Best AI Visibility Software for CPA Firms: 7 Compared, 2027

Decide the category before you compare vendors

AI visibility software tracks how often your firm's name, services and pages appear in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI features and similar tools, across a fixed list of buyer questions you choose.

The category decision for a small accounting firm is whether to buy a tracker now or to run free checks by hand first. Our recommendation is to buy one tracker on a plan that covers your question list, and to hold off on any workflow layer until a named person owns the weekly output. A tracker shows where the firm is missing. It does not rewrite a service page, fix a directory listing or open a task, and that gap decides whether the purchase pays off.

Write the question list before you open a vendor page. Use the questions a prospect would type, such as which firm handles a specific tax situation in your city, and include a few questions that name competitors. The list is the test, so a tool that cannot track your exact phrasing is a weak fit regardless of its feature list.

Google's own guidance is that AI Overviews and AI Mode need no special optimization beyond standard search practice, and that their traffic appears in the Search Console Performance report, which gives you a free baseline (Google Search Central documentation). That baseline reports search clicks, not the answers a buyer reads, so it cannot replace a tracker.

TL;DR: Pick one tracker, test it with a trial or a low entry plan, and confirm API access in writing before you design anything around it. Buy an automation layer only after you have named the person who reviews the output.

Key Takeaways

• AI visibility tools measure answers. They do not publish pages, edit listings or create tasks, so decide who acts on the output before you buy.

• Published entry prices vary widely across the seven vendors, and one vendor publishes no prices at all.

• API access is often gated by plan. Peec's docs exclude its Starter plan, AthenaHQ sells API access as an add-on, and Scrunch ties its Enterprise Data API to Enterprise.

• Two vendors have changed owners: Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush, and Sitecore has acquired Scrunch.

• Search Console is a free baseline for AI feature traffic, not a substitute for prompt-level tracking.

• A proposed workflow can route weekly changes to a partner, but only if a person reviews each change before any page or listing changes.

How we evaluated these tools

We ranked seven tools on six weighted criteria. Each vendor had to have a public product page that sells AI visibility tracking today. The facts come from vendors' own pricing and documentation pages, plus trade coverage where noted. The weights are our judgment for a small firm with one or two owners, and they set the order of the discussion. The vendor facts sit in the tables and profiles, and our analysis is labeled "Our read" or sits in the decision sections.

The 0-5 rank basis is a qualitative ordering we applied across the seven vendors. It is not a published vendor metric, and no vendor was scored on a number it reported about itself.

Why this matters for a small firm's inbound work

Prospects increasingly ask an AI tool for a recommendation before they search. The clearest public measure we found is a Pew Research Center study of Google results pages: Clicks on links: 8% with AI summary, 15% without according to Pew Research Center (2025).

That figure describes Google results pages, not chat tools, so read it as a direction rather than a forecast for your firm. The practical point is that the question a prospect asks may be answered before any click happens, which is why tracking the answers is worth doing. The same logic applies in other sectors.

Vendor pricing as of October 29, 2026

Pricing checked October 29, 2026. The table uses only figures shown on each vendor's own pricing page, and it leaves out aggregator figures, several of which conflicted with the vendor pages. The 12-month column multiplies the entry price by 12, so it ignores discounts, setup fees and overage.

Read the rows with care. Otterly's page lists Lite at the price above, and also shows lower per-month figures without saying which billing applies, so confirm before you budget. Semrush's entry figure assumes monthly billing, and the same page lists lower annual figures for the SEO plan. Ahrefs' page also shows an all-models figure without naming its tier, so ask Ahrefs which tier applies to your use. Scrunch lists two billing options, and the 12-month column shows both. AthenaHQ's official page shows Starter at the price above. Directory listings still show an older flat-rate plan that the official page does not mention. Profound publishes no prices, only a free trial and a quote-based Enterprise tier.

Hidden costs sit outside the table. They include overage on check-based plans, credit draws on credit-based plans, add-on engines, and the reviewer's time. A low entry price can be the wrong comparison if the engine you need is an add-on, so read each plan's add-on list before you compare totals.

Feature matrix: what each vendor gates

The matrix records what each vendor's pages say about free access, engines, API access and quote-based tiers. "Not stated" means the page we opened does not say, not that the feature is absent.

The API line matters most if you want a workflow. Peec's API documentation says access covers Pro, Advanced, Enterprise and agency plans, and that Starter plans do not include it. Scrunch's pricing page places its Enterprise Data API on the Enterprise plan. AthenaHQ's pricing page treats API access as a paid add-on on top of Starter. The Otterly and Ahrefs pages reviewed here do not state API access, so ask both in writing before you plan a pull.

Vendor profiles

Each profile separates the vendor's stated facts, with an evidence link, from our read.

