semrush / Adobe Brand Visibility** | —\*\* | weak | Existing Semrush users / enterprise | AI Toolkit US$99/mo ≈ A$139; Adobe enterprise (pricing (not confirmed by the vendor)) | | **SE Ranking** | 15/25\* | weak | Cheapest SEO + AEO on one bill | Core US$103.20/mo annual (US$129 monthly), \~A$144; +AI add-on US$89/mo | *\*Ahrefs (17/25) and SE Ranking (15/25) scores are the ratings from their full suite reviews; the AEO feature is an add-on and didn't change either score. \*\*Semrush's suite is reviewed separately; this guide covers its AEO layer and the new Adobe Brand Visibility as an update, not a fresh score.* *Scores are out of 25 across five criteria, with Australian Fit weighted hardest for this category. No tool cleared 21/25 with an Australian Fit of 4 or more — so there is no five-star rating and no gated Top Pick here. We explain why below.*\*\* --- ## The pure-plays (reviewed in full) ### HubSpot AI Search Grader — the free front door **Score: 20/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good · Australian Fit 4/5** The single best place to start, and it costs nothing. HubSpot's AI Search Grader (now also branded the **AEO Grader**) is a free, no-credit-card, no-usage-limit diagnostic: you enter your brand, location and industry, and it asks ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini how they characterise you, then scores the result out of 100 across sentiment, presence quality, brand recognition, share of voice and market competition. Three engines, a written read, and a recommendations list — in minutes. The honest catch is that it's a **one-time snapshot, not a monitoring tool**: no trend line, no prompt-level control, no citation detail, and it's a lead magnet, so you'll hand over contact details to unlock the full report. Its data leans on global, US-centric training, so a small Australian brand may score low simply because there's thin data about it. For ongoing tracking, HubSpot steers you to its paid **HubSpot AEO** product (US$50/month, about A$70). It clears our Australian Fit gate at **4/5** — chiefly because *free* removes the USD-billing and GST friction that drags down every paid tool here. At 20/25 it's our highest scorer, a single rung below Excellent. [Read the full HubSpot AI Search Grader review.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/hubspot-ai-search-grader-review-australia/) ### Otterly.AI — the cheapest serious way in **Score: 17/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good · Australian Fit 3/5** When you've outgrown a free snapshot and want ongoing monitoring, Otterly is the lowest serious entry price in the category: **US$29/month** (about A$41) for the Lite plan, with a genuine 14-day trial and no card. It tracks ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, follows citations (not just mentions), and — importantly — offers a real **Australia country view**, so you see what an AI tells a Sydney customer, not a San Francisco one. The limits are real and worth naming. Lite tracks just **15 prompts**, and the jump to the next plan is brutal: Standard is **US$189/month** (about A$265) for 100 prompts, with nothing in between. Gemini and Google AI Mode are paid add-ons. It's Austrian-built, bills in USD or EUR with no AUD option, hosts data in Frankfurt and Virginia, and GST handling is undocumented (not confirmed by the vendor). As an entry point it's excellent; as a long-term home it depends on how many prompts you genuinely need. [Read the full Otterly.AI review.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/otterly-ai-review-australia/) ### Peec AI — the EU-data alternative **Score: 17/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good · Australian Fit 3/5** Peec is the strongest European answer in a mostly-American category, and its differentiator is where your data lives: the backend runs on Google Cloud via **Google Ireland**, under GDPR — not on US servers by default. For a privacy-minded or regulated Australian buyer, that's a genuine point of difference. It tracks six engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews), with transparent flat pricing from **$95/month** (about A$133), **unlimited users on every tier**, and daily tracking even on the entry plan. The catch is the familiar one. There's no AUD option — and Peec prints a bare dollar sign it never identifies, so you cannot be certain which currency you are floating against; the Starter plan caps you at 50 prompts (you'll feel the pull up to the $245 Pro tier); and it's a **monitor, not a fixer** — it shows you the gap but won't write the content to close it. Its "unlimited countries" marketing needs an asterisk: paid tiers cap countries per project, with truly unlimited reserved for Enterprise (not confirmed by the vendor). No AU presence, no local-hours support. Strong on data location, middling on billing and support. [Read the full Peec AI review.