AthenaHQ

Short Answer

AthenaHQ is the one AI visibility platform in this category with an actual free tier, not just a trial. The free Essential plan tracks your brand across five AI engines with no time limit, which makes it a reasonable way to see whether AI search visibility tracking is worth paying for before you commit budget. Once you’re ready to pay, AthenaHQ’s angle is connecting AI citations to revenue instead of just counting mentions.

What AthenaHQ Is Best For

• Testing the category for free: the Essential plan tracks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, and Claude with no credit card and no expiry
• Revenue attribution: GA4 and Shopify integrations connect AI-driven visibility to actual traffic and conversions, not just citation counts
• Broad platform coverage on the paid tier: Starter ($295/month) adds Copilot and Grok for 9 tracked models total
• Teams that want prescriptive fixes: the platform suggests specific content and on-page changes rather than only reporting a score

Pricing at a Glance

• Essential (free): 300 monthly credits, unlimited team members, 5 AI engines
• Starter ($295/month): 9 AI models including Copilot and Grok, API access, content optimization agent
• Enterprise (custom): adds SSO, audit logs, and a dedicated setup team

Honest Limitations

• Big jump from free to paid: Essential is genuinely free, but Starter jumps straight to $295/month with no mid-tier option
• Newer category: AI search visibility measurement is still maturing industry-wide, not specific to AthenaHQ

Alternatives Worth Knowing

• Otterly AI, the cheapest paid entry point in this category at $29/month, though its free option is a time-limited trial rather than AthenaHQ’s ongoing free tier
• Profound, a more enterprise-focused platform with demo-gated pricing
• Scrunch AI, which adds AI-agent site optimization on top of visibility tracking, at a higher starting price