Otterly.AI

Vendor facts: The pricing page lists Lite, Standard, Premium and a custom Enterprise plan. It names ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot as included engines, with Claude, Google AI Mode and Gemini as add-ons. It offers a free trial but lists no free plan. The page shows two sets of monthly figures for its tiers. Evidence: Otterly pricing page.

Our read: Otterly is the best fit for a firm that wants the lowest published paid entry point and a trial before it commits. Its entry plan is the cheapest paid plan in the table, which speaks to price, not coverage. Check that the engines your buyers use are included on the plan you buy, because several are add-ons. Load your question list, run the trial for a full month, and have the reviewer read the output before you upgrade.

Peec AI

Vendor facts: The pricing page lists Starter, Pro, Advanced and an Enterprise plan with unlimited prompts and models. It shows a dollar sign but no currency code, and it does not mention a free plan or trial. Its API documentation says access covers Pro, Advanced, Enterprise and agency plans, and that Starter does not include API access. Evidence: Peec AI pricing and Peec API introduction.

Our read: Peec fits a firm that expects its question list to grow and will pay for Pro to get the API. The Starter plan is a poor base for any workflow, because the step up to Pro is where the API becomes available. Confirm the API route on the plan you intend to buy before you design a weekly pull.

Ahrefs Brand Radar

Vendor facts: The Brand Radar pricing page lists the AI Visibility Index with a stated prompt allowance, all platforms including Claude, and a per-check overage. It also lists Custom Prompts from a lower monthly figure. Prompt tracking is free on paid Ahrefs Lite plans and above. The page lists YouTube, TikTok and Reddit data as free while in beta. Evidence: Brand Radar pricing page.

Our read: Ahrefs is the best fit for a firm that already runs Ahrefs for SEO. Check-based pricing means cost rises with the number of prompts and platforms, so model the checks before you buy. The all-models figure with no tier label makes the total cost of a multi-engine setup unclear until Ahrefs confirms it. Map your questions to prompts first, then compare check usage against the allowance.

Semrush

Vendor facts: On the pricing page, AI visibility is bundled into the SEO + AI Search plans rather than sold as a separate product. The SEO plan includes AI visibility reports and custom prompt monitoring, and the page lists Google Search, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini among the platforms covered. Adobe has completed its acquisition of Semrush, according to trade coverage. Evidence: Semrush pricing and Pulse 2.0 on the Adobe deal.

Our read: Semrush fits a firm that already buys SEO software and wants AI visibility in the same place. A firm that wants only AI visibility pays for an SEO suite it may not use. The pricing page also lists no prompt count for the SEO plan, so ask for one. Because Adobe now owns Semrush, ask about the roadmap for its AI features before any multi-year commitment.

Profound

Vendor facts: The pricing page publishes no prices. It offers a free trial and an Enterprise option labeled as tailored packages, with a demo request. The trial length is not stated. Evidence: Profound pricing.

Our read: Profound fits a firm that is ready for a sales conversation and wants a written quote with engines and prompts defined. A small firm cannot compare Profound's cost to the other tools from a public page. Ask for the quote in the same format as the pricing table above, covering monthly price, prompts, engines and API access, so the comparison is like for like.

Scrunch

Vendor facts: The pricing page lists Starter and Growth with monthly and annual options, plus an Enterprise plan that adds SSO and an Enterprise Data API. Starter includes custom and industry prompts, personas, page audits and user licenses. Starter trial: 7 days, no card required according to Scrunch (2026). Sitecore announced that it acquired Scrunch, per its newsroom announcement.

Our read: Scrunch fits a firm that wants prompts, personas and page audits in one tool and can justify one of the highest entry prices in the table. The API sits on the quote-based Enterprise plan, and the acquisition may change plan names, so confirm the exact plan and renewal terms in writing. Use the Starter trial to test your prompt set before you sign.

AthenaHQ

Vendor facts: The pricing page lists an Essential tier that is free with a starting credit allowance, a Starter plan with unlimited topics and prompts that runs on credits, and a custom Enterprise plan. API access and extra credits are paid add-ons on top of Starter. Evidence: AthenaHQ pricing.

Our read: AthenaHQ fits a firm that wants a free start before paying and can accept a credit-based plan. Credit-based pricing makes monthly cost depend on usage, so forecast credit draws from your question list. Run the free tier with a short list first, then price Starter using the credits you actually used.