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/peec-ai-review-australia/) ### Scrunch — the full-stack contender, mid-acquisition **Score: 17/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good · Australian Fit 2/5** Scrunch is the AEO tool the big US AI newsletters keep sponsoring, and in June 2026 **Sitecore acquired it for a reported US$225M** (Bloomberg and Adweek; Sitecore's own release doesn't disclose the figure (not confirmed by the vendor)). It does more than monitor: it diagnoses *why* you're invisible (which sources the AI trusts, where your site can't be crawled) and, through its **Agent Experience Platform (AXP)**, serves a machine-readable version of your site built for AI crawlers. Feature depth is among the best in the category — a 5/5 on our scorecard. But the Australian fit is weak (2/5). Pricing is in US dollars and the page doesn't even state the currency; paid plans start around **US$250/month** (about A$350), with the genuinely differentiating capability behind quote-only enterprise pricing. There's no AU data region, GST handling is unstated (not published), and Scrunch's own FAQ lists its served regions as the US, Europe and Japan — **Australia isn't on the list**. Add real post-acquisition transition risk as it folds into Sitecore. A capable product for an agency or marketing team that's already decided AEO is a budget line — overkill, and the wrong fit, for a small Australian business. [Read the full Scrunch review.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/scrunch-review-australia/) ### Profound — the benchmark, priced for big brands **Score: 16/25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good · Australian Fit 2/5** Profound is the name the rest of this category measures itself against. It tracks more answer engines than anyone — up to nine on the enterprise tier (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, Grok, Meta AI and DeepSeek) — and adds Prompt Volumes (what people actually ask the engines), crawler analytics and AEO content tools. It raised US$96M at a US$1 billion valuation in February 2026 and has pivoted hard upmarket: the customer wall is Walmart, Target and Figma, not Australian small business. That shows in the price and the buying process. Profound's pricing page is now **sales-led** ("Get a Demo") with no public figures; secondary trackers still cite a \~US$99/month ChatGPT-only entry and \~US$399/month (about A$559 (third-party estimate — not published by the vendor)) for genuine multi-engine work (not shown on Profound's current page). The full platform is a custom quote with no self-serve trial. USD-only billing, no AUD, no published GST handling, no AU data region (SOC 2 Type 2 is the one clear plus). It works perfectly well *from* Australia but does nothing *for* Australians specifically. The deepest tool here, and the lowest-scoring of the five pure-plays on local fit. [Read the full Profound review.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/profound-review-australia/) --- ## The SEO tools you may already pay for Before you buy any of the above, check what's already in your toolbox. Three platforms we've reviewed have added AI-visibility tracking — so "I already pay for an SEO tool" might mean you already have a usable AEO tracker. ### Ahrefs Brand Radar Ahrefs now sells a dedicated AI-search tracker, **Brand Radar**, covering Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot (Grok is listed but can't gather new data). There's also a **free AI Visibility Checker** — no sign-up — that gives a limited preview. The catch: a basic slice is bundled into paid plans, but deep AI-index tracking is a **paid add-on** — from **US$199/month per platform** (about A$279) or **US$699/month** for all platforms (about A$979), on top of a base subscription. USD-only, no GST line, no AU data region. Our full Ahrefs suite review rates it **17/25 (Very Good)**, unchanged by this feature. Run the free checker first; price the ongoing tracking carefully before defaulting to it. [Read the Ahrefs Brand Radar update.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ahrefs-brand-radar-ai-search-australia/) ### Semrush AI Visibility / Adobe Brand Visibility Semrush's AI-visibility data now powers a new enterprise product, **Adobe Brand Visibility**, announced 17 June 2026 — layering Semrush's AI Optimization data on Adobe's LLM Optimizer, following Adobe's acquisition of Semrush (closed late April 2026 (not confirmed by the vendor)). It covers ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Copilot and Perplexity (Gemini notably not named (not confirmed by the vendor)); Adobe hasn't published pricing or a GA date (not confirmed by the vendor). For most readers the relevant piece is Semrush's own **AI Toolkit** (US$99/month, about A$139, for 1 domain / 25 prompts) — a sensible way to start measuring AI visibility if you already live in Semrush. The Adobe route is firmly enterprise, and not built for Australian SMBs. Same Australian friction either way: USD billing, GST at checkout, US data residency. [Read the Semrush / Adobe update.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/semrush-ai-visibility-adobe-australia/) ### SE Ranking SE Ranking has built a dedicated **AI Search Toolkit** with its **SE Visible** dashboard, covering Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity (all live on its AI Visibility Tracker; Claude isn't tracked). It's the cheapest way to get SEO *and* AEO on one bill: the Core plan runs **US$103.20/month on annual billing** (US$129 monthly; about A$144) and includes 100 tracked prompts daily, with a paid AI Search add-on (US$89/month, about A$110–125) lifting that to 200–1,000\. Our full review rates the suite **15/25 (Good)** — strong value, weak local fit (USD billing, no GST invoice, offshore data). If you're already on SE Ranking, you likely have a usable AI-visibility tracker sitting in your dashboard already. [Read the SE Ranking AI search update.](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/se-ranking-ai-visibility-australia/) --- ## How to choose There's no single winner here, so think in terms of a ladder. Climb only as far as your needs justify. 1. **Start free.** Run the **HubSpot AI Search Grader** today. It costs nothing, takes minutes, covers three engines, and most Australian owners have genuinely never seen what ChatGPT says about them. Act on the obvious wins — an outdated description, a competitor named ahead of you — before paying anyone. 2. **Check what you already pay for.** If you subscribe to **Ahrefs, Semrush or SE Ranking**, you may already have AI-visibility tracking. Run Ahrefs' free checker or open SE Ranking's dashboard before buying a second tool. SE Ranking is the cheapest way to carry both SEO and AEO on one bill. 3. **Add cheap ongoing monitoring.** If AEO turns out to matter and you don't already have it, **Otterly.AI** at US$29/month is the lowest serious entry price, with a real Australia country view. Test it on your 15 most important prompts. 4. **Prefer your data in the EU?** **Peec AI** hosts in Ireland under GDPR — the privacy-conscious alternative, with transparent euro pricing and unlimited seats. 5. **Going enterprise?** **Profound** is the deepest tool and the category benchmark; **Scrunch** adds a delivery layer (AXP) and suits agencies, especially if you're already a Sitecore shop — but factor in its acquisition transition. A note on the recurring trap: don't pay twice. The pure-plays do AEO and nothing else, so if you already run an SEO suite that now tracks AI answers, that may be enough. And confirm GST and data-residency treatment per tool — almost all of these bill offshore in USD or EUR, and few publish a clear Australian tax-invoice position. ## Our picks There is **no gated Top Pick** for this category, and that's a deliberate, honest call. Under our scoring gate, the category winner must score 21+ with an Australian Fit of at least 4/5\. Our highest scorer, the HubSpot grader, reaches an Australian Fit of 4 but lands at 20/25 — one rung below Excellent — and every paid tool is capped at an Australian Fit of 2 or 3 by USD/EUR billing, offshore hosting and the absence of any local presence. **No tool here is excellent *for Australians*, because none was built with Australians in mind.** So instead of crowning a winner the maths doesn't support, here are the picks that actually help: - **Best free starting point: HubSpot AI Search Grader (20/25).** Nothing beats it on price or effort for a first look. Run it before you spend a cent. - **Best value (paid): Otterly.AI (17/25).** The cheapest serious ongoing monitor at US$29/month, with a genuine Australia country view. - **Best data residency: Peec AI (17/25).** EU-hosted under GDPR — the pick if you'd rather your brand and competitive data not sit on US servers. - **Best if you already pay for SEO: Ahrefs or SE Ranking.