Worked example: what 60 tracked prompts cost

This is an illustration with an assumed list of 60 buyer questions, not firm data: Peec's Starter plan covers 50 prompts, so 60 questions would need Pro, which costs $245 per month and covers 150 prompts according to Peec AI, or $2,940 over twelve months ($245 × 12). Standard plan on Otterly: $189 per month for 100 prompts according to Otterly.AI (2026) covers the same 60 questions for $2,268 over twelve months ($189 × 12). The gap is $672 a year ($2,940 minus $2,268), and in this scenario the gap buys a data route as much as extra prompts, because Peec's docs tie API access to Pro and higher. If the firm also wants a weekly join against organic ranking data, Semrush's API documents a domain report type named domain_organic (type=domain_organic) that could serve as a second source, but the plan's API access must be confirmed before design. The reviewer's hours on the weekly queue appear in neither price, and they are a cost the tables do not show.

Routing weekly visibility changes to a partner

A proposed, configurable workflow, not a live deployment: US Tech Automations could run on a weekly schedule, read the latest prompt results from the tracker through its API or a scheduled export, and compare each prompt against the prior week. The trigger is the schedule. The action is the comparison, which flags any prompt where the firm was named last week and is not named now, or where a competitor appears in its place. The output is a short queue in the firm's task system, one row per change, showing the prompt, the AI tool, the before and after status, and any competitor the report names.

The workflow depends on an API or export on the plan you actually buy. On the tools in this guide, Peec's docs limit API access to Pro and higher, Scrunch ties its Enterprise Data API to Enterprise, and AthenaHQ sells API access as an add-on on Starter. A human review sits between the queue and any public material. A partner or operations lead reads each row before anyone edits a service page, a directory listing or a staff bio. The workflow would not publish anything. It would hold any change that touches a named service page until the reviewer approves it.

A second configurable step handles new content. When a service article goes live, the workflow can add that article's target questions to the tracked prompt list and record the date, so the next weekly run shows whether the page changes the answers. The trigger is the publish event in the firm's content system, the action is a prompt-list update through the tracker's import or API, and the output is a dated entry in the review queue. This step needs the tracker to accept prompt edits by API or import, which the pricing pages reviewed here do not state, so confirm it before design.

The usual alternative is stitching the same flow together in Zapier, Make or n8n, or building it in-house. Those tools can keep run histories, retries and error branches when they are configured, so a DIY build is not unreliable by default. The buyer still has to design and own observability, idempotency (so a rerun does not create a duplicate task), escalation, access controls and maintenance when a vendor changes its API. A proposed US Tech Automations design could configure run logs, a named escalation contact and a duplicate check as part of the build. Each of those is a review point to confirm for your firm, not a finished feature.

Who this is for

Who this is for: an owner or operations lead at a small accounting business who has a list of services to be found for, one person with time to read a weekly report, and a buying decision to make this quarter. That reader gets value from a tracker and a clear review habit, and does not need an automation layer on day one.

Red flags: no one will read the weekly output; the goal is a one-time audit, not ongoing tracking; the firm expects a tracker alone to change its AI mentions without any page or listing changes.

Decision checklist

• Name the person who reviews the weekly output before you start a trial.

• Write your buyer questions, then check that the entry plan's prompt capacity covers the list.

• Confirm which AI tools are included on the plan and which are add-ons.

• Get API or export access on the exact plan in writing, including the endpoint or file format.

• Ask for renewal terms and any ownership-change clauses, since Semrush and Scrunch have changed owners.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations. A simpler tool wins in three cases. If you want a one-time look at whether the firm appears in a handful of answers, a trial on a low-cost tracker answers that, and no workflow is needed. If nobody will change a page or listing in response to the report, a routed queue only moves the report faster, so buy the tracker first. If your firm already has a task tool with a native export and a reviewer who reads it weekly, the tracker alone may be enough, and US Tech Automations adds cost without adding a decision.

Frequently asked questions

Is AI visibility software worth it for a small accounting firm?

It is worth it when someone will act on the report. If nobody has that role yet, a free trial with a short question list is the better first step, because it tests whether the output gets read before you pay for a plan.

Which tool has the lowest published paid entry price?

Otterly.AI's Lite plan has the lowest published paid entry price in the table, but its page shows conflicting monthly figures, so confirm the billing basis before you budget.

Can Google Search Console replace a tracker?

No, it cannot. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic appears in the Search Console Performance report, which shows search traffic, not the answers a buyer reads.

Do I need API access to get value?

No. A dashboard review works without it. The weekly workflow described above does need an API or export on the plan you buy, so confirm that before you design it.

When should I skip a tracker and check by hand?

Skip a paid tracker when you only need a one-time check of a few questions, and run that check through a free trial or a free tier. Semrush's free tier and AthenaHQ's Essential tier both allow a start without a paid plan, though their limits differ.

Next step for the shortlist

Shortlist two tools from the pricing table that fit your engine and prompt needs, run each trial with the same buyer questions, and get API access confirmed in writing before you sign. If the weekly output will reach a partner, see how US Tech Automations configures this for the review points and prerequisites before you commit to a plan.