** Check the AEO tracking you may already own before buying a pure-play; SE Ranking is the cheapest SEO-plus-AEO bundle. - **Enterprise: Profound or Scrunch.** Profound for the deepest coverage; Scrunch for a full monitor-diagnose-deliver stack (mind the Sitecore transition risk). **The bigger point.** The day an Australian-built, AUD-billed, onshore-hosted AEO tool appears, it will likely clear the gate and become this category's Top Pick on local fit alone. None exists yet. Until one does, the smart Australian play is to start free, climb the ladder only as far as you need, and avoid paying twice for what your SEO suite may already do. We'll refresh this guide as the tools add AUD billing, Australian data regions, or — most decisively — when a local entrant arrives. --- Update history - **21 Sep 2026** — **Otterly's Standard plan re-cut off the retired 1.55 basis — A$293 → A$265.** This roundup gave two different Australian prices for the same plan: the quick-pick table read *Standard US$189 ≈ A$265* and the Otterly entry below it read *about A$293*. A$293 is US$189 at **1.55**, the fixed basis our AUD pricing rule retired on 5 September 2026; the 6 September FX sweep rebased pricing tables and did not reach single figures inside prose. **The USD list price has not changed** — US$189/month was re-read in a browser from an Australian connection on 21 September 2026 and is unchanged since 23 June. Only our conversion moves, to **USD→AUD 1.4045** (ECB reference rate, 18 September 2026), shown ex-GST per our GST rule. No score change: Otterly's 17/25 and its Australian Fit 3/5 rest on no AUD billing, Frankfurt/Virginia hosting and undocumented GST, all still true. Matches the correction made the same day in `Ghost-Ready/review-otterly-ai-australia-2026-06-23.md`. Found by `Operations/build/check-fx-residue.py` (sentry 18); source: https://otterly.ai/pricing/ · Wayback: capture pending (archive.org unavailable 21 Sep 2026). - **21 Sep 2026** — **Peec AI pricing re-cut after a browser check of the vendor page.** Peec no longer shows an Australian a euro price: its plans read **$95 / $245 / $495 a month**, not €85 / €205 / €425, and it names no currency at all — a bare dollar sign, no selector, nothing in its Terms of Use. The quick-pick row and the Peec entry are updated and the euro framing dropped; there is still no AUD price, so its Australian Fit 3/5 and its place in this roundup are unchanged. AUD at USD→AUD 1.4045 (ECB, 18 September 2026). Detail: `Ghost-Ready/review-peec-ai-australia-2026-06-23.md`, 21 Sep 2026 entry. ## Frequently asked questions **Q: What is AEO/GEO?** A: AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) are two names for the same discipline: getting your business named — accurately — when customers ask an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot for a recommendation, instead of searching Google. AEO tools track whether you're mentioned, what the AI says, who it names instead, and which sources it cites — then help you improve all of that. It's to AI answers what SEO was to search rankings. **Q: Do I need this if I already do SEO?** A: Increasingly, yes — they're related but not the same. SEO is about ranking on a results page; AEO is about being named inside an AI's answer, where there are no "ten blue links." As more customers ask an assistant instead of searching, AI visibility becomes its own lever. The good news: several SEO suites (Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking) now include AI-visibility tracking, so check whether the tool you already pay for covers it before buying a dedicated one. Start with a free grade to see whether it's even a live problem for your business. **Q: Is any AEO tool Australian-built?** A: No. As of June 2026 there is no Australian-built AEO tool, and no AU-localised buyer's guide besides this one. Every serious option is built in the US (Profound, Scrunch, HubSpot) or the EU (Peec AI, Otterly.AI), bills in US dollars or euros, and hosts data offshore. That's the honest state of the market — and the reason no tool here earns a five-star rating or a gated Top Pick. If a local entrant launches with AUD billing and onshore hosting, it would likely top this category on Australian fit alone. **Q: What's the cheapest way to start?** A: Free. The HubSpot AI Search Grader costs nothing, needs no credit card, and gives you a one-time read across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini in minutes. Ahrefs also offers a free AI Visibility Checker. Run one of those first. Only step up to a paid monitor (Otterly.AI from US$29/month is the cheapest serious option) once you've confirmed AI visibility is a real concern worth tracking over time. **Q: Where does my data live, and does that matter?** A: It can. These tools process your brand, competitor and prompt data, and most host it offshore — Profound and Scrunch in the US, Otterly in Frankfurt and Virginia, Peec AI in Ireland (EU). None offers an Australian data region. For a regulated business or anyone with onshore obligations, Peec AI's EU hosting is the strongest option in the field, and the free HubSpot grader avoids the question for a one-off check. If data residency is a hard requirement, raise it directly with the vendor before you buy. **Q: How did you score these tools?** A: Each pure-play was reviewed out of 25 across five criteria — Value for Money, Ease of Use, Feature Depth, Australian Fit and Reliability & Support — with Australian Fit weighted hardest for this category. Under our methodology gate, a five-star rating and a category Top Pick both require an Australian Fit of at least 4/5\. No tool met that bar, which is why this guide names targeted picks rather than a single winner. See our Methodology page for the full framework. --- ## A note on professional advice The AI Directory provides general information, not professional advice. The tools in this guide measure and help improve how AI engines describe your business — they don't replace marketing, legal or tax advice, and their outputs (including any AI-generated content suggestions) should be reviewed before you rely on them. Confirm current pricing, engine coverage, GST treatment and data-residency arrangements on each vendor's own pages before purchasing — pure-play pricing in this category moves monthly. --- ## Read next - [HubSpot AI Search Grader review](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/hubspot-ai-search-grader-review-australia/) — the free way to see how AI describes your brand - [Otterly.AI review](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/otterly-ai-review-australia/) — the cheapest serious way into AEO - [Peec AI review](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/peec-ai-review-australia/) — the EU-data alternative - [Profound review](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/profound-review-australia/) — the category benchmark - [Scrunch review](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/scrunch-review-australia/) — the full-stack tool Sitecore just bought - [Ahrefs Brand Radar update](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/ahrefs-brand-radar-ai-search-australia/) · [Semrush / Adobe update](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/semrush-ai-visibility-adobe-australia/) · [SE Ranking update](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/se-ranking-ai-visibility-australia/) --- **SEO title:** Best AEO Tools Australia 2026: AI Visibility Picks **Meta description:** We scored the leading AI search visibility (AEO/GEO) tools for Australian businesses — AUD pricing, data residency, and the cheapest sensible way to start. **Tags:** AEO, GEO, AI Search & Visibility, Roundup, Best Of, 2026 --- *The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure pages.* *Reviewed by* [*Adam*](mailto:adam@theaidirectory.com.au) *for* [*The AI Directory Australia*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/)*. First published 23 June 2026.* --- --- ### More from The AI Directory **Other category guides:** [Best AI Voice Generators in Australia 2026…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-voice-generators-australia-2026/) · [Best AI Website & App Builders in Australia…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-website-builders-australia-2026/) · [Best AI Writing Tools in Australia 2026: The…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-writing-tools-australia-2026/) · [Best Local & Private AI Tools in Australia…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-local-offline-private-ai-australia-2026/) · [Best Workspace AI for Australian Teams 2026…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-workspace-ai-australia-2026/) **Worth reading:** [The best free AI tools for Australians: how far $0…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/free-ai-tools-australia-2026/) · [Where to start with AI: a first-month plan for…](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/getting-started-ai-australian-small-business-2026/) · [Where does your AI data actually go